Buttondown Is Free to 100 Subscribers, Then Priced by Feature
One hundred subscribers, no feature gates, no card. The bill arrives only when you want tagging, analytics or a second newsletter.
Buttondown is free for the first 100 subscribers, with the full editor, a custom sending domain, hosted archives and privacy-first tracking included. There is no separate free tier with features removed. Everything beyond that is an add-on priced per feature: $9 a month each for tagging, paid subscriptions, comments, analytics, RSS or attachments, $29 for automations and multiple newsletters, $79 for whitelabeling and teams.1
This is the only pricing model in the series built on active subscribers rather than contacts or sends. Unsubscribed and dormant addresses cost nothing.
It is also the only one where a hundred subscribers gets you the whole editor rather than a crippled version of it.
What you actually get
| Free | With add-ons | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $9/mo each |
| Active subscribers | 100 | Billed per active subscriber |
| Editor | Full, rich text and markdown | Same |
| Custom sending domain | Yes | Yes |
| Hosted archive | Yes | Yes |
| Tagging | Add-on | $9/mo |
| Analytics | Add-on | $9/mo |
| Paid subscriptions | Add-on | $9/mo |
| Automations | Add-on | $29/mo |
| Whitelabeling | Add-on | $79/mo |
Nonprofits get fifty percent off. Pricing assumes at most one send a day, which is the design centre for the whole product.
One hundred is small and entirely honest
One hundred active subscribers is the smallest ceiling in this series, comfortably below Mailchimp's 250 and a hundredth of Kit's 10,000.
What makes it different is that there is no feature rationing underneath it. A hundred-subscriber list gets the custom domain, the archive and the full composer, without a card.
For a first newsletter this is a complete product. The question is only how long a hundred people lasts, which for most writers is a few months.
Pricing by feature is unusual and worth understanding
Most platforms price by volume and bundle features. Buttondown prices by volume at the base and then charges separately for each capability.
Tagging and analytics at $9 each is reasonable individually. Add four of them and the bill is $36 a month before the subscriber volume charge.
Automations at $29 and multiple newsletters at $29 are the expensive ones, and they are the features that turn a newsletter into a business. That is not a coincidence.
The privacy posture is the product
Buttondown does not track opens by default and does not embed remote images in the way most platforms do. That is a deliberate position, not a missing feature.
It also means the analytics add-on measures clicks rather than opens, because there are no tracking pixels to count.
For a writer whose audience cares about this, it is the reason to choose Buttondown at all. For one who needs open rates for sponsor reporting, it is a disqualifier.
What sends look like
The model assumes one send a day at most. There is no published daily cap the way Brevo has one, but the architecture is built for a single daily or weekly dispatch.
Rich text and markdown editing are both first class, and markdown support is rare among newsletter tools.
Billing counts active subscribers only, so a list that includes years of dead addresses does not inflate the price.
How it compares
beehiiv sends without limit and grows an audience through recommendations, at the cost of charging $49 for monetisation.
Kit holds 10,000 subscribers for free with a single automation, which is a far larger ceiling and a far smaller selection of features.
MailerLite allows 250 subscribers with automations included, a better fit for anyone who wants workflows from day one.
Buttondown is the only one built for writers who care about how the email is composed and delivered rather than how much of it can be sent.
When it is enough
A writer starting a paid or free newsletter on their own domain, with a hundred readers or fewer, who wants the composing experience to be good.
Anyone whose audience is technical enough to appreciate an absence of tracking pixels.
Someone who wants to charge for a newsletter without a platform taking a cut, which the paid subscriptions add-on at $9 enables.
When it stops being enough
At subscriber 101, where the free allowance ends and per-subscriber billing begins.
When you want tagging, analytics and paid subscriptions together, at which point $27 a month in add-ons sits on top of volume pricing.
When you need to run a second newsletter, which is a $29 add-on rather than a second free account.
Frequently asked questions
How many subscribers does Buttondown allow free?
The first 100 active subscribers are free.
Are features limited on the free tier?
The editor, custom sending domain and hosted archive are included. Tagging, analytics, paid subscriptions and automations are add-ons.
How much do Buttondown add-ons cost?
$9 a month each for tagging, paid subscriptions, comments, surveys, analytics, RSS and attachments. $29 for automations, sponsorships and multiple newsletters. $79 for whitelabeling and teams.
Does Buttondown track opens?
Not by default. The platform is built to avoid tracking pixels, and its analytics are click-based.
Who counts as a subscriber for billing?
Active subscribers only. Unsubscribed and inactive records are not billed.
Is there a nonprofit discount?
Yes, fifty percent off.
Subscriber allowance, add-on pricing and billing basis verified against Buttondown's pricing page on 20 October 2026. Privacy and tracking behaviour also taken from that page.
Sources
- Buttondown pricing: buttondown.com/pricing. Used for: Free to 100 subscribers and the per-feature add-on prices.
All sources are the vendor's own plan or documentation pages, checked on 20 October 2026. Plan terms change without notice, so confirm current limits before you rely on them.
