Buttondown vs EmailOctopus
Pricing
Buttondown: Free up to 100 subs, from $9/mo
EmailOctopus: Free up to 2,500 subs, from $9/mo
Description
Buttondown: Minimal newsletter tool for people who just want to write in markdown and hit send
EmailOctopus: Simple, affordable email marketing
Pros
- Markdown-based editor, no dragging boxes around
- $9/month for up to 1,000 subscribers is the cheapest paid newsletter tool
- No bloated features: it does newsletters and that is it
- 1/3 the price of Mailchimp for comparable features
- Free tier covers 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails a month
- Simple interface that does not try to be a CRM
Cons
- Very basic automation: no complex email sequences
- Only 100 subscribers on free tier; Substack and Beehiiv offer more
- Minimal templates: your emails look plain (which some people prefer)
- Automation is basic: no complex branching or conditional workflows
- Email template library is small compared to Mailchimp or MailerLite
- Free tier holds fewer subscribers than Kit (formerly ConvertKit), which allows 10,000
Details
Buttondown is the newsletter tool for people who think Kit (formerly ConvertKit) has too many features. Write in markdown, send to your list, done. No drag-and-drop editors, no complex automation flows, no features you will never use.
Built and run solo by Justin Duke. The $9/month starting price is the cheapest in the newsletter space. The tradeoff is obvious: if you want referral programs, A/B testing, or complex automation, you need a different tool. If you just want to write and send a newsletter without the tooling getting in the way, Buttondown is refreshingly simple.
EmailOctopus offers email marketing at roughly a third of Mailchimp’s price. Built on Amazon SES for reliable delivery at low cost.
Bootstrapped to $3M ARR by Jonathan Bull and Tom Evans. Remote team of 9, serving 92,000+ organizations across 119 countries.
Verified
