Keila vs Mautic
Both are alternatives to Mailchimp. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Mautic vs Keila — same comparison, one verdict.
Keila and Mautic are closely matched on ownership (88 vs 84) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
Keila
Simple, privacy-friendly open-source newsletter tool.
Keila is an open-source newsletter application built in Elixir/Phoenix, designed to be a straightforward, privacy-conscious way to send campaigns and manage subscribers. It supports segmentation, templates, a form builder, and sending through providers like Amazon SES, Mailgun, Postmark, or plain SMTP. It is aimed at creators, small organizations, and anyone who wants a clean self-hosted newsletter tool without the complexity of a full marketing-automation suite; a paid managed cloud is also offered by its maintainers for those who prefer not to self-host.
Mautic
Full open-source marketing automation platform.
Mautic is a mature open-source marketing-automation platform (PHP/Symfony) that goes well beyond newsletters, offering contact management, segmentation, visual campaign/journey builders, landing pages, forms, lead scoring, and multi-channel messaging. It is the closest open-source counterpart to Mailchimp's higher tiers for teams that need automation depth, and it sends through your chosen SMTP or transactional provider. It rewards organizations willing to run and maintain a more substantial application in exchange for owning their data and automation stack.
Side by side
10 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| Keila | Mautic | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 88 | 84 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first data | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Pricing | Free / self-host; optional paid managed cloud from the maintainers | Free / self-host; optional paid managed hosting from third parties |
| RAM to run it wellThe figure that actually matters, not the vendor's minimum. | 1–2 GB for Keila and PostgreSQL together. This is an estimate from the 512 MB app limit Cloudron uses plus a small database; Keila publishes no sizing of its own. | 4 GB for a list in the low tens of thousands, 8 GB beyond that. One 4 GB server ran out of memory updating segments at about 50,000 contacts on Mautic 5. |
| Realistic running costWhat the box costs each month if you run it yourself. | $6–12/mo on a 1–2 GB VPS, plus a sending service: Amazon SES is $0.10 per 1,000 emails | $12–48/mo on a 4–8 GB VPS, plus an email service: Amazon SES is $0.10 per 1,000 emails |
| Setup timeHonest first-install estimate, not the marketing quickstart. | An hour with Docker, plus DNS (SPF/DKIM) and sender setup at your email provider | Half a day with Docker Compose; a weekend to get cron, the worker and the sending domain (SPF/DKIM) right |
| Ongoing maintenanceThe part nobody budgets for. | Low. Pull the new image when a release lands (releases came in May, June and September 2026; the project is still pre-1.0) and keep your sender's domain authentication and bounce handling healthy. | Watch the cron jobs and the email worker, prune tracking data, and plan major upgrades. Mautic 7 (January 2026) raised the minimum to PHP 8.2 and MySQL 8.4 or MariaDB 10.11, and removed in-browser updates. |
Keila edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Weighing both against staying on Mailchimp? Is Mailchimp free? What it actually costs →
Keila
Strengths
- +Clean, focused UI that is quick to learn for non-technical senders
- +Bring your own sending provider (SES, Mailgun, Postmark, SMTP)
- +GDPR-conscious design with double opt-in and self-owned subscriber data
- +Docker-based deployment and an optional hosted cloud if you don't want to self-host
Trade-offs
- −Smaller project and community than listmonk or Mautic
- −Fewer advanced automation and reporting features than heavyweight platforms
- −You still handle deliverability and an external sending provider when self-hosting
- −AGPL-3.0 network-copyleft obligations apply to modified network deployments
Mautic
Strengths
- +Closest open-source match to full marketing automation and customer journeys
- +Landing pages, forms, lead scoring, and multi-channel campaigns built in
- +Large, established community and plugin ecosystem
- +Self-hosted, so contacts and automation logic stay on your infrastructure
Trade-offs
- −Heavier PHP/Symfony stack with more moving parts to install and maintain
- −Steeper learning curve than a simple newsletter tool
- −Deliverability and an external sending provider are still your responsibility
- −Ongoing upkeep (updates, cron, queues) is more demanding than a single-binary app
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Keila
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and clean, focused UI that is quick to learn for non-technical senders.
Choose Mautic
if closest open-source match to full marketing automation and customer journeys.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — smaller project and community than listmonk or Mautic, and heavier PHP/Symfony stack with more moving parts to install and maintain. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
What it takes to run these yourself
Real requirements and honest running costs, not the vendor quickstart.
Self-hosting Keila
1–2 GB for Keila and PostgreSQL together. This is an estimate from the 512 MB app limit Cloudron uses plus a small database; Keila publishes no sizing of its own. RAM · An hour with Docker, plus DNS (SPF/DKIM) and sender setup at your email provider
$6–12/mo on a 1–2 GB VPS, plus a sending service: Amazon SES is $0.10 per 1,000 emails
Self-hosting Mautic
4 GB for a list in the low tens of thousands, 8 GB beyond that. One 4 GB server ran out of memory updating segments at about 50,000 contacts on Mautic 5. RAM · Half a day with Docker Compose; a weekend to get cron, the worker and the sending domain (SPF/DKIM) right
$12–48/mo on a 4–8 GB VPS, plus an email service: Amazon SES is $0.10 per 1,000 emails
Keila vs Mautic — common questions
Is Keila a better fit than Mautic for email marketing & newsletters?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Keila scores 88 to Mautic's 84 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. Mautic earns its place on a different axis — closest open-source match to full marketing automation and customer journeys. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Keila keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. Mautic is still self-hostable, so the files stay on your server either way — but it is not local-first by design, so check what its export produces before you rely on it.
Can I self-host Keila or Mautic?
Both can be self-hosted. The difference is what it costs you in time rather than whether it is possible — see the setup and maintenance rows above.
Are Keila and Mautic both alternatives to Mailchimp?
Yes — both appear in our Mailchimp comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off Mailchimp and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
More Mailchimp head-to-heads
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-07-07. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.