Why is running a newsletter so hard?

Creators just want to reach their audience, but why is that so weirdright now? Social platforms come & go. Email providers grow and stop supporting you. Or they’ll shut down, despite the fact that you need your email to work like it’s a utility that you can depend on. Or they’ll hike their fees, forcing you to go through a stressful migration. Or they’ll add dozens of features that you’ll never want to use. Or they’ll just turn flatly evil.

This all should theoretically be easy: make something, tell your audience, repeat. And that’s how it usually is – until it’s not. Turns out creating is only hard when other people make it hard.

We don’t. We won’t.

What if your email provider actually wantedyou to succeed, and wasn’t trying to slowly bleed you dry? What if your email provider connected seamlessly to the places where you’re publishing new work, streaming, or just hanging out? What if your email provider didn’t change to support a few rich customers? Or they just stuck around at all?

What if you felt good about creating online?

That’s where we come in.

Why us?

So those are all of the problems. Why is Buttondown the best alternative for your email? We hear three common issues from our customers, and we have answers to all of them:

“My list isn’t growing enough.”

Some people are perfectly happy to launch a tiny newsletter and keep it that way. Buttondown is great for that. We’re also great for people who want to grow their newsletters.

We let you set up programs that encourage your subscribers to invite others and share widely. We let you find subscribers that really care about your work, engaging with it on your terms. In short, our tools let you not only grow your list, but find your people.

“Migration is hard.”

Fair! The last thing anyone wants to do is spend a bunch of time switching email providers. Stuff breaks; people lose features they once relied on.

That’s why we’re able to migrate your list for you – by hand, entirely for free, regardless of size, no catch.

“Software doesn’t last.”

Platforms grow & get bought. Others turn into the precise thing you tried to flee from in the first place.

We’re committed to remaining an independent, bootstrapped company for the long haul, to the point where we’re willing to write this on our home page. We’re growing slowly & intentionally, and working in public to gain your trust.