ButtondownMailCheap vs Buttondown
Buttondown costs less up to 1,000 subscribers. At 10,000, MailCheap costs $39 a month against $79, and your AI agent runs it.
Monthly billing. Buttondown's price from its pricing page, October 13, 2026.
01 · Features
Side by side
From Buttondown's pricing page and MailCheap's, on October 13, 2026. Where Buttondown does more, the table says so.
| Feature | MailCheapMailCheap | ButtondownButtondown |
|---|---|---|
| Run by your AI agent (MCP) | Every plan, every action, sending included | API only |
| REST API | Every action | Yes |
| Open source | AGPL-3.0, free to self-host | No |
| Free plan | No, free when you self-host | Up to 100 subscribers |
| Stats and analytics | Included | $9 a month add-on |
| Archive on your own domain | Included | $29 a month add-on |
| Paid subscriptions | No | $9 a month add-on |
| Automations | Welcome email | $29 a month add-on |
| Several newsletters, teams | Up to 3 newsletters, one user | $29 and $79 add-ons |
02 · Price
What it costs a month
The cheapest plan with room for your list, sending one issue a week: about 4.3 emails per subscriber a month. Monthly billing, in US dollars.
Every MailCheap plan has every feature. Paying yearly costs 10 months: 2 months free.
| Subscribers | MailCheap | Buttondown |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $19Starter | $9Basic $10 a month less on Buttondown. |
| 10,000 | $39Growth | $79Professional $40 a month less with MailCheap. |
| 50,000 | $149Scale | $319 $170 a month less with MailCheap. |
| 100,000 | $149Scale | Quote on request Buttondown doesn't publish a price for this size. |
- Free up to 100 subscribers. Prices assume at most one email a day to the whole list.
- Analytics and paid subscriptions are $9 add-ons, automations and an archive on your own domain $29 each. MailCheap includes stats and your domain.
Source: buttondown.com/pricing, checked October 13, 2026. MailCheap: pricing, from $19 a month.
03 · AI agents
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Cursor
- Codex
- Grok Bot
Your AI agent writes, schedules and sends each issue, reads the stats and imports your list
Buttondown has an API, and no MCP server of its own.
04 · Open source
Self-host it free, or let us run it
MailCheap is open source under the AGPL-3.0: the code that runs mailcheap.ai is the code you can run. Buttondown funds open source, but the app itself isn't: you can't run it on your own server.
Self-host
FreeRun MailCheap on your own server, at no cost. No support: you keep it up to date yourself.
MailCheap Cloud
From $19 a monthWe run it: sending, your archive, your domain setup and updates, with support by email.
Moving from Buttondown?
Export your subscribers, import the file as it is, and send. People who unsubscribed or bounced stay out.
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Buttondown is a trademark of its owner, shown here to name the product compared. MailCheap isn't affiliated with Buttondown. Prices and features come from buttondown.com on October 13, 2026 and may have changed since.