Softwr

Surveys · head to head

Fillout vs Mautic

Fillout logo

Fillout

Surveys

Form builder that reads and writes records in Airtable, Notion, HubSpot and Salesforce, with unlimited seats on every plan including the free one

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Mautic logo

Mautic

Marketing

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

From
Free
Free plan
Yes

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Fillout the Business plan is marketed with unlimited responses but the fair use policy names thresholds of 30,000 submissions a month, 250,000 in total, 500 forms per account and 50 GB of uploads a month, above which the vendor may limit or suspend features, so unlimited means unmetered rather than uncapped.; 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: Fillout covers Unlimited seats and forms, Mautic covers Visual campaign builder.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Fillout and Mautic actually diverge.

Attributes where Fillout and Mautic differ
AttributeFilloutMautic
Pricing modelPer month by response countOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker
CategorySurveysMarketing

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Fillout

  • Unlimited seats and forms
  • Database read and write
  • Soft response limits
  • Conditional logic and calculations
  • EU hosting
  • REST API and webhooks

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.

Fillout

  • A team already running on Airtable or Notion that wants forms which update existing records rather than appending new rowsnot Mautic
  • An organisation with many occasional form builders, where per-seat pricing elsewhere would cost more than the forms are worthnot Mautic
  • Replacing a survey tool, a scheduling tool and a payment link with one form that does all threenot Mautic
  • Public forms that must keep collecting through an unexpected traffic spike rather than shutting off at a quotanot Mautic

Mautic

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

Where each one falls short

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

Fillout

  • The Business plan is marketed with unlimited responses but the fair use policy names thresholds of 30,000 submissions a month, 250,000 in total, 500 forms per account and 50 GB of uploads a month, above which the vendor may limit or suspend features, so unlimited means unmetered rather than uncapped.
  • EU data residency begins on the Team plan at 250 USD per month, more than three times the Business price, and is not applied automatically; you must upgrade and then raise a support request to be moved.
  • The Team plan is hidden behind a secondary tab that does not render without interaction, so buyers reading the pricing page see Business at 75 USD as the top self-serve tier and only discover the 250 USD step when they ask for single sign-on or EU hosting.
  • The enterprise marketing page lists hosting in the United States, EU, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, but the security documentation and subprocessor list name only the United States and the EU, so three of those five regions should be confirmed in writing before they are relied on.
  • The vendor is SOC 2 Type 2 but claims neither ISO 27001 nor HIPAA anywhere in its documentation, and it is angel-funded with no disclosed institutional round while the parent company now trades as Zite and ships a separate AI application builder.

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

Fillout

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 1,000 responses per month
    • Unlimited forms and unlimited seats
    • 20 MB per file upload
  • Starter$15/month
    • 180 USD per year billed annually, a stated 20 percent saving on monthly billing
    • 2,000 responses per month
    • Unlimited forms and seats
  • Pro$40/month
    • 480 USD per year billed annually
    • 5,000 responses per month
    • Branding fully removed at this tier
  • Business$75/month
    • 900 USD per year billed annually
    • Marketed as unlimited responses, subject to a fair use threshold near 30,000 per month
    • 1 GB per file upload

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 Fillout if

  • You need unlimited seats and forms.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want database read and write.

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.

Questions people ask

Is Fillout or Mautic better?
Neither clearly leads. Fillout starts at Free and Mautic at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Fillout or Mautic?
Fillout starts at Free and Mautic at Free.
Does Fillout or Mautic run on more platforms?
Fillout runs on Web, API. Mautic runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker.
Can I use Fillout for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Fillout best used for?
Fillout is most often used for a team already running on airtable or notion that wants forms which update existing records rather than appending new rows, an organisation with many occasional form builders, where per-seat pricing elsewhere would cost more than the forms are worth, replacing a survey tool, a scheduling tool and a payment link with one form that does all three, public forms that must keep collecting through an unexpected traffic spike rather than shutting off at a quota. Of those, a team already running on airtable or notion that wants forms which update existing records rather than appending new rows and an organisation with many occasional form builders, where per-seat pricing elsewhere would cost more than the forms are worth are not what Mautic is typically brought in for.
What can Fillout do that Mautic cannot?
Fillout covers Unlimited seats and forms, Database read and write, Soft response limits, Conditional logic and calculations. Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Landing pages and forms, Lead scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Fillout: Are seats really unlimited?

Yes. The vendor states there are no per-seat charges on any plan, including Free, and forms are unlimited too. Responses per month is the only meter below the Business 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.

Fillout: What happens when I exceed my response quota?

Nothing breaks. Forms keep collecting, and you can upgrade, buy bulk submissions or wait for the monthly reset.

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.

Fillout: Can I host respondent data in the EU?

Only from the Team plan at 250 USD per month, and only after contacting support to switch. Note that email and payment subprocessors remain in the United States regardless.

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.

Fillout: Is the Business plan really unlimited responses?

It is unmetered, not uncapped. The fair use policy names roughly 30,000 submissions a month as the point at which the vendor may intervene, so treat that as the practical ceiling.

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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