Tirada vs Buttondown
Buttondown pricing as published on 20 October 2026Buttondown is a small, independent tool, with an API that developers like, and it charges by how many active subscribers you have. Tirada charges a small plan fee plus the emails you send, also keeps nothing of your subscriptions, and comes with an official MCP so your AI can prepare the work while a person confirms every send.
With Tirada you keep between €468 (Pro) and €708 (Lite) more a year.
At a glance
| Tirada | Buttondown | |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 subscribers, weekly send, 500 paying €5 | Better option: €13.66 – €33.66 | $79 (≈ €73) |
| How it charges | Better option: A plan of €5, €15 or €25 a month and €2 per 10,000 emails you send | By active subscribers; you get more features as your tier goes up |
| Cut of your paid subscriptions | 0%. The money goes to your own Stripe account | 0%, plus Stripe's fee, in your own account. From the 1,000-subscriber tier |
| Official MCP server | Better option: Yes, on every plan, the €5 one included. How to connect it | No, on purpose: it says an MCP is a thin wrapper around its API and suggests you build your own |
| If you connect an AI, who confirms the send? | Better option: You. The agent can leave a send ready, but a person confirms every send in the dashboard | No official agent. Through the API, a key with sending permission (the primary key always has it) sends to the whole list with no confirmation in the app |
| API and webhooks | Public REST API and signed webhooks on every plan | REST API with an OpenAPI spec on every plan, the free one included, with per-area permissions. Has webhooks |
| Free plan | No. A seven-day trial, with a card and up to 1,000 emails | Better option: Yes, up to 100 subscribers |
| Your own domain | For sending and publishing, on every plan, for €2 a month | For sending, on every plan, the free one included. The website on your domain isn't in the free plan or the 1,000-subscriber one |
| Where your data lives | Better option: In the European Union: servers in Finland, sending from Sweden | United States |
| Taking your data with you | Subscribers, writing and data whenever you want, no lock-in | Subscribers as CSV, yes. Paid subscriptions stay in your Stripe account |
Why Tirada
- With 10,000 subscribers Buttondown costs $79 (≈ €73) a month. On Tirada, with one send a week, you pay €13.66 on Lite or €33.66 on Pro, with a person handling your incidents. With 50,000 it's $319 (≈ €293) against €48.30, and from 100,000 Buttondown asks for a quote.
- Your AI gets an official MCP from the €5 plan, with nine diagnostic tools plus the API operations you approve. Buttondown has chosen not to have an MCP and suggests you build one yourself.
- An agent can get a send ready but can't send it: a person confirms every send in the dashboard. On Buttondown, any API key with sending permission emails the whole list without going through the app, and the primary key always has that permission.
- Your data and your readers' data stay in the European Union. Buttondown processes them in the United States, under standard contractual clauses.
Pricing, in numbers
Buttondown charges by active subscribers, with a price per tier that assumes at most one email a day to the whole list. The first 100 subscribers are free. Features come with what you pay: paid subscriptions, tags and analytics start at the 1,000-subscriber tier, and others, such as the website on your domain or automations, from $29 a month. With one send a week:
| Subscribers | Buttondown, free newsletter | Buttondown, with 5% paying | Tirada Lite | Tirada Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $9 (≈ €8) | $9 (≈ €8) | €5.87 | €25.87 |
| 10,000 | $79 (≈ €73) | $79 (≈ €73) | €13.66 | €33.66 |
| 50,000 | $319 (≈ €293) | $319 (≈ €293) | €48.30 | €68.30 |
| 100,000 | Custom quote | Custom quote | €91.60 | €111.60 |
Monthly price with one send a week (4.33 emails per subscriber). "With 5% paying": one in twenty subscribers pays you €5 a month, and what the platform keeps from those payments is added. Buttondown: prices as published on 20 October 2026; dollars at €0.92. Tirada: plan plus €2 per 10,000 emails, excluding VAT, and 0% commission. The payment processor's fee (Stripe) applies on both and isn't included. Your own domain on Tirada, €2 more a month, isn't included.
Below 100 subscribers Buttondown is free and Tirada isn't. At 1,000 they're close: $9 (≈ €8) on Buttondown against €5.87 on Tirada Lite. Buttondown includes sending from your domain; on Tirada that's €2 more a month. If you also want the website on your domain, Buttondown charges extra. From there the gap grows with the list, and from 100,000 subscribers Buttondown doesn't publish a price.
Your AI and your agents
Buttondown has no MCP server, and that's a choice: on its API page it explains that an MCP server is a thin, opinionated wrapper around its API, and suggests asking a language model to build one for you from its OpenAPI spec. It has no AI writing assistants either, and says it will likely never have them. There is a community MCP server that uses your API key; it isn't Buttondown's.
Its API is complete and on every plan, the free one included: subscribers, emails (drafts, scheduling and sending), tags, automations, imports, exports and webhooks. Since January 2026 you can create keys with per-area permissions, for example one that can't send. But a key with that permission emails your whole list with no confirmation in the app, and the primary key always has it: if you build an MCP with it, your agent can send.
On Tirada the MCP comes with every plan, Lite included. Your assistant gets nine diagnostic tools (why an email didn't arrive, what your domain is missing, why a send was paused, what happened in an import) plus the API operations you approve, such as preparing a draft or getting a send ready. It can't confirm it: a person confirms every send in the dashboard. Your readers' emails reach it masked, it reads at most 5,000 subscriber records a day, and you can revoke each connection from the dashboard. How to connect it.
When Buttondown is the better choice
If your list is under 100 subscribers, Buttondown is free, and you send from your own domain from day one. If you write in Markdown, want tracking off by default and prefer a small, profitable, self-funded company that has been around since 2017, Buttondown fits. It has comments, surveys, RSS-to-email, attachments, sponsorships and automations; Tirada has no automations beyond the welcome email.
If you don't want AI in your newsletter tool, Buttondown has said it will likely never add it. And its team helps you migrate for free, paid subscribers included if you're coming from Substack.
How to move from Buttondown
- On Buttondown, export your subscribers as a CSV. Keep a separate copy of your published emails: Tirada imports subscribers, not the post archive.
- On Tirada, import the subscriber CSV. You get a report of who got in and why each of the rest didn't.
- Connect your domain to send and publish from it (€2 a month) and your Stripe account to get paid.
- If you have paid subscribers, their subscriptions live in your Stripe account, but Tirada doesn't take over existing subscriptions: your paying readers subscribe again on your Tirada page. Tell them first, and cancel their Buttondown subscriptions once they've moved, so nobody pays twice.
Questions
How much does Buttondown cost with 10,000 subscribers?
$79 (≈ €73) a month, billed monthly, with paid subscriptions and no commission. On Tirada, with one send a week to 10,000 subscribers, you pay €13.66 on Lite or €33.66 on Pro, also with 0% commission.
Does Buttondown have an MCP server?
No. Buttondown says an MCP server is a thin wrapper around its API and suggests you build your own. Tirada has an official MCP on every plan, and a person confirms every send in the dashboard.
Which is cheaper, Buttondown or Tirada?
Up to 100 subscribers, Buttondown, which is free. With one send a week, beyond that Tirada is cheaper at every size in the table: with 10,000 subscribers, €13.66 a month on Tirada Lite against $79 (≈ €73) on Buttondown.
Does Buttondown take a commission on paid subscriptions?
No: you keep everything except Stripe's fee, as on Tirada. Paid subscriptions start at the 1,000-subscriber tier, which costs $9 (≈ €8) a month.
Sources, checked on 20 October 2026: Pricing, Paid subscriptions, API (and why there's no MCP), API key permissions, Data processing agreement.
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