If you have been searching for free, open-source bulk email software written in PHP, Mautic is the answer — GPL v3, no licence fee at any list size. It is also the heaviest of the six to run, and Mautic itself says it should not go on shared hosting. Both halves of that are on this page.
$0
GPL v3 · you pay for the server, not the software
Mautic is free, open-source marketing automation written in PHP and released under the GPL v3. It is not just a newsletter tool: it runs multi-step campaigns, scores leads, hosts forms and landing pages and talks to CRMs. That capability is why it is the heaviest package here to run and to learn. It needs PHP 8.x with a specific set of extensions, MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.2+, and — in Mautic's own words — “a robust hosting environment” that is not shared hosting. Like every campaign application, it does not deliver mail itself: it hands messages to an SMTP server or a relay.
Related: All six compared · MailWizz vs Mautic · listmonk · Port 25 · rDNS
If you do not need these, you are paying the maintenance cost for nothing.
Branching campaigns that react to what a contact does, lead scoring that accumulates across visits and opens, forms and landing pages that feed segments directly, and two-way CRM integration. This is the category Mautic competes in, and it is free, which is unusual.
Automation means cron jobs running constantly, and every interaction writes a row. Contact and event tables grow far faster than a plain subscriber list, so database performance — not CPU — is what you feel first. Fast storage matters more here than core count.
Taken from the project's own documentation on 17 August 2026, not from a hosting page's estimate. The source is named underneath so you can check it.
| Licence | GPL v3 |
|---|---|
| Cost | Free |
| Stack | PHP |
| PHP | PHP 8.2–8.5 for Mautic 7.0; 8.1–8.3 for 5.2 and 6.0 |
| Database | MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.2+ (InnoDB) |
| Also needs | PHP extensions: xml, mysql, imap, zip, intl, curl, gd, mbstring, bcmath. NPM from 5.0 onward. |
| Sends mail itself | No — it hands mail to an MTA or a relay |
Sources, checked 17 August 2026
Read at each vendor's own documentation rather than taken from a summary. Follow the links and check for yourself — figures like these move.
Free is not the same as cheap. The licence costs nothing; the learning curve is real.
Branching journeys, lead scoring and behaviour-triggered sends are what Mautic is for. Nothing else here does them for free.
GPL v3, PHP, self-hosted, no licence fee. If that was the search, this is the answer.
Self-hosting means the behavioural data stays with you rather than in a SaaS vendor's database.
Composer, cron, PHP extensions and periodic upgrades. If that is familiar territory, Mautic is manageable.
Then this is a lot of machinery for one job. listmonk will do it with a fraction of the upkeep.
Mautic's own requirements rule it out. That is not us pushing you upmarket — read their page.
A neglected Mautic install becomes a security problem and a support headache. Somebody has to keep it current.
Mautic rewards setup time. If the deadline is today, a hosted tool will get you there faster.
The limiting factor is the database, not the processor. Contact records and campaign events accumulate steadily, and automation is writing to them continuously, so fast storage earns its keep here more than extra cores do.
Contact and event tables grow fast, and automation runs constantly in the background.
2 Cores · 2 GB RAM
30 GB NVMe · 10 Gbps Port
$12.95/mo
This is a starting point, not a rule — list size and sending frequency matter more than the software itself. See all plans · compare all six packages · ask before you order.
Port 25 open, a dedicated IPv4 address, reverse DNS set free on request and root access to build the stack Mautic wants — plus a 7-day money-back guarantee.
