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Marketing · head to head

Customer.io vs Mautic

Customer.io logo

Customer.io

Marketing

Data-driven messaging for teams getting started, scaling and beyond

From
$15/month
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: Customer.io essentials plan caps at 5,000 profiles (people and objects) and 1,000,000 monthly emails, with overages billed at $0.12 per 1,000 emails beyond that; 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.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Customer.io and Mautic actually diverge.

Attributes where Customer.io and Mautic differ
AttributeCustomer.ioMautic
Starting price$15/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebWeb, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker

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

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 Customer.io

Nothing recorded that Mautic does not also cover.

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.

Customer.io

  • Orchestrating multi-channel customer journeys from signup to retentionnot Mautic
  • Personalizing email and SMS campaigns using customer profilesnot Mautic
  • Triggering automated messages based on user behaviornot Mautic
  • Coordinating cross-team messaging without rebuilding campaignsnot Mautic

Mautic

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

Where each one falls short

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

Customer.io

  • Essentials plan caps at 5,000 profiles (people and objects) and 1,000,000 monthly emails, with overages billed at $0.12 per 1,000 emails beyond that
  • Standard and Premium tiers show custom pricing only, and Enterprise is negotiated rate, so three of the four published tiers require a sales conversation
  • Monthly plans accept credit card only; annual billing via invoice (ACH/wire) requires the annual commitment

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

Customer.io

$15/month
  • Essentials$15/month
    • Base profiles starting at 5,000
    • Email sends: 1 million monthly
    • Community and email support
  • Standard$null/month
    • Mid-tier scaling across channels
    • Higher profile and email allowances
    • Email and priority support
  • Premium$null/month
    • Advanced custom workflows
    • Dedicated support
  • Enterprise$null/month
    • Custom pricing for dedicated infrastructure
    • HIPAA compliance
    • Dedicated hardware

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 Customer.io if

Nothing in the data separates Customer.io from Mautic on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

Customer.io 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 Customer.io or Mautic better?
Neither clearly leads. Customer.io starts at $15/month and Mautic at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Customer.io or Mautic?
Mautic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $15/month for Customer.io and Free for Mautic.
Does Customer.io or Mautic run on more platforms?
Customer.io 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. Customer.io starts at $15/month.
What is Customer.io best used for?
Customer.io is most often used for orchestrating multi-channel customer journeys from signup to retention, personalizing email and sms campaigns using customer profiles, triggering automated messages based on user behavior, coordinating cross-team messaging without rebuilding campaigns. Of those, orchestrating multi-channel customer journeys from signup to retention and personalizing email and sms campaigns using customer profiles are not what Mautic is typically brought in for.
What can Customer.io do that Mautic cannot?
Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Landing pages and forms, Lead scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Customer.io: How much does Customer.io Essentials cost?

Customer.io Essentials starts at $15/month and includes 5,000 base profiles with 1 million monthly email sends, community and email support, and data-driven messaging tools. Customers can choose monthly or annual billing.

Source
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.

Customer.io: What are Customer.io's usage-based add-on costs?

Beyond plan limits, Customer.io charges $0.009 per additional profile, $0.12 per 1,000 additional emails, and $10 per 100K AI credits. Messages exceeding plan limits are charged at nominal rates. Billing occurs on the subscription anniversary.

Source
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.

Customer.io: Does Customer.io offer a startup discount?

Yes, early-stage companies that have raised under $10 million qualify for a full year free through Customer.io's Startup Program with annual billing.

Source
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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