How to Self-Host Mautic with Docker Compose

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What Is Mautic?

Mautic is a self-hosted marketing automation platform. It handles email campaigns, contact management, lead scoring, landing pages, dynamic content, forms, and CRM integrations. It’s the self-hosted answer to HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and Marketo — running on your server with unlimited contacts and zero per-subscriber fees.

Mautic is GPL-3.0 licensed, backed by a large open-source community, and replaces Mailchimp and more expensive marketing SaaS platforms. If you need more than newsletters — drip campaigns, lead scoring, automation workflows — Mautic is the tool.

Prerequisites

  • A Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended)
  • Docker and Docker Compose installed (guide)
  • 2 GB of free RAM (minimum, 4 GB recommended)
  • 5 GB of free disk space
  • A domain name (required for production use)
  • An SMTP server or relay (Amazon SES, Mailgun, Postfix, etc.)

Docker Compose Configuration

Create a directory for Mautic:

mkdir -p ~/mautic && cd ~/mautic

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  mautic-web:
    image: mautic/mautic:6.0.7-apache
    container_name: mautic-web
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:8080:80"
    environment:
      # Database configuration
      MAUTIC_DB_HOST: mautic-db
      MAUTIC_DB_PORT: "3306"
      MAUTIC_DB_DATABASE: mautic
      MAUTIC_DB_USER: mautic
      MAUTIC_DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      # Container role — this one serves the web UI
      DOCKER_MAUTIC_ROLE: mautic_web
      # PHP tuning
      PHP_INI_VALUE_MEMORY_LIMIT: 512M
      PHP_INI_VALUE_UPLOAD_MAX_FILESIZE: 64M
      PHP_INI_VALUE_POST_MAX_FILESIZE: 64M
      PHP_INI_VALUE_MAX_EXECUTION_TIME: "300"
      PHP_INI_VALUE_DATE_TIMEZONE: UTC
    volumes:
      - mautic-config:/var/www/html/config
      - mautic-logs:/var/www/html/var/logs
      - mautic-media-files:/var/www/html/docroot/media/files
      - mautic-media-images:/var/www/html/docroot/media/images
    depends_on:
      mautic-db:
        condition: service_healthy
    restart: unless-stopped

  mautic-worker:
    image: mautic/mautic:6.0.7-apache
    container_name: mautic-worker
    environment:
      MAUTIC_DB_HOST: mautic-db
      MAUTIC_DB_PORT: "3306"
      MAUTIC_DB_DATABASE: mautic
      MAUTIC_DB_USER: mautic
      MAUTIC_DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      # Worker role — processes email and hit queues
      DOCKER_MAUTIC_ROLE: mautic_worker
      DOCKER_MAUTIC_WORKERS_CONSUME_EMAIL: "2"
      DOCKER_MAUTIC_WORKERS_CONSUME_HIT: "2"
      DOCKER_MAUTIC_WORKERS_CONSUME_FAILED: "2"
      PHP_INI_VALUE_MEMORY_LIMIT: 512M
      PHP_INI_VALUE_DATE_TIMEZONE: UTC
    volumes:
      - mautic-config:/var/www/html/config
      - mautic-logs:/var/www/html/var/logs
      - mautic-media-files:/var/www/html/docroot/media/files
      - mautic-media-images:/var/www/html/docroot/media/images
    depends_on:
      mautic-db:
        condition: service_healthy
    restart: unless-stopped

  mautic-cron:
    image: mautic/mautic:6.0.7-apache
    container_name: mautic-cron
    environment:
      MAUTIC_DB_HOST: mautic-db
      MAUTIC_DB_PORT: "3306"
      MAUTIC_DB_DATABASE: mautic
      MAUTIC_DB_USER: mautic
      MAUTIC_DB_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
      # Cron role — runs scheduled tasks (segment rebuild, campaign triggers)
      DOCKER_MAUTIC_ROLE: mautic_cron
      PHP_INI_VALUE_MEMORY_LIMIT: 512M
      PHP_INI_VALUE_DATE_TIMEZONE: UTC
    volumes:
      - mautic-config:/var/www/html/config
      - mautic-logs:/var/www/html/var/logs
      - mautic-media-files:/var/www/html/docroot/media/files
      - mautic-media-images:/var/www/html/docroot/media/images
    depends_on:
      mautic-db:
        condition: service_healthy
    restart: unless-stopped

  mautic-db:
    image: mysql:lts
    container_name: mautic-db
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: ${DB_ROOT_PASSWORD}
      MYSQL_DATABASE: mautic
      MYSQL_USER: mautic
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: ${DB_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - mautic-db-data:/var/lib/mysql
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "mysqladmin", "ping", "-h", "localhost", "-u", "root", "-p${DB_ROOT_PASSWORD}"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
      start_period: 30s
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  mautic-config:
  mautic-logs:
  mautic-media-files:
  mautic-media-images:
  mautic-db-data:

Create a .env file:

# CHANGE THESE VALUES — generate with: openssl rand -hex 16

# MySQL passwords
DB_PASSWORD=change_me_to_a_strong_password
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=change_me_to_a_different_strong_password

Start the stack:

docker compose up -d

The first startup runs database migrations and may need 1-2 minutes.

Initial Setup

  1. Open http://your-server-ip:8080 in your browser.
  2. Complete the installation wizard:
    • Set your admin username, email, and password
    • Database settings are pre-configured from environment variables — leave defaults
    • Configure your email (SMTP) settings: host, port, username, password, encryption
  3. After setup, log in with your admin credentials.
  4. Go to Configuration → Email Settings to verify or update SMTP configuration.
  5. Send a test email from Configuration → Email Settings → Test Connection.

Configuration

Email Sending

Configure SMTP under Configuration → Email Settings:

  • Mailer Transport: SMTP
  • Host: Your SMTP server (e.g., email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com for SES)
  • Port: 587 (TLS) or 465 (SSL)
  • Encryption: TLS
  • Authentication mode: Login
  • Username/Password: Your SMTP credentials

Tracking

Mautic tracks email opens, link clicks, and website visits. To enable website tracking:

  1. Go to Configuration → Tracking Settings
  2. Copy the tracking pixel code
  3. Add it to your website’s HTML

Campaigns

Mautic’s campaign builder is its killer feature:

  1. Go to Campaigns → New
  2. Add a contact source (segment, form, or specific contacts)
  3. Build your automation workflow with conditions, actions, and decisions
  4. Actions include: send email, add to segment, update contact, webhook, push to CRM

Landing Pages

Create landing pages at Components → Landing Pages → New. Mautic includes a drag-and-drop builder and supports custom HTML. Landing pages are served directly from your Mautic instance.

Advanced Configuration (Optional)

Using RabbitMQ for Message Queues

For high-volume installations, replace the default Doctrine message queue with RabbitMQ:

# Add to docker-compose.yml
  rabbitmq:
    image: rabbitmq:3.13-management-alpine
    container_name: mautic-rabbitmq
    environment:
      RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER: mautic
      RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS: ${RABBITMQ_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - rabbitmq-data:/var/lib/rabbitmq
    restart: unless-stopped

Then set the messenger DSN in your Mautic containers:

environment:
  MAUTIC_MESSENGER_DSN_EMAIL: "amqp://mautic:${RABBITMQ_PASSWORD}@rabbitmq:5672/%2f/messages"
  MAUTIC_MESSENGER_DSN_HIT: "amqp://mautic:${RABBITMQ_PASSWORD}@rabbitmq:5672/%2f/messages"

CRM Integration

Mautic supports Salesforce, SugarCRM, vTiger, and other CRMs via plugins:

  1. Go to Settings → Plugins
  2. Click Install/Upgrade Plugins
  3. Configure the plugin with your CRM’s API credentials

Reverse Proxy

Behind Nginx Proxy Manager or Caddy (Reverse Proxy Setup):

mautic.example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Ensure the MAUTIC_URL in Mautic’s configuration matches your public domain. Update Configuration → System Settings → Site URL after setting up the reverse proxy.

Backup

Back up these volumes:

  • mautic-db-data — MySQL database with all contacts, campaigns, and settings
  • mautic-config — Configuration files
  • mautic-media-files and mautic-media-images — Uploaded media
# Database backup
docker exec mautic-db mysqldump -u root -p"${DB_ROOT_PASSWORD}" mautic > mautic_backup_$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

# Volume backup
for vol in mautic-config mautic-media-files mautic-media-images; do
  docker run --rm -v ${vol}:/data -v $(pwd):/backup alpine \
    tar czf /backup/${vol}-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /data
done

See Backup Strategy for a complete approach.

Troubleshooting

Emails stuck in queue

Symptom: Campaigns show as sent but emails remain in the queue. Fix: Check the worker container is running: docker compose ps mautic-worker. Check worker logs: docker compose logs mautic-worker. The worker processes email queues — if it’s not running, emails pile up.

Cron jobs not executing

Symptom: Segments don’t rebuild, campaigns don’t trigger on schedule. Fix: Verify the cron container is running: docker compose ps mautic-cron. Check logs: docker compose logs mautic-cron. The cron container handles scheduled tasks like segment rebuilding and campaign triggers.

Installation wizard loops

Symptom: The installer keeps showing even after completing setup. Fix: Check that the mautic-config volume persists between restarts. If the volume was deleted, Mautic loses its local.php config and restarts the installer. Ensure you’re not using anonymous volumes.

High memory usage

Symptom: PHP processes consume excessive RAM. Fix: Tune PHP_INI_VALUE_MEMORY_LIMIT. Default 512M is appropriate for most installations. For large contact databases (50K+), increase to 1024M. Also check for stuck worker processes: docker compose restart mautic-worker.

Slow database queries

Symptom: Pages load slowly, especially contact lists and segments. Fix: MySQL performance tuning. Add innodb_buffer_pool_size=256M to MySQL config. For large databases, increase to 512M or 1G. Ensure database indexes are up to date via Mautic’s maintenance commands.

Resource Requirements

  • RAM: ~300-500 MB idle (all 3 containers + MySQL), ~1-2 GB under campaign sending load
  • CPU: Medium (campaign processing and email queue are CPU-intensive)
  • Disk: ~500 MB for the application, plus MySQL data and media uploads. Budget 2-5 GB for a typical installation.

Verdict

Mautic is the only serious self-hosted marketing automation platform. If you need drip campaigns, lead scoring, landing pages, or CRM integration, nothing else in the self-hosted space comes close. The trade-off is complexity — four containers, PHP stack, careful configuration.

If you only need newsletters, use Listmonk instead. It’s dramatically simpler and lighter. But if you’re replacing HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, or Marketo — Mautic is the tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many contacts can Mautic handle?

On a 2 GB RAM server, Mautic handles up to ~50,000 contacts comfortably. For 100K+, increase RAM to 4-8 GB and tune MySQL’s innodb_buffer_pool_size.

Does Mautic support A/B testing?

Yes. Create email A/B tests with different subject lines, content, or send times. Mautic automatically sends to a percentage of your list and picks the winner.

Can I use Mautic with Amazon SES?

Yes. SES is the recommended SMTP relay for cost-effective high-volume sending. Configure it under Email Settings with your SES SMTP credentials.

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