Best for
Best for teams that want email marketing with deep marketing automation and a built-in CRM, and that will grow into advanced segmentation and predictive sending.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Email Marketing Comparison
ActiveCampaign vs. Mautic
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for teams that need marketing automation without a per-contact bill, and have someone able to run a PHP application.
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | ActiveCampaign | Mautic |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Not stated | Free and open source if self-hosted; managed hosting from €247.50 / month The software carries no licence cost, but the server and the email sending provider are your own. Managed hosting through the official partner Dropsolid starts at €247.50 per month billed annually, or €275 per month billed quarterly. |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial, no credit card required | 14-day trial of the hosted offering, no credit card required |
| Commercial use | Not stated | Yes, GPL v3 |
| API | Yes, an API with webhooks, plus more than 1,000 integrations | Yes, a REST API plus an in-app marketplace of community plugins and themes |
| Hosting | Cloud (SaaS) | Self-hosted on your own infrastructure, or managed hosting through certified partners |
| Campaign types | Yes, email campaigns with a drag-and-drop designer and more than 250 templates | Email campaigns and newsletters alongside SMS, push notifications and WhatsApp, plus landing pages and forms that embed in a site or open as a popup |
| Automation and journeys | Yes, marketing automation, 5 actions per automation on Starter and unlimited on Plus, Pro and Enterprise | Yes, a drag-and-drop campaign builder for multi-step journeys from capture through to conversion |
| Segmentation and personalisation | Yes, segmentation from limited on Starter to advanced and premium on the higher plans, with predictive sending | Yes, contact segmentation driven by behaviour and engagement tracking, with customisable point-based lead scoring to prioritise contacts |
| Templates and editor | Yes, a drag-and-drop email designer for plain text and HTML with more than 250 pre-built templates | Yes, a drag-and-drop email builder with personalisation and A/B testing, plus a landing page builder and a form builder; community themes come through the marketplace |
| Deliverability and testing | Yes, a spam check across plans and predictive sending | Sending runs through a provider you supply, not one bundled with the product. SMTP is the default transport, configured as a DSN, and since version 5 the Symfony Mailer transports add SendGrid, Amazon SES and others by Composer; a SparkPost plugin is available from the Mautic Marketplace. The documentation warns that the Symfony transports do not support batch sending or the bounce-management callbacks the dedicated plugins handle |
| Ecommerce and CRM data | Yes, contact profiles with custom fields, tags and lists, plus premium CRM integrations such as Salesforce on the higher plans | Contacts, companies and lead scoring are native, and CRM, ecommerce and SMS systems connect through marketplace plugins or webhooks rather than shipping preconfigured |
| Integrations and API | Yes, an API with webhooks plus more than 1,000 integrations | Yes, a REST API for contacts, campaigns and data transfer, webhooks, and an in-app marketplace of community plugins |
| AI features | stated Yes | No |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | more entries On-premise, Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | more entries Email helpdesk, Chat, Community forum | Community forum |
| Onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Guided onboarding, Live online demos and webinars | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries Shopify, Salesforce, Zendesk, Wix, Facebook, Google Sheets, Google Ads, ChatGPT, Claude | SMTP, SendGrid, Amazon SES, SparkPost |
Add a tool
Adds a column to the table, from the tools in this category.
Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Free trial ActiveCampaign 14-day free trial, no credit card required Mautic 14-day trial of the hosted offering, no credit card required
- Deployment ActiveCampaign Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Mautic On-premise, Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
- Hosting ActiveCampaign Cloud (SaaS) Mautic Self-hosted on your own infrastructure, or managed hosting through certified partners
- Support ActiveCampaign Email helpdesk, Chat, Community forum Mautic Community forum
- AI features ActiveCampaign Yes Mautic No
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
ActiveCampaign
Strengths
- Marketing automation with unlimited automation actions on Plus, Pro and Enterprise
- More than 1,000 integrations plus an API with webhooks
- Active Intelligence AI features across all plans
- Built-in CRM with contact profiles, custom fields, tags and lists
Limitations
- Starter caps automations at 5 actions each and offers only limited segmentation
- Prices scale with the number of contacts
Mautic
Strengths
- No licence cost and no per-contact fee, so list growth does not change the bill
- Self-hosting keeps contact data in a jurisdiction you pick
- Campaign builder, email builder, landing pages, forms and lead scoring are all in the core product
- REST API, webhooks and an in-app marketplace for extending it
Limitations
- You supply and pay for the email sending provider separately
- Running and patching a PHP application is your responsibility unless you buy managed hosting
- Support is community forums and Slack; paid support comes only through partners
- Symfony Mailer transports do not batch-send or handle bounce callbacks
Plans
Pricing
ActiveCampaign
- Starter Not stated Entry plan with the email designer, templates and up to 5 actions per automation. Scales with contacts.
- Plus Not stated Adds unlimited automation actions and standard segmentation. Scales with contacts.
- Pro Not stated Adds advanced segmentation and predictive sending. Scales with contacts.
- Enterprise Not stated Adds premium segmentation and premium integrations such as Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.
Mautic
- Self-hosted €0 The open source application under the GPL v3 licence. No licence cost; the server and the email sending provider are your own.
- Mautic Essential €247.50 Per month billed annually, or €275 per month billed quarterly. Managed shared hosting through Dropsolid, up to 50,000 emails per month and 50,000 contacts.
- Mautic Professional €1,237 Per month. Dedicated hosting, up to 3 million contacts, with a dedicated support manager.
- Mautic Enterprise Custom Quoted by the vendor. Dedicated infrastructure, up to 6 million emails per month, enterprise-grade security.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
ActiveCampaign
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Mautic
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
ActiveCampaign https://www.activecampaign.com · checked against the official source on 2026-08-19
Mautic https://www.mautic.org · no check date recorded yet
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.