Best for
Best for individual writers and small publishers who want a plain newsletter with paid subscriptions and an API, without a marketing suite around it.
Email Marketing Comparison
Buttondown vs. EmailOctopus
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for creators and small businesses that want low-cost newsletters, automation and landing pages without paying for features they will not use.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Buttondown | EmailOctopus |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free up to 100 subscribers; Basic from USD 9 / month Basic covers up to 1,000 active subscribers. Annual billing costs ten times the monthly price. Automations, sponsorships and multiple newsletters need the USD 29 tier or above, teams and whitelabeling the USD 79 tier. Prices assume at most one email a day to the whole list. Registered non-profits get 50 % off. | From $9 / month Pro plan, billed yearly; the price scales with the number of subscribers. A free Starter plan covers up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month. |
| Free trial | Free plan for up to 100 subscribers | Free Starter plan for up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month, with EmailOctopus branding |
| API | Yes, a REST API with webhooks on every plan, including Free | Yes, a public API to manage lists, contacts, campaigns and automations |
| Hosting | Cloud (SaaS) | Cloud (SaaS) |
| Campaign types | Newsletters and one-off emails, RSS-to-email from an existing blog, automated sequences, surveys, comments and sponsorship slots, plus hosted web archives that can be paywalled | Yes, email newsletters and campaigns, with scheduled sending |
| Automation and journeys | Automations triggered by events such as a subscriber confirming or a tag being added, filtered by tag or by paid status, with actions to send an email, add a tag, call a webhook or cross-post to social networks, each after a set delay; available from the USD 29 tier | Yes, automated sequences that engage subscribers based on triggers |
| Segmentation and personalisation | Tags, searchable subscriber metadata, free versus paid targeting and separate newsletters per audience; per-subscriber content through Django-style template variables and filters. Tagging and segmentation start on the USD 9 tier | Yes, segmentation using custom fields and tags |
| Templates and editor | Rich text or Markdown editor with four email themes, custom HTML and CSS, reusable snippets, and drafting by email or through the Buttondown CLI | Yes, a drag-and-drop editor with auto-generating templates that adapt to your colours |
| Deliverability and testing | Sending from your own domain, pre-send checks on subject length, word count and email size, double opt-in, and a dedicated IP for USD 50 / month for senders above 100,000 emails a month. Gmail does not report spam complaints back, so the docs point to Google Postmaster Tools | Yes, with over a decade of email delivery experience and real-time open and click reporting |
| Ecommerce and CRM data | Paid subscriptions through Stripe in any currency Stripe supports, monthly or annual, with multiple tiers and pay-what-you-like pricing; automations can create and update Shopify customers, and Memberful is supported | Through integrations rather than a built-in sync: an official WordPress plugin for sign-up forms, and Zapier for the rest, with Shopify connected that way |
| Integrations and API | REST API with webhooks on every plan including Free, documented as an OpenAPI spec rather than official SDKs, plus a CLI, Zapier and integrations with WordPress, Ghost, Discord, Medium, LinkedIn and Bluesky | Yes, a public API for lists, contacts, campaigns and automations, plus over 1,000 integrations |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | Email helpdesk | more entries Email helpdesk, Chat |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials |
| Company size | Not stated | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized |
| Integrations | more entries Stripe, Zapier, WordPress, Ghost, Shopify, Memberful, Discord, Mastodon, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Medium, Webflow, Squarespace, Framer, Carrd, Plausible, Fathom | Zapier, WordPress, Shopify |
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Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Buttondown Free up to 100 subscribers; Basic from USD 9 / month EmailOctopus From $9 / month
- Free trial Buttondown Free plan for up to 100 subscribers EmailOctopus Free Starter plan for up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month, with EmailOctopus branding
- Support Buttondown Email helpdesk EmailOctopus Email helpdesk, Chat
- API Buttondown Yes, a REST API with webhooks on every plan, including Free EmailOctopus Yes, a public API to manage lists, contacts, campaigns and automations
- Campaign types Buttondown Newsletters and one-off emails, RSS-to-email from an existing blog, automated sequences, surveys, comments and sponsorship slots, plus hosted web archives that can be paywalled EmailOctopus Yes, email newsletters and campaigns, with scheduled sending
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Buttondown
Strengths
- Free for the first 100 subscribers
- API and webhooks on every plan, including Free
- Buttondown states it takes no cut of paid subscriptions; Stripe's card fees still apply
- Billed by active subscribers rather than all contacts on the list
Limitations
- Automations, sponsorships and multiple newsletters need the USD 29 tier or above
- Prices assume at most one email a day to the whole list; higher volume needs a custom quote
- No official SDKs; the vendor publishes an OpenAPI spec instead
- Lists above 100,000 subscribers are priced on request
EmailOctopus
Strengths
- Free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month
- Low-cost Pro plan from $9 per month
- Automation, tag-based segmentation, and landing pages and forms
- Public API and over 1,000 integrations
Limitations
- The free plan carries EmailOctopus branding
- The lowest Pro price is billed yearly
Plans
Pricing
Buttondown
- Free USD 0 / month Up to 100 subscribers, with the editor, sending from a custom domain and hosted archives.
- Basic USD 9 / month Up to 1,000 subscribers. Adds tagging and segmentation, paid subscriptions, comments and surveys, analytics, RSS-to-email and attachments. USD 90 billed annually.
- Standard USD 29 / month Up to 5,000 subscribers. Adds automations, sponsorships, multiple newsletters and archives on a custom domain. USD 290 billed annually.
- Professional USD 79 / month Up to 10,000 subscribers. Adds teams and whitelabeling. USD 790 billed annually.
- Advanced USD 139 / month Up to 20,000 subscribers. Larger lists step up to USD 459 / month for 100,000 subscribers; above that, a custom quote.
EmailOctopus
- Starter $0 / month Up to 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails per month, with EmailOctopus branding.
- Pro From $9 / month Billed yearly; removes branding and adds custom email design, unlimited landing pages, forms and reports. The price scales with the number of subscribers.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Buttondown
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
EmailOctopus
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.
Every review is read by a person before it appears. An email address is required and is confirmed: we send a link to it, and a review does not reach us until the author opens that link, so a review has a sender who was reachable at least once rather than being anonymous. Where what somebody writes needs backing, we ask them for evidence that they used the product, and a review that does not get it is not published. We publish positive and negative reviews alike, we pay nothing and offer nothing for a review, and we accept none that was bought or incentivised.
What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on their own declaration, on whatever we ask them for, and on the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.
A vendor cannot buy a review, and cannot have one removed or changed because they dislike it. We remove or edit a review only if it breaks our rules or the law, for example a false statement of fact. Paid placement has no effect on which reviews appear or on any score.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Buttondown https://buttondown.com · checked against the official source on 2026-10-28
EmailOctopus https://emailoctopus.com · checked against the official source on 2026-08-22
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.