Is Claros a fork of Mautic?

No. Claros is a ground-up rewrite with a different architecture. It uses Postgres as its only dependency, has no visual flow builder, and uses prompt-defined flows compiled by an LLM.

Compare

Claros vs Mautic: a modern open-source successor.

For Mautic admins who want the self-hosted promise without the maintenance burden.

What this comparison is about

Mautic is the established open-source marketing automation platform. It is licensed under GPLv3, offers a visual campaign builder, and supports email, SMS, and push notifications. Managed hosting through the official partner starts at €247.50/month for up to 50,000 contacts.(Source: mautic.org/start-using-mautic/managed-mautic, retrieved August 7, 2026)

Claros exists because the people who built it ran Mautic for years and could not sustain the maintenance. Claros is not a fork. It is a ground-up architecture: prompt-defined flows compiled into deterministic plans, a single Postgres dependency, and AI drafting with mandatory human approval. It does less than Mautic in scope but aims to do lifecycle email with less operational cost.

Why choose Claros over Mautic?

Claros

One small stack. Docker image plus Postgres 16. No PHP, no Composer, no Redis, no cron system.
Prompt-defined flows. Describe what you want in plain language; get an inspectable JSON plan before it runs.
AI drafting with approval. The Brain drafts content with your LLM key; every message waits for human approval.
MIT license. More permissive than Mautic's GPLv3 for commercial use and distribution.
Lifecycle-first. Built around a 7-state lifecycle model and a 4x4 retention grid, not just campaigns.

Maintenance surface

Mautic

PHP
MySQL/MariaDB
Redis
Apache/Nginx
Composer + cron

Claros

Docker image
Postgres

Who should stay on Mautic

You need SMS, push, or multi-channel automation in one tool.
Your team thinks in visual flowcharts and will not adopt a prompt-based workflow.
You rely on Mautic plugins that have no equivalent in Claros (specific CRM integrations, landing page builder, form capture).
You have a working Mautic installation that meets your needs and does not cause maintenance pain.
You need a community governance model where you can contribute code directly.

Mautic is a real product that works for many teams. If it is working for you, switching has real costs and the gains may not justify them.

At a glance

	Claros	Mautic
License	MIT	GPLv3
Infrastructure	Docker + Postgres	PHP + MySQL/MariaDB + Redis (recommended) + web server
Flow definition	Natural-language prompt, compiled once	Visual drag-and-drop campaign builder
AI capabilities	Drafts email content, BYO LLM key	None built-in (community AI manifesto published)
Channels	Email only	Email, SMS, push, WhatsApp
Sending	Resend or SMTP (BYO)	Built-in SMTP, multiple integrations
Governance	Core team (SQLite model)	Community (700+ contributors)

Three commands on your own server.

Self-hosting is the only way to run Claros today. Install in about five minutes and send your first real email from your own server.

git clone https://github.com/claroshq/claros.git && cd claros
docker compose run --rm install
docker compose up -d

Install Claros View on GitHub

No LLM key needed to start.Full installation guide →