Open-source alternative to Sitecore Send

Is Mautic a practical open-source alternative to Sitecore Send?

Mautic covers most campaign and automation needs when self-hosted, but you must choose and own the sending service and the deliverability work. That is the core answer for a Sitecore estate where Send is licensed alongside XP or SitecoreAI, whether the trigger is a renewal, a licensing change or a data residency requirement. Mautic is GPL-3.0 licensed and offers a drag-and-drop style of campaign building, segments, campaign triggers and event-driven automation, all running on infrastructure you control. Send's own feature set, including its AI writer, transactional email API and analytics, is a separate product scope, so map each feature you actually use before deciding what Mautic replaces and what needs a different tool.

Sitecore's migration guide states that the SitecoreAI pathway does not migrate email marketing content, so templates, automations and lists must be rebuilt regardless of which platform you choose. Start by exporting your Send inventory: active campaigns, templates, automation flows, suppression lists and consent records. Confirm with Sitecore which of these can be exported in usable form, and record who holds the lawful basis for each contact list before any import. Mautic's list import will carry contacts and tags, but it will not carry your sending reputation or your Send analytics history, so plan to keep the old data for reference.

Mautic does not send mail on its own at production volume in most setups. You need an external SMTP or transactional sending service, a dedicated sending domain, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, and bounce and complaint handling wired back into Mautic. Mautic also depends on cron jobs for segment updates, campaign updates and triggers, plus a broadcasts command and a messenger consumer when emails are queued, so an operations owner must monitor those jobs. Ask your implementation partner and your sending provider to confirm the configuration, warm-up plan and reputation ownership in writing before cutover, because deliverability problems will fall on your team once Send is switched off.

Which Sitecore Send capabilities map to Mautic and where the gaps are

This table maps each Sitecore Send capability to the Mautic feature that covers it, the sending service you need, and the gaps to confirm. Read the coverage column first, since several Send features are built around Sitecore's own product suite and need separate evaluation. Mautic itself is free to self-host, so most of your cost sits in hosting, sending and the work to rebuild templates and automations.

Sitecore Send capability	Mautic equivalent	Sending service and coverage notes
Drag-and-drop email editor	Email builder within campaigns and reusable email templates	Covered for common layouts. Confirm that the builder output renders correctly in the clients your audience uses before migrating templates.
Email templates	Email templates managed in the Mautic asset and email library	Covered. Existing Send templates need to be rebuilt or re-exported as HTML, since no direct template import is documented.
AI writer	No built-in equivalent	Gap. Mautic does not provide an AI copy generator. Any drafting assistant would be a separate tool that your team connects and governs.
Automation triggered by customer actions	Campaign builder with contact, segment and event triggers	Covered in principle. Trigger logic must be rebuilt, and campaign updates and triggers depend on scheduled cron jobs that need staggering.
Transactional email via API	Mautic email API and transactional sending through a configured transport	Partial. Mautic is designed for marketing and lifecycle mail, so confirm API behavior, throughput and separation from bulk sends with your team.
Analytics and reporting	Email statistics, contact activity and campaign reports	Covered at a basic level. Confirm which metrics your reporting needs, such as deliverability or revenue attribution, and plan any gaps.
Sending service	Not included; Mautic sends through a transport you configure	Required from you. Choose an SMTP or API sending provider, and confirm its pricing, volume limits and suppression handling in writing.
Integration with Sitecore Audience	No equivalent connector	Gap to confirm. Sitecore presents Send as integrated with its own products, so audience data must be exported and re-imported by your team.
Integration with Sitecore Insights	No equivalent connector; web analytics handled separately	Gap to confirm. Pair Mautic with a self-hosted analytics tool if you need web behavior data for segmentation.
Integration with Digital Asset Management	Asset library in Mautic, or an external DAM via integration	Partial. Mautic stores assets for email use, but connecting to an enterprise DAM needs confirmation or custom work.

Which open-source option fits which email job

Sitecore Send bundles campaigns, automation and transactional email into one product. Open-source replacements usually split these jobs across tools, so the first decision is which job each tool owns. The cards below cover campaign marketing, newsletters, event journeys and API sending, along with the cost of running more than one tool.

Mautic for campaigns and segments

Mautic is the closest match to Send's campaign builder, with contact segments, scheduled campaigns and triggered automation in one self-hosted application. It is written in PHP on Symfony and licensed under GPL-3.0, so the code and the contact database stay in your environment. Check that your team can operate its cron jobs, since segment updates, campaign triggers and the broadcasts command all depend on them. Confirm which email delivery service you will connect before go-live.

listmonk for newsletters

listmonk suits teams whose email is mostly one-to-many newsletters with subscriber lists and little segmentation logic. It is lighter to run than a full marketing automation suite, which lowers the operating burden for a single editorial team. It does not replace Send's automation triggered by customer actions, so journeys still need another tool. Ask whether the newsletter volume and list sizes fit the hosting you plan to use.

Dittofeed for event-driven journeys

Dittofeed is built for journeys that start from product or customer events, such as a trial starting or an order being placed. It fits teams that already send structured events from their applications and want those events to drive messages. Because it sits beside your CRM and product data, plan the event schema and identity matching before building journeys. Confirm its current licensing and feature set directly with the project, since this page does not cover them.

Transactional API sending service

Password resets, receipts and alerts are sent through an API rather than a campaign, and they need high delivery priority and separate sending domains. Marketing tools are not designed to carry this traffic, so a dedicated transactional sending service is usually kept apart from the campaign stack. Choose the provider, confirm its sending limits and bounce handling, and decide who owns the sending domain and its reputation.

Cost of running several tools

Each added tool brings its own hosting, upgrades, monitoring, backups and access reviews, and the overhead recurs every year. Mautic needs a VPS or dedicated server rather than shared hosting, so each platform has its own infrastructure line. Consolidating onto fewer tools lowers operating work but may leave a job poorly served. Ask your implementation partner for a written split of responsibilities and a single owner for suppression lists across tools.

What running Mautic in your own infrastructure requires

Running Mautic yourself means owning a PHP application stack, a database and a set of scheduled jobs. The Mautic 7.0 requirements page lists PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 or 8.5, MySQL 5.7 or higher with InnoDB or MariaDB 10.2 or higher, and Apache, Nginx or IIS as the web server. Npm is also needed from Mautic 5.0 onward. Confirm these against the release you choose, because the supported PHP range and database versions change between major releases, and check the Mautic requirements page before you size the hosts.

The project states that Mautic should not be installed on shared hosting and recommends a VPS or dedicated server. Plan for a dedicated application host, a separate database service, and an outbound mail path that your security team has approved. Decide early who handles PHP patching, web server hardening and database backups, because these are recurring duties rather than one-time setup. Installation can use the web installer or the command-line installer, or Composer with the recommended project template, which the docs have offered since version 4.0. Pick one method and record it, so upgrades follow the same path.

The cron jobs are the duty most often missed after go-live. Mautic relies on scheduled commands to update segments, update campaigns and fire campaign triggers, and the docs say these should be staggered rather than run at the same moment. Segment emails depend on a broadcasts command, and queued emails depend on a messenger consumer that must keep running. If any of these stops, automation and sends fail quietly, so assign an owner, add monitoring for each job and alerting on the consumer process. Treat this rota, the patch cycle (monthly patch releases, minor releases every three months, major releases every two years) and the security support dates on the Mautic releases page as standing operational work your team owns for as long as Mautic runs.

Which Mautic release line to deploy and when support ends

A new Mautic deployment should be planned around the release line that will still receive fixes for the longest period you can plan for. The supplied release information names Mautic 7.2 as the current line with active and security support until 30 September 2026, and Mautic 7.3 as the planned long-term support release with security support through 31 December 2027. Because 7.3 is described as planned, confirm its status before you commit a build.

Mautic 7.2 (Absolunto): supports PHP 8.2 to 8.5 and receives active and security support until 30 September 2026.
Mautic 7.3 (planned LTS): the intended long-term support line, with security support through 31 December 2027.
Runtime requirements: Mautic 7.0 requires PHP 8.2 to 8.5, MySQL 5.7 or higher with InnoDB or MariaDB 10.2 or higher, and Apache, Nginx or IIS.
Installation method: Composer with the recommended project template is the route that makes later upgrades easier to script.
Cadence: patch releases monthly, minor releases every three months and major releases every two years.

Before go-live, check the Mautic releases page for the current status of 7.3 and any change to these dates.

How to move Send templates, lists and automations into Mautic

This sequence moves your Send campaigns, subscriber lists, templates and automations into a self-hosted Mautic instance in a controlled order, so each piece is verified before the old sends stop. The result is a Mautic environment that carries consent history, sends from a sending service you control, and has been proven side by side with Send.

Confirm what Send exports and inventory assets
Ask Sitecore which export formats Send supports for campaigns, lists, templates, automations and suppression data, and whether consent or opt-in timestamps are included. Your team or DeployOpen then lists every active campaign, list, segment, template, automation and transactional email type, noting its owner and sending frequency. The step is done when you have a written inventory and a written answer from Sitecore on export formats, since the supplied facts do not confirm them.
Export subscriber lists with consent records
Export each list with its subscription status, opt-in source, opt-in and opt-out timestamps, and suppression reasons, not only email addresses. Store the export in an encrypted location within your own environment and keep a checksum of each file. The step is done when record counts per list match the Send dashboard and a sample of consent records has been reviewed by your privacy or legal owner, who decides whether any contacts without clear consent evidence must be excluded before import.
Rebuild templates in Mautic
Recreate each Send template as a Mautic email with the same layout, brand assets, header and footer, and unsubscribe link. Where Send templates depend on its drag-and-drop blocks, rebuild them from the rendered HTML and review the output in several mail clients. The step is done when each template has been sent to internal test addresses and the rendered result, including the unsubscribe and preference links, matches the approved design.
Import contacts and map fields
Create Mautic custom fields that match each Send attribute, then import the lists through Mautic's contact import, mapping the email address as the unique identifier and the consent fields to the matching Mautic fields. Create Mautic segments that reproduce each Send list. The step is done when imported counts reconcile with the exported file, duplicates and invalid addresses are logged, and a sample of contacts shows the correct segment membership and consent values.
Rebuild automations and transactional sends
Rebuild each Send automation as a Mautic campaign with the same entry trigger, wait steps, conditions and exit rules. Map transactional emails called through the Send API to whatever sending path your application will use, since transactional calls are application integrations rather than campaign assets. Confirm that the cron jobs for segment updates, campaign updates and campaign triggers are scheduled and staggered as the documentation describes. The step is done when a test contact moves through each campaign path as designed in a staging instance.
Set up the sending service and authentication
Choose the transactional or bulk sending service that Mautic will send through, then configure its credentials, sending domain, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, and bounce and complaint handling. Confirm that the messenger consumer runs as a service so queued emails are delivered, and that the broadcast command is scheduled for segment emails. Deliverability reputation belongs to your sending domain and provider, so the sending service contract and its terms should be reviewed before go-live. The step is done when test sends pass authentication checks and bounce and complaint events reach Mautic.
Run parallel sends and compare results
For a defined period agreed with your marketing and compliance owners, send the same campaign from both Send and Mautic to separate, controlled segments, or send only to internal and pilot lists from Mautic. Compare delivery, bounce, open, click and unsubscribe figures, and check that suppressed contacts never receive email from Mautic. The step is done when the results are signed off by marketing and the compliance owner, and any gaps in tracking or suppression have been fixed.
Cut over and retire Send sends
Switch all scheduled campaigns and automations to Mautic, disable the Send automations and transactional calls one by one, and keep a read-only export of Send data and reports for your records. Update the unsubscribe and preference links in every outbound path, then confirm that the Send account is no longer sending. The step is done when a final check shows no sends from Send, all suppression data is present in Mautic, and the archive and retention decision for Send data has been documented.

What you take on for deliverability and sending

Send bundles the sending infrastructure, the editor and the reputation work into one product. With Mautic, the editor and automation move to your own servers, but the sending path, domain reputation and list health become decisions your team owns. The cards below cover what to decide, what to set up and what to confirm with your chosen provider.

Choosing a sending service

Mautic sends through a mail transport you configure, so you must pick an SMTP relay or transactional email provider, or run your own mail server. A self-run server gives full control but puts IP reputation, blocklist monitoring and abuse handling on your team. A hosted relay moves much of that work to the provider but adds a recurring fee and a data processing agreement. Ask each provider about shared versus dedicated IPs, sending limits and how they handle suspensions.

Domain authentication setup

Receiving mail servers check whether messages are authorized for the sending domain. Your team must publish SPF and DKIM records for the sending domain and align the From domain with them, and most large mailbox providers now expect a DMARC policy as well. Mautic does not configure these records for you. Confirm the exact record values with your sending provider, and test them before the first campaign leaves the platform.

Bounce and complaint handling

Hard bounces, soft bounces and spam complaints must be processed continuously, or sending reputation degrades quietly. Mautic records bounce and complaint outcomes against contacts when the transport reports them, so confirm that your provider sends the feedback loop data and webhooks Mautic needs. Decide who watches the queue, how long soft bounces are retried, and when a contact is suppressed for good.

List hygiene and consent evidence

Send lets teams import lists and manage subscriptions in one place, but after migration you hold the consent records yourself. Keep a record of when and how each contact opted in, the source of each imported list and every unsubscribe. Remove dormant and invalid addresses on a schedule. Before importing a legacy list, ask whether consent evidence exists for each segment, because contacts without it may need re-permissioning or exclusion.

Warm-up and sending volume

A new sending domain or IP has no reputation, so volume must rise gradually while engagement is watched. Plan the ramp with your provider and avoid sending a large first campaign to an old, unsegmented list. Mautic's cron-driven segment and campaign processing can release sends in batches, so set rate limits in the transport and in Mautic to match the warm-up schedule. Confirm the provider's recommended ramp in writing.

Ongoing ownership and monitoring

Deliverability is a continuing task, not a one-time setup. Assign an owner for reputation monitoring, blocklist checks, authentication record changes and Mautic upgrades, because a stale installation can affect sending. Track inbox placement, complaint rates and bounce trends per campaign, and keep an incident path for when a provider suspends the account. Review these duties during the migration plan so they are not left unassigned after go-live.

Questions buyers ask before replacing Sitecore Send

What drives the cost of replacing Sitecore Send with self-hosted Mautic?

The cost comes from four components: the server or VPS that runs Mautic, the database, the sending service that delivers the mail, and the labor to install, configure, migrate and operate it. Mautic itself has no paid edition of the software, so the software license is not a line item. Infrastructure and sending costs recur every month, while implementation labor is largely one-time. Costs rise with list size, sending volume, the number of templates and automations to rebuild, and the number of integrations you need. Ask any quote to split one-time work from recurring hosting, sending and support, and to name who is paid for each part. DeployOpen does not publish a price list; a quote follows from the written scope.

How long does it take to move from Sitecore Send to Mautic?

The supplied facts do not give a migration duration, so treat any number you hear as unverified until it is tied to a written scope. The timeline depends on how many campaigns, templates, segments and automations must be rebuilt, how clean the existing contact lists are, and how much deliverability setup the sending domain needs. Installation itself is usually the shortest step. Before work starts, confirm with your delivery partner which items are in scope, what acceptance tests apply, and how the cutover will run alongside Sitecore Send.

What does my team need to provide for a Mautic migration?

Your team needs to supply access and decisions that only your organization can make. Typically this includes a hosting environment that meets Mautic's requirements, a database and mail infrastructure owner, a list of active campaigns and automations, the brand templates to rebuild, and a named owner for consent records and suppression lists. Mautic's requirements page states that it should not run on shared hosting and recommends a VPS or dedicated server. Plan for someone to own cron jobs and the messenger consumer after go-live, because Mautic depends on them to update segments, run campaigns and send queued email.

Can our own engineers run a Mautic migration without a partner?

Yes, a capable internal team can install and configure Mautic, but the work needs more than a PHP developer. The installer supports web and command-line routes, and Composer's recommended project template has been available since version 4.0. The harder parts are sending infrastructure, cron scheduling across environments, campaign logic and deliverability ownership. Mautic's cron documentation says the cron jobs should be staggered. Assess your team against those tasks before deciding. A partner can take on a fixed-scope part, such as installation and hardening, while your staff keep the operational knowledge.

Does Mautic include AI email writing and Sitecore integrations?

Mautic does not include a built-in AI writer that matches the AI writer in Sitecore Send, so confirm the gap before you plan around it. Mautic is marketing automation software built on PHP and Symfony, and it offers plugins such as HubSpot and Salesforce connectors, documented in the Mautic plugin docs. The supplied facts do not describe a Sitecore connector, so do not assume one exists. Budget for AI writing to come from a separate tool or from your copywriters, and ask your delivery partner to confirm any integration with Sitecore Audience, Insights or Digital Asset Management in writing before it is promised.

What happens to our email content if we move to SitecoreAI?

Email marketing content does not move automatically. Sitecore's migration guide states that the SitecoreAI pathway does not migrate xDB data, email marketing content or personalization, so these must be rebuilt. In practice, that means exporting or recreating templates, campaign content, segments and automations in the new email platform. Because the rebuild is separate from the CMS move, plan it as its own workstream with its own owner. If you are also replacing the CMS, the email rebuild can be scheduled alongside it rather than as a later step.

Who owns deliverability if we self-host email sending?

Your organization owns deliverability in a self-hosted setup. Mautic sends through the mail transport you configure, so sending domain authentication, IP reputation, bounce handling, complaint processing and unsubscribe handling are your responsibilities. Choosing a sending service is a decision you should make early, because it sets volume limits and reputation controls. Ask any delivery partner to confirm how it will set up authentication, monitor bounces and complaints, and document suppression handling, and ask who keeps those controls running after handover.

Should we ask for a fixed-scope quote before we start?

Yes. Most DeployOpen engagements are fixed-scope, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts. A useful request lists the campaigns, templates, lists, automations, integrations and sending volume in scope, plus the environments and handover tests. Ask for line items that separate hosting setup, migration, sending service, training and any ongoing support or upgrades, which DeployOpen offers as retainers. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, so the quote is the basis for cost comparison.

Keeping Sitecore XP or SitecoreAI running alongside Mautic

The first decision is which system owns each sending decision during the overlap. Keep Sitecore Send sending campaigns until the Mautic instance has been configured, tested and warmed up on its own sending domain, then cut over list by list rather than in one move. Before any cutover, confirm with Sitecore which Send integrations with Audience and Insights and Digital Asset Management you actually depend on, because Sitecore markets these as product integrations and the topic facts do not show a documented equivalent in Mautic. Treat each one as an open item until someone has verified the data flow in your own environment.

On the Sitecore XP or SitecoreAI side, the feeds into Mautic are the events and forms that today trigger Send automation or populate lists. Typical candidates are form submissions, account creation, preference center updates and key page or download events. Mautic accepts contact data through its tracking script, forms and API, and its plugin catalog includes CRM connectors such as HubSpot and Salesforce, so confirm which of these fit your architecture before building custom pushes. Document every event name, the contact fields it carries and the Mautic contact field it maps to, so that duplicates and mismatched fields are visible before traffic goes live.

Identities and consent need the most care. Decide which system is the source of truth for the contact record and its email address, and map the Sitecore identifier to a Mautic contact ID so that a person who opts out in one place is suppressed in the other. Record the consent basis and timestamp as fields that travel with each contact, and have your privacy team sign off on how opt-outs and unsubscribes synchronize in both directions. Mautic's cron jobs must also be running for segment and campaign updates to reflect these changes, so include that in your parallel-run test plan.

How DeployOpen scopes and delivers a Mautic replacement

DeployOpen plans, implements, customizes, integrates, hardens, backs up, upgrades, documents and supports self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For a Sitecore Send replacement, that means a written scope covering the Mautic instance, the sending path, the email content you move across and the operating model your team will run.

How we scope

Inventory every Sitecore Send campaign, template, automation and transactional email flow your teams rely on today.
Confirm the hosting target, PHP and database versions, and whether a VPS or dedicated server fits your environment.
Agree the sending service, sender domains and deliverability ownership in writing before any build work starts.

How we build

Install Mautic from a production package or Composer, then configure the cron jobs, broadcasts command and messenger consumer.
Stagger segment, campaign and trigger cron schedules so heavy runs do not overlap on the same server.
Rebuild templates, list imports and automation flows, and test them against a staging instance before cutover.

How we hand over

Deliver written runbooks for cron monitoring, queue handling, upgrades and restore from backup.
Document the sending configuration, suppression handling and the bounce and complaint processes your team owns.
Walk your operations staff through the admin console, campaign setup and the release calendar before go-live.

How we support

Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as a retainer after handover.
Plan Mautic version moves against published support dates so each upgrade lands inside a supported release.
Ask any quote to cover upgrade effort, sending service changes and periodic review of deliverability metrics.