Bellnote vs Headway
The Headway alternative that actually ships
Headway was the simple, lovable changelog tool — until it stopped. It last shipped a real feature in May 2021, verified against its own changelog, and sits at 3.0/5 on G2. Betting your user communication on an abandoned product is a risk you don’t have to take.
Bellnote keeps Headway’s simplicity and adds what never arrived: zero-touch drafting from your GitHub merges, a learned voice, email and Slack publishing, and a widget under 5 KB. Our own changelog runs on Bellnote — dogfooding you can check any day of the week.
Side by side
| Bellnote | Headway | |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance | Actively built — our changelog is public and served by Bellnote itself | Last real feature shipped May 2021 (its own changelog) |
| User rating | New product — judge us by our public changelog and roadmap cadence | 3.0/5 on G2 |
| Drafting from GitHub | Built in — drafts appear on merge, approve in 30 seconds | Not offered — every entry is hand-written |
| Your voice, learned | Voice profile trains on your past posts and edits | Not offered |
| Pricing model | Flat $9/mo Starter, $19/mo Pro — grandfathered forever | $29/mo — for a product that no longer ships |
| Publish destinations | Widget + hosted page + email + Slack in one click | Widget + hosted page |
Competitor facts as documented in Bellnote's competitive research: Headway's last feature shipment (May 2021) verified against its own public changelog; G2 rating 3.0/5 at research time.
One click out of Headway — free
Paste your Headway changelog URL, review the parsed entries in a preview table, and confirm. Your posts import as published entries with original dates and categories preserved. Re-running the import skips duplicates, and nothing goes out to email or Slack during import. The whole thing takes minutes — and it's free, because Headway's $29/mo installed base deserves a working home.
Nothing gated
On Bellnote's paid plans the essentials are included — not parked behind a $339 CSS tier, a $100 white-label add-on, or a $79 email gate. Widget customization is on every plan, including Free.
- Email notifications to subscribers
- Slack publishing
- Custom CSS (allowlisted)
- White-label widget
- Custom domain
- Per-post analytics
Your price never changes.
Bellnote is $9/mo Starter or $19/mo Pro — flat, unmetered, and grandfathered forever. The promise is public: your price never changes, in writing, on our pricing page. No MAU meter, no tracked users, no repricings.
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