Mautic vs msmtp

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted mail servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureMauticmsmtp
CategoryMail ServersMail Servers
LicenseGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguagePHPC
Setup difficultyHardEasy
Min. RAM2,048 MB32 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebinary, source
GitHub stars★ 10,305★ 290
First released20142004
ReplacesHubSpot, Marketo, MailchimpSendmail

Why pick each one

Choose Mautic if…

  • Full marketing automation suite
  • Large community
Mautic details

Choose msmtp if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in C
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
msmtp details

Frequently asked questions

Is Mautic or msmtp better?

Neither is universally better. Mautic has the larger community, while msmtp is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Mautic and msmtp free and open-source?

Yes. Mautic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and msmtp under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Mautic and msmtp with Docker?

Mautic: yes. msmtp: check the project docs for container support.

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