Buttondown
Email Marketing · Free · since 2017
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Buttondown is a simple, elegant newsletter tool with markdown support, automation, and paid subscriptions. It handles markdown, paid subscriptions, api, and rss-to-email, and it's best suited for writers wanting a minimal, developer-friendly newsletter tool. It has been around since 2017, giving it a 9-year head start in building out integrations and refining the product.
The free plan is free for 100 subscribers — enough for most people to evaluate whether it fits. It's aimed at individual users, so it's fast to set up but may lack team-management features if you scale.
pros
- Full Markdown support with live preview for clean, structured notes
- Includes Paid Subscriptions as a core feature, purpose-built for email marketing workflows
- Free for 100 subscribers — generous enough for most small teams to get real work done
- Includes api alongside the core feature set — fewer separate tools needed
cons
- Free plan exists but key features are locked behind the paid upgrade
- Developer-oriented tooling may not suit non-technical team members
- Deliverability depends on your sender reputation, which takes time to build
- Limited team/admin features if your organization eventually scales up
top Buttondown alternatives
ActiveCampaign Email marketing and CRM platform with sophisticated automation workflows and machine learning. $29/mo 
Brevo All-in-one marketing platform for email, SMS, chat, and CRM at accessible pricing. Free 
MailerLite Email marketing platform with landing pages, automations, and a generous free tier. Free Buttondown compared
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