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Email Marketing · head to head

Attentive vs Mautic

Attentive logo

Attentive

Email Marketing

Enterprise SMS and email marketing for retail brands, sold on quarterly minimum spend commitments

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Mautic logo

Mautic

Marketing

The main open source marketing automation platform, self-hosted and GPL licensed

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Mautic has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Attentive minimum spend commitments are use it or lose it: if quarterly usage falls short, the shortfall is invoiced anyway, which makes Attentive expensive for any brand whose sending is seasonal rather than even.; Mautic mautic depends on reliably scheduled cron jobs to process segments and send campaigns, and a misconfigured or silently failing schedule stops sends without an obvious error, which is the most common way Mautic deployments fail in production.
  • They diverge on capability: Attentive covers SMS-first journeys, Mautic covers Visual campaign builder.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Attentive and Mautic actually diverge.

Attributes where Attentive and Mautic differ
AttributeAttentiveMautic
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWeb, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker
CategoryEmail MarketingMarketing

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Attentive

  • SMS-first journeys
  • Two-tap sign-up units
  • TCPA compliance tooling
  • Email channel
  • Revenue attribution
  • Concierge
  • Identity resolution
  • Negotiated order form rates

Only in Mautic

  • Visual campaign builder
  • Contact management and segmentation
  • Landing pages and forms
  • Lead scoring
  • Dynamic web content
  • Email builder and A/B testing
  • Self-hosted data control
  • No feature gating

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Attentive

  • A direct-to-consumer brand where SMS is the primary revenue channel and needs cart abandonment triggered within minutes of a sessionnot Mautic
  • A retailer capturing in-store phone numbers at the till and needing TCPA-compliant consent records to go with themnot Mautic
  • A consumer brand running SMS and email from one audience so subscribers are not messaged twice for the same promotionnot Mautic
  • A high-volume merchant with predictable year-round send patterns that can commit to a quarterly minimum and negotiate rates down against itnot Mautic

Mautic

  • A marketing agency running automation for many clients that cannot pass on per-contact SaaS pricing at scalenot Attentive
  • A European university or public body whose data protection position requires contact data to stay on infrastructure it controlsnot Attentive
  • A company with a list of several hundred thousand contacts where SaaS per-contact pricing has become the largest line in the marketing budgetnot Attentive
  • A team that needs to modify the automation logic itself, not just configure it, and wants source access to do sonot Attentive

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Attentive

  • Minimum spend commitments are use it or lose it: if quarterly usage falls short, the shortfall is invoiced anyway, which makes Attentive expensive for any brand whose sending is seasonal rather than even.
  • No rates are published anywhere, so a buyer cannot benchmark a quote before entering a sales process, and the effective per message cost is only visible once an order form is drafted.
  • Contracts commonly run six to twelve months, so a brand that finds performance disappointing after two months still owes the balance of the term.
  • Total cost combines a platform fee, per message SMS and MMS charges and carrier pass-through fees, and MMS at two to five cents per message means image-heavy campaigns cost several times what the SMS rate suggests.
  • It is priced and built for established consumer brands, and the entry commitment puts it out of reach of small merchants that Postscript and similar tools serve on usage-based plans with no floor.

Mautic

  • Mautic depends on reliably scheduled cron jobs to process segments and send campaigns, and a misconfigured or silently failing schedule stops sends without an obvious error, which is the most common way Mautic deployments fail in production.
  • Email sending is not included: you must arrange, pay for and warm up your own sending infrastructure through Amazon SES, SendGrid or similar, and deliverability problems become entirely your problem with no vendor to escalate to.
  • Acquia owns the commercial descendant, Campaign Studio, and is the largest contributor, so the loudest commercial interest in the ecosystem benefits from a hosted product rather than from the self-hosted one being easy.
  • Upgrades between major versions have historically been disruptive, requiring database migrations and plugin compatibility checks, so a neglected instance can become expensive to bring current.
  • The interface and the reporting are noticeably behind commercial platforms, so marketing teams that came from HubSpot or ActiveCampaign will find everyday tasks slower and will need training.

Pricing, plan by plan

Attentive

On request
  • Attentive$undefined/year
    • No public rate card; rates are set in an individual order form
    • Platform fee plus per message SMS and MMS charges
    • Contracts commonly six to twelve months

Mautic

Free
  • Self-hosted communityFree
    • GPL licensed, no licence fee and no contact limits
    • All features included, no paid edition
    • You provide hosting, database, cron scheduling and email sending
  • Managed Mautic hosting$undefined/month
    • Third-party managed hosting listed by the project
    • Updates, backups and cron scheduling handled for you
    • Pricing varies by provider and is not set by the project

Which should you pick?

Choose Attentive if

  • You need sms-first journeys.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want two-tap sign-up units.
Attentive review

Choose Mautic if

  • You need visual campaign builder.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker.
  • You also want contact management and segmentation.
Mautic review

Questions people ask

Is Attentive or Mautic better?
Neither clearly leads. Attentive starts at On request and Mautic at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Attentive or Mautic?
Mautic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Attentive and Free for Mautic.
Does Attentive or Mautic run on more platforms?
Attentive runs on Web, iOS, Android. Mautic runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker.
Can I use Mautic for free?
Yes. Mautic has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Attentive starts at On request.
What is Attentive best used for?
Attentive is most often used for a direct-to-consumer brand where sms is the primary revenue channel and needs cart abandonment triggered within minutes of a session, a retailer capturing in-store phone numbers at the till and needing tcpa-compliant consent records to go with them, a consumer brand running sms and email from one audience so subscribers are not messaged twice for the same promotion, a high-volume merchant with predictable year-round send patterns that can commit to a quarterly minimum and negotiate rates down against it. Of those, a direct-to-consumer brand where sms is the primary revenue channel and needs cart abandonment triggered within minutes of a session and a retailer capturing in-store phone numbers at the till and needing tcpa-compliant consent records to go with them are not what Mautic is typically brought in for.
What can Attentive do that Mautic cannot?
Attentive covers SMS-first journeys, Two-tap sign-up units, TCPA compliance tooling, Email channel. Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Landing pages and forms, Lead scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Attentive: How much does Attentive cost?

It does not publish rates. Costs are a platform fee plus per message charges set in your order form, with minimum spend commitments commonly around 2,000 to 3,000 USD per quarter.

Mautic: Is Mautic free?

Yes, GPL licensed with no licence fee and no contact limits. You pay for hosting, email sending and the staff time to maintain it.

Attentive: What happens if I do not use my minimum?

You are invoiced for the shortfall at the end of the quarter. Unused commitment is not carried forward.

Mautic: Does Acquia own Mautic?

Acquia acquired the founding commercial entity in 2019 and sells Campaign Studio built on it, but the Mautic trademark sits with the Open Source Collective and the project is community governed.

Attentive: How long is the contract?

Typically six to twelve months, billed monthly or quarterly.

Mautic: What breaks most often?

Cron scheduling. If segment rebuilding and campaign triggers are not running on schedule, campaigns quietly stop sending with no alert.

Attentive: Does it do email as well as SMS?

Yes, with shared audiences and journeys, though the product was designed SMS-first and that remains its strength.

Mautic: Can it handle large contact lists?

Yes, but performance at several hundred thousand contacts depends on database tuning and queue configuration, which is work you must do yourself.

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