Marketing · head to head
Mautic vs Ory Kratos
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: 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.; Ory Kratos headless means you build every screen, which is significant work compared with a hosted login page
- They diverge on capability: Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Ory Kratos covers Headless API.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Mautic and Ory Kratos actually diverge.
| Attribute | Mautic | Ory Kratos |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Open source, no licence fee | Open-source self-hosted, with a paid managed network |
| Platforms | Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker | Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted |
| Category | Marketing | Cybersecurity |
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 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
Only in Ory Kratos
- Headless API
- Self-service flows
- Multi-factor authentication
- Pluggable identity schemas
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 Ory Kratos
- A European university or public body whose data protection position requires contact data to stay on infrastructure it controlsnot Ory Kratos
- A company with a list of several hundred thousand contacts where SaaS per-contact pricing has become the largest line in the marketing budgetnot Ory Kratos
- A team that needs to modify the automation logic itself, not just configure it, and wants source access to do sonot Ory Kratos
Ory Kratos
- Products needing complete control over the look and flow of authenticationnot Mautic
- Applications that must not hand user identity data to a third partynot Mautic
- Teams building identity as infrastructure across several servicesnot 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.
Ory Kratos
- Headless means you build every screen, which is significant work compared with a hosted login page
- More moving parts than a monolithic IAM: Kratos handles identity, and OAuth2 needs Ory Hydra alongside
- Documentation assumes real familiarity with identity concepts and is not a gentle introduction
- Self-hosting identity carries the security and availability burden that hosted providers absorb
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
Ory Kratos
Free- Self-hostedFree
- Full identity server
- All flows
- Community support
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.
Choose Ory Kratos if
- You need headless api.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted.
- You also want self-service flows.
Questions people ask
- Is Mautic or Ory Kratos better?
- Neither clearly leads. Mautic starts at Free and Ory Kratos at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Mautic or Ory Kratos?
- Mautic starts at Free and Ory Kratos at Free.
- Does Mautic or Ory Kratos run on more platforms?
- Mautic runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker. Ory Kratos runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Self-hosted.
- Can I use Mautic for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- 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 Ory Kratos is typically brought in for.
- What can Mautic do that Ory Kratos cannot?
- Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Landing pages and forms, Lead scoring. Ory Kratos covers Headless API, Self-service flows, Multi-factor authentication, Pluggable identity schemas.
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.
Ory Kratos: Is Ory Kratos free?
Yes, open source and free to self-host. Ory Network is a paid managed service.
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.
Ory Kratos: What does headless mean here?
Kratos provides identity flows as APIs and no user interface. You build the login, registration and recovery screens yourself.
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.
Ory Kratos: Does Kratos do OAuth2?
No. Kratos handles user identity; OAuth2 and OpenID Connect provider functionality is Ory Hydra, a separate component.
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.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- Mautic vs Umami
- Mautic vs Countly
- Mautic vs Matomo
- Mautic vs Zoho Marketing Automation
- Mautic vs Bloomreach
- Mautic vs WebEngage
- Mautic vs Plausible
- Mautic vs Netcore Cloud
- Mautic vs Freshpaint
- Mautic vs Swydo
- Mautic vs Wrike
- Mautic vs Iterable
- Mautic vs Instapage
- Mautic vs Invoca
- Mautic vs June
- Mautic vs Kissmetrics
- Mautic vs Leadpages
- Mautic vs Lucky Orange
- Mautic vs Logto
- Mautic vs Authelia
- Mautic vs 1Password
- Mautic vs authentik
- Mautic vs Clerk
- Mautic vs Trivy
- Mautic vs LastPass
- Mautic vs HashiCorp Vault
- Mautic vs Bitwarden
- Mautic vs Frontegg
- Mautic vs Infisical
- Mautic vs Semgrep
- Mautic vs Envysion
- Mautic vs Feedzai
- Mautic vs HashiCorp Boundary
- Mautic vs JumpCloud
- Ory Kratos vs Umami
- Ory Kratos vs Countly
- Ory Kratos vs Matomo
- Ory Kratos vs Zoho Marketing Automation
- Ory Kratos vs Bloomreach
- Ory Kratos vs WebEngage
- Ory Kratos vs Plausible
- Ory Kratos vs Netcore Cloud
- Ory Kratos vs Freshpaint
- Ory Kratos vs Swydo
- Ory Kratos vs Wrike
- Ory Kratos vs Iterable
- Ory Kratos vs Instapage
- Ory Kratos vs Invoca
- Ory Kratos vs June
- Ory Kratos vs Kissmetrics
- Ory Kratos vs Leadpages
- Ory Kratos vs Lucky Orange
- Ory Kratos vs Logto
- Ory Kratos vs Authelia
- Ory Kratos vs 1Password
- Ory Kratos vs authentik
- Ory Kratos vs Clerk
- Ory Kratos vs Trivy
- Ory Kratos vs LastPass
- Ory Kratos vs HashiCorp Vault
- Ory Kratos vs Bitwarden
- Ory Kratos vs Frontegg
- Ory Kratos vs Infisical
- Ory Kratos vs Semgrep
- Ory Kratos vs Envysion
- Ory Kratos vs Feedzai
- Ory Kratos vs HashiCorp Boundary
- Ory Kratos vs JumpCloud