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Mautic
I have written about this tool before, as we actively use it, and it has been an incredible asset to my team. I believe it’s worth discussing further, especially since many small businesses spend significant amounts on proprietary SaaS tools when, in reality, all they need is to get involved in a community that offers support and collaboration.
This is an open-source marketing automation platform, it by gives you the option to fully own and control your marketing stack, right down to the server level. This is a big deal for businesses that should be concerned about entrusting sensitive customer data to third-party providers, especially with growing concerns about data leaks, compliance, and vendor lock-in.
The open-source (it is released under the GPL v3) point means that all of its source code is publicly available, and anyone can inspect, modify, or even extend the platform to suit their own needs. This is fundamentally different from closed-source SaaS platforms, where you’re limited to whatever features the vendor decides to offer and are often stuck with artificial limits on contacts, emails, or automations unless you pay more. With Mautic, the only real limitation is the capacity of your own server, and you’re free from contracts, SLAs, or sudden changes in terms of service that can happen with SaaS vendors. For companies in industries like finance, government, or healthcare where data sovereignty and compliance are non-negotiable this level of control is what I am talking about.
Lets talk about Features
The platform lets you design complex, multi-step marketing campaigns using a visual drag-and-drop campaign builder. You can automate email sequences, lead nurturing, scoring, and even trigger actions based on user behavior, such as visiting a specific page, submitting a form, or reaching a certain score threshold. This level of automation isn’t just about saving time; it’s about delivering the right message to the right person at the right moment, without manual intervention. Mautic’s automation features now include improved workflow rules, blueprints to guide structured processes, macros for multi-step actions, and assignment rules to distribute leads automatically features that bring it closer to what you’d expect from a full CRM system.
Email Marketing and Campaign Tools
Email marketing is the strongest feature we use here in Japan. The new release brings a more intuitive drag-and-drop email builder, making it easy to create, personalize, and A/B test both marketing and transactional emails. There’s also a new set of campaign analytics, including charts that break down email performance by day of the week and by hour, helping us optimize the send times for maximum engagement. Landing page creation has also been improved, with five new landing page themes and two new form themes, this gives appealing and brand-consistent campaigns.
Forms and Dynamic Content
Forms are another area where we really like Mautic. You can build forms for lead capture, surveys, or event registrations, and embed them on your website, landing pages, or even in pop-up modals. With version 6.0, you can now mark fields as read-only, which is especially useful for things like email addresses where you don’t want users to make changes.
Dynamic web content is a feature that’s been made more accessible in this release. You can generate the code you need to embed personalized content on your website, with improved syntax options and default content handling. This makes it easier to deliver targeted messages to different segments of your audience based on their behavior or profile data.
Reporting and Analytics
Mautic allows you to generate detailed reports on how your focus items like pop-ups or banners are performing, tracking metrics such as page hits, unique hits, and interactions. This data-driven approach helps us refine our strategies.
Data Ownership and Privacy
One of the most important things to us as FOSS advocates is privacy conscious. Unlike SaaS platforms where your data lives on someone else’s servers, with Mautic you can self-host on your own infrastructure, whether that’s on-premises or in a private cloud. This gives you full control over who can access your data, how it’s stored, and how it’s processed. Mautic is designed with the ability to selectively enable or disable tracking across the platform.
Integration and Extensibility
Integrations are another area where Mautic excels. The platform has REST API, making it possible to connect with almost any other system, whether it’s your CRM, ERP, or custom business applications. There are also plenty of built-in integrations for common tools, and the open-source nature means you can always build your own if something is missing.
It’s worth noting that while there are SaaS providers who offer Mautic as a managed service, the real value comes from self-hosting to us. This is especially relevant in Japan, where the SaaS-first mindset can sometimes lead to concerns about trust and privacy. When running Mautic yourself, you’re not dependent on a vendor’s uptime, pricing changes, or shifting privacy policies. You set your own rules, and you’re free to customize the platform as deeply as you need.
Challenges and Areas for Improvement
However, self-hosting does require a certain level of technical expertise. You’ll need to manage your own server, handle updates, ensure security, and maintain backups. But for organizations that already have IT resources, this is a small price to pay for the level of control and flexibility you gain. And if you ever need help, there’s a large and active community around Mautic, as well as professional support options from third parties.(mintarc)
One area where Mautic still has room to grow is in authentication and single sign-on (SSO) support. For example, if you’re using Authelia for SSO, as we do, you might be disappointed to find that Mautic doesn’t currently support OpenID Connect out of the box. This means you can’t easily integrate Mautic with your existing SSO setup, which is a bit of a pain if you’re trying to standardize authentication across your organization.
Overall, Mautic especially 6.0 is a mature, feature rich marketing automation platform that gives you the freedom to run your campaigns on your own terms. Its open-source nature means you’re never locked in, and you have the flexibility to extend or customize it as your needs evolve. The automation capabilities are strong, the data ownership story is on point, and the ongoing focus on privacy makes it a strong choice for organizations that take compliance seriously. Yes, there’s a learning curve to self-hosting, but the benefits in terms of trust, privacy, and control are hard to match especially in a place like Japan, where those concerns are only growing.
Have a look here: https://mautic.org/download/