HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Mautic: which fits your marketing team
If your HubSpot Marketing Hub renewal has pushed the bill up because your marketing contact count grew, or a data residency rule now requires marketing records to sit on servers you control, the decision turns on two things: how tightly marketing must stay coupled to your CRM, and whether your team can run Mautic's operations. HubSpot Marketing Hub fits best when marketing and sales share one hosted CRM, the team is small, and nobody wants to run servers. Its forms, email, landing pages, workflows and reporting sit next to contacts, companies and deals, and the vendor runs the platform. The cost moves with the marketing contact tier, and only contacts set as marketing contacts count toward that tier, so audit that setting before you assume growth is the cause.
Mautic fits best when contact growth makes tier billing costly, when data control is a requirement, or when you have people or a partner to run it. Mautic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and is free to self-host on your own database, so the software cost does not scale with contacts. The trade is operations. Mautic needs a server that is not shared hosting, scheduled cron jobs for segment updates, campaign updates and triggers, a broadcasts command, and a messenger consumer when email is queued. Someone must patch the platform within the supported release lines, and you must pick and operate a sending provider. Before committing, confirm the current Mautic releases support dates and the requirements for your target version.
The decision turns on three questions. First, how much of your sales process depends on the HubSpot CRM, because a move that also replaces the CRM is a much larger project than one that only replaces campaigns. Second, whether you have staff or a partner who can own cron, mail infrastructure, upgrades and backups for the life of the platform. Third, your sending volume and contact growth over the next few years, which determines whether the tier savings outweigh your hosting and operations effort. Ask HubSpot for a quote against your actual marketing contact count, and price the Mautic side from your own infrastructure and staffing plan before deciding.
Which option fits which scenario
This table matches common buying situations to the platform that usually fits better, with the reason tied to how each product is billed and where it runs. Read each row against your own contact count, IT capacity and residency rules, then check the fit with a written scope before deciding.
| Scenario | Better fit | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Sales and marketing share one CRM | HubSpot Marketing Hub | Marketing, sales and service records sit in one native CRM, so there is no sync layer to build or maintain. |
| Marketing-only team with a small IT team | HubSpot Marketing Hub | Mautic needs a server, cron jobs, a queue consumer and upgrades on a schedule, which a small team must staff or outsource. |
| Large contact base where tier billing is a concern | Mautic | HubSpot bills by marketing contact tier, while self-hosted Mautic has no contact-tier fee; your costs shift to hosting, sending and upkeep. |
| Strict data residency or sovereignty rules | Mautic | Data stays in infrastructure you choose, but confirm the email sending provider and any third-party services against your policy. |
| Existing Salesforce CRM | Mautic | Mautic documents a Salesforce plugin, so campaigns can run beside the CRM you already operate. Confirm plugin version and sync scope first. |
| Existing HubSpot CRM and no plan to leave it | HubSpot Marketing Hub | Keeping marketing in HubSpot avoids a two-system integration, though a Mautic and HubSpot pairing is possible with its HubSpot plugin. |
| Frequent use of a CRM export or API for analytics | Mautic | You control database access and reporting, while HubSpot limits exports per day, so bulk data work is easier on your own server. |
| Small contact base with limited marketing automation needs | HubSpot Marketing Hub | The bundled tooling may cost less overall than hosting and maintaining Mautic, so request a written cost comparison first. |
Where marketing data lives and who controls it
HubSpot Marketing Hub is a vendor-hosted service. HubSpot operates the application, the database and the infrastructure, and your organization accesses it through a browser and APIs under HubSpot's terms. Mautic is software you install yourself on a VPS or dedicated server in your own cloud account or data center, backed by your own MySQL or MariaDB database. The Mautic project states that it should not be installed on shared hosting and recommends a VPS or dedicated server instead, so the hosting decision is a real infrastructure commitment, not a free upgrade of a plugin.
- Operator: HubSpot runs the platform. With Mautic, your team or a chosen implementation partner runs the operating system, web server, PHP, database and cron jobs.
- Application access: HubSpot controls release timing. Mautic's stated cadence is monthly patch releases, minor releases every three months and major releases every two years, and you schedule the upgrades.
- Dependencies you own: Mautic relies on cron jobs for segment and campaign updates and on a messenger consumer when email is queued, so a stopped process stops marketing work.
- Hosting constraints: Mautic 7.0 requires PHP 8.2 to 8.5 and MySQL 5.7 or higher with InnoDB or MariaDB 10.2 or higher, so the platform must meet those versions.
- Cost location: HubSpot charges by subscription and contact tier. Mautic moves the cost to hosting, staff time and support.
Confirm with HubSpot which regional data center hosts your account and which subprocessors it uses, and confirm with your team which system owns each duty above before you compare the two models.
With HubSpot, contact, company and activity records sit in HubSpot's environment, and your records leave that environment only through exports or API calls. With Mautic, the contact database, uploaded files, logs and tracking data reside wherever you deploy them. That gives you direct control over location, but it also means you must document every copy, including database replicas, file storage, mail relays and log shipping.
- Primary store: Mautic keeps contacts and campaign data in your own database, so the data location is the location you choose for that server.
- Email path: Mautic sends mail through a provider or relay you configure. The sending provider holds delivery data, so its location and terms belong in your data map.
- Backups: Copies made by your backup tooling are data too. Their location and retention must match the primary store.
- Integrations: HubSpot and Salesforce connectors sync records outward. Each sync creates a second copy of the synced fields in the other system.
- Logs and tracking: Web server logs and tracking pixels can contain personal data, so include them in the inventory.
Ask HubSpot to confirm in writing where your account data is stored and which regions its support staff can access it from. Build your own data inventory for Mautic before you choose a host.
HubSpot manages user accounts, roles and permissions inside its own admin console, and HubSpot staff access is governed by HubSpot's internal controls. With Mautic, you control the operating system accounts, database accounts, the application's user roles and the network paths to the admin interface. Access control then becomes your responsibility from the first server login to the last user removal.
- Administrative access: Restrict SSH, database and cron access to named administrators, and keep the Mautic admin interface off the open internet where your policy requires it.
- Application roles: Set user roles in Mautic to limit who can export contacts, edit segments or send campaigns.
- Authentication: Mautic supports its own login and authentication options documented for the version you run, so confirm how multi-factor authentication and single sign-on are configured for your release.
- Secrets: Database passwords, mail credentials and API keys live in configuration you manage, so store them in a dedicated secrets manager.
- Leaver process: Revoking a Mautic user does not remove access held through server or database accounts, so remove those too.
Confirm the exact authentication options for your Mautic version in the authentication documentation before you write your access policy.
HubSpot holds the operational copy of your marketing data and its backup and recovery arrangements are part of its service. Ask HubSpot for its documented recovery objectives and backup approach, and for how customers can export their own copies. With Mautic, backup and recovery are your job. The application, the database and uploaded files all need a tested restore path, and the cron jobs and queue workers need to resume correctly after a restore.
- Scope: Back up the database, the Mautic file tree and configuration files, and the server settings needed to rebuild the host.
- Consistency: Take database and file backups at matching points, or restores can produce broken segments and campaign states.
- Testing: Restore to a separate environment on a schedule and record the results.
- Retention: Set retention to match your data policy, and remove deleted contacts from backups according to the process you document.
- Continuity: Document how the system is brought back after a host failure, including DNS, certificates and the mail sending path.
Decide whether HubSpot's documented recovery approach meets your own targets, and set those targets yourself for Mautic before go-live.
Whatever hosting model you choose, the evidence your auditors or regulators request must come from your own records or from the vendor's documentation. With HubSpot, you rely on HubSpot's own assurance materials and on your configuration evidence. With Mautic, you must produce the controls evidence yourself for the systems you operate. DeployOpen prepares systems, controls and evidence for compliance assessments, but it does not issue audit reports, attestations or certifications. Independent auditors and certification bodies perform those tasks.
- Configuration records: Keep infrastructure definitions, hardening baselines, patch history and change records for the Mautic host.
- Access evidence: Keep reviews of administrator accounts, role assignments and login logs.
- Data processing records: Maintain the data inventory, retention rules and deletion logs that show how personal data is handled.
- Backup evidence: Keep restore test results and schedules.
- Vendor evidence: Collect HubSpot's assurance documentation and your subprocessor agreements, and file the email provider's terms with your records.
Ask your compliance lead which control framework and assessment applies to marketing data, and ask your auditor which evidence they expect before you design the Mautic environment.
What running Mautic adds to your operations
Choosing Mautic over HubSpot Marketing Hub means taking on a self-hosted application stack that your team, or an implementation partner, must run continuously. Mautic is written in PHP on the Symfony framework and requires PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 or 8.5 for version 7.0, MySQL 5.7 or higher with InnoDB or MariaDB 10.2 or higher, and a web server such as Apache, Nginx or IIS. From version 5.0 onward, npm is also required on the server. The project advises against shared hosting and recommends a VPS or dedicated server, so the hosting line item is a real infrastructure decision, not a small add-on. Confirm the exact PHP and database versions against the Mautic requirements page before you size servers.
Mautic also depends on scheduled and background processes. Cron jobs drive segment updates, campaign updates and campaign triggers, and the project recommends staggering them so they do not collide. A broadcasts command handles segment emails, and a messenger consumer must run whenever email is queued. If any of these stops, contacts stop moving through campaigns without an obvious error in the user interface, so your team needs monitoring and an on-call owner for these jobs. Mautic's cron jobs documentation lists each job and its expected schedule, which is the right checklist for your runbook.
Release planning is the recurring cost most teams underestimate. Mautic's stated cadence is monthly patch releases, minor releases every three months and major releases every two years. Mautic 7.2 (Absolunto) receives active and security support until 30 September 2026, and Mautic 7.3 is planned as the long-term support release with security support through 31 December 2027. Mautic 6.0 (Tabit) receives security support until 30 September 2026, and Mautic 5.2 (Capella) until 30 June 2026. Your staff must own the upgrade calendar, test campaigns after each upgrade, keep PHP and database versions within the supported range, and apply security patches. Ask any implementation partner to state in writing who performs patching, how staging is used and what happens when a release leaves support.
Cost components that drive the total on each side
The total cost of HubSpot Marketing Hub and self-hosted Mautic is made of different components, and only some of them are priced per contact. Read each card as a line item to request in writing, with its one-time or recurring nature and the factors that move it.
HubSpot subscription by edition and tier
HubSpot bills Marketing Hub by edition, seats and marketing contact tier. Only contacts set as marketing contacts count toward the tier and affect subscription cost, so the number of records in your CRM is not the whole story. Ask the vendor to quote the edition, seat count and tier at your current and projected marketing contact volumes, and to state what happens when a contact moves between marketing and non-marketing status.
Mautic hosting and infrastructure
Mautic is free to download and self-host, so the recurring cost is the server, database and backups you run. The project advises against shared hosting and recommends a VPS or dedicated server instead. Your infrastructure cost scales with contact volume, campaign load and the number of cron-driven jobs, so ask an infrastructure partner to size it from your own growth forecast.
Email sending provider
Neither platform sends mail for free at volume. Whichever you choose, the sending provider bills for messages and sometimes for dedicated IP addresses, and that cost recurs with send volume rather than contact count alone. Compare how each platform charges for sends today, then confirm with your chosen provider how they price bounces, suppression lists and any minimum monthly commitment.
Upkeep, upgrades and support
On Mautic, someone must apply monthly patch releases, plan minor releases every three months and handle major upgrades, which the project schedules every two years. You can staff this internally or buy it as a retainer for ongoing support and upgrades. Check which Mautic release line you will run and its support end date before you commit, because that date sets your upgrade schedule.
One-time migration and integration effort
Moving from HubSpot is a one-time cost covering contact and list exports, rebuilding workflows, forms, emails and landing pages, reconnecting tracking, and deciding whether HubSpot CRM stays. Fixed-scope work agreed in writing gives you a defined figure to compare against years of subscription fees. Ask for the scope to list each workflow, form and integration separately, and state which items your team will own after go-live.
How a move from HubSpot Marketing Hub to Mautic unfolds
The sequence turns HubSpot-held contacts, consent and campaign assets into a Mautic instance that your team runs, with HubSpot kept running until the new setup has proven itself.
Scope the data and workflows that move
Your team, with marketing operations and a DeployOpen architect if you engage one, lists which contacts, lists, forms, emails, landing pages, workflows and reports must exist after the move, and which can be retired. Consent status and suppression lists are scoped first because they determine who may be contacted at all. The output is a written inventory with an owner for each item and a decision on whether HubSpot CRM stays as the sales system of record.
Export contacts, lists and related records
Export contact and list data from HubSpot as CSV or XLSX files. HubSpot limits record exports to 300 per rolling 24 hours, so plan the export sequence around that cap and confirm current limits in HubSpot's knowledge base. Records and associations that exports miss, such as some engagement history or custom object relationships, are pulled through the CRM Contacts API, which supports batch requests of up to 100 records. The check is a reconciled record count per object and a sample of records compared field by field against HubSpot.
Decide how HubSpot CRM and Mautic stay in sync
If sales keeps HubSpot CRM, Mautic's HubSpot plugin is configured to share contacts and companies between the two systems, and you confirm which system owns each field. If the CRM is also leaving, this step is replaced by a one-time load into the new CRM. Mautic's Salesforce plugin is documented for teams that use Salesforce instead. The output is a field ownership map and a tested sync that you can reverse.
Import contacts into Mautic
Load the cleaned contact files into Mautic through the web interface for smaller files, or through the mautic:import console command run by cron for large files, which processes rows in batches of 100 by default. Columns are mapped to Mautic fields, and imported segments are checked against the source counts. Consent and do-not-contact flags are imported before any campaign is enabled. The check is that imported counts, consent flags and segment membership match the reconciled inventory from the first two steps.
Rebuild forms, emails, landing pages and workflows
Recreate forms, email templates, landing pages, segments and campaigns in Mautic, then test each one with internal recipients. Mautic campaigns depend on scheduled jobs for segment updates, campaign updates and triggers, and on a messenger consumer when email is queued, so these are set up and monitored before go-live. Workflows that depended on HubSpot-specific features are written down and redesigned rather than copied one to one. The output is a test log per asset with the issues found and fixed.
Reconnect tracking on your websites
Replace HubSpot tracking scripts and form embeds on your sites with the Mautic tracking code and forms, and confirm that page visits, form submissions and campaign links are attributed to the right contacts. Redirects and tracked links in existing emails are reviewed so that old links keep working. The check is a set of test visits and submissions that appear on the correct Mautic contact records.
Run both systems in parallel
For a defined period agreed in advance, sends and forms run in both systems so you can compare deliverability, reporting and contact counts. Teams usually restrict parallel sends to a subset of contacts to limit risk. Differences in reports are logged and explained, because Mautic and HubSpot define opens, clicks and attribution differently. The output is a signed-off comparison that shows the new setup behaves as expected.
Cut over and retire HubSpot marketing use
Marketing sends move fully to Mautic, the HubSpot marketing subscription is reduced or cancelled according to the contract terms, and HubSpot data is kept under your retention policy for the agreed period. Mautic's maintenance cadence is adopted at this point, including monthly patch releases and the supported version window. The closing check is a documented runbook, backup verification and an owner for upgrades, with a dated record of the cutover decision.
Questions buyers ask before choosing Mautic or HubSpot
How much effort does a migration from HubSpot Marketing Hub to Mautic take?
The effort depends on how much you move and how much you rebuild, so there is no single duration that fits every team. The main drivers are the number of contacts and lists to export, whether HubSpot CRM stays in place, how many workflows, forms, emails and landing pages you rebuild, and how many websites need tracking reconnected. HubSpot exports records as CSV, XLS or XLSX files sent by email link, with up to 300 exports per rolling 24 hours, so large or repeated exports add time. Mautic imports CSV files with automatic column mapping and recommends background imports through the mautic:import console command for large files, processed in batches of 100 rows by default. Ask any implementation partner for a written scope that lists each object and campaign asset before agreeing on a timeline.
Can a small team run Mautic itself without a dedicated administrator?
A small team can run Mautic, but someone must own it as a service. Mautic is a PHP application on the Symfony framework that needs a web server, a database and scheduled jobs. The project says it should not be installed on shared hosting and recommends a VPS or dedicated server instead. Mautic also depends on cron jobs for segment updates, campaign updates and campaign triggers, plus a broadcasts command for segment emails and a messenger consumer when emails are queued. If those jobs stop, campaigns silently stop running. Operations also include applying the monthly patch releases and moving to supported minor or major versions before security support ends. Most small teams either assign one technically capable owner or retain an operations partner for upgrades and monitoring.
What skills and time does our marketing and IT staff need?
Marketing staff need to rebuild campaigns, segments and forms in Mautic's interface, which is a learning curve but not a programming task. IT or platform staff need Linux administration, PHP and database basics, web server configuration, TLS certificates, backups and cron management. Someone must also handle the email sending setup, including sending domain authentication and bounce handling, which Mautic does not provide on its own. Ask for a written handover that names who operates the cron jobs, who applies releases and who answers deliverability questions. Time spent on these roles recurs every month, so include it in your internal cost estimate alongside the one-time migration work.
Can we keep HubSpot CRM after moving marketing to Mautic?
Yes, many teams keep HubSpot CRM for sales and move only marketing campaigns, forms and emails to Mautic. Mautic documents a HubSpot plugin for this setup, so contacts and companies can sync between the two systems. Decide first which system is the source of truth for each contact field, because two-way sync creates conflicts when the same record changes in both places. The HubSpot CRM Contacts API supports reading, creating, updating and upserting contacts, with batch endpoints limited to 100 records per request, which affects how long an initial sync takes. Confirm the plugin's current configuration steps in Mautic's documentation for your version before you plan the sync design.
How do HubSpot contact tiers change after moving to Mautic?
HubSpot bills Marketing Hub by contact tier, and only contacts set as marketing contacts count toward that tier and affect subscription cost. After a move, HubSpot's marketing contact charges stop only if you cancel or downgrade the subscription, and any CRM contacts you keep in HubSpot may still count under its CRM terms. Mautic is not billed by contact count, so your cost moves to hosting, email sending volume, and operations work. Be aware that a sending provider often charges by volume or by contact, so the saving depends on that provider's pricing. Ask HubSpot for a written statement of how your current contacts are classified, and ask your sending provider for its billing model before you compare totals.
Is Mautic free to self-host, and what does that not include?
The Mautic software is free under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version, and the project offers a free self-hosted download. The license does not include hosting, a database, email delivery, the time to install and configure the system, migration, or ongoing support. mautic.org also promotes separately offered managed Mautic and hosting services, which are different commercial arrangements. Your costs are the servers, storage, backups, sending service, staff time, and any partner you hire. Check the release you plan to run against the supported versions list, since Mautic 7.3 is planned as the long-term support release with security support through 31 December 2027.
What should we confirm about sending providers and compliance?
Confirm your sending provider, your data processing terms, and where the mail and contact data are stored before you move any list. Mautic sends through the mail transport you configure, so deliverability, bounce handling, complaint feedback and suppression lists depend on that provider and on your domain setup. Ask your legal or compliance team how consent records, unsubscribe handling and data subject requests will be kept in Mautic, and whether your sending provider's region matches your residency needs. DeployOpen prepares systems, controls and evidence for compliance assessments, but it does not issue audit reports, attestations or certifications; independent auditors and certification bodies do that work.
How DeployOpen helps evaluate and implement the move
DeployOpen is a Chainscore Labs company that plans, implements, integrates, hardens, backs up and documents self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own infrastructure, including your cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. For a move from HubSpot Marketing Hub to Mautic, that means helping you decide which parts of the marketing stack move, which stay on HubSpot CRM or another system, and where Mautic will run. Most engagements are fixed-scope, so the scope, deliverables and timelines are agreed in writing before work starts, and a quote follows from that written scope. DeployOpen does not publish a price list. Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as a retainer after go-live. DeployOpen is not a Mautic partner or reseller, and it does not issue audit reports or certifications. Independent auditors and certification bodies do that work.
A useful first step is a written scope that names the decisions in front of you: how many marketing contacts are actually marketing contacts, which forms, emails, lists and workflows must be rebuilt, whether HubSpot CRM remains the system of record for sales, and who owns the Mautic hosting, cron jobs and mail sending after handover. The same scope should list what the reader must confirm with vendors and their own environment, such as current HubSpot export limits, the Mautic release line they will standardize on, and the PHP and database versions their hosting provider supports. Ask for these items to appear as named deliverables with acceptance criteria rather than as general migration effort.
Implementation work typically covers the Mautic installation and hardening, the database and file backup routine, the cron schedule for segment and campaign updates, the messenger consumer for queued email, and the sending domain setup. Each item carries its own operating cost, and the quote should separate one-time work from recurring items such as hosting, upgrades and support. Ask for a runbook that documents who restarts workers, how upgrades are tested against a copy of production data, and how a failed import is rolled back. Those documents are what your own team will rely on after the project closes.
