Yes, Buttondown has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans. The free plan includes Absolutely nothing for your first 100 subscribers. FreeTier.co estimates the free tier at about $3.00/mo.
About
Buttondown is a hosted email newsletter platform for creating, sending, and managing mailing lists. It provides a markdown or rich text editor, custom-domain sending, hosted newsletter archives, paid subscriptions, analytics, automations, personalizations, RSS-to-email support, attachments, comments and surveys, team collaboration, and an API.
The pricing page states that the first 100 subscribers are free. The free offering includes the editor, custom-domain sending, hosted archives, and privacy-first handling, while many advanced features are available as paid add-ons. It is aimed at creators and businesses that want a newsletter backend with migration help and integrations rather than a general-purpose marketing suite.
- First 100 subscribers free
- Markdown and rich text editor
- Custom-domain sending support
- Hosted newsletter archives
- Privacy-first newsletter hosting
- Paid subscriptions add-on
- Automation and personalization add-ons
- API and integrations support
Free Tier Value
This free tier is perpetual for the first 100 subscribers and includes the core newsletter basics, but it leaves out most advanced capabilities that are sold as add-ons. Since the cheapest meaningful paid capability starts at about $9/month, the free offer is worth roughly a third of that, or about $3/month, with no clear sign that a credit card is needed to start.
What's included in the free tier
Verified
- Absolutely nothing for your first 100 subscribers.
- Rich text or markdown editor.
- Send from a custom domain.
- Hosted newsletter archives.
- Privacy-first newsletter handling.
See Buttondown pricing for current limits.
Paid plans
Buttondown paid plans
- add-on
- $9/month each
- Tagging & segmentation
- Paid subscriptions
- Comments and surveys
- Analytics
- RSS-to-email support
- Sponsorships
- Email attachments
Buttondown paid plans
- add-on
- $29/month each
- Archives on a custom domain
- Multiple newsletters
- Automations
Buttondown paid plans
- add-on
- $79/month each
- Whitelabeling
- Teams
Pricing extracted from Buttondown's pricing page. Always verify current pricing before committing.
Common questions
Is Buttondown free forever?
Yes. Buttondown has a permanent free tier alongside its paid plans, though the allowance typically resets each month.
What happens when you exceed Buttondown's free tier?
You move to a paid plan. Buttondown's cheapest paid plan is Buttondown paid plans at $9 / month.
What is Buttondown's free tier worth?
Buttondown's free tier is worth about $3.00 per month. That maps to an FTV score of 41/100. The FTV score is explained at freetier.co/ftv.
