Mautic vs SendPortal
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted mail servers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Mautic
Open-source marketing automation platform
VS
SendPortal
Self-hosted email marketing and newsletter platform
| Feature | Mautic | SendPortal |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 17 · At risk |
| Category | Mail Servers | Mail Servers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 10,550 | ★ 2,174 |
| First released | 2014 | 2020 |
| Replaces | HubSpot, Marketo, Mailchimp | Mailchimp |
What are Mautic and SendPortal?
Mautic
Mautic is a powerful marketing automation platform that includes email campaigns, contact management, landing pages, and lead scoring. It is the leading open-source alternative to commercial marketing suites.
- Email and campaign automation
- Landing pages and forms
- Contact scoring and segmentation
- Extensive plugin ecosystem
SendPortal
SendPortal is a self-hosted email marketing application for Laravel that manages subscribers, segments, and campaigns, delivering newsletters through providers such as Amazon SES, Mailgun, or your own SMTP.
- Self-hosted newsletter platform
- Subscriber segments and campaigns
- Works with SES, Mailgun, and SMTP
Mautic vs SendPortal: key differences
Both projects are written in PHP. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Mautic versus MIT for SendPortal. SendPortal is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Mautic. Mautic is the more established project (first released 2014), while SendPortal arrived in 2020. Mautic has the considerably larger community, at 10,550 GitHub stars versus 2,174. Mautic lists first-class Docker deployment; SendPortal does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Mautic if…
- Full marketing automation suite
- Large community
Watch out for
- Heavy and complex
- Steep learning curve
Choose SendPortal if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Mautic or SendPortal better?
Neither is universally better. Mautic has the larger community, while SendPortal is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Mautic and SendPortal free and open-source?
Yes. Mautic is licensed under GPL-3.0 and SendPortal under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mautic and SendPortal with Docker?
Mautic: yes. SendPortal: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Mautic or SendPortal?
SendPortal has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Mautic. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.