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Marketing · head to head

Mautic vs Moosend

Mautic logo

Mautic

Marketing

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Moosend logo

Moosend

Email Marketing

Low-cost email marketing from 9 US dollars a month, owned by Sitecore since 2021

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Mautic has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Moosend there is no free forever plan, only a 30-day trial, so a very small list that would sit inside Mailchimp or MailerLite free tiers has to start paying immediately.
  • They diverge on capability: Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Moosend covers All features at every tier.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Mautic and Moosend actually diverge.

Attributes where Mautic and Moosend differ
AttributeMauticMoosend
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer month by contact count
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Self-hosted, DockerWeb, API
CategoryMarketingEmail Marketing

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 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

Only in Moosend

  • All features at every tier
  • Automation workflows
  • Drag-and-drop email builder
  • Segmentation
  • SMTP relay
  • Credit model
  • Ecommerce tracking
  • A/B testing

Both cover

  • Landing pages and forms

What people use each for

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

Mautic

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

Moosend

  • A small ecommerce store that wants abandoned cart automation without paying for a tier upgrade to unlock itnot Mautic
  • A charity or seasonal business that sends heavily twice a year and would waste a monthly subscription, using the credit packs insteadnot Mautic
  • An agency managing several small client lists that needs automation on every account without per-account tier jumpsnot Mautic
  • A business moving off Mailchimp purely on cost that still needs landing pages and a working automation buildernot Mautic

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Moosend

  • There is no free forever plan, only a 30-day trial, so a very small list that would sit inside Mailchimp or MailerLite free tiers has to start paying immediately.
  • Sitecore acquired Moosend in 2021 and Moosend is a low-price product inside an enterprise digital experience vendor, so it competes for investment against products with far higher deal values.
  • The prices for higher contact tiers are not shown as a table; you must select your contact count to reveal a figure, which makes comparing the cost curve against competitors tedious.
  • The integration catalogue is small compared with Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign, and deep ecommerce features such as predictive segmentation and advanced product recommendations are shallow by comparison.
  • Deliverability on shared infrastructure at the entry tier is adequate rather than good, and dedicated IP access sits in the quoted Enterprise tier, which matters if you send high volume to cold-ish lists.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Moosend

On request
  • Pro$9/month
    • 500 contacts at this price, scaling with list size
    • Unlimited emails
    • Automation workflows
  • Moosend+$undefined/month
    • Pro features plus selected enterprise add-ons
    • Configured per customer
    • Pricing quoted, not published
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Dedicated account management and SLA
    • Custom reporting and priority support
    • Dedicated IP options
  • Email credits$350/month
    • 350,000 credits for 350 US dollars, scaling to 1,000,000 for 1,000
    • No monthly subscription required
    • Suited to businesses that send in bursts rather than continuously

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Moosend if

  • You need all features at every tier.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want automation workflows.
Moosend review

Questions people ask

Is Mautic or Moosend better?
Neither clearly leads. Mautic starts at Free and Moosend at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Mautic or Moosend?
Mautic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Mautic and On request for Moosend.
Does Mautic or Moosend run on more platforms?
Mautic runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker. Moosend runs on Web, API.
Can I use Mautic for free?
Yes. Mautic has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Moosend starts at On request.
What is Mautic best used for?
Mautic is most often used for a marketing agency running automation for many clients that cannot pass on per-contact saas pricing at scale, a european university or public body whose data protection position requires contact data to stay on infrastructure it controls, a company with a list of several hundred thousand contacts where saas per-contact pricing has become the largest line in the marketing budget, a team that needs to modify the automation logic itself, not just configure it, and wants source access to do so. Of those, a marketing agency running automation for many clients that cannot pass on per-contact saas pricing at scale and a european university or public body whose data protection position requires contact data to stay on infrastructure it controls are not what Moosend is typically brought in for.
What can Mautic do that Moosend cannot?
Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Lead scoring, Dynamic web content. Moosend covers All features at every tier, Automation workflows, Drag-and-drop email builder, Segmentation. Both handle Landing pages and forms.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Moosend: Does Moosend have a free plan?

No. It has a 30-day trial with unlimited sends to 1,000 contacts, then you must move to a paid plan or buy credits.

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.

Moosend: Are features restricted on the cheapest plan?

No, and this is the main reason to choose it. Every Pro feature is available at every contact tier; only list size changes the price.

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.

Moosend: Who owns Moosend?

Sitecore, which acquired it in 2021. The product remains sold under the Moosend name at its own pricing.

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.

Moosend: What are email credits for?

Irregular senders. 350 US dollars buys 350,000 credits with no monthly subscription, which is cheaper than a year of subscription for a business that sends in bursts.

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