Hello,
New here, so forgive newbie questions related to more than one account/client.
When installing with Softaculous, I am asked to pick which domain to install Mautic under, and it lists all the web accounts/domains on the server to choose from. I assume I should just choose the server’s “main” account?
As we have a number of accounts, do we install a separate instance of Mautic for each account/client/domain? Or is there some way to have multiple clients/accounts/domains in a single instance of Mautic? I looked around, both in Mautic and googled. But could not find an answer.
Hi, @mzagmajster, and @jstaff .
I would like to be clear here. This is not a multi-tenant solution. This plugin simply lets you use multiple sending and tracking domains.
The contacts won’t be separated by client, it is still one Mautic install. Web tracking is shared between clients, it is a GDPR nightmare if you share one Maitic install. One email address can be added to Mautic only once. You can’t have multiple owners of the same email address. Do not contact status is managed as global, you cant have a contact dnc for one client and not unsubscribed for other.
This plugin is intended to use for umbrella companies that share the contacts. The goal is to be able to control domain reputation. Not manage multiple entities from one setup.
Further notes: please don’t use softaculus in professional environment for your clients. if you don’t know know how to install Mautic from the command line, how will you managed the situations when your live site crashes and you need to debug or when you need to apply PRs because the last update brake vital prts of the software? Softaculus is for trying out a system, but not if you are asking money for a service.
Thank you, it did help. And underscored why I am having such a issue finding this information: It simply isn’t out there because it isn’t used this way. I assume what you said applies to all functions, like landing pages, forms, etc., in addition to all the emailing capabilities?
I would have assumed that most email marketing is done by professional marketers, with multiple clients. Interesting to hear it is mostly used by companies promoting their own products.
QUESTION: Can’t Mautic be installed once for EACH hosted domain? So one in the acme.com account/folder on the main server, then another install under the smith.com account/folder, etc. Or would that quickly bog down a web hosting system, CPU-wise?
Is there another package that would allow this? I was speaking to a rep over at ElasticMail, and they told me their system does this by allowing you to put each “account” in as a subdomain, and then you can keep them all discreet from one another. This was a sales person I spoke with, so you don’t really know until you know. Do you happen to know if this is correct for how they work?
Yes you can totally install separate instances of Mautic for each domain. About the CPU, it depends how much traffic are you expecting for each domain.
In general I would recommend dedicated server for each Mautic instance if this is something that is actually gone be used in prod. env.
Hello M., thank you again, you are very generous. Both here and on my other question about the calendar.
Good to know multiple instances can be installed without issue. I don’t expect that we will ever get to the point in production where we are sending huge amounts, so I think at worst we might need to up the server CPU/cores, very doable. And server size, as I see Mautic is almost 300mb per install, which can add up after a bunch of sites.
This multiple install seems like the only way to make it happen. Which is certainly overkill for the websites that will only be using it to host a couple of custom forms.
Mautic install is 300 MB, but daily visitor tracking, email tracking can bloat your database up to 5+ GB even with small instances.
We have a client, who has 300-400 daily views, sends 20k emails / month and his DB is 10 GB after 1 year. Another client, who has 2500 views / day, sends 100k / month has db of 43 GB after 1 year.
Hey Joey,
Thank you for that VERY important heads up. I’m assuming that the clientele that I am targeting for the service will fall closer to the first example. But that is still a significant amount of storage. 10 gigs isn’t horrible, until you have 10 or 20 clients/websites, each with that amount. It adds up!
I’m assuming it would be technically possible (and equally reliable?) to put all of the mautic installs on its own server? I doesn’t need to be in the website folder, does it? Does anyone have a separate mautic-only server? So, a main web hosting server, an SMTP server, and a mautic server. More complex than I wanted, but…does that resolve the issues?
Any other suggestions? Thanks, very much appreciated.
BTW, I’ll just throw out that I was pocking around at alternatives, in particular for website forms creation/hosting, and found a few that have “Accounts”, which allow the webmaster to create forms for any number of clients/accounts. And I assume all the data is kept discreet from one another. Just log into and out of each to access each account, as one would expect. A pity Mautic doesn’t have that capability yet.
There are providers here in Mautic Forum, who will offer you something similar.
Also most Mautic Saas providers have setups, that allow them to create a new Mautic instance with a click of the button or even automatically.
Mautic can be extended easiely, modified, customized, and this is why certain customers love it. At the same time this customizations might be client specific. Some code changes need to be tested before version upgrades, and suddenly you find yourself in a situation, that sharing a codebase seems to be a bad idea.
Joey
I wouldn’t use Mautic just for providing forms. It’s an overkill.
But back to your question: there are different ways to put multiple Mautic installs on one server. You can put in multiple folders or separate them by installing each in a separate virtual machiene on that server. I suggest virtualization, as it gives you lot more possibility on the long run.
If you go this route, you’ll need to know the followings (not full list):
be comfortable with command line, understand basic linux security, permissions
at least one virtualization technology (lxc, docker or kubernetes)
ability to setup proxies and understand webserver config files
understand how composer works
basic understanding of github, understand how to apply PRs
basic level of javascript/php coding, mysql
some understanding of mjml
basic understanding of shell scripts (for cronjob setups)
understand SMTP error codes, and how emails are sent
patience
If you have 50% of these, and want to learn the rest, you are ready to mass-host Mautic.
If you just want simple forms and smtp with easy account creation, go and check out Mailwizz. No website tracking, no automation, but you can one-click create new clients.
Correct. I am not looking at mautic just for forms. But I’m just looking at other options for more limited situations where forms would be enough.
The list of knowledge-base is beyond me, so virtualized solutions are not in my immediate future. Drop one copy in each folder seems to be where I am at. For now.
The Mailwizz is another good alternative I’ve taken a brief look at before. But with your recommendation as well, I will give it another look.
I think it all comes down to what functionality the clients wants/needs. However, since I don’t think the other options give any features superior to mautic (except discreet accounts, of course), just putting in mautic allows growth of services.
