---
title: "Deploy Mautic"
description: "Open source email marketing, lead scoring and campaign automation"
category: "Automation"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/mautic-automation
---

# Deploy Mautic

Open source email marketing, lead scoring and campaign automation

**[Deploy Mautic on Railway](https://railway.com/template/mautic-automation)**

- **Creator:** A3A
- **Category:** Automation
- **Total deploys:** 2

## Template content

### mautic-cron https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/mautic.svg

- **Source:** https://github.com/gridalpha/mautic-railway

### MySQL https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/mysql.svg

- **Image:** mysql:9.4
- **Start command:** `docker-entrypoint.sh mysqld --innodb-use-native-aio=0 --disable-log-bin --performance_schema=0 --innodb-buffer-pool-size=1G`

### mautic-worker https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/mautic.svg

- **Source:** https://github.com/gridalpha/mautic-railway

### mautic-web https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/mautic.svg

- **Source:** https://github.com/gridalpha/mautic-railway
- **Health check:** /s/login
- **Public domain:** Yes

### mailpit https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/mailpit.svg

- **Image:** axllent/mailpit:latest
- **Health check:** /livez
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

![Mautic logo](https://cms.elasticemail.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Mautic_Logo_RGB_LB.png)

# Deploy and Host Mautic on Railway

Mautic is the largest open source marketing automation platform. It stores contacts, groups them into segments, tracks what they do on your site, and runs campaigns that send email, score leads and hand qualified people to sales — the self-hosted answer to HubSpot and Mailchimp.

Deploy Mautic on Railway and the production topology comes up wired together: the web app, a queue worker, a cron service, managed MySQL and Mailpit as the mail hub. The web app queues email and tracking hits into MySQL, the worker consumes them, cron refreshes segments and drives campaigns, and mail leaves through Mailpit — point it at your own SMTP provider when ready. The first admin is created on first boot from two variables you fill in at deploy time.

![Mautic Railway architecture](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1786975779/481c8c00-6d16-4887-94af-5243c4b58438.png)

## Getting Started with Mautic on Railway

Fill in `MAUTIC_ADMIN_EMAIL` and `MAUTIC_ADMIN_PASSWORD` before deploying — those become your login. When the deploy finishes, open the `mautic-web` public URL and sign in. There is no public registration; further users are added under Settings → Users.

Create a contact under Contacts → New, then a segment filtered on *Email — is not empty*. It shows **Building** until cron runs `mautic:segments:update` on the quarter hour — the clearest proof the stack is live. To check delivery, open a contact and use **Send email**: the message is queued to MySQL, consumed by the worker and delivered to Mailpit, behind the `MP_UI_AUTH` credentials. The tracking script is under Settings → Configuration → Tracking Settings.

![Mautic contacts list showing a subscriber record](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1786912307/mautic-contacts-list.png)
![Mautic contact profile with engagement chart and history](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1786912312/mautic-contact-timeline.png)
![Mautic contact segments list with a newsletter segment](https://res.cloudinary.com/rroe4rtk/image/upload/v1786912317/mautic-contact-segments.png)

## About Hosting Mautic

Marketing automation holds your most sensitive first-party data. Self-hosting Mautic keeps that database yours, removes per-contact pricing, and lets you send through a provider you already pay for.

Key features:

- Contacts with custom fields, companies, tags, stages and scoring
- Segments from behavioural and field filters, rebuilt on a schedule
- Drag-and-drop campaign builder with decisions, actions and waits
- Email builder with A/B testing, dynamic content and click tracking
- Landing pages, forms, site tracking and per-contact timelines
- REST API, webhooks and a plugin marketplace

Mautic ships as three roles sharing one codebase and database. **Web** serves the UI, API and tracking endpoints. **Worker** consumes the `email` and `hit` queues, so sending never blocks a web request. **Cron** runs the segment rebuilds and campaign triggers. Splitting them is upstream's recommendation and lets you scale sending independently of browsing.

## Why Deploy Mautic on Railway

Railway removes the parts of self-hosting Mautic that go wrong.

- No Docker Compose, volume permissions or Apache tuning to get right
- Private networking between app, worker, cron, MySQL and mail host
- Managed MySQL with backups, not a container you babysit
- Managed TLS, a public URL on first deploy, custom domains later
- Scale the worker independently of the web app

## Common Use Cases

- An opt-in newsletter with double opt-in, a preference centre and unsubscribe handling, sent through your own SES or Mailgun account
- SaaS trial onboarding drips that branch on whether the user logged in, opened the last email or hit the pricing page
- Lead scoring and hand-off: track visits, score behaviour, push contacts to a CRM over the REST API

## Dependencies for Mautic

- **Mautic** — `mautic/mautic:7.1.2-apache`, deployed as web, worker and cron from https://github.com/gridalpha/mautic-railway
- **MySQL** — Railway managed; also backs the `doctrine://` queues, so no broker is needed
- **Mailpit** — `axllent/mailpit:latest`, the SMTP endpoint every Mautic role sends through

### Environment Variables Reference

| Variable | Description | Required |
|----------|-------------|----------|
| `MAUTIC_ADMIN_EMAIL` | Email of the admin created on first boot | Yes |
| `MAUTIC_ADMIN_PASSWORD` | Password for that admin; this is your login | Yes |
| `MAUTIC_SITE_URL` | Public URL used in links and tracking pixels | Yes |
| `MAUTIC_SECRET_KEY` | Encrypts integration credentials; same on all roles, never change it | Yes |
| `MAUTIC_MAILER_DSN` | Symfony Mailer DSN for outbound mail | Yes |
| `MAUTIC_MESSENGER_DSN_EMAIL` | Email queue transport; `doctrine://default` uses MySQL | Yes |
| `DOCKER_MAUTIC_ROLE` | `mautic_web`, `mautic_worker` or `mautic_cron` | Yes |
| `MP_UI_AUTH` | `user:password` protecting the Mailpit inbox | Yes |

Any setting works this way: parameter `foo_bar` is read from `MAUTIC_FOO_BAR`, and the environment beats `config/local.php`. Worker and cron do not share the web container's disk, so anything that must match across roles — the mail DSN especially — belongs in a variable, not the admin UI.

### Deployment Dependencies

- Docker Hub: https://hub.docker.com/r/mautic/mautic
- Source: https://github.com/gridalpha/mautic-railway
- Docs: https://docs.mautic.org
- Runtime: PHP 8.4 with Apache, MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.4+

## Server Requirements to Self-Host Mautic

| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1 vCPU per role | 2 vCPU web and worker |
| RAM | 1 GB web, 512 MB worker and cron | 2 GB web, 2 GB worker |
| Storage | 1 GB volume for config and media | 10 GB, plus MySQL growth |
| Database | MySQL 8.0+ / MariaDB 10.4+ | Managed MySQL with backups |

The image sets PHP's `memory_limit` to 512M — segment rebuilds are memory-hungry on large contact tables. Only the web role needs a volume.

## How to Self-Host Mautic with Docker

Upstream publishes one image for all three roles:

```
x-mautic: &mautic
  image: mautic/mautic:7.1.2-apache
  volumes: ["config:/var/www/html/config", "media:/var/www/html/docroot/media"]
  environment: &env
    MAUTIC_DB_HOST: db
    MAUTIC_DB_DATABASE: mautic
    MAUTIC_DB_USER: root
    MAUTIC_DB_PASSWORD: change-me
    MAUTIC_MESSENGER_DSN_EMAIL: doctrine://default
    MAUTIC_MESSENGER_DSN_HIT: doctrine://default

services:
  db:
    image: mysql:8
    environment: { MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: change-me, MYSQL_DATABASE: mautic }
    volumes: ["mysql:/var/lib/mysql"]
  mautic_web: { <<: *mautic, ports: ["8080:80"] }
  mautic_worker: { <<: *mautic, environment: { <<: *env, DOCKER_MAUTIC_ROLE: mautic_worker } }
  mautic_cron: { <<: *mautic, environment: { <<: *env, DOCKER_MAUTIC_ROLE: mautic_cron } }

volumes: { mysql: {}, config: {}, media: {} }
```

Then create the admin without the installer:

```
docker compose up -d
docker compose exec --user www-data --workdir /var/www/html mautic_web \
  php bin/console mautic:install https://mautic.example.com \
  --force --no-interaction \
  --admin_email you@example.com --admin_password 'a-strong-password'
```

Pin the same tag on all three: they migrate one schema, and a floating tag lets one container land on a different release from the others.

## Is Mautic Free?

Mautic is open source under the GPLv3 and free to run — no per-contact fees, no feature gating. On Railway you pay only for compute, database and storage. Third-party managed Mautic hosting starts around $16/month and runs to several hundred with an SLA. Your other real cost is email delivery, through whichever SMTP provider you supply.

## Mautic vs HubSpot vs Mailchimp

| | Mautic | HubSpot | Mailchimp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open source | Yes, GPLv3 | No | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No | No |
| Pricing | Infrastructure only | Per contact | Per contact |
| Lead scoring | Yes | Paid tiers | No |
| Data ownership | Your database | Vendor | Vendor |

Mautic trades polish for control. Choose it when data residency, cost at scale, or the ability to change the platform itself matter more than a managed experience.

## FAQ

**What is Mautic and why self-host it?**
An open source marketing automation platform covering contacts, segments, campaigns, email, landing pages and forms. Self-hosting keeps first-party behavioural data in a database you own.

**What does this Railway template deploy?**
Five services: the web app on a public URL with a volume, a queue worker, a cron service, managed MySQL, and Mailpit as the mail hub with its own inbox.

**Why does the template include a separate worker, cron and MySQL service?**
Mautic queues outbound email and tracking hits rather than handling them in the web request, and the worker consumes those queues; cron runs the segment rebuilds and campaign triggers. Without both, email sits in the queue and campaigns never advance. Mautic supports MySQL and MariaDB only, and that database also backs the `doctrine://` queues, so no broker is needed.

**How do I send campaign email from self-hosted Mautic in production?**
Set `MAUTIC_MAILER_DSN` on all three services to your provider's Symfony Mailer DSN — `ses+smtp://KEY:SECRET@default`, say, or `smtp://user:pass@smtp.example.com:587`. Or keep Mailpit in front and set its relay variables, which also keeps a searchable copy of everything sent. Keep `MAUTIC_SECRET_KEY` stable and pin the same tag on all three roles.

**How do I add a custom domain to Mautic on Railway?**
Attach the domain to `mautic-web`, then update `MAUTIC_SITE_URL` — that variable is what Mautic writes into tracking pixels, unsubscribe links and password-reset emails.


## Similar templates

- [N8N Main + Worker](https://railway.com/deploy/n8n-main-worker) — Deploy and Host N8N with Inactive worker.
- [Evolution API with n8n](https://railway.com/deploy/evolution-api-with-n8n) — Automate WhatsApp workflows with Evolution API, n8n, and Postgres.
- [Postgres Backup](https://railway.com/deploy/postgres-s3-backups) — Cron-based PostgreSQL backup to bucket storage

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