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Email Marketing · head to head

Campaign Monitor vs Mautic

Campaign Monitor logo

Campaign Monitor

Email Marketing

Email marketing platform priced by contact tier, with unlimited sends only from the mid tier up

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: Campaign Monitor the Lite tier caps monthly sends at 2,500 regardless of contact list size, so a list of any meaningful size cannot be emailed even once a month without exceeding it.; 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: Campaign Monitor covers Drag-and-drop email builder, Mautic covers Visual campaign builder.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Campaign Monitor and Mautic actually diverge.

Attributes where Campaign Monitor and Mautic differ
AttributeCampaign MonitorMautic
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelPer month by contact tier and plan levelOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebWeb, 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 Campaign Monitor

  • Drag-and-drop email builder
  • Automation workflows
  • List segmentation
  • Send-time optimisation
  • Multi-brand management

Only in Mautic

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

Both cover

  • Landing pages and forms

What people use each for

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

Campaign Monitor

  • A small marketing team wanting straightforward campaign design and automation without a full martech stacknot Mautic
  • A business with a list under a few thousand contacts and infrequent sends, where the Lite tier's cap is not a real constraintnot Mautic
  • An agency managing multiple brands wanting Enterprise-tier multi-brand account managementnot Mautic
  • A team wanting a bundled website builder alongside email on the Premier tiernot Mautic

Mautic

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

Where each one falls short

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

Campaign Monitor

  • The Lite tier caps monthly sends at 2,500 regardless of contact list size, so a list of any meaningful size cannot be emailed even once a month without exceeding it.
  • Unlimited sending only starts at the Essentials tier, so the cheap headline Lite price is not comparable to competitors that offer unlimited sends at their entry tier.
  • Its e-commerce-specific automation (abandoned cart flows, predictive segments) is less developed than Klaviyo's, making it a weaker fit for retail-heavy senders.
  • As part of the Marigold group alongside Sailthru and other acquired brands, product roadmap priority is shared across a portfolio rather than dedicated solely to Campaign Monitor.
  • Pricing multiplies on two axes, contact tier and plan level, so estimating total cost requires checking both dimensions rather than a single number.

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

Campaign Monitor

On request
  • Lite$undefined/month
    • Monthly send cap of 2,500 emails regardless of list size
    • Basic campaign and template tools
    • Priced by contact tier from under 500 to 50,000+
  • Essentials$undefined/month
    • Unlimited monthly email sends
    • Priority support
    • Priced by contact tier from under 500 to 50,000+
  • Premier$undefined/month
    • Unlimited monthly email sends
    • Premier-level phone support
    • Drag-and-drop website builder included
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom quote
    • Multi-brand account management
    • Dedicated account manager, SOC2 and GDPR-aligned security

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 Campaign Monitor if

  • You need drag-and-drop email builder.
  • You also want automation workflows.
Campaign Monitor 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 Campaign Monitor or Mautic better?
Neither clearly leads. Campaign Monitor 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, Campaign Monitor or Mautic?
Mautic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Campaign Monitor and Free for Mautic.
Does Campaign Monitor or Mautic run on more platforms?
Campaign Monitor runs on Web. 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. Campaign Monitor starts at On request.
What is Campaign Monitor best used for?
Campaign Monitor is most often used for a small marketing team wanting straightforward campaign design and automation without a full martech stack, a business with a list under a few thousand contacts and infrequent sends, where the lite tier's cap is not a real constraint, an agency managing multiple brands wanting enterprise-tier multi-brand account management, a team wanting a bundled website builder alongside email on the premier tier. Of those, a small marketing team wanting straightforward campaign design and automation without a full martech stack and a business with a list under a few thousand contacts and infrequent sends, where the lite tier's cap is not a real constraint are not what Mautic is typically brought in for.
What can Campaign Monitor do that Mautic cannot?
Campaign Monitor covers Drag-and-drop email builder, Automation workflows, List segmentation, Send-time optimisation. Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Lead scoring, Dynamic web content. Both handle Landing pages and forms.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Campaign Monitor: Does the cheapest plan include unlimited sends?

No. Lite caps monthly sends at 2,500 emails regardless of list size; unlimited sending starts at the Essentials tier.

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.

Campaign Monitor: Who owns Campaign Monitor?

Marigold, a marketing technology group that also owns Sailthru and other acquired email and loyalty platforms.

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.

Campaign Monitor: Is there a free plan?

A 30-day free trial with a 500-contact limit is available, but there is no permanent free tier.

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.

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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