ButtondownvsBeehiiv

If you're looking for a platform to send emails and grow your newsletter, you've probably come across Beehiiv, the 'newsletter platform built for growth'. They raised a bunch of money in 2023, and used it to invest heavily in tooling around mailing list growth, like:

• "Boosts", a peer-to-peer marketplace for jumpstarting paid subscriber acquisition
• An advertiser acquisition network
• AI-powered writing assistants

Buttondown does not have these features. Buttondown will likely never have these features. Our goal is to focus on the core making the act of writing great emails and managing a subscriber list as easy as possible — which means: support for segmentation through tags and metadata, automations for drip sequences and rescue flows, and a rich API-first developer platform for you to hook up the other apps in your orbit when you need to.

We believe that "growth" works best when it happens directly between an author and their audience. Why? Because they came to you in the first place. Would you rather pay more for a larger list of people who only signed up because an app told them to, or would you rather have a smaller, focused list of those who really care?

Price

Beehiiv also costs more than us at any price point – for a bunch of features that you may never use.

While Beehiiv offers a free tier for newsletters with fewer than 2,500 subscribers (and no paid subscriptions), their paid plans start at $42/month for 2,500 subscribers and scale up from there. Buttondown's pricing starts at $9/month for 1,000 subscribers, making it significantly more affordable as you grow.

Assuming you have 20% of your subscribers on a paid plan for $10/month, here's how much you'd save by switching to Buttondown:

The comparison table below shows the pricing difference at various subscriber counts. Essentially, if you just want to have your newsletter software get out of your way and trust you on marketing, Beehiiv ends up costing more.

Features

Buttondown is a more focused tool than Beehiiv, allowing you to write faster & engage with your audience on your terms.

Buttondown is also a drop-in replacement for Beehiiv's existing functionality. We can import your archives, subscribers, and payments in minutes, and your subscribers won't have to re-subscribe or re-enter their payment information.

The comparison table below shows how Buttondown and Beehiiv compare across key features and pricing at different subscriber counts.

Ready to make the switch? Get started with Buttondown or check out our migration guide to import your Beehiiv data in minutes.