Buttondown

Buttondown's editor is markdown-first, so writers who prefer typing over a rich-text toolbar get a plain, fast writing experience, with a documented API for anyone who wants to publish or manage subscribers programmatically rather than through the dashboard. Paid subscriptions run through Stripe directly, and the team will migrate an existing list over from another platform for free, typically within a business day.

Pricing is based on subscriber count: the free plan covers up to 100 subscribers with unlimited sends, a custom domain, and RSS support, and the paid Basic tier starts at $9 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers, adding API access, automations, and premium integrations. A 5,000-subscriber list runs about $29 a month, and 10,000 subscribers runs about $139 a month. Buttondown takes no cut of paid subscription revenue. It's the right fit for a technical writer or small newsletter that wants a simple, inexpensive tool without beehiiv's growth features or Ghost's full website layer.