Switched from Resend to Buttondown for Newsletters

I tried to get Resend working with my setup for baljit.dev. The subscription flow wouldn't work because my domain wasn't verified in Resend. After spending about 2 hours trying to get the DNS records configured in GoDaddy with no success, I decided to look for alternatives.

The Options

I asked Claude Code for replacements and got back a solid list:

Developer-friendly (similar to Resend):

• Postmark — excellent deliverability, great API, transactional email focused
• SendGrid — widely used, generous free tier (100 emails/day), good API
• Mailgun — reliable, good for transactional + marketing, pay-as-you-go

Newsletter-specific platforms:

• Buttondown — minimal, developer-friendly, supports Markdown, has a free tier
• ConvertKit (now Kit) — popular with creators, built-in landing pages and automation
• Beehiiv — growing fast in the creator space, free tier with monetization options

Self-hosted:

• Listmonk — open-source, self-hosted, very capable, pairs with any SMTP provider

Why Buttondown

Went with Buttondown after going down the rabbit hole. It handles double opt-in, confirmation emails, and subscriber management out of the box — which meant I could rip out a lot of custom code (verification tokens, email templates, batch sending logic).

I had Claude Code make all the changes. The migration removed ~1,000 lines of code.

The Setup

Set up was a breeze:

1. Signed up for an account (they ask a lot of questions during onboarding)
2. Got my API key
3. Added it to Vercel as BUTTONDOWN_API_KEY
4. Deployed

My account needed manual approval, but it came through quickly. Once approved, I was able to subscribe without any issues.

Buttondown just works. Highly recommend if you're looking for a simple, developer-friendly newsletter platform.