Buttondown - AI Tools Nav

What it is for

Buttondown is a hosted newsletter Write desk: you open Write, pick recipients (Public / Free / Premium / Private / Archival), and send, and Free is $0 (100 subscribers). Use it when the job is an email editor you start at a public $, not when you need a $0 local outliner only.

Soft-note: first 100 “absolutely nothing” + paid Basic / Standard / Professional. Distinct from Kit, Beehiiv, Brevo, Substack, and Loops.

What makes it unique: the cover is Buttondown’s official Write + Choose recipients desk (Write, Load draft, Subject, Body, Markdown / Rich text, modal Choose recipients Public 430 / Free 369 / Premium 60 / Private 430 / Archival 0, Send a teaser? / Customize the teaser?) from the tease2 still on Time capsule (2022-06-13) — not a wordmark banner. The Choose recipients tiles themselves are ops of Write.

Key features

Write — Subject / Body plus Markdown / Rich text (cover still; editor modes). One desk. Cover Write / Subject / Body sit here. Save sits here as a CTA, not a sixth desk.
Choose recipients — Public / Free / Premium / Private / Archival counts (cover Public 430 / Premium 60). An audience desk, not a Basic tile.
Teaser — Send a teaser? / Customize the teaser? on the same modal (cover; Time capsule “teaser email”). A teaser, not a $9 meter.
Editor modes — Fancy / Markdown / Naked (docs; cover Markdown / Rich text). A mode, not a Professional tile.
Load draft — the draft chip on Write (cover Load draft; sending). A draft, not Autosave.
Preview — Showing preview / Hiding preview on the composer (cover). A preview, not an Advanced tile.

Save / Next on the cover are CTAs (not desks). Free / Basic / Standard / Professional tiles stay in Pricing. Autogen extras stay off Key features as AI extras (the official how-to is a second desk).

Who it's for

Best fit: writers who will stay on Free at $0 (100 subscribers) while they open a first Write draft, then Basic at $9/month (1,000 subscribers) — not Standard $29 unless they need 5,000, and not Professional $79 unless they need 10,000.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from buttondown.com/pricing JSON-LD + printed cards. Soft-note: first 100 subscribers “absolutely nothing”.

Free — $0. 100 subscribers.
Basic — $9/month. 1,000 subscribers.
Standard — $29/month. 5,000 subscribers.
Professional — $79/month. 10,000 subscribers.
Advanced — $139/month. 20,000 subscribers.
Add-ons — printed $9 / $29 / $79 rows on the page we fetched. Confirm the live add-on name at checkout.

Confirm checkout; taxes follow your location.

Limitations / costs

Free is 100 subscribers. The 1,000-subscriber desk is Basic $9.
Naked mode and some extras print on paid tiles. Fancy / Markdown stay on Write.
A Write desk, not Kit’s Subscribers list. For that list see Kit.
The product is not the app GitHub. We omit a GitHub CTA rather than treat buttondown/* extras as Write.

Alternatives

Kit — a Subscribers list when you want Newsletter $0 / 10k, not Buttondown’s Choose recipients.
Beehiiv — a publication desk when you want beehiiv’s public $, not Basic $9.
Loops — SaaS email when you want Loops Free $0 / 1,000, not Standard $29.

Official tutorial

Official Buttondown channel video: How autogen works (oEmbed author: Buttondown). First-party how-to; the Write + Choose recipients still is the cover. Autogen on the video is a second desk, not generate-on-the-teaser. We searched @Buttondown first — that handle resolved to unrelated music (Every Breath You Take), not buttondown.com.

Written path: buttondown.com/pricing plus Time capsule and editor modes.

Website

https://buttondown.com/

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is Buttondown’s official Time capsule tease2 Write + Choose recipients still (Public/Free/Premium/Private/Archival + teaser) — not a banner wordmark. Dollars checked on buttondown.com/pricing (Free $0 / 100; Basic $9; Standard $29; Professional $79; Advanced $139). Tutorial oEmbed author: Buttondown (@buttondownemail, not @Buttondown music).

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.