Best for
Best for creators, designers and small businesses that want beautifully designed emails without a steep learning curve.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
Email Marketing Comparison
Flodesk 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 | Flodesk | Mautic |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free plan; paid from $19 / month Lite billed annually at 1,000 subscribers, or $25 / month billed monthly. Every paid price scales with the active subscriber count, and annual billing includes one month free. Priced in US dollars worldwide. | 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 | Free plan available, plus free trials on the paid plans | 14-day trial of the hosted offering, no credit card required |
| Commercial use | Not stated | Yes, GPL v3 |
| API | Yes, a developer API with webhooks and a Model Context Protocol server; API keys are available on paid plans but not on free or trial accounts | 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, plus forms, landing pages and, on the top plan, sales pages | 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, workflow automations on the paid plans, unlimited on Pro and above | Yes, a drag-and-drop campaign builder for multi-step journeys from capture through to conversion |
| Segmentation and personalisation | Yes, audience segmentation | Yes, contact segmentation driven by behaviour and engagement tracking, with customisable point-based lead scoring to prioritise contacts |
| Templates and editor | Yes, designer-made templates and a visual editor | 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, subject line A/B testing that sends two variants to part of the list and the winner to the rest after 24 hours, with side-by-side results, plus AI subject line recommendations, content and sequence testing through split-path workflows, a send time optimizer, resend to unopens and a dedicated IP as a paid add-on | 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, integrated checkouts, sales pages and subscriptions with payment processing on the Everything plan | 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, a developer API with webhooks plus a Model Context Protocol server, included on every paid plan, alongside native integrations and Zapier and Pabbly Connect | Yes, a REST API for contacts, campaigns and data transfer, webhooks, and an in-app marketplace of community plugins |
| AI features | stated Yes | No |
| MCP-ready | stated Yes | No |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | more entries On-premise, Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | more entries Email helpdesk, Community forum | Community forum |
| Onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Live online demos and webinars | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized | Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries Shopify, Canva, Instagram, Squarespace, Wix, ThriveCart, ManyChat, HoneyBook, Interact, BookFunnel, Zapier, Pabbly Connect | 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
- Starting price Flodesk Free plan; paid from $19 / month Mautic Free and open source if self-hosted; managed hosting from €247.50 / month
- Free trial Flodesk Free plan available, plus free trials on the paid plans Mautic 14-day trial of the hosted offering, no credit card required
- Deployment Flodesk Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based Mautic On-premise, Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
- Company size Flodesk Freelancers, Small and mid-sized Mautic Small and mid-sized, Enterprise
- Hosting Flodesk Cloud (SaaS) Mautic Self-hosted on your own infrastructure, or managed hosting through certified partners
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Flodesk
Strengths
- Design-led templates and a simple visual builder
- Free plan with forms, landing pages and segmentation
- Sell directly with checkouts, sales pages and subscriptions on the top plan
Limitations
- Workflow automations require a paid plan
- Advanced analytics and reporting are limited to the higher plans
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
Flodesk
- Free $0 / month No subscriber limit, with forms, landing pages, link in bio, designer templates and audience segmentation.
- Lite $25 / month Up to 25,000 subscribers and 1 seat, with unlimited email sends, workflow automations, forms, landing pages and analytics. $19 / month billed annually. Both figures are for 1,000 subscribers and rise with the list.
- Pro $28 / month Up to 255,000 subscribers and 2 seats, adding unlimited workflows, advanced analytics and reporting and the option to remove Flodesk branding. $25 / month billed annually. Both figures are for 1,000 subscribers and rise with the list.
- Everything $54 / month Up to 255,000 subscribers and 3 seats, adding unlimited integrated checkouts, sales pages and funnels, subscriptions, payment plans and abandoned cart automations. $49 / month billed annually. Both figures are for 1,000 subscribers and rise with the list.
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
Flodesk
- 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
Flodesk https://flodesk.com · checked against the official source on 2026-09-05
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.