ActiveCampaign vs. Mautic (open source)

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign is presented as an AI-first marketing platform for marketers, agencies, and entrepreneurs. It uses Active Intelligence for goal-aware automation and personalized experiences across email, SMS, and WhatsApp. ActiveCampaign integrates with 950+ apps and generates insights to optimize every workflow.
$15
per month
Mautic
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Mautic Community Edition is an open source cross-channel campaign management software solution designed to enable users to build email, nurture campaigns, personalize messages, execute A/B tests, and measure results. The open source edition is community supported. Support is available for Acquia Campaign Studio, which is based on Mautic technology acquired by Acquia in May 2019. Acquia Campaign Studio is available on the
$0
Pricing
ActiveCampaignMautic (open source)
Editions & Modules
Starter
$15
per month
Pro
$49
per month
Plus
$79
per month
Enterprise
$159
per month
Mautic Marketing Automation
$0
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignMautic
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaignMautic (open source)
Considered Both Products
ActiveCampaign
Chose ActiveCampaign
much more user friendly than these other alternatives.
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign feels like the professional, empowered and much more fully set up version of MailChimp. I was using MailChimp when I first started my business, but was then introduced to AC, and it's a million times better.
Chose ActiveCampaign
I used Mautic/Acquia for 4 years. It was more expensive for less features than ActiveCampaign. Also, I find ActiveCampaign is more intuitive and easier to use. The support system is more helpful. The pages are easy to navigate and the menu and submenus are well laid out. …
Chose ActiveCampaign
MailChimp, Mailer Lite, Constant Contact: ActiveCampaign is much better and much more versatile with automations, tags, and options for customizable lists and forms.
Chose ActiveCampaign
Mailchimp is in a different league to the above platforms.
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign has much better segmenting and more powerful automations, contact info, and integrations with other platforms.
Chose ActiveCampaign
In my opinion, ActiveCampaign is wayyyy easier to use than MailChimp. It's easier to choose your lists and to resend to unopens.
Chose ActiveCampaign
Salesforce is a beast! The learning involved to use the system is prohibitive. Mailerlite is limited in functionality but ConvertKit is a solid alternative. Both are easy to use but clunky to navigate, while ActiveCampaign is logical. Mailchimp is great for small businesses …
Chose ActiveCampaign
You'll be able to accomplish everything you need to with ActiveCampaign. A lot of these platforms distinguish themselves with bells and whistles. If a certain 'luxury' is important to you, then go with the platform that offers it. Generally speaking, they can all get the job …
Chose ActiveCampaign
It's simply intuitive! You know what to do and what you can do by just looking at it. So it goes very fast into a natural usage where You don't need to think too long. You can execute faster and build amazing funnels, because the functions are so easy and come with a great …
Chose ActiveCampaign
We selected Active Campaign several years ago due to its competitive cost and ability to integrate well with other software that we were using. With recent pricing changes, however, we will likely be shopping for alternatives.
Chose ActiveCampaign
In my opinion, not easy to use. Very limited in regards with features. I think the forms you integrate in webpages are ugly and not fully customizable. for almost the same price I have more features with ActiveCampaign.

I feel more confortable using ActiveCampaign since it is …
Chose ActiveCampaign
The level of sophistication and detail of the automations and segmentation is much higher with ActiveCampaign vs. Mailchimp resulting in much more targeted campaigns. Also, the user experience is so much more intuitive and easier to navigate with ActiveCampaign.
Chose ActiveCampaign
Clear winner on all fronts over most products, excluding HighLevel.
Chose ActiveCampaign
I don't like MailerLite and Flodesk because they only offer segments, no tags. I like to add many tags to my contacts depending on the products they purchase, and this gets too cluttered when there's only segments. They also don't have clear insights on the home page of people …
Chose ActiveCampaign
I used to use the free version of Mailchimp, but it did not allow me to construct automated email marketing campaigns the way I wanted to do it. So I decided to migrate all my list to ActiveCampaign. The migration process was easy enough. I am happy I did it.
Chose ActiveCampaign
The really big difference between ActiveCampaign the the competition, is the power of the automation that you can get with AC.
Chose ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign focuses much more on automation and email marketing. It also has highly advanced customization in both marketing campaigns and contacts, allowing them to tag and send content based on the interaction that the contact has had. ActiveCampaign offers custom email, …
Mautic
Chose Mautic
Salesforce and Dynamics may be fine if you can afford them, but don't offer much more than what you get from Mautic, for free and with total control and longer term active development.

SugarCRM ended development and maintenance of their Community Edition around 2018. The …
Chose Mautic
Infusionsoft, at the time I tested it, had a crazy editor--very unintuitive and not very clean. Mautic (open source) makes it much easier to build up campaigns. Besides that, it didn't provide what we needed to justify the lack of possibility to self-host it and the requirement …
Chose Mautic
We had originally tested Mailchimp and Sendy, but they are best used as bulk email marketing tools. Where Mautic really shines is as a full-service contact resource center, so you can do full contact list management, as-complicated-as-you want drip campaigns, all still while …
Chose Mautic
I have used Acton Marketing Automation and Mautic is very comparable to it. Acton is very pricey for a small business and Mautic offers many of the same features. Acton does, however, have support that will setup your system for you. Mautic does not have that if you are setting …
Chose Mautic
Well, it's like the same tool, but with different features. Overall, it is a friendly tool, easy to use, reliable, and it protects private information. We love it as I said before, we recommend it. It's a great asset. Mautic has all you need for your marketing needs.
Chose Mautic
Mautic is the new kid on the block, bred from an open source product, we chose to purchase the hosted/supported version. I felt like it stacked up very well against Act-On and even Pardot. I like their data API push and pull with Salesforce - very quick, and the queue was …
Chose Mautic
Mautic's competitive advantage is cost. Other solutions can be prohibitively expensive, and some other marketing automation solutions I had used required costly up-front investment for onboarding. I chose Mautic because I had grown weary of the aggressive sales tactics and …
Features
ActiveCampaignMautic (open source)
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.3
Ratings
4% below category average
Mautic (open source)
8.6
Ratings
13% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor5.30 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Dynamic content4.30 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content4.30 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Landing pages4.70 Ratings9.50 Ratings
A/B testing9.90 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.80 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.70 Ratings8.50 Ratings
List management9.90 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences10.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.0
Ratings
2% above category average
Mautic (open source)
8.4
Ratings
7% above category average
Lead nurturing automation9.90 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading7.70 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Data quality management7.90 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.10 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.9
Ratings
29% above category average
Mautic (open source)
8.6
Ratings
15% above category average
Calendaring9.80 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.90 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
6.8
Ratings
10% below category average
Mautic (open source)
7.5
Ratings
0% below category average
Social sharing and campaigns7.20 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Social profile integration6.40 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
6.6
Ratings
10% below category average
Mautic (open source)
8.9
Ratings
20% above category average
Dashboards6.60 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Standard reports6.60 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Custom reports6.60 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.8
Ratings
16% above category average
Mautic (open source)
6.0
Ratings
22% below category average
API8.40 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.40 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Customizability6.70 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.80 Ratings4.60 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.90 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.90 Ratings4.00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCampaignMautic (open source)
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.9 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
ActiveCampaignMautic (open source)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaignMautic (open source)
Likelihood to Recommend
I've been using ActiveCampaign since around 2018-2019 and I've always been satisfied with the software. It's simple to use, connects with the other tools I use and makes it easy for me to duplicate automations, email templates and workflows as I need to. On top of that, any time I've had an issue (which I think is around twice in the past 5/6 years), the customer service has always been super helpful and my issue has been resolved quickly.
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Mautic is well suited for users who do not require a lot of maintenance on the technical areas and have only the general requirements of the email marketing sector. In case the users have more precise requirements and are more focussed on the quality and a proper quantitative analysis, Mautic would not be an ideal choice. In other words for small companies Mautic would be an idea choice where the budget is a constraint and the extent of use is low but in cases where budget is not really a constraint against the performance and quality, Mautic would not be an ideal choice.
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Pros
  • The graphic design is very good, especially fonts, colours and templates
  • Flexibility of design and functionality
  • Takes a little while to learn it, but generally user-friendly
  • Looks very professional but doesn't cost much to get started
  • There are masses of integrations for ActiveCampaign, and the ones I tried all worked well and didn't take long to figure out.
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  • Mautic is very good at the tagging system.
  • Mautic is very good at tracking website visitors. Visitors are first marked as unknown, however, once you get a signup Mautic automatically updates their profile.
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Cons
  • The email designing part could be easier to use. There are certain simple shortcuts that don't work, for example, adding links is more complicated than it should be, moving blocks around is hard, etc.
  • There's no good way to filter by 'active' and 'inactive' subscribers when editing en-mass.
  • I'd like more reporting data on one page.
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  • Reporting can be very misleading sometimes, but you just need to get the hang of it
  • When emailing, you need to know the exact time zone the server is set on, because it may not send the task when you think it would.
  • We think it may have more room to add more templates, the one the platform has turned boring over time— I think it would be an interesting update.
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Likelihood to Renew
I am committed at the moment. Rebuilding the automations I have would be a huge time drain. Plus the cost of learning a new system and the risk to deliverability of porting a 6,000 person list to a new platform. Also, AC offers everything I need ast a reasonable (but a little high) price. So, why not a 10? Because, early 2023, AC dropped a massive 2x price hike on long-term customers. They knew few would shift, so this feels like a cynical cash grab and left a bad taste, If they do something like this again, this camel will have a broken back.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
ActiveCampaign has been the easiest marketing automation software we have ever used. They provide tips throughout the entire process of anything you are building. Their support team through LIVE CHAT has been extremely fast and helpful. The monthly meetings provided with the enablement team has helped us through several large and urgent needs.
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
I haven't experienced application errors or unplanned outages at all. Active Campaign is ultra reliable and I would not be using them if that were the case. Also, the helpful emails they send are welcomed and informative, and present very practical tips and guidance for using the platform. They're always demonstrating new features and I'm thankful for that.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Oh my gosh, Active Campaign's performance gets an A+++ in my book. The pages load quickly and so do the reports. I haven't noticed any slowdowns when it's integrating with other programs and it performs excellently on all levels.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
This might be the best part. The chat support lady offered to make a video to help me solve my problem. I worked in customer service for years and I've never done that, lol. So, if they're offering things like that, I can only imagine that they'd be able to handle most any issue you throw at them.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Very satisfied with our implementation in our professional medical practice, allowing us to be on top of client service, and not miss out on crucial information and insights. Marketing is often neglected in professional practices and ActiveCampaign solved this problem with aplomb.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
I transitioned from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign because it was so much more user friendly and allowed me to do a lot more in regards to lead magnets than Mailchimp can. For example, ActiveCampaign allows users to sign up for a lead magnet as many times as they like to keep receiving it (in case they've lost or deleted the email with access to the lead magnet). Mailchimp was unable to do this. And the categorization of users and the trigger email sequencing was a lot easier in ActiveCampaign.
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Salesforce and Dynamics may be fine if you can afford them, but don't offer much more than what you get from Mautic, for free and with total control and longer term active development. SugarCRM ended development and maintenance of their Community Edition around 2018. The long-term roadmaps for free versions of SugarCRM or its forks were very unclear
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Scalability
My web designer told me about Active Campaign and although I don't recall which platform I had before, I LOVE Active Campaign and its user friendliness. The transition was seamless and I've never had a problem with functionality or server failure.
Active Campaign provides so many features, and makes it easy for non-techies to maneuver around the site with ease. They capture information and put it in an easy-to-read format.
At this point, I don't think I'd ever use any other platform!
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Automations free up time - once set up, email campaigns execute in seconds
  • Emailing my newsletter is a second touch-point for my clients
  • The flat rate for my subscription means that I reach my clients and prospects for fractions of a cent each month
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  • Automating interactions with clients in an early funnel stage
  • Focusing your sales team on the best qualified leads
  • Influencing purchase decisions along the customer journey
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ScreenShots

ActiveCampaign Screenshots

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