Replies and tracked replies have been a long-standing source of confusion for authors and subscribers alike. There wasn't any one big reason for this — more like a constellation of small, uninteresting issues that we finally sat down and fixed. Two big things changed:

Automatic reply tracking for sending domains

If you have a sending domain set up with Buttondown, we now automatically listen for incoming emails to any address on that domain and forward them to you. Under the hood, we've set up MX records pointing to Postmark for inbound email processing — any incoming email gets stored in your inbox and relayed to you.

If you're using managed domain delegation, this is rolling out automatically — you don't need to do anything. If you set up your domain manually, head to your sending domain settings and add the new MX records listed there.

We've also simplified the email address that Buttondown uses on your behalf: it's now just your [email protected]. All outgoing emails come from this address, and any replies flow right back to you. This functionality is entirely free.

Reply tracking is now always on

We've also removed the ability to opt out of reply tracking.

We gave this a lot of thought. To be clear: the emails and replies we track on your behalf never leave our servers and are never shared with or sold to third parties.

We got rid of the opt-out because it was genuinely confusing to a lot of people, and there was no safe way to model what happens when you want to turn off tracked replies but still receive incoming email from a domain we don't control. The reply-to address in your general settings won't be visible to subscribers — we use it to forward incoming emails to you, which preserves your privacy and guards against spam.

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What this actually gives you

Custom email templates have been one of the most-requested features we've had to set up manually for people. Until now, you had to reach out to us and ask us to flip a switch — which is a pretty annoying way to access a feature you're already paying for. That changes today: if you're on a Professional plan or higher, you can now set up a custom email template directly from your email design settings.

Buttondown's built-in themes (Modern, Classic, etc.) cover most use cases, but some authors need pixel-level control over their email HTML. Custom email templates let you edit the full HTML of your email layout — headers, footers, spacing, fonts, the works. Think of it as the email equivalent of custom CSS, but for the entire document structure rather than just styles.

When you first open the template editor, we'll initialize it with your current theme's HTML so you have a working starting point rather than a blank page. From there you can modify anything you want, preview changes in real time, and roll back to previous versions using the built-in design history.

How to get started

Head to Settings > Email and look for the new Custom template section. Click "Open full editor" to get started. This is part of Buttondown's white-labeling feature set, available on Professional plans and above.

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No more choosing between "pause" and "cancel" — there's just one option now.

The single most common billing question we get is some variation of: "I have a big subscriber list but I only send a few times a year — do I really have to pay for the months I'm not sending?"

The answer has been "no" for a while now. We launched paused subscriptions back in 2024, and hundreds of authors have used it. But we've done a poor job explaining what "pausing" versus "cancelling" actually means, and the distinction has caused more confusion than it's worth.

So we're getting rid of it. There's no longer a separate "pause" option — if you cancel your subscription, you keep access to everything (collecting subscribers, editing emails, managing your archives) except sending new emails. When you're ready to send again, you can reactivate from the billing page at any time.

If you currently have a paused subscription: nothing changes about your experience. We're just calling it something different. Your account works exactly the same way it did yesterday.

Frequently asked questions

What about archives?

We still maintain archives even if you cancel, too!

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Following up on subscriber-editable tags

When subscribers see a list of tags they can toggle on or off, sometimes the tag name alone doesn't tell the whole story. "Weekly" is clear enough, but "Premium Content" or "Beta Access" might need a bit more context.

Now you can add a public_description to any tag. This shows up as helper text in the subscriber portal, right below the tag name — giving subscribers the context they need to make an informed choice.

The new field is available in the Tags API :

curl -X POST https://api.buttondown.com/v1/tags \
-H "Authorization: Token $API_KEY" \
-d name="Beta Access" \
-d public_description="Get early access to new features before they're released to everyone." \
-d subscriber_editable=true

You can also add it when updating existing tags:

curl -X PATCH https://api.buttondown.com/v1/tags/{id} \
-H "Authorization: Token $API_KEY" \
-d public_description="Weekly digest of the best links from the community."

The field is optional and only matters for subscriber-editable tags — if a tag isn't visible in the portal, the description won't show anywhere. But for tags that are subscriber-facing, a good description can make the difference between someone toggling it on or scrolling past.

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OpenAPI spec for template context

If you've built a custom theme or done anything programmatic with your archive pages, you've probably had to reverse-engineer the data that Buttondown passes to your templates. What fields are available? What types are they? What's nested where? The answer has mostly been "check the docs and hope for the best."

Now there's a proper OpenAPI spec describing the full shape of the template context — every field, every type, every nested object. It covers everything from newsletter metadata and email content to subscriber details and subscription URLs.

This matters if you're building on top of Buttondown's archives. If you're writing custom CSS themes, building integrations, or just want autocomplete in your editor, having a machine-readable schema makes all of that easier. And if you're not doing any of that — this doesn't change anything for you, your archives work exactly the same.

We're publishing this for the same reason we've been investing in archives more broadly this year. Between new themes, more customization options, and the larger archives overhaul we outlined at the start of the year, we've been making a lot of changes to how archives work. A formal spec is our way of being transparent about what the contract looks like — and being deliberate about not breaking it. If we change the shape of the data your templates rely on, we want that to be a conscious, documented decision, not an accident.

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Subscribers can now respond to surveys from the web archive, not just email.

Up until now, surveys only worked inside the email itself — if a subscriber clicked through to the web version of your email, they couldn't actually respond. That was annoying for a bunch of reasons: maybe they were forwarded the link, maybe they prefer reading in a browser, or maybe they just clicked "view in browser" out of habit.

Now surveys work on the web too. If your email has a survey, subscribers reading the web archive version can respond right there, no extra setup required.

This is a live demo. You can view this page on our live demo site, too.

This also means you can share a link to an email with a survey and actually collect responses from it — handy if you want to post a poll on social media or link to it from your site.

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Subscriber editable tags in the portal

Flip a toggle and subscribers can add or remove tags themselves in the portal.

A common request we've heard for years: "I want to let my subscribers pick which topics they're interested in." Maybe you've got separate tags for "weekly roundup" and "product updates" and want people to opt into what they care about. Or you run a local newsletter and want folks to choose their neighborhood.

This has always been possible in Buttondown, but it was clunky. You'd need to set up the subscribe form input, wire them to automations, and hope everything stayed in sync — we, to be honest, missed the ball by focusing on the easiest point solution instead of thinking hard about the right long-term solution.

Now it's simple: go to any tag, flip on "Subscriber editable" and you're done. Your subscribers will see it in their portal settings, where they can toggle it on or off whenever they want (as can you.)

This is a live demo. You can view this page on our live demo site, too.

This is the first of several improvements we're making to the portal. We're really happy with what the portal can do, but we know it's been confusing to understand how it fits with the rest of your setup — especially around paid subscriptions and comments. We're working on making all of that clearer. This was the easiest and most urgent fix, so we started here.

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API keys and permissions

If you use the Buttondown API, you've probably run into this: you've got one API key, and it can do everything. That's fine when it's just you tinkering around, but once you start building real integrations — a Zapier workflow here, a custom script there, maybe a third-party tool that only needs read access — sharing the same all-powerful key everywhere starts to feel a bit risky.

Now you can create multiple API keys, each with its own permissions. Head to API 12; Keys and you'll see a new management page where you can:

Feature Description Create as many keys as you need No more sharing a single key across all integrations Give each one a label So you remember what "api_key_7f3a" is actually for Set granular permissions Control exactly what each key can do

This is a live demo. You can view this page on our live demo site, too.

The permissions are pretty straightforward 12; for each category (subscribers, emails, automations, etc.) you can choose:

Level Access Write Full access to create, update, and delete Read Can view but not modify None No access at all

So if you're building a dashboard that just displays subscriber counts, give it a read-only key. If you're integrating with a third-party form tool, create a key that can only add subscribers. If something goes wrong with one integration, you can regenerate or delete that specific key without breaking everything else.

This is especially handy if you're working with contractors or external tools 12; you can give them exactly the access they need, nothing more.

Check out the API authentication docs for more details on how to use your keys.

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Automations with a delay: Re-evaluate filters after delay

This is a live demo. You can view this page on our live demo site, too.

Let's say you want to send a specific email to everyone tagged "prospects" four days after they sign up. What happens if that tag gets removed on day three—maybe they converted to a customer, or you cleaned up your tags?

Without this option, the automation would still fire on day four. The subscriber matched the filter when they first signed up, and that's all Buttondown checked.

With "Re-evaluate filters after delay" enabled, Buttondown checks your automation filters again right before the action runs. If the subscriber no longer has that "prospects" tag (or no longer matches whatever filters you've set), the automation skips them entirely.

You'll find this toggle in your automation settings whenever you have a delay configured. It's off by default, so your existing automations will keep working exactly as they do today.

If you're using the API, you can set this with the new should_evaluate_filter_after_delay parameter.

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