Ghost vs Buttondown 2026: Which Newsletter Platform Is Better?

Ghost and Buttondown both serve independent writers, but with completely different philosophies. Ghost is a full publishing platform with a CMS, membership system, website builder, and email delivery all in one package. Buttondown is a stripped-down, developer-friendly newsletter tool that does one thing well: sending emails from Markdown.

The right choice depends on whether you want an all-in-one platform or a lightweight tool you can integrate into your existing workflow.

Feature Comparison

Pricing Breakdown

Ghost's managed hosting (Ghost(Pro)) starts at $9/month for the Starter plan (500 members, 1 staff user). The Creator plan is $25/month (1,000 members, 2 staff users). Team is $50/month (1,000 members, 5 staff), and Business is $199/month (10,000 members, unlimited staff). You can self-host Ghost for free on your own server, paying only for hosting costs (typically $5-20/month on DigitalOcean or similar).

Buttondown is free for up to 100 subscribers. The Basic plan is $9/month for up to 1,000 subscribers. The Standard plan is $29/month for up to 5,000 subscribers. Professional is $79/month for up to 10,000 subscribers. Each tier adds features like custom domains, surveys, and API access. Above 10,000, pricing is custom.

At small scale, Buttondown is cheaper. Ghost's self-hosted option is the cheapest long-term path if you are comfortable with server management. Ghost(Pro) gets expensive quickly if you have many paid members or need multiple team seats.

Publishing Experience

Ghost's editor (Koenig) is a block-based rich text editor similar to Notion or WordPress's Gutenberg. You can embed images, galleries, code blocks, bookmarks, products, email CTAs, and custom HTML. Every post can be published as a web page, an email, or both simultaneously. The editor is polished and fast.

Buttondown uses Markdown. You write in Markdown, preview the rendered output, and send. If you already write in Markdown (many developers and technical writers do), Buttondown's workflow is faster with zero friction. But there is no visual block editor, no drag-and-drop, and limited rich media support. You can include HTML in your Markdown, but the tool clearly favors text-heavy content.

Memberships and Monetization

Both platforms support paid subscriptions through Stripe. Ghost's implementation is more mature: you can create multiple membership tiers, offer annual and monthly pricing, gate specific content to specific tiers, and manage member permissions. Ghost takes 0% commission on all plans (you pay Stripe's processing fees only).

Buttondown also offers paid subscriptions through Stripe with 0% commission on the Professional plan. The Basic and Standard plans take a small cut. Buttondown's membership features are simpler: you have free and paid tiers, and you can gate emails to paid subscribers. But there is no tiered membership system or content gating at the web level (because there is no website).

Technical Control

Ghost is open source (MIT license). You can self-host it, modify the source code, build custom themes with Handlebars templates, and use the Content API and Admin API to build any frontend you want. Many publishers use Ghost as a headless CMS with a custom frontend built in Next.js or Astro.

Buttondown is not open source, but it has a solid REST API, webhook support, and integrates cleanly with static site generators. Developers often use Buttondown as the email layer behind a custom-built site. It does one thing and exposes clean interfaces for automation.

Migration and Data Portability

Ghost supports full content export in JSON format and subscriber export in CSV. Because Ghost is open source, you can also back up the entire database and move to a new host. Migrating away from Ghost is straightforward, and several tools exist to convert Ghost content to other formats (WordPress, Markdown, Hugo).

Buttondown stores your content and subscriber data in its system. You can export subscribers as CSV and download your email content. Because Buttondown emails are written in Markdown, your content is already in a portable format. Moving from Buttondown to another email tool is simple: export subscribers, copy your Markdown files, and point your DNS elsewhere.

Deliverability

Ghost handles email delivery through its built-in Mailgun integration on Ghost(Pro), or you can configure your own Mailgun credentials on self-hosted instances. Deliverability is solid, but you are dependent on Mailgun's infrastructure and your own sending reputation.

Buttondown sends through a combination of Amazon SES and its own infrastructure. Deliverability is consistently good. Buttondown supports custom sending domains, DKIM, and SPF configuration on paid plans, giving you control over your sender reputation. For a small tool, Buttondown takes deliverability seriously.

Who Wins?

Choose Ghost if:

• You want a website and newsletter on one platform
• You need tiered paid memberships with content gating
• You want to self-host for full data ownership and lower cost
• You publish both web content and email newsletters
• You need multi-author support with editorial roles
• You want full theme customization and design control

Choose Buttondown if:

• You already have a website and just need an email tool
• You write in Markdown and want zero-friction publishing
• You are a developer who values clean APIs over visual editors
• You want RSS-to-email for automating newsletter sends
• You want the simplest possible newsletter workflow
• You have a small list and want a free or low-cost option