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Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Web App

Buttondown

A simple, privacy-first newsletter tool, free for your first 100 subscribers.

Visit Buttondown4.6

  • Rating

    4.6 / 5

  • Pricing

    Freemium

  • Difficulty

    Beginner

  • Works on

    Web

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What is Buttondown?

Buttondown is a newsletter platform for writers, with a rich text or Markdown editor, sending from your own domain and hosted archives. It is free for your first 100 subscribers, and you add paid features such as paid subscriptions, analytics, RSS-to-email and automations as you need them.

Pros: what Buttondown does well

  • Free for the first 100 subscribers
  • Clean Markdown editor and custom-domain sending
  • Pay only for the features you add

Cons: where it falls short

  • Free plan only covers 100 subscribers
  • Fewer marketing automations than big platforms

Who Buttondown is for

Writers and developers starting a simple, privacy-friendly newsletter.

Who can skip it

Businesses running complex marketing campaigns.

Buttondown alternatives

Not sold on Buttondown? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Email resources

Kit

Focus: email marketing, creators and landing pages. Shares newsletter and mailchimp alternative with Buttondown. Adds iOS and Android. Rated 4.5 (Buttondown: 4.6).

Web AppFree planWeb, iOS
4.5Visit

Beehiiv

Focus: email, monetisation and growth. Shares newsletter with Buttondown. Rated 4.7 (Buttondown: 4.6).

Web AppFree planWeb
4.7VisitAffiliate

listmonk

Focus: self-hosted, open source and mailing list. Shares newsletter and mailchimp alternative with Buttondown. Free (Buttondown: Freemium). Adds Linux. Same 4.6 rating.

Web AppFreeCross-Platform, Linux
4.6Visit

MailerLite

Focus: email marketing, automations and landing pages. Shares newsletter and mailchimp alternative with Buttondown. Adds iOS and Android. Same 4.6 rating.

Web AppFree planWeb, iOS
4.6Visit

addy.io

Focus: email aliases, spam and forwarding. Shares privacy with Buttondown. Adds Chrome, Firefox and Android. Same 4.6 rating.

Web AppFree planWeb, Chrome
4.6Visit

LanguageTool

Focus: grammar checker, spell checker and proofreading. Also in Writing and Email, like Buttondown. A browser extension, not a web app. Adds Chrome, Firefox and macOS. Same 4.6 rating.

Browser ExtensionFree planChrome, Firefox
4.6Visit

Free alternatives to Buttondown

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

readme.so

Focus: readme, documentation and developer tools. Shares markdown with Buttondown. Free (Buttondown: Freemium). Same 4.6 rating.

Web AppFreeWeb
4.6Visit

HedgeDoc

Focus: collaborative editing, self-hosted and open source. Shares markdown with Buttondown. Free (Buttondown: Freemium). Rated 4.5 (Buttondown: 4.6).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.5Visit

LibreTranslate

Focus: translation, self-hosted and languages. Shares privacy with Buttondown. Free (Buttondown: Freemium). Adds Linux. Rated 4.5 (Buttondown: 4.6).

Web AppFreeWeb, Linux
4.5Visit

Dillinger

Focus: editor, live preview and export. Shares markdown with Buttondown. Free (Buttondown: Freemium). Rated 4.4 (Buttondown: 4.6).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.4Visit

Rentry

Focus: pastebin, sharing and notes. Shares markdown with Buttondown. Free (Buttondown: Freemium). Rated 4.4 (Buttondown: 4.6).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.4Visit

StackEdit

Focus: editor, writing and open source. Shares markdown with Buttondown. Free (Buttondown: Freemium). Rated 4.4 (Buttondown: 4.6).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.4Visit
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