Newsletter LedgerButtondown pricing: what you pay at your list size
Buttondown is a small, text-first newsletter tool. It is free for the first 100 subscribers, then priced by list size, and paid subscriptions are a flat $9/month add-on with no cut of your revenue. Checked .
Key facts from Buttondown's own pages
- Up to 100 subscribers: $0. verified
- Base price: $9.00/month at 1,000 subscribers, $29.00 at 5,000, $79.00 at 10,000 and $139.00 at 20,000, as shown on Buttondown's comparison pages. verified
- Paid subscriptions: a "+$9/month" add-on, and "You keep all of the money you make after credit card fees." verified
- Yearly billing: we found no yearly price, so the tables use month-to-month prices.
Prices assume at most one email per day to the whole list (Buttondown FAQ).
What Buttondown costs at common list sizes
| Subscribers | Plan (free newsletter) | Plan, billed yearly | Plan, month-to-month | Paid newsletter: total cost | Same on Substack |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 | Standard | $9.00 | $9.00 | $31.30 Standard | $33.30 |
| 1,000 | Standard | $9.00 | $9.00 | $44.60 Standard | $66.60 |
| 2,500 | Standard | $29.00 | $29.00 | $104.50 Standard | $166.50 |
| 5,000 | Standard | $29.00 | $29.00 | $171.00 Standard | $333.00 |
| 10,000 | Standard | $79.00 | $79.00 | $354.00 Standard | $666.00 |
| 20,000 | Standard | $139.00 | $139.00 | $680.00 Standard | $1,332.00 |
Per month, US dollars. “Plan” columns: cheapest plan for a free newsletter at that size. “Paid newsletter: total cost” assumes 5% of the list pays $8/month and the platform is billed yearly; it includes the plan (cheapest one that supports paid subscriptions), the platform's percentage fee and Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per charge. * = includes a figure not yet confirmed on the official page. Where our data lacks an exact tier, the next known tier up is used. Change any input in the cost calculator.
Disclosure: links to platforms go through /go/ redirects. Some are affiliate links (currently beehiiv and Systeme.io): if you sign up and pay, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. That never changes the numbers or the order of results. Full disclosure.
Visit Buttondown (opens in a new tab) · Buttondown's official pricing page
Strengths and limits, on the facts
In Buttondown's favour
- A low fixed price for a paid newsletter: plan plus $9, with 0% of revenue.
- Paid subscribers can move from Substack without re-entering cards when the same Stripe account is used (Buttondown's guide).
Limits to know
- Self-serve tiers in our data stop at 20,000 subscribers.
- Intermediate tiers between the listed sizes may exist; we use the next listed tier up.
We have not used Buttondown as a publisher; this page covers price only. See the methodology.
All Buttondown price tiers in our data
| Plan | Subscribers up to | Month-to-month | Billed yearly (total) | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | 100 | $0.00/mo | not in our data | Monthly: verifiedYearly: unverified | buttondown.com |
| Standard | 1,000 | $9.00/mo | not in our data | Monthly: verifiedYearly: unverified | buttondown.com, sequenzy.com |
| Standard | 5,000 | $29.00/mo | not in our data | Monthly: verifiedYearly: unverified | buttondown.com, sequenzy.com |
| Standard | 10,000 | $79.00/mo | not in our data | Monthly: verifiedYearly: unverified | buttondown.com, sequenzy.com |
| Standard | 20,000 | $139.00/mo | not in our data | Monthly: verifiedYearly: unverified | buttondown.com, sequenzy.com |