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Marketing · head to head

Mautic vs Zoho Marketing Automation

Mautic logo

Mautic

Marketing

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Zoho Marketing Automation logo

Zoho Marketing Automation

Marketing

Contact-count marketing automation priced well below the mainstream platforms, tightest with Zoho CRM

From
$19/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.; Zoho Marketing Automation pricing is by contact count, so an inactive or unengaged list costs the same as an active one, and nobody in the business has an incentive to prune it until the next tier boundary arrives.
  • They diverge on capability: Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Zoho Marketing Automation covers Journey builder.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Mautic and Zoho Marketing Automation actually diverge.

Attributes where Mautic and Zoho Marketing Automation differ
AttributeMauticZoho Marketing Automation
Starting priceFree$19/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer month by contact count
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Linux, Self-hosted, DockerWeb, iOS, Android

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
  • Dynamic web content
  • Email builder and A/B testing
  • Self-hosted data control
  • No feature gating
  • Plugins and API
  • Multi-tenant agency use

Only in Zoho Marketing Automation

  • Journey builder
  • Unlimited email sends
  • Web behaviour tracking
  • Social campaigns
  • SMS and WhatsApp
  • Lead attribution and X-RAY

Both cover

  • Landing pages and forms
  • Lead scoring

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

Zoho Marketing Automation

  • A B2B team already on Zoho CRM that wants scoring and nurture without paying for a separate platform and an integrationnot Mautic
  • A business emailing its list frequently, where unlimited sends beats a competitor metering both contacts and emailsnot Mautic
  • An Indian or emerging-market marketing team that would otherwise pay a US-dollar list price plus card forex feesnot Mautic
  • A small team upgrading from plain newsletter sending to behaviour-triggered journeys without a five-figure annual commitmentnot 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.

Zoho Marketing Automation

  • Pricing is by contact count, so an inactive or unengaged list costs the same as an active one, and nobody in the business has an incentive to prune it until the next tier boundary arrives.
  • The Enterprise plan caps users at 25, which is a hard ceiling for larger marketing organisations rather than an upgrade path.
  • Its value depends heavily on running Zoho CRM; used alongside Salesforce or HubSpot the integration is shallower and much of the scoring and attribution advantage disappears.
  • Zoho sells Campaigns, Marketing Automation and MarketingPlus as separate products with overlapping function, and buyers regularly purchase the wrong one and then migrate lists between them.
  • Support and deliverability tooling are basic next to dedicated senders, so sender reputation problems on a large list get less expert help than a specialist provider would give.

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

Zoho Marketing Automation

$19/month
  • Standard$19/month
    • Priced for 1,000 contacts, billed annually
    • Unlimited email sends
    • Unlimited social campaigns and signup forms
  • Professional$29/month
    • Priced for 1,000 contacts, billed annually
    • Contact scoring
    • Journey builder with reports
  • Enterprise$59/month
    • Priced for 1,000 contacts, billed annually
    • Lead attribution and X-RAY journey tracing
    • Landing page personalisation

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 Zoho Marketing Automation if

  • You need journey builder.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want unlimited email sends.
Zoho Marketing Automation review

Questions people ask

Is Mautic or Zoho Marketing Automation better?
Neither clearly leads. Mautic starts at Free and Zoho Marketing Automation at $19/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Mautic or Zoho Marketing Automation?
Mautic has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Mautic and $19/month for Zoho Marketing Automation.
Does Mautic or Zoho Marketing Automation run on more platforms?
Mautic runs on Web, Linux, Self-hosted, Docker. Zoho Marketing Automation runs on Web, iOS, Android.
Can I use Mautic for free?
Yes. Mautic has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Zoho Marketing Automation starts at $19/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 Zoho Marketing Automation is typically brought in for.
What can Mautic do that Zoho Marketing Automation cannot?
Mautic covers Visual campaign builder, Contact management and segmentation, Dynamic web content, Email builder and A/B testing. Zoho Marketing Automation covers Journey builder, Unlimited email sends, Web behaviour tracking, Social campaigns. Both handle Landing pages and forms, Lead scoring.

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.

Zoho Marketing Automation: How does it differ from Zoho Campaigns?

Campaigns is email sending and newsletters. Marketing Automation adds journeys, lead scoring, web tracking and CRM writeback. Buying Campaigns and outgrowing it is the common mistake.

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.

Zoho Marketing Automation: Are email sends limited?

No, sends are unlimited on all plans. Only contact count determines your tier, which is unusual at this price level.

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.

Zoho Marketing Automation: Is there a user limit?

Yes, up to 25 users on Enterprise, with lower limits below that. It is not designed for large marketing departments.

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.

Zoho Marketing Automation: Can I pay in local currency?

Yes, Zoho publishes real local pricing in several markets including India rather than converting the US dollar figure at checkout.

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