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Marketing · head to head

Lucky Orange vs Mautic

Lucky Orange logo

Lucky Orange

Marketing

All-in-one conversion optimization

From
Free
Rated
-
Mautic logo

Mautic

Marketing

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

From
Free
Rated
-

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Lucky Orange session-based pricing scales poorly during traffic spikes or successful campaigns; 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: Lucky Orange covers Heatmaps, Mautic covers Visual campaign builder.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lucky Orange and Mautic actually diverge.

Attributes where Lucky Orange and Mautic differ
AttributeLucky OrangeMautic
Pricing modelUnknownOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWebWeb, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker
Founded2012Unknown

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

  • Heatmaps
  • Session Recordings
  • Live Chat
  • Surveys
  • Form Analytics
  • Shopify
  • WordPress
  • BigCommerce

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.

Lucky Orange

  • User experience analysisnot Mautic
  • Bug reproductionnot Mautic
  • Conversion optimizationnot Mautic
  • Customer journey mappingnot Mautic
  • Usability testingnot Mautic

Mautic

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

Where each one falls short

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

Lucky Orange

  • Session-based pricing scales poorly during traffic spikes or successful campaigns
  • Lacks A/B testing capabilities that competitors like Crazy Egg offer
  • Less privacy-focused than Hotjar for session recording data

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

Lucky Orange

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 100 monthly sessions
    • 30 days data retention
    • Basic features
  • Build$32/month
    • 5,000 monthly sessions
    • Live chat
    • Heatmaps
  • Grow$72/month
    • 15,000 monthly sessions
    • All Build features
  • Expand$184/month
    • 50,000 monthly sessions
    • All features

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 Lucky Orange if

  • You need heatmaps.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want session recordings.

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 Lucky Orange or Mautic better?
Neither clearly leads. Lucky Orange 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, Lucky Orange or Mautic?
Lucky Orange starts at Free and Mautic at Free.
Does Lucky Orange or Mautic run on more platforms?
Lucky Orange runs on Web. Mautic runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker.
Can I use Lucky Orange for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Lucky Orange best used for?
Lucky Orange is most often used for user experience analysis, bug reproduction, conversion optimization, customer journey mapping. Of those, user experience analysis and bug reproduction are not what Mautic is typically brought in for.
What can Lucky Orange do that Mautic cannot?
Lucky Orange covers Heatmaps, Session Recordings, Live Chat, Surveys. Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Landing pages and forms, Lead scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Lucky Orange: What is Lucky Orange's pricing based on?

Lucky Orange uses session-based pricing tiers. The Free plan tracks 100 monthly sessions; Build plan ($32/mo) tracks 5,000 sessions; Grow ($72/mo) tracks 15,000 sessions, up to Scale ($839/mo) for 300,000 sessions.

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.

Lucky Orange: Does Lucky Orange include live chat?

Yes, unlike pure heatmap tools, Lucky Orange includes live chat with canned responses, operator transfers, co-browsing, and typing preview in all paid plans.

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.

Lucky Orange: Can I get a 7-day free trial?

Yes, Lucky Orange offers a 7-day free trial with all features on every plan and no credit card required to start.

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.

Lucky Orange: Does Lucky Orange track session recordings?

Yes, Lucky Orange provides dynamic heatmaps and visitor session recordings showing customer behavior, including drop-offs in conversion funnels.

Source
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.

Lucky Orange: How is Lucky Orange different from Hotjar?

Lucky Orange combines heatmaps with integrated live chat for real-time support, while Hotjar focuses more on feedback collection and UX research with better privacy defaults.

Source
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