Four ways marketing automation is sold, and what each charging unit asks of the buyer

Marketing automation business models differ most in what drives the bill and who carries the operational work. This comparison uses four supplier records checked on 5 September 2026 as examples of packaging, not as recommendations. The common criteria are charging unit, implementation ownership, capacity risk, customer control and likely exit work.

No account was opened, quote requested or migration attempted. Prices are omitted because pages and configurations change, some records use non-UK currency, and a headline does not establish total cost.

Instead, substitute your own quantities. Take 25,000 usable marketing contacts, 60,000 sends a month, 8 users, 3 channels, 2 environments, 5 integrations, 12 months retention and weekday support. Price that same bundle against each model. There was no sponsorship, affiliate relationship or known conflict.

What to take away

Comparison at a glance

Contact and send allowances

Mailchimp's marketing plan record displays limits for contacts, audiences, users and sends, with features varying by plan. This model can be approachable for a bounded email programme, but cost control depends on knowing which records count and what happens at a limit.

Before comparing it with another model, use the same audience size, monthly send volume, user requirement and automation depth. A free or introductory tier does not prove that the intended workflow is included.

Paying for marketable records

HubSpot's marketing contacts explanation separates contacts selected for marketing from other stored records. The distinction makes database policy commercially significant: stale, ineligible or incorrectly marked records can affect capacity even when nobody should contact them.

Ask who changes status, how quickly a reduction affects billing, and whether connected systems can alter classification. The provider page is evidence of the mechanism, not independent evidence that it costs less for a particular customer.

Tenant access with defined audience units

Microsoft's UK Customer Insights pricing page describes tenant-based access and capacities for Unified People and Interacted People. It also presents an attach route for a qualifying Microsoft environment.

This structure may suit an organisation already working across the named stack, but that is a hypothesis until architecture and licensing are checked. Model profiles, outbound and inbound interactions, environments and external channel costs using Microsoft's current definitions. Do not compare a tenant figure directly with a per-contact plan.

Open-source software with self-managed responsibility

Mautic presents itself as an open-source marketing automation product. That can shift control towards the adopter, but it also moves decisions about hosting, patching, availability, deliverability and specialist support away from a bundled SaaS subscription.

"No licence fee" would not mean "no cost". Compare staff or partner time, infrastructure, monitoring, upgrades, incident response and exit artefacts on the same annual basis used for hosted options.

Choose the operating model before the supplier

Write one consistent workload: usable marketing contacts, expected interactions, users, channels, environments, integrations, retention and support hours. Price that workload across every model, including setup and exit. Then apply data-protection and security review. The ICO's processor contract guidance and the NCSC's SaaS security assessment supply questions that a packaging table cannot answer.

The ICO document is 'Contracts and liabilities between controllers and processors'. The NCSC document is 'A lightweight approach to cloud security' in the NCSC's 'The cloud security principles' collection.

For the worked example in the introduction, check Mailchimp's contact and send limits, HubSpot's marketable-contact count, Microsoft's Unified People and Interacted People units, and Mautic's hosting and support cost against the same bundle. The four records use different charging units, so the same 25,000 contacts and 60,000 sends do not translate into one comparable headline price.

The best fit is the model whose responsibilities, variable units and exit route the customer can actually manage. Verify all terms, capacity definitions and UK tax treatment on the decision date with qualified reviewers.

Before you act

Common questions

What does the article say about the cost of open-source marketing automation?

The article says open-source moves hosting, patching, availability, deliverability and support to the adopter. No licence fee does not mean no cost.

How does the article suggest comparing different marketing automation models?

It says use the same quantities for every supplier and include setup and exit. It also points to data-protection and security review.

What should a buyer examine for a contact-tier subscription like Mailchimp?

Check database hygiene, overages and feature gates. Compare like with like on audience size, send volume, users and automation depth.