Buttondown vs Drip
Side-by-side plans, pricing, and feature gates for Buttondown and Drip, verified . Both are primarily email marketing tools.
Plans side by side
Every published plan from each vendor, with the headline monthly anchor price. Some prices scale with subscriber count or seats; full detail lives on each tool's page.
Buttondown
- Free
Up to 100 subscribers with markdown editor, custom-domain sending, and hosted archives.
Free - $9 add-ons
Pay per feature; this bundle is illustrative of the $9 add-on tier.
$9/mo - $29 add-ons
Pay per feature; this bundle is illustrative of the $29 add-on tier.
$29/mo - $79 add-ons
Pay per feature; this bundle is illustrative of the $79 add-on tier.
$79/mo
Drip
- Standard
Most popular: $39/mo at 2.5k contacts
$39/mo
Limits at the entry paid tier
Compares $9 add-ons (Buttondown) against Standard (Drip). Both are the lowest-priced non-free, non-custom plan on each side.
| Limit | Buttondown | Drip |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | Custom | 2,500 contacts (entry tier; scales) |
| Workflows | · | 50 |
When Buttondown wins
- Independent writers and indie creators running a paid newsletter.
- Privacy-minded operators who want to avoid tracking pixels.
- Markdown-native authors who prefer plain text over WYSIWYG bloat.
Where Buttondown is the wrong fit
- High-volume senders pushing multiple campaigns per day.
- E-commerce teams needing deep behavioral automation and segmentation.
- Marketing teams that want a single flat tier covering every feature.
When Drip wins
- E-commerce stores on Shopify, BigCommerce, or WooCommerce running flows on customer behavior
- Small to mid stores graduating from Mailchimp's e-commerce features
Where Drip is the wrong fit
- B2B marketers (use ActiveCampaign or Customer.io)
- Creators running newsletters (use Kit or beehiiv)
- Buyers who need to know full pricing before signup
Common questions
- Is Buttondown cheaper than Drip?
- At the entry tier, Buttondown starts at Free versus Drip at $39/mo. Buttondown is cheaper at the entry. Pricing scales differently above that, so check the full plan grid.
- Does Buttondown or Drip have a free plan?
- Only Buttondown has a permanent free plan. Drip only offers a free trial.
Buttondown: https://buttondown.com/pricing · Drip: https://www.drip.com/pricing
Last verified . Pricing changes between refreshes; confirm at the vendor before purchasing.