Maybe you have heard about Mautic and want to understand a little bit more about the platform, what the benefits of open-source vs. closed source options (such as MailChimp) are, and why you should even consider it compared to other platforms.
If you have read different articles from different websites, you may be a little skeptical about whether they are biased in their opinion or not. Well, at Crafting.email, although we provide Mautic services, we don’t get anything if you start using Mautic, so this is my opinion based on my knowledge and experience with different email marketing platforms.
I will clarify everything using minimal technical language, and I will be brutally honest about every aspect of it. I doubt you will find any article regarding Mautic that takes this approach.
What does it mean that Mautic is open-source?
Open-source, as the name suggests, is software code that is open for everyone to read and modify. Mautic has all of its code available on GitHub, but don’t worry – the users who can modify the official code are very limited and trusted by the community. Although users can report bugs and issues and send their fixes for the code, each contribution is manually validated by the team.
Mautic is not abandonware – the platform is maintained by a group of people, financed by private companies and volunteers who want to showcase their skills and build their portfolios. Open-source is a very intelligent way of doing this.
Why do private companies fund open-source?
Because they make money from it. Companies can sell Mautic as Software as a Service (SaaS), and they can do it freely. For instance, installing and running Mautic properly can be complicated for non-technical users because you need to understand the basics of servers and programming, own a server, and much more. The average marketer or small company doesn’t want to invest time in that and wants an immediate solution. For that audience, Mautic SaaS can be very interesting – just like MailChimp, you don’t need to worry about the software itself, just focus on your email marketing strategies and your business.
Mautic self-hosted vs. Mautic SaaS
It all depends on your situation. If you already have the resources and manpower, owning your Mautic installation may be the right and less expensive approach. Learning how to configure Mautic for the first time can be somewhat chaotic, and you will need to thoroughly read the Mautic documentation. The Mautic forum is always there to help if you have troubles – you may even find your problem already reported and see instructions on how to fix it.
You will also need to consider the security of your server and instance, ensuring you protect your leads’ sensitive data in a safe environment, manage crons, updates, and much more. There is somewhat of a learning curve.
On the other hand, relying on Mautic SaaS solutions from Mautic providers is generally a simpler solution. You don’t need to worry about all those configurations and security concerns. You will also have a specialist team that can assist you if you need help – depending on the host – and it’s the best approach for marketers who want to start right away.
Are Mautic SaaS solutions competitive against closed-source platforms?
In my honest opinion, I haven’t found any Mautic SaaS to be particularly interesting for small businesses compared to platforms like MailChimp, and there’s a reason for that. MailChimp and other big email marketing platforms have very large teams (1,500+ employees) with years of development experience and are always improving at a very fast pace along a smart path. They are very strict about development, and their only focus is to make really good tools and profit from their clients – as a normal company should – based on the tiers that interest you. The more you pay, the more tools you have available.
With Mautic, on the other hand, you have all the tools right from the start without any extra cost. However, Mautic has a much smaller dedicated team, and innovations may take much longer than with closed-source solutions. One area where Mautic is very competent is security and vulnerabilities, as they have an extremely competent team focused on security. Mautic has limited human resources and funds, and every contribution is very meaningful to improving the platform.
Mautic has a big advantage versus closed-source options – the community is actually heard, and you can suggest tools that you want to see developed or small improvements. Suggesting something to those closed-source companies is often pointless – they typically don’t care about individual feedback. The Mautic community has an aura that outshines much larger platforms.
Also, Mautic SaaS providers are usually very active in the project and community, meaning they are always helping to improve the code via contributions, forum assistance, or even design. Closed-source solutions are standardized and easier to maintain due to the size of their development teams. Working for a company that provides Mautic SaaS requires more effort to ensure that each instance is running smoothly and to guarantee good overall performance.
Who is Mautic for?
Mautic is mainly used by medium to large companies around the world, and being open-source is very beneficial for them. Let me explain. Companies typically avoid closed-source solutions due to their artificial limitations on contacts, automations/campaigns, and emails. With Mautic, the only limitation is the server where it’s being hosted. For closed-source platforms, hosting a million leads can easily cost beyond $10,000 per month – a significant expense that doesn’t need to happen if you opt for open-source and self-host or use a Mautic SaaS provider. Although Mautic SaaS providers are more expensive than self-hosting, they are still much cheaper compared to closed-source alternatives.
Additionally, some companies, due to their sector, want very specific automations or features that closed-source platforms simply don’t offer. With Mautic, you can alter the source code to fit company requirements or, even better, create custom plugins. Mautic also offers the option to create forms, landing pages, and emails using a drag-and-drop builder, pop-up messages to incorporate into your website, and SMS marketing capabilities – although you need an SMS provider for this, just as you need an email sending service (SMTP) such as Amazon SES or your own server.
Mautic with custom plugins can indeed be an extremely powerful tool. Banks and government institutions use it precisely because of their strict and very specific requirements that need custom solutions. Mautic also has many integrations and you can use API and Webhooks, which are essential for these institutions.
Is Mautic an option for small companies?
The honest answer is probably not if you have limited resources and don’t have technical knowledge. Closed-source options may be more interesting and cheaper for small businesses. Small companies focus on their business, and dealing with Mautic and all the work behind it is very time-consuming, requiring a developer or technical team to help out or paying a company for monthly support. That gets expensive.
When your company starts to grow and deals with many leads, that’s when closed-source solutions start to become very expensive and Mautic becomes the best solution in the long term. This observation is backed by the clients we have.
Why doesn’t Mautic have a bigger development team?
Although Mautic is mainly used by large companies, many of them don’t financially contribute to the project, though some of their Mautic SaaS providers do. Let’s be honest – some companies even use plugins to hide the fact that they use Mautic, giving it their own name and not being fully transparent about actually using Mautic. The main financial backers of Mautic are the Mautic SaaS providers that have big contracts and find it sensible to financially support the development of tools.
“Who has the money, has the game” – meaning those Mautic SaaS providers have a significant impact on the development path of Mautic tools, which benefits them. Instead of paying for many full-time developers (which is expensive), they financially back the project with substantial funds and influence the direction Mautic follows. Sometimes, tools that could benefit the community remain behind on the priority board. Although some providers have employees dedicating some days per week to the open-source community, it’s usually not full-time (with exceptions, of course).
So we can strongly affirm that these companies indirectly own the Mautic project, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. If they hadn’t backed the project for these years, Mautic would be dead, and these companies would have closed-source Mautic versions significantly different from each other, following their individual strategic plans. These companies are very strategic in terms of the tools they want to have, and to be more competitive against closed-source alternatives, these companies communicate with each other. It’s not a one-man show but a kind of corporate alliance. If Mautic becomes an even more powerful tool, it’s a win-win situation – the entire community benefits (small companies, freelancers, and marketers), and these companies can attract more clients.
It’s worth noting that this business model is nothing new – WordPress and other open-source platforms follow the same model as Mautic.
Is Mautic becoming a better tool?
Yes! Mautic’s progress has been very significant, starting to scare some closed-source companies. It’s so true that you can even find comparisons on some of their websites between their closed-source automation platform and Mautic. If they didn’t feel threatened by Mautic, this wouldn’t happen. Mautic still has a long path ahead, but the tools and improvements are being noticed. Day by day, the community is growing, and new tools are being developed – but it takes time.
The community aspect of Mautic is, in my opinion, one of its best features – people help each other freely in a positive environment that some open-source projects lack. The Mautic forum and Slack channels are examples of this.
If you could contribute as well, that would be very important for Mautic as a whole. Even small contributions that you might think aren’t worth it can be valuable. For instance, I’ve helped Mautic by finding bugs on the platform that I thought were obvious to everyone but weren’t (around 30 so far).
Conclusion
Mautic offers a powerful alternative to closed-source marketing automation platforms, particularly for growing and larger companies with technical resources. While it may not be the best fit for every small business, its flexibility, community support, and lack of artificial limitations make it an increasingly competitive option in the marketing automation landscape.
Whether you choose to self-host or use a SaaS provider, Mautic’s open-source nature provides unique benefits that closed-source platforms simply cannot match. As the platform continues to evolve with community support, its position in the market will only strengthen.
