Buttondown vs Substack

Buttondown takes a minimalist approach to newsletter creation. It's great for personal newsletters where you don't need a bunch of fancy features. It also supports paid subscriptions and third-party integrations to make your life easier.

Substack helps anyone set up a blog and email newsletter and publish directly to their audience and get paid through subscriptions. No tech knowledge is required. It’s free to get started on Substack. If you turn on paid subscriptions, Substack will keep a 10% cut of revenues.

Feature Comparison

Buttondown and Substack both have great feature sets so the right tool for you really depends on your needs.

Features	Buttondown	Substack
💸 Paid Subscriptions Accept paid subscriptions	✅	✅
➗ Segmentation Create segments of subscribers	✅	❌
🤖 Automation Automate actions based on behaviors	✅	❌
📩 Embeddable Forms Embeddable subscription forms	✅	✅
📄 Landing Pages Create landing pages for your newsletter	❌	✅
🔌 3rd Party Integrations Connect to other services	✅	❌
🖊️ Visual Editor Drag and drop email editor	✅	✅
📝 Markdown Editor Write emails in markdown	✅	❌
👩‍💻 HTML Design emails with HTML text	✅	❌
⚒️ API Integrate with the platform's API	✅	❌
📈 Analytics Get data on your emails' performance	✅	✅
🌍 Custom Domain Use a custom domain for your page	✅	✅
🗣️ Referrals Setup a referral program	❌	✅
💽 Self Hosting Host on your own server	❌	❌
📢 Recommendations Recommend and be recommended by other newsletters	❌	✅