La automatización de marketing de código abierto no tiene por qué significar entregar tus datos a un proveedor de SaaS. Mautic pone las campañas de correo electrónico

Open-source marketing automation does not have to mean giving up your data to a SaaS vendor. Mautic puts email campaigns, contact tracking, and lead nurturing under your own roof. Running it on Ubuntu 24.04 takes more effort than signing into HubSpot, but the reward is full control over your stack, your costs, and your customer data. You decide when to update, how to scale, and where your information lives.

Before you start, point a domain at your server and make sure your Ubuntu 24.04 instance has at least 2 GB of RAM. Mautic is not lightweight; PHP will consume memory when it rebuilds large segments or processes campaign logic. If you plan to send to thousands of contacts, 4 GB makes the experience far smoother.

Build the LEMP Foundation

Mautic expects a LEMP stack: Nginx, MySQL, and PHP. On Ubuntu 24.04, the default PHP version is 8.3, which works well with current Mautic releases. Start by updating your package list, then install Nginx and MySQL Server. After that, pull in PHP-FPM and the exact extensions Mautic needs:

• php-fpm
• php-mysql
• php-imap
• php-curl
• php-gd
• php-xml
• php-mbstring
• php-zip
• php-intl
• php-bcmath

Each extension serves a real purpose. The IMAP extension reads bounce messages and unsubscribe replies. GD handles image processing for thumbnails. Mbstring and Intl manage character sets and translations across languages. BCMath gives you precise math for lead scoring and currency calculations. Do not skip any of them, or the installer will complain halfway through.

If Apache is already installed, remove it. Both web servers want port 80 and 443. Running them side by side causes silent failures that are frustrating to debug. A clean apt remove apache2 followed by apt autoremove prevents that headache entirely.

Tune PHP and the Database

Mautic’s installer and background jobs are memory-hungry. Open your PHP-FPM configuration file, located at /etc/php/8.3/fpm/php.ini, and raise the memory limit to 512 MB. Set the upload size to 50 MB so you can import contact lists and asset bundles without hitting arbitrary walls. After saving, restart PHP-FPM to apply the changes. While you are at it, bump post_max_size to match your upload limit; otherwise PHP rejects large multipart form submissions even when upload_max_filesize looks correct.

Next, create a dedicated MySQL database and user. Call the database whatever you like, but keep the username and password in a password manager. Mautic stores every contact action, campaign decision, and email open event in these tables, so granting broad privileges to a single-purpose account limits exposure if something else on the server is compromised.

Install Mautic and Its Tooling

Download the latest stable Mautic release and extract it into /var/www/html/mautic. Set the directory owner to www-data so the web server can write cache files, logs, and local configuration updates. On Ubuntu, that means running chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/mautic.

You also need Composer and npm installed on the server. Composer resolves PHP dependencies, and even if you deploy from the pre-built release archive, you will need Composer later when adding marketplace plugins or running manual updates. Npm matters if you ever customize themes or build frontend assets from source. Having both tools ready now saves you from scrambling when the project evolves.

Configure Nginx and Lock It Down

Your Nginx virtual host should point its root directory to /var/www/html/mautic and treat index.php as the default index. Route PHP requests to the Unix socket that PHP-FPM opens, typically at /run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock. A solid server block includes a try_files directive that falls back to the front controller, plus a location block that denies access to hidden files starting with a dot. Mautic ships with .htaccess files meant for Apache, but Nginx ignores them, so explicit deny rules in your virtual host keep your logs and temp directories private.

Before you run the web-based installer, get a TLS certificate. Use Certbot with the Nginx plugin to pull a free Let’s Encrypt certificate and automatically rewrite your HTTP traffic to HTTPS. Mautic handles login credentials and contact data; there is no excuse for serving it over plain text.

Cron Jobs Are the Engine

This step is non-negotiable. Without scheduled tasks, Mautic is a dashboard that does nothing. The application queues campaign actions, email sends, and segment recalculations in the database, then relies on the command line to process them.

Set up cron jobs for the Mautic user to handle these background duties:

• Updating segments
• Running campaigns
• Sending emails
• Fetching bounces

In practice, that means invoking Mautic’s console commands at different intervals. Segment rebuilds can run hourly. Campaign triggers and email queue processing usually need a tighter window, every five to fifteen minutes depending on volume. Bounce fetching via IMAP should run regularly enough that your sender reputation does not suffer from unchecked spam complaints. Watch your syslog or the cron output to confirm they finish without memory errors.

Using the Platform

Once the installer completes and cron is humming, log into the dashboard. The interface centers on three building blocks: contacts, segments, and campaigns.

Use the drag-and-drop campaign builder to design email workflows. A new subscriber enters the flow, waits a day, receives a welcome message, and branches based on whether they clicked a link. Meanwhile, the Points system quietly scores leads when they visit pricing pages or open product announcements. You decide the thresholds that signal a hot lead worth a sales call.

Segments group contacts automatically by rules you define. You might segment everyone who opened a campaign in the last thirty days, or isolate contacts in a specific country. Forms living on your landing pages feed directly into these segments. Link the pieces together and you have an automated nurture sequence that reacts to behavior instead of blasting the same message to your entire list.

The Real Work After Deploy

Standing up Mautic on Ubuntu 24.04 is only the beginning. Back up your database and your /var/www/html/mautic directory before every update. Watch PHP error logs when you install new plugins. Test cron output after you scale your contact list upward, because a job that finishes in seconds at one thousand contacts may time out at fifty thousand.

Self-hosting trades the convenience of a managed SaaS for sovereignty over your marketing data. There is no vendor lock-in, no per-contact pricing surprises, and no third-party holding your analytics hostage. You own the server, the database, and the relationship with your audience. For teams willing to maintain a Linux box and a handful of cron expressions, that trade is usually worth it.