Mailchimp or Mautic: which fits your marketing automation needs
If your team sends newsletters from Mailchimp and is now asking whether it also needs campaigns, segments, lead scoring and forms, the decision is less about email and more about what you will operate. Mailchimp fits when the work is newsletter-led: hosted sending, a low administration load, and no appetite for running a server. Someone on the team manages audiences and templates, and the vendor handles infrastructure, uptime and much of the sending path. If your automation needs stop at welcome emails and simple sequences, that trade is often sensible. Mautic fits when marketing automation is the core requirement. It is GPL-3.0 licensed, so you can self-host it on your own database and keep contact data in the jurisdiction you choose, which matters for data residency reviews. Its feature set covers campaigns, segments, lead scoring and forms. The cost of that control is operational: Mautic needs a VPS or dedicated server rather than shared hosting, and it depends on cron jobs for segment and campaign updates, plus a messenger consumer when email is queued. Check the Mautic requirements page for the current PHP, database and web server versions before you size the server.
The decision turns on three questions. First, which features you actually need: list the campaigns, segment logic, scoring rules and forms your team uses today, then check which of them Mailchimp already covers and which would have to be rebuilt in Mautic. Second, who will operate the server: a Mautic instance needs someone who can patch PHP and the database, maintain cron schedules, watch queues and handle upgrades on the release cycle. If that person does not exist in-house, budget for a partner or managed hosting, and ask for both in writing. Third, where contact data may live: if your compliance team requires that subscriber records stay in a specific country or on your own network, self-hosting is the direct route, but it moves delivery, backups and access control onto your side. Confirm these answers with your legal, security and operations leads before you pick a path.
Which option fits your team: Mailchimp or Mautic by scenario
This table matches common team situations to the option that usually fits better and the reason behind it. Read each row against your own audience size, data rules and staffing, then confirm the points marked for checking before you decide.
| Scenario | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletters and announcements only | Mailchimp, or listmonk if you want self-hosting | Mautic adds automation layers you may not use. For newsletters alone, listmonk is the lighter self-hosted option, so compare it with Mailchimp before choosing Mautic. |
| Small team with light automation | Mailchimp for speed, Mautic if you want to own the workflows | Mautic campaigns, segments and forms cover basic nurture sequences, but you will configure and maintain them yourself. Mailchimp is quicker to start if no one on the team wants to run a server. |
| Lead scoring and forms tied to a CRM | Mautic | Mautic provides scoring, forms and campaigns in one self-hosted tool and documents a Salesforce plugin. Confirm the connector you need against your CRM version and the plugin documentation before committing. |
| Data residency or strict data control rules | Mautic or listmonk, self-hosted in your region | Self-hosting keeps contacts, consent records and engagement data in the infrastructure you choose. Confirm where your email provider processes and stores message data, because sending still leaves your servers. |
| No in-house server administration | Mailchimp, or a managed Mautic host | Mautic needs a database, web server, PHP runtime and scheduled jobs kept running. If no one can patch and monitor these, a hosted service or a partner-run deployment reduces that risk. |
| Existing Salesforce or HubSpot CRM as system of record | Mautic, if you accept a sync project | Mautic can run campaigns beside your CRM, but contact and field mapping must be designed and tested. Mailchimp integrations depend on what your current plan and CRM connector support, so check both. |
| Large CSV imports and frequent list updates | Mautic with scheduled imports | Mautic recommends background imports run through a console command on a schedule for large files. Plan staff time for import jobs and error handling, which Mailchimp handles through its interface. |
| Ongoing cost control as contacts grow | Mautic, after you price hosting and email delivery | Mautic has no license fee for the software, but hosting, sending and administration recur. Ask for a written estimate covering all three before comparing against your current Mailchimp invoice. |
Which marketing automation capabilities Mautic covers and where gaps remain
Mautic covers most of the building blocks a Mailchimp team reaches for once newsletters are no longer enough, but each one is configured by your team rather than delivered as a finished product. The cards below set out what to check in a Mailchimp feature review before you assume parity.
Campaigns and journeys
Mautic campaigns are built as visual flows of decisions, actions and wait steps that run against contacts over time. Mailchimp customer journeys and automations map to these, but the trigger types, branching options and wait rules differ, so rebuild each journey rather than copying it. Confirm in your Mailchimp feature review which automations you actually run, including any that rely on e-commerce events or product feeds that Mautic would need separate integrations to receive.
Segments
Mautic segments are filters built from contact fields, tags and behaviour, and they are rebuilt by a scheduled cron job rather than updated live. Teams moving from Mailchimp should list every saved audience and segment condition they use, then test that each one returns the same contact count in Mautic. Pay attention to how segment refresh timing affects campaigns that depend on a contact entering a segment on the same day.
Lead scoring
Mautic provides point-based contact scoring that you configure from actions and triggers on campaigns and forms. This is a different model from the tag and engagement rules many Mailchimp teams use for prioritization, so scoring logic has to be designed again rather than exported. Confirm the scoring rules, decay expectations and the systems that consume scores, since any CRM sync must map the score field correctly before sales teams rely on it.
Forms and landing pages
Mautic forms and landing pages capture contacts, map fields to the contact record and can trigger campaigns on submission. Mailchimp signup forms and embedded sign-up widgets must be recreated and their consent wording reviewed, including double opt-in confirmation where it applies. Check that your hosting, domain and cookie setup meets your data protection requirements, because forms are served from your own server.
CRM integration
Mautic documents a Salesforce plugin and a HubSpot plugin for syncing contacts and activity with those CRMs, and each is configured through its own documentation. Confirm the exact objects, field mappings and sync direction your sales team relies on, and test them in a non-production instance first. Mailchimp's own CRM connectors may cover different objects, so compare them against the integrations your teams actually use.
Contact import and cron
Mautic imports CSV files through the web interface with automatic column to field mapping, which suits small audiences. For large files, the project recommends the mautic:import console command run by cron, which processes rows in batches of 100 by default. Plan the import as a scheduled job, confirm the batch size and cron schedule on your server, and keep consent fields in the file so that imported contacts keep their opt-in status.
Mautic vs Mailchimp capabilities compared
This table sets Mailchimp against Mautic on licensing, hosting, import, segmentation, automation, forms, scoring, CRM connectors and release support. Confirm each Mailchimp cell against the current vendor documentation before you decide, because its feature set changes over time.
| Capability | Mailchimp (hosted SaaS) | Mautic (self-hosted) |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing | Proprietary hosted service. Confirm the current terms with Mailchimp. | GPL-3.0 licensed repository, free to self-host on your own database |
| Hosting model | Vendor-hosted. Data sits in the vendor's environment. | Runs on a VPS or dedicated server you control. Mautic advises against shared hosting. |
| Contact import | CSV upload through the web interface. Confirm file limits and mapping rules in Mailchimp's help center. | CSV import with automatic column mapping. Large files should use the mautic:import console command run by cron, in batches of 100 rows by default. |
| Segmentation | Audience segments and tags. Confirm which conditions are available on your plan. | Segments updated by a scheduled cron job, which the docs say should be staggered with other jobs |
| Automation campaigns | Customer journeys and automations. Confirm current builder features and plan limits with Mailchimp. | Campaigns driven by cron triggers and updates, plus a messenger consumer when emails are queued |
| Forms | Hosted signup forms and landing pages. Confirm embed and consent options with Mailchimp. | Built-in forms in the Mautic interface. Test consent capture and hosting of form assets in your own environment. |
| Lead scoring | Confirm whether scoring is available on your plan, as it is not a standard newsletter feature. | Included in Mautic's automation tooling. Verify scoring rules in the current docs for your version. |
| CRM connectors | Native integrations listed in Mailchimp's integrations directory. Confirm the exact CRM you use. | Documented Salesforce plugin. Check the Mautic plugin docs for HubSpot and other CRM connectors before you plan the migration. |
| Release support | Managed by the vendor. Confirm update and deprecation notices with Mailchimp. | Monthly patch releases, minor releases every three months and major releases every two years. Mautic 7.0 requires PHP 8.2 to 8.5. |
How hosting, data location and compliance differ with each option
Mailchimp is a hosted service where the vendor operates the platform and holds the audience. Self-hosted Mautic moves the database, the server and the administration into your own environment, which changes who answers for data location, access and evidence.
Data location and ownership
Mautic stores contacts, consent records, campaign history and tracking data in the database you provision. Mautic describes itself as free to self-host on your own database so you own your data. You choose the cloud account, data center or private network that holds that database and the mail queue. Ask Mailchimp for the regions where your audience and reports are stored, and map every system a Mautic deployment touches, including the email provider that sends on your behalf.
Hosting model and server scope
Mailchimp is a multi-tenant hosted service that the vendor patches and operates. Mautic needs a server you run, with PHP, a supported database, a web server, cron jobs and a queue consumer. The project advises against shared hosting and recommends a VPS or dedicated server. Your team then owns patching, backups, monitoring and capacity for the web tier and the database, so confirm who holds that on-call duty before cutover.
Identity and access controls
Mailchimp enforces its own user roles and account security settings. Mautic has its own user accounts and roles, and its authentication options determine whether single sign-on or multi-factor authentication is available. Confirm the current options in the Mautic authentication documentation for your release, and check whether your identity provider can federate with it. Also plan how administrator accounts, API credentials and the database user are scoped, rotated and logged.
Compliance evidence and responsibilities
Under a hosted model, the vendor's audit reports cover much of the platform, while your team covers consent, retention and access. With Mautic, the control environment is yours to design and document, including encryption, backups, logging and change control. 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, so ask your auditor which Mailchimp reports you will still need and which controls Mautic must evidence.
What a self-hosted Mautic server needs to run reliably
Before you choose Mautic over Mailchimp, plan the server it will run on. Mautic 7.0 requires PHP 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 or 8.5, MySQL 5.7 or higher with InnoDB or MariaDB 10.2 or higher, and a web server of Apache, Nginx or IIS. npm is also required from Mautic 5.0 onward, so your build pipeline needs it as well. The project states that Mautic should not run on shared hosting and recommends a VPS or dedicated server instead. Confirm these versions against the Mautic requirements page for the release you plan to deploy, because the supported PHP range changes between major versions.
Choose the install method before you build the environment. You can install from the production package using the web installer or the command-line installer, or use Composer with the recommended project template, which the project has recommended since version 4.0. Composer suits teams that manage code in Git and want repeatable deployments, while the production package is simpler for a single administrator. Either way, the installation steps are documented in the Mautic installation guide. Ask your implementation partner or internal platform team which method they will support after go-live, because upgrades depend on it.
Cron jobs are the part of the server most likely to be missed. Mautic relies on cron for segment updates, campaign updates and campaign triggers, and the documentation says these jobs should be staggered so they do not all run at the same moment. Segment emails need the broadcasts command, and queued email needs a messenger consumer running continuously. If any of these is missing, campaigns appear to stall without an obvious error. Check the Mautic cron jobs documentation when you plan the schedule, and monitor job runs and queue depth from the first day of testing.
What a self-hosted Mautic deployment costs in components, and what Mailchimp bills
One-time costs are the work needed before the first campaign runs. Mautic itself is free to download under GPL-3.0, so the spend goes to people and to the setup they perform. Planning covers mapping your current Mailchimp audiences, tags and automations to Mautic contacts, fields, segments and campaigns. Installation and configuration cover the server, the database, the web server, cron scheduling and the email transport. Data import and template or journey rebuilds usually take the most hours, because Mailchimp templates and automations do not move as-is. Integration work covers any link to your CRM or other systems, such as the Salesforce plugin documented by Mautic.
- Planning and discovery: inventory of audiences, consent records, templates, automations and reporting needs.
- Installation and hardening: server build, PHP and database setup, web server configuration and the cron and messenger jobs.
- Data import: CSV import through the interface for small lists, or background imports with the mautic:import console command for large files.
- Rebuilds: templates, forms, segments, campaigns and scoring rules recreated in Mautic.
- Integration: CRM or other system connections, including the Salesforce plugin where it applies.
Ask each party to price these items separately and to state which hours are internal staff time.
Recurring costs continue after launch and often decide the long-term comparison. Mautic requires a VPS or dedicated server, since the project advises against shared hosting. Email sending is a separate service you must buy, because Mautic does not deliver mail on its own. Deliverability work, such as monitoring bounces and complaints and maintaining sender authentication, runs every month. Patching follows Mautic's stated cadence of monthly patch releases, minor releases every three months and major releases every two years, so someone must plan and test each update. Monitoring and backups also recur, along with the staff time needed to keep all of it running.
- Server: a VPS or dedicated machine sized for your database, cron load and queue, billed by your hosting provider.
- Email delivery service: the sending provider you choose, usually billed by volume or contact count.
- Deliverability work: list hygiene, bounce handling, feedback loops and authentication records.
- Patching and monitoring: applying monthly patches and three-monthly minors, watching cron and queue health, and tracking the security support dates for your version.
- Backups and staff time: database and file backups, restore tests and administrator hours.
Cost drivers include contact volume, send frequency, the number of integrations and the support window you need. Ask Mailchimp for its subscription terms and a written quote based on your contact tier and send forecast, and ask each provider for the same forecast in writing.
Most of the total depends on a few inputs, and the same inputs affect Mailchimp and a self-hosted deployment in different ways. On Mailchimp, the subscription follows your contact tier and its own terms, so growth in audience size appears directly on the invoice. On Mautic, growth shows up in server capacity, database size and delivery volume, and in the staff time to manage them. Send frequency matters because it drives sending provider charges and queue load. Integrations raise one-time work and ongoing maintenance. Support windows matter because a 24-hour administrator response has a different staffing cost from business-hours coverage.
- Contact volume: audience size drives both the Mailchimp tier and the Mautic server sizing and sending volume.
- Send frequency: more campaigns mean more provider usage, more cron and queue work, and more deliverability checks.
- Automation complexity: scoring and multi-step campaigns increase rebuild effort and database load.
- Integrations: each connected system adds build work and a recurring maintenance item.
- Support window: the hours you need someone available determine whether you use internal staff, an outside partner or both.
Before comparing totals, confirm that each quote covers the same contact count, send volume, feature set and support hours.
What a move from Mailchimp to Mautic involves, step by step
The sequence moves audiences, consent records, campaigns and forms from Mailchimp into a self-hosted Mautic instance that your team can run, monitor and keep current. It ends with a verified cutover and a retired Mailchimp account.
Inventory audiences, automations and forms
Your marketing lead and an administrator list every Mailchimp audience, tag, segment, customer journey, automation, signup form and landing page that is still in use, and note which ones feed sales or other systems. The exercise is done when each item has an owner and a keep, rebuild or retire decision. Because the export and rebuild depend on how your Mailchimp account is set up, confirm the available export options against Mailchimp's own export documentation before you plan the rest of the work. Ask the vendor or your account owner which consent fields and engagement reports your plan includes.
Confirm consent and opt-in records you can export
Review which consent, opt-in timestamps and source fields the Mailchimp export actually contains for each audience. Compare that list with your legal basis for emailing each group, and record which contacts can be imported with their consent status and which must be re-permissioned before any send. The step is complete when your privacy or legal owner has signed off on a mapping from Mailchimp fields to Mautic contact fields and on the list of contacts who will not be imported. Do not assume that a missing consent field means consent exists.
Provision the server and database
Your platform or infrastructure team provisions a VPS or dedicated server in your environment, since the Mautic project advises against shared hosting, and creates a database that meets the Mautic requirements for your chosen release, including the supported PHP version and MySQL or MariaDB version. Add a web server (Apache, Nginx or IIS), a secure TLS certificate, backups and monitoring. The step is done when a health check passes on a test URL and a database backup and restore have been tested.
Install Mautic on a supported PHP version
An administrator installs Mautic using the production package with the web or command-line installer, or with Composer using the recommended project template, and confirms the PHP version against the requirements for the release you chose. Keep the install under version control, record the release, and note the support end dates published for that release so you can plan upgrades. The step is complete when the administrator can log in, the default settings are saved, and the installed version and PHP version are documented in your runbook.
Import contacts in batches and verify mapping
Import the approved CSV exports into Mautic, using the interface for small files and the mautic:import console command run by cron for large files, which processes rows in batches of 100 by default. Check that columns map to the correct contact fields, that consent and tags carry over, and that duplicates are handled as you intended. The step is done when record counts in Mautic match the source export after excluding rejected rows, and a sample of contacts has been checked by hand against Mailchimp.
Rebuild segments, campaigns and forms
Recreate the audiences as Mautic segments, rebuild the retained automations as campaigns with their triggers, and recreate signup and landing page forms so they post into the correct segments and campaigns. Your marketing operations owner signs off on each rebuilt item against the inventory from the first step. Mautic segment and campaign behavior depends on scheduled jobs, so confirm the rebuild with the cron configuration in the next step. The step is complete when every retained item has a matching Mautic object and an approved test case.
Configure your email provider and cron jobs
Connect Mautic to your transactional or bulk email provider, set sending domains, and add the authentication records your provider requires. Schedule the Mautic cron jobs for segment updates, campaign updates and campaign triggers, staggering them as the documentation advises, and add the broadcasts command and a messenger consumer when emails are queued. The step is done when the scheduled jobs run without errors in the logs and a test message is delivered through the configured provider.
Test sends, deliverability and cut over
Send test campaigns to internal seed addresses across major mailbox providers, review authentication results and bounce handling, and check that unsubscribe and preference links work. Once results are acceptable, switch signup forms and sending to Mautic, keep Mailchimp read-only for a confirmed period, and then export a final archive before retiring the account. The step closes when the team signs off on deliverability, the cutover is logged, and the Mailchimp archive is stored under your retention policy. Confirm the account closure and data deletion steps with Mailchimp before you remove access.
How much work, time and cost does moving to Mautic take
What drives the cost of switching from Mailchimp to Mautic?
The cost of a switch is driven mainly by how much of your marketing automation you rebuild and who does the work. Mautic has no license fee for the software itself, so the spend moves to the components around it: a server or VPS, a database, an email sending service, deliverability work, and the people who install, configure and run the platform. Costs rise with the number of contacts to import, the number of journeys, forms and scoring rules to rebuild, integrations with your CRM, and the amount of template and consent work involved. Ask any provider for a quote that lists these components separately, with what is one-time (installation, data mapping, template rebuilds, testing) and what recurs (hosting, email sending, monitoring, upgrades and support).
Can our team run Mautic without outside help?
A team with Linux server administration, PHP and database experience, and someone who owns marketing operations can run Mautic in-house. The platform needs a web server, a MySQL or MariaDB database, PHP, cron jobs and, when emails are queued, a messenger consumer. The Mautic project states it should not be installed on shared hosting and recommends a VPS or dedicated server. Confirm that you have people for each of these roles, who will handle security patches, and who is on call when a cron job fails. Many organizations split the work: internal staff own the campaigns and data, while an implementation partner handles installation, hardening, integrations and handover.
How long does a Mailchimp to Mautic migration take?
Duration depends on the scope you agree in writing, not on a standard timeline. The main factors are the number of audiences and fields to map, how many campaigns, segments and journeys need rebuilding, whether you have a CRM integration, and how much consent and suppression history must be verified before import. Large CSV imports run as background jobs through the mautic:import console command, processed in batches of 100 rows by default, so file size affects processing time. Ask any provider for a schedule with phases for infrastructure, data migration, rebuild, testing, sending tests and cutover, and identify which phases depend on your decisions rather than on technical work.
What does the work need from our side?
Most of the delay in a migration comes from client decisions, not from software. Name an executive sponsor, a marketing operations owner, a technical owner for hosting and DNS, and a data owner who can sign off on field mapping and consent records. You will need administrator access to your Mailchimp account for exports, access to your email sending domain for SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, and credentials for any CRM or data source. Decide which contacts to import, how to treat unsubscribed and bounced addresses, which campaigns to retire, and who approves each stage before cutover. Record these owners and sign-offs in the scope document before work begins.
How do Mautic release and support dates affect operating effort?
Mautic publishes monthly patch releases, minor releases every three months and major releases every two years, so you must plan regular upgrade work. Mautic 7.2 (Absolunto) supports PHP 8.2 to 8.5 with 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. Choosing a release with a longer support window reduces how often you must upgrade, but each upgrade still needs testing of campaigns, cron jobs and integrations. Check the Mautic releases page for current status before you commit to a version, and budget for upgrades as a recurring activity.
What ongoing work does a self-hosted Mautic instance require?
The recurring work falls into four areas: applying patch and minor releases, keeping cron jobs running, maintaining email sending and deliverability, and backing up the database and files. Cron jobs for segment updates, campaign updates and campaign triggers should be staggered, and a broadcasts command and a messenger consumer also need monitoring. Mautic can be installed from the production package, through Composer using the recommended project template, or from GitHub for development. Ask whether your team or a support retainer will cover monitoring, backups tested by restore, security testing and version upgrades, and agree who responds to an incident.
Should we keep Salesforce or HubSpot integrations during a move to Mautic?
Decide this before scoping, because it changes both cost and risk. Mautic documents a Salesforce plugin configured as described in its knowledge base, and the project offers HubSpot and Salesforce plugin documentation. Integration work covers field mapping, sync direction, duplicate handling and testing with real records in a non-production environment. Confirm the plugin version supports your target Mautic release and your CRM edition, and confirm which system is the source of truth for each field. Integration effort is often the largest variable after data volume, so ask providers to price it as a separate line item.
How DeployOpen helps you evaluate, implement or migrate to Mautic
DeployOpen plans and implements self-hosted Mautic inside your own cloud account, data center or air-gapped network, so your contacts, consent records and campaign data stay under your control. We start with the workflows Mailchimp handles today and the automation you need next, then build, test and document the result in writing before work starts.
How we scope
- We inventory the Mailchimp audiences, tags, automations and forms you plan to move into Mautic.
- The written scope covers hosting target, database, email sending provider, cron schedule and integrations.
- Engagements are fixed-scope, with deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before any build work begins.
How we build
- We install Mautic on a VPS or dedicated server, since the project advises against shared hosting.
- We configure staggered cron jobs for segment updates, campaign triggers and broadcasts, plus the messenger consumer.
- We run CSV contact imports through the background import command, then test campaigns, forms and lead scoring.
How we hand over
- We document the architecture, cron schedule, import procedures and campaign rebuilds for your own operations team.
- We deliver security hardening and backup configuration as written deliverables you can review with your auditors.
- We prepare compliance readiness evidence for consent and data handling, while independent auditors issue any formal assessment.
How we support
- Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing are available as retainers after handover.
- We plan Mautic version upgrades against the project's published release and security support dates.
- Ask us to confirm your PHP, database and web server requirements against the current Mautic release before scoping.
