Buttondown is a small, elegant tool for producing newsletters.
The minimalist interface makes it easy for you to write great emails; the automation acts like the editorial assistant you wish you had, by checking for typos, broken links, or malformed images; the portable subscription widget makes it really easy to grow your audience from wherever you host your site.
And then Buttondown gets out of your way! Buttondown's focus is on pragmatism over richness; it's not the most robust application you' ve ever used, but it may be the most delightful.
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I had been writing my own personal newsletter for years but struggled with how other tools worked. Simple tasks like cleaning up Markdown, checking links, resizing images, and making sure the email looked right was a huge hassle. It took me away from doing the fun part: writing a great newsletter.
I needed a simple, pleasant tool that took the annoying stuff off of my plate. I also wanted something that was for people like me: not a tool that was really built for big commercial sites or complex editorial teams, but for a small user who wanted to spend more time writing than dealing with an interface.
What makes Buttondown unique?
Run by a human
Buttondown isn't a team or a startup or a movement or whatever: it's just me. I respond to every email personally and deeply care about the problems I'm trying to solve.
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Privacy-first
Buttondown is GDPR-compliant — and then some. I don't collect any data about you (or your subscribers), and Buttondown is the only newsletter provider that starts with analytics turned off by default.
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Write in Markdown
Buttondown uses the best of Markdown (plus things like embedded Tweets and photos) so you can write quickly and efficiently without worrying about clumsy email markup or WYSIWYGs.
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Plus a bunch of other good stuff:
First-party API
Everything you can do on Buttondown's interface, you can also do with our REST-ful API.
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Paid subscriptions
Buttondown makes it easy and painless for you to get paid for your newsletters. Want to have a free tier? That's possible, too!
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Third-party integrations
Setting up your Buttondown account to work with Zapier, IFTTT, Weebly, Squarespace, Ghost, and more.
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Support for multiple newsletters
Real-time analytics
Stale subscriber detection
Custom sending & hosting domains
Automatic link checking
Tagging and metadata
Webhooks
Pay-what-you-want plans
Support for global currencies
Hosted archives
One-click data portability
Privacy & invite-only newsletters
AI-powered email validation
HTTPS & SSL everywhere, even for custom domains
No ads or pop-ups, ever
Customize your archives with HTML & CSS
Attach whatever files you want, just like real email
Your newsletter, your data
Most email and newsletter tools operate under one of two business models:
They are venture-backed, forcing them to achieve scale and profitability at the expense of usability or privacy.
They are designed for large corporations, who spend tens of thousands of dollars a month to create complex automation workflows based on subscriber actions.
Buttondown is different. I've built it specifically for folks who want a tool, rather than an ecosystem: I keep track of how I spend money and offer customizable analytics options so you can be comfortable with the data you collect.
I’d also like to add that @buttondown is an absolute joy to use. Hats off, Justin!
Elliot Jay Stocks
Creative Director, Google Fonts
Shoutout to
@buttondown
and
@jmduke
for building an amazing bootstrapped product for newsletters, all while being very open to feedback and connecting directly with customers 🙏
Easily one of the most enjoyable product experience I've had.
Den
Head of Ecosystem, Netlify
if you are looking for "newsletter tool for hackers" i tentatively believe the answer is @buttondown
full api, compose in markdown, good docs for setting up domain auth, simple subscribe form HTML that you style yourself (or not)
Brian David Hall
Author, Your Website Sucks
I really like @buttondown as a blogging platform, it has the simplicity of Substack but the corporate culture is less toxic.
Chad Loder
Extremism researcher
I worked with @buttondown and asked for some new payment support beyond the supporter single tier / pay-what-you-want options.
Justin was great and built it in just a couple days.
Dan Hon
Author & consultant
I write nonfiction and I use @buttondown buttondown.email/Changeset - indie, GREAT personal customer support, very nice default styling, all the options I want including ones to protect my readers' privacy
Sumana Harihareswara
Open source maintainer
I use @buttondown because it does exactly what I need (manage subscribers and send markdown emails), not more and not less 👍 As a bonus it's made by an indie dev which I love!
Max Stober
Founder, GraphCDN
If you’re considering running an email newsletter, or if you already run one and are considering a change of provider, I highly recommend @buttondownemail. Super-easy app, very fair pricing with a generous free tier, and exemplary support. 💯
Peter Gasston
Technologist and speaker
imo @buttondown is easily one of the best-designed services i’ve used in recent years, if you have a substack you should really consider switching!
