Buttondown vs. EmailOctopus

EmailOctopus lacks crucial features for you to start your newsletter.

EmailOctopus is a complex, powerful tool, but it lacks some of the most important features that you need when you're building a newsletter.

Buttondown is a more light-weight tool that gives you the same ease of use as EmailOctopus, as well as support for features like:

Scheduled emails that can automatically send whenever you want
A rich, detailed API so you can programmatically interact with your emails and subscribers
Dynamic tagging and segmentation of your subscribers
Friendly 24/7 support

Feature	Buttondown	EmailOctopus
Free for your first thousand subscribers	Because it shouldn't take a credit card to get a newsletter off the ground.
Analytics	Dive into individual email performance, client information, and more
Free archives	Because sometimes you don't want your newsletters to disappear into the ether.
Embeddable widget	Have your own personal site? We'll hook you up with the code.
Markdown support	Buttondown also supports HTML and good old fashioned plain text: whatever your preference is!
Drag and drop image uploading	Images are uploaded quickly and securely.
Email scheduling	Write an email on Thursday and send it out on Friday; queue up an entire month's worth of letters.
Free RSS support	I mean, some people _really_ like RSS.
Clean, usable design	Design is more than just how it looks, and Buttondown is designed top to bottom to make it easy to use.
Smart embeds	Embed tweets, Youtube videos, and more just by dropping in the link.
Autosaving	Never worry about accidentally closing a tab ever again.
First-party API	Everything you can do on Buttondown's interface, you can also do with our REST-ful API.
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!
Third-party integrations	Setting up your Buttondown account to work with Zapier, IFTTT, Weebly, Squarespace, Ghost, and more.
Privacy-first	Buttondown is GDPR-compliant — and then some. I don't collect any data about you (or your subscribers), and you can turn off pixel tracking and link tracking with a click of a button.
Multiple newsletters	Want to run more than one newsletter from the same account? Buttondown's got you covered.

Feature

Buttondown

EmailOctopus

Free for your first thousand subscribers

Because it shouldn't take a credit card to get a newsletter off the ground.

Analytics

Dive into individual email performance, client information, and more

Free archives

Because sometimes you don't want your newsletters to disappear into the ether.

Embeddable widget

Have your own personal site? We'll hook you up with the code.

Markdown support

Buttondown also supports HTML and good old fashioned plain text: whatever your preference is!

Drag and drop image uploading

Images are uploaded quickly and securely.

Email scheduling

Write an email on Thursday and send it out on Friday; queue up an entire month's worth of letters.

Free RSS support

I mean, some people _really_ like RSS.

Clean, usable design

Design is more than just how it looks, and Buttondown is designed top to bottom to make it easy to use.

Smart embeds

Embed tweets, Youtube videos, and more just by dropping in the link.

Autosaving

Never worry about accidentally closing a tab ever again.

First-party API

Everything you can do on Buttondown's interface, you can also do with our REST-ful API.

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!

Third-party integrations

Setting up your Buttondown account to work with Zapier, IFTTT, Weebly, Squarespace, Ghost, and more.

Privacy-first

Buttondown is GDPR-compliant — and then some. I don't collect any data about you (or your subscribers), and you can turn off pixel tracking and link tracking with a click of a button.

Multiple newsletters

Want to run more than one newsletter from the same account? Buttondown's got you covered.

Kind words from happy writers.

Screenshots of tweets from users who love Buttondown.