Buttondown Documentation
Whether you’d like to set up a formal paid subscription program or a pay-what-you-want model, Buttondown offers a number of different ways to collect revenue from your subscribers, while also rewarding them with exclusive perks!
To set up paid subscriptions for your newsletter, you'll work in both Stripe and Buttondown.
Here's an overview of the steps required:
Buttondown works hand in hand with Stripe to automate payments and taxes related to your newsletter. To start using paid subscriptions, you must have:
We have a step-by-step guide to help you create and connect your Stripe account.
After you’ve integrated your Buttondown and Stripe accounts, you can add a paid subscription plan in Buttondown.
In Buttondown you'll:
This video shows how to access and configure the "Add paid subscriptions plan" menu in Settings.
Buttondown offers three different paid subscription models: "Fixed", "Pay what you want" or "Per email"
"Fixed" is billed at a regular cadence: monthly, or annuals.
The "Pay what you want" model allows your readers to pay any amount they feel comfortable with. This allows subscribers to support your writing without limiting their access to your content.
The "Per email" model is billed every time you send a paid newsletter. This allows your readers to contribute when you're writing more frequently (but not if you're on break.)
There are a few ways that you can have subscribers subscribe to your paid newsletter:
When a subscriber becomes a paid subscriber, it's nice to offer them a warm welcome by writing a custom confirmation email. You can create a custom email that is sent to a new paid subscriber automatically. Paid subscribers will receive this email when they opt in to your paid newsletter. Here's how:
You can send a newsletter email only to paid subscribers by configuring the recipient in the email drafting menu.
You just sent your first premium newsletter email to all paid subscribers.
Here’s what you need to know about Buttondown’s default settings for paid newsletters:
While these practices are defaults in Buttondown, you can always alter your payment settings in Stripe.
In the "Paid subscriptions" page, you can also choose to prohibit free subscriptions. You can change this at any time. To disable free subscriptions, click the toggle by Disable free subscriptions.