Softwr

Marketing · head to head

Mautic vs Termly

Mautic logo

Mautic

Marketing

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Termly logo

Termly

Cybersecurity

Legal policy generator and cookie consent banner for small websites

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

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.; Termly a standard plan licenses one website, so an agency or a business with several brand domains multiplies the headline price by the number of sites and the cheap option stops being cheap at four or five domains.
  • They diverge on capability: Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Termly covers Policy generator.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Mautic and Termly actually diverge.

Attributes where Mautic and Termly differ
AttributeMauticTermly
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer website per month
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Self-hosted, DockerWeb
CategoryMarketingCybersecurity

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 Termly

  • Policy generator
  • Automatic policy updates
  • Consent banner
  • Script auto blocker
  • Cookie scanner
  • Consent log
  • WordPress plugin
  • Do not sell handling

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

Termly

  • A small e-commerce shop that needs a privacy policy, terms and a compliant cookie banner before launch without engaging a solicitornot Mautic
  • A freelance web developer standardising the legal and consent layer across client sites, buying a licence per site or an agency arrangementnot Mautic
  • A WordPress site owner who needs scripts blocked before consent and does not have a tag manager set upnot Mautic
  • A US small business newly in scope for a state privacy law that needs a do not sell opt-out on the site quicklynot 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.

Termly

  • A standard plan licenses one website, so an agency or a business with several brand domains multiplies the headline price by the number of sites and the cheap option stops being cheap at four or five domains.
  • Generated policies are templates conditioned on questionnaire answers, so they describe the data practices you claimed rather than the ones your code performs, and a regulator comparing the policy to actual tracking finds the gap not the vendor.
  • Banner view limits apply on the lower tiers, and a site that spikes in traffic can exhaust its allowance mid month, which is the worst possible moment for consent handling to degrade.
  • It covers websites well but has little for mobile apps, so a company with an iOS and Android app alongside its site needs a second consent mechanism and a second consent record.
  • There is no data mapping, subject rights automation or vendor inventory, so any company that grows into real privacy programme obligations outgrows Termly entirely rather than upgrading within it.

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

Termly

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 1 basic legal policy
    • 10,000 monthly banner views
    • Cookie consent banner
  • Starter$10/month
    • 2 legal policies
    • 10 policy edits
    • 50,000 monthly banner views
  • Pro Plus$15/month
    • Unlimited banner views
    • Additional legal policies
    • Multilingual banners

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 Termly if

  • You need policy generator.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want automatic policy updates.
Termly review

Questions people ask

Is Mautic or Termly better?
Neither clearly leads. Mautic starts at Free and Termly at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Mautic or Termly?
Mautic starts at Free and Termly at Free.
Does Mautic or Termly run on more platforms?
Mautic runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker. Termly runs on Web.
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 Termly is typically brought in for.
What can Mautic do that Termly cannot?
Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Landing pages and forms, Lead scoring. Termly covers Policy generator, Automatic policy updates, Consent banner, Script auto blocker.

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.

Termly: Does one Termly plan cover all my websites?

No. A standard plan licenses one website. Multiple domains need multiple licences or an agency arrangement, and this is the single most common surprise on the bill.

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.

Termly: Are the generated policies legally sufficient?

They are templates conditioned on your answers and are not legal advice. They are proportionate for a simple site and inadequate where actual data flows are complex or regulated.

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.

Termly: Is there a genuinely free plan?

Yes, one basic policy, one site, 10,000 monthly banner views and quarterly cookie scans, with no card required.

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.

Termly: Does it handle US state privacy opt-outs?

Yes, including a do not sell or share mechanism and regional rule sets, alongside GDPR consent for EU visitors.

Share

Related pages

More on Mautic

More on Termly

Keep looking

Other head to heads