Alternatives / Customer.io
Looking for an open source Customer.io alternative? We compared 4 open source messaging, notification, and marketing automation platforms by license, self-hosting, channels, and developer experience. They range from a notification infrastructure to marketing automation and an AWS-based email platform, and several keep features commercial.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Novu | Notification infrastructure with an inbox (open core) | MIT + enterprise license |
| Mautic | Marketing automation and campaigns | GPL-3.0+ |
| Dittofeed | Journeys and omni-channel messaging (some closed source) | MIT (some features are closed source) |
| Wraps | Developer email on your own AWS account (open core, very young) | AGPL-3.0 + enterprise license |
We looked for open-source tools that overlap with Customer.io's core: sending behavior-based messages across email, push, SMS, and in-app channels with workflows and segmentation. We verified each project's license, recent activity, stars, and self-hosting in its repository. Customer.io is a hosted developer-and-marketer platform, so we flag open-core licenses and how much infrastructure each one needs. See our methodology for the full criteria.
Novu is notification infrastructure for in-app, email, push, SMS, and chat with a workflow engine and an embeddable inbox. Mautic is a marketing automation platform for leads and campaigns, Dittofeed is a customer engagement platform with journeys and segmentation, and Wraps is a developer email platform on your own AWS account.
Novu is MIT with a separate enterprise license for some directories. Dittofeed's core is MIT, but multi-tenancy, embedding, and white-labeling are in a closed-source codebase. Wraps is AGPL-3.0 with enterprise features under a commercial license. Mautic is GPL-3.0 or later.
Self-hosting Dittofeed needs Postgres, ClickHouse, and Temporal, and its cloud version starts at $75 a month after a trial. Wraps deploys to your AWS account using SES, which AWS bills at $0.10 per 1,000 emails. Novu's free hosted tier is limited to 10,000 events per month. Deliverability remains your responsibility.
Novu, Mautic, Dittofeed, and Wraps had commits within days of this update. Wraps is very young with about 63 stars.
Customer.io is a proprietary hosted service priced by profiles and messages, with data stored on its platform. Open-source alternatives let you self-host messaging and customer data, send through your own providers, avoid per-profile pricing, and customize workflows, at the cost of running infrastructure and managing deliverability yourself.
Novu is an open-source platform for building in-app, email, push, SMS, and chat notifications, with a unified API, a workflow engine, and an embeddable inbox component, and it can be self-hosted or used in its cloud. Novu is a commercial open-source company: the core is MIT, and some directories are under a separate enterprise license. The free cloud tier is limited to 10,000 events per month.
Pricing: Free to self-host; the cloud has a free tier and paid plans.
Mautic is an open-source marketing automation platform for managing leads and running campaigns, with lead management, email marketing, campaign automation, landing pages and forms, analytics and reporting, many integrations, and translations in 35+ languages. It is licensed under GPL-3.0 or later and can be self-hosted for free, with hosted and trial options from Mautic's partners.
Pricing: Free to self-host; paid hosting and services are offered by Mautic and its partners.
Dittofeed is an MIT-licensed customer engagement platform with low-code journey automation, audience segmentation, and omni-channel messaging by email, SMS, and push. It can be self-hosted for free or used in its managed cloud, while multi-tenancy, embedding, and white-labeling are in a separate licensed closed-source codebase.
Pricing: Free to self-host; the managed cloud is paid.
Wraps is a developer-friendly email platform where templates are React components and automations are written in TypeScript, deployed to your own AWS account with SES. The code is AGPL-3.0 with enterprise features under a commercial license, and AWS charges about $0.10 per 1,000 emails. It is a very young project.
Pricing: Free to start; AWS usage is billed to your account, and enterprise features are paid.
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Novu | Notification infrastructure | MIT + enterprise license | Yes | In-app and multi-channel notifications |
| Mautic | Marketing automation | GPL-3.0+ | Yes | Campaigns and leads |
| Dittofeed | Customer engagement | MIT (some closed) | Yes | Journeys |
| Wraps | Email platform on AWS | AGPL-3.0 + enterprise | Your AWS account | Developers |
Want notifications inside your product
Novu offers a unified API, workflow engine, and embeddable inbox for in-app, email, push, SMS, and chat, with some code under an enterprise license.
Want full marketing automation
Mautic manages leads, campaigns, forms, and analytics, free to self-host under GPL-3.0 or later.
Want journeys and segmentation
Dittofeed offers low-code journeys and segmentation under MIT, though multi-tenancy and white-labeling are closed source.
Want React-based email on your own AWS account
Wraps uses React components for templates and TypeScript for automations, deployed to your AWS account with SES.