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Marketing · head to head

Mautic vs Ruler Analytics

Mautic logo

Mautic

Marketing

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Ruler Analytics logo

Ruler Analytics

Marketing

Closed-loop marketing attribution

From
£299/month
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.; Ruler Analytics no free plan or trial available, requiring custom quote for pricing
  • They diverge on capability: Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Ruler Analytics covers Multi-touch attribution.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Mautic and Ruler Analytics actually diverge.

Attributes where Mautic and Ruler Analytics differ
AttributeMauticRuler Analytics
Starting priceFree£299/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeUnknown
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Self-hosted, DockerWeb
FoundedUnknown2012

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 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 Ruler Analytics

  • Multi-touch attribution
  • Call tracking
  • Form tracking
  • Revenue attribution
  • Customer journey tracking
  • CRM integration
  • Marketing ROI
  • Custom reporting

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

Ruler Analytics

  • Marketing attributionnot Mautic
  • ROI measurementnot Mautic
  • Lead trackingnot Mautic
  • Revenue attributionnot 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.

Ruler Analytics

  • No free plan or trial available, requiring custom quote for pricing
  • Advanced features like marketing mix modeling only available on Advanced plan at 1,499 GBP per month
  • Pricing scales with monthly traffic volume, making costs unpredictable
  • Setup requires manual integration with CRM and data sources

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

Ruler Analytics

£299/month
  • Small$299/month
    • Up to 10,000 monthly visits
    • Form tracking
    • Call tracking
  • Medium$499/month
    • Up to 50,000 monthly visits
    • Data-driven attribution
    • Segmentation
  • Advanced$1499/month
    • 100k+ monthly visits
    • Marketing mix modeling
    • AI agents for analytics

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 Ruler Analytics if

  • You need multi-touch attribution.
  • You also want call tracking.
Ruler Analytics review

Questions people ask

Is Mautic or Ruler Analytics better?
Neither clearly leads. Mautic starts at Free and Ruler Analytics at £299/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Mautic or Ruler Analytics?
Mautic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Mautic and £299/month for Ruler Analytics.
Does Mautic or Ruler Analytics run on more platforms?
Mautic runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker. Ruler Analytics runs on Web.
Can I use Mautic for free?
Yes. Mautic has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Ruler Analytics starts at £299/month.
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 Ruler Analytics is typically brought in for.
What can Mautic do that Ruler Analytics cannot?
Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Landing pages and forms, Lead scoring. Ruler Analytics covers Multi-touch attribution, Call tracking, Form tracking, Revenue attribution.

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.

Ruler Analytics: What does Ruler Analytics track?

Ruler Analytics tracks forms, calls, live chat, offline conversions, and CRM data to connect marketing activity directly to revenue outcomes.

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.

Ruler Analytics: Does Ruler Analytics offer a free plan?

No, Ruler Analytics does not offer a free plan. Pricing starts at 299 GBP per month for the Small plan supporting up to 10,000 monthly website visits.

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.

Ruler Analytics: What attribution models does Ruler Analytics support?

Ruler supports multi-touch attribution, data-driven attribution, impression attribution, and marketing mix modeling for measuring campaign ROI across channels.

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.

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