Mautic vs SuiteCRM
Both are alternatives to HubSpot. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as SuiteCRM vs Mautic — same comparison, one verdict.
Mautic and SuiteCRM are closely matched on ownership (86 vs 85) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
Mautic
Open-source marketing automation — the Marketing Hub half, not the CRM half.
Campaign builders, drip sequences, lead scoring, landing pages and segmentation, self-hosted. Pair it with a CRM rather than treating it as one: it replaces what Marketing Hub does, which is usually the expensive half of a HubSpot bill.
SuiteCRM
The enterprise-shaped fork of SugarCRM, for teams that need depth over polish.
A comprehensive open-source CRM with sales, marketing and service modules, quotes, contracts and a workflow engine. Heavier than the others and correspondingly capable — the option when the requirement list is long and non-negotiable.
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.
| Mautic | SuiteCRM | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 86 | 85 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first data | Yes | Yes |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Pricing | Free / self-host (you pay your server and an SMTP sender) | Free / self-host; paid hosting and support from SalesAgility |
| RAM to run it wellThe figure that actually matters, not the vendor's minimum. | 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. | 4 GB. Even a test box is quoted at 3 GB, and production adds MySQL, the cron and, from 8.10, a Messenger worker. |
| Realistic running costWhat the box costs each month if you run it yourself. | $12–48/mo on a 4–8 GB VPS, plus an email service: Amazon SES is $0.10 per 1,000 emails | $12–24/mo for a 10-user instance on a 4 GB VPS |
| Setup timeHonest first-install estimate, not the marketing quickstart. | Half a day with Docker Compose; a weekend to get cron, the worker and the sending domain (SPF/DKIM) right | Half a day by hand on a LAMP box; there is no official one-command install |
| Ongoing maintenanceThe part nobody budgets for. | 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. | An upgrade roughly every six months to stay supported, each through the command-line upgrader with permission and cache fixes afterwards. You also keep the cron and the Messenger worker running as the web server user. |
Mautic edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Weighing both against staying on HubSpot? Is HubSpot free? What it actually costs →
Mautic
Strengths
- +Directly replaces the contact-metered part of the bill, which is where HubSpot costs escalate
- +Campaign and lead-scoring depth that genuinely competes with paid marketing tools
- +Integrates with EspoCRM and most open CRMs rather than demanding to be the system of record
Trade-offs
- −You inherit email deliverability — sending reputation, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and bounce handling
- −Setup and upgrades are more involved than a CRM alone
- −Not a CRM: run it alongside one, never instead of one
SuiteCRM
Strengths
- +Deepest feature set here — quotes, contracts, invoicing and case management included
- +Commercial support available from the maintainer if procurement requires it
- +Long track record in regulated and enterprise deployments
Trade-offs
- −Dated interface, and the heaviest of these to run and administer
- −Configuration burden is real; expect to spend time before it fits
- −Overkill for a small sales team that just left the free HubSpot tier
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Mautic
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and directly replaces the contact-metered part of the bill, which is where HubSpot costs escalate.
Choose SuiteCRM
if deepest feature set here — quotes, contracts, invoicing and case management included.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — you inherit email deliverability — sending reputation, SPF, DKIM, DMARC and bounce handling, and dated interface, and the heaviest of these to run and administer. 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 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
Self-hosting SuiteCRM
4 GB. Even a test box is quoted at 3 GB, and production adds MySQL, the cron and, from 8.10, a Messenger worker. RAM · Half a day by hand on a LAMP box; there is no official one-command install
$12–24/mo for a 10-user instance on a 4 GB VPS
Mautic vs SuiteCRM — common questions
Is Mautic a better fit than SuiteCRM for crm?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Mautic scores 86 to SuiteCRM's 85 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. SuiteCRM earns its place on a different axis — deepest feature set here — quotes, contracts, invoicing and case management included. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Mautic keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. SuiteCRM 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 Mautic or SuiteCRM?
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 Mautic and SuiteCRM both alternatives to HubSpot?
Yes — both appear in our HubSpot comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off HubSpot and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
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Facts verified 2026-09-01. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.