Buttondown vs emit
Buttondown is a lovely, developer-friendly newsletter tool — the closest in spirit to emit — but it's priced per subscriber. emit keeps the dev-first ethos and bills per email instead, so big-list-low-frequency senders pay less.
| emit | Buttondown | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per email ($0.80/1k) | Per subscriber (tiered) |
| Pay for inactive subscribers | No | Yes |
| RSS feed → newsletter (native) | Yes | Yes |
| API-first / OpenAPI | Yes | Yes |
| Send from your own domain | Yes (SES, DKIM) | Yes |
| Paid subscriptions / paywall | No | Yes |
| Best for | Devs & their agents | Indie writers |
As of 2026, Buttondown's paid plans start around $9/mo for 1,000 subscribers and scale per subscriber. Verify current plans on their site. Last reviewed May 2026.
Why developers pick emit over Buttondown
- Per-email billing wins for large lists you email occasionally.
- MCP server + Claude Code skill for fully agent-driven setup.
- Pay-as-you-go prepaid credits, no monthly subscriber tier.
When Buttondown is the better choice
Buttondown is the better choice if you want a polished writing/editor experience and paid subscriptions, and your list size maps well to its tiers.
emit pricing
$0.80 per 1,000 emails, prepaid — no subscriber tiers, no monthly minimum, no revenue cut. See pricing, the full comparison, or add a subscribe form.