Details Related to API Pricing and Limits

[Osman]

Hello everyone,

I have been in contact with a Constant Contact marketing consultant/salesperson, and had inquired with him about any information he can provide related to:

• Any API limits under different pricing tiers, or;
• Any object access limits under the different pricing tiers.

To be clear, we are not yet Constant Contact customers and are investigating the platform.

In short, we want to know whether, under each of Constant Contact's pricing plans (Lite, Standard, and Premium), whether:

• All of those plans give us access to the API.
• Whether there are any limits in terms of the number of daily/monthly API calls, and, if so, whether those differ under the different pricing plans.
• Whether the limits are hard limits, or whether, if there is a cap, whether we can pay (and what we can pay) to access additional API calls beyond the cap / what we will be charged if we exceed any limits.

Hoping someone from the community, or a Constant Contact employee in the community, can help here.

We reached out to webservices@constantcontact.com, but I'm anticipating that they may not have the answer either. (In terms of pricing, as that's more of a Sales thing.)

In my opinion, it's kind of weird that this isn't detailed on the pricing page. Both because I'm sure some users evaluating the platform are going to ask that based on their experience with APIs on other platforms, and because I think it's a missed opportunity to highlight that feature – the API.

[Courtney_E · Accepted solution]

Hello Osman,

Thank you for reaching out to Constant Contact API Developer Support. My team is here to assist outside software developers with questions about building into Constant Contact's API.

All information regarding Constant Contact's API can be found within The Constant Contact Developer Portal. Constant Contact provides all developers with free access to our V3 API endpoints for building their own application for integration. All active account types, including trial , have free access to Constant Contact's public API. 

You can get started using our API by visiting our documentation here:

https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_guide/getting_started.html

While we don't have dedicated developer/sandbox accounts per se, you are able to create a free developer trial account with limited sending capabilities which you can use for your testing purposes. Trial accounts created through the developer portal do not expire, whereas standard trial accounts created through the main site expire after 60 days if not converted to a paid account. Below is a link to our developer portal where you can sign up for a trial account, you'll just need to click on "Sign up".

Constant Contact Developer Portal

https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/login/index.html

As with most APIs, our API has rate limits to help maintain stability and security. Our standard API key access has a rate limit of 10,000 calls per day, and 4 calls per second. Once a key has hit its limit, your calls will return a 429 error until the next day (or the next second if going over your queries-per-second limit).

429: Too Many Requests

https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_guide/glossary_responses.html#429-too-many-request  

If you are planning on making an application that would be available and potentially used by a large base of customers then I would suggest you look into becoming a Technology Partner with Constant Contact. There is no price involved with this (though your application must be approved) and the basics are to just create and maintain your app, though there are other parts to it. Members of our partner program are given 250,000 calls per day and up to 10 calls per second. To associate your API Key with a partnership, you can look into becoming a Technology Partner: https://www.constantcontact.com/partners/technology  

I am uncertain as to the turnaround times regarding Technology Partner applications, but that team does offer phone support, so if desired, you could definitely reach out to our Partner Support line at 1-855-854-8609 and see if they are able to provide any additional details or timelines on that process.

Please have a look and let us know if you have any other questions!

[Osman]

Thanks, Courtney!

That's excellent. I think that covers everything we need to know. Thank you for the quick response here!

In terms of my comment about the pricing page, I definitely have all the information I need based on your reply, but I think an addition to that page would be helpful for those investigating your platform.

Maybe something in the "Additional Features" section ("Access to Constant Contact's API"), and the daily limits in each column ("10,000 calls per day", "10,000 calls per day", "10,000 calls per day") so that people know what the daily cap is.

Thanks for the quick response here. Very much appreciated.

[Courtney_E]

Hello Osman,

Thank you for reaching out to Constant Contact API Developer Support. 

I can certainly see the value in what you are suggesting, and have opened a feature request on your behalf regarding the benefits of potentially listing information regarding Constant Contact's API on the Email & Digital Marketing plans page.

We appreciate you taking the time to leave this feedback, please let us know if you have any other questions!

[Osman]

Excellent! Thanks, Courtney!

Hopefully, your team will decide that change makes sense and some other individuals or companies will benefit from that information.

Thanks for all your help!

Osman Erzinclioglu | Senior Technical Analyst, Business Technology, AGF Investments Inc.
T 647 253-6838
E osman.erzinclioglu@AGF.com