Verdict first: Systeme.io has four plans, and three of them are optional. The free plan is a real tier — 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 15 funnel steps, 1 course, 500 students, unlimited emails, 0% transaction fees, no card — and most one-person businesses can run a full offer on it indefinitely. Startup at $17/month is the only upgrade the average solopreneur ever needs. Webinar at $47 exists for evergreen webinar funnels. Unlimited at $97 is for people past 10,000 contacts. The traps are not the contact limits; they are the funnel-step cap (15 → 50 → 300) and the automation-rule cap (1 → 10 → 100).
Who this is for: anyone comparing Systeme.io’s plans before signing up, checking whether the free tier is a trial in disguise, or deciding which upgrade actually unlocks what they need.
Who this is not for: teams evaluating enterprise email deliverability or a 500,000-contact list. Systeme.io is priced and built for solo operators and small teams.
Every limit below was read from the plan comparison table on systeme.io/pricing on October 18, 2026. Prices are USD, billed monthly unless stated. The page itself is marked “Last updated: April 2026”.
The four plans, in one table
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Contacts | Funnels | Courses | Who it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | — | 2,000 | 3 | 1 | Validating an offer, or running one small funnel |
| Startup | $17 | $14.17 ($170/yr) | 5,000 | 10 | 5 | The first real upgrade: a list, a few funnels, a course |
| Webinar | $47 | $39.17 ($470/yr) | 10,000 | 50 | 20 | Evergreen webinar funnels and heavier automation |
| Unlimited | $97 | $80.83 ($970/yr) | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Past 10,000 contacts, or running client sub-accounts |
Annual billing is advertised as two months free, which is exactly the 10× monthly figure in the table. All four plans include unbilled features that competitors meter: unlimited email sends, unlimited file storage, unlimited sub-accounts, unlimited newsletters and 0% transaction fees.
Everything that changes between plans
| Feature | Free | Startup $17 | Webinar $47 | Unlimited $97 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contacts | 2,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 | Unlimited |
| Tags | 1 | 10 | 100 | Unlimited |
| CRM pipelines | 1 | 5 | 20 | 100 |
| Email campaigns | 1 | 10 | 100 | Unlimited |
| Automation rules | 1 | 10 | 100 | Unlimited |
| Workflows | 1 | 5 | 20 | Unlimited |
| Funnels | 3 | 10 | 50 | Unlimited |
| Funnel steps | 15 | 50 | 300 | Unlimited |
| Evergreen webinars | 0 | 0 | 10 | Unlimited |
| A/B tests | 1 | 10 | 50 | Unlimited |
| Custom domains | 1 | 3 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Websites / blogs / communities | 1 each | 5 each | 20 each | Unlimited |
| Courses | 1 | 5 | 20 | Unlimited |
| Students | 500 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| 1-click upsells / order bumps | 1 each | 10 each | 100 each | Unlimited |
| API requests per minute | 30 | 60 | 120 | Unlimited |
| Transaction fees | 0% on every plan, including free | |||
| Emails sent | Unlimited on every plan | |||
Read that table by looking for the rows where the free plan is not thin. Unlimited emails, unlimited storage, unlimited students on paid plans and 0% fees are the reason this platform keeps showing up in comparisons against tools that charge $97 for the same funnel. The genuinely limited rows are contacts, funnel steps and automation rules.
What the free plan actually gets you
This is not a 14-day trial. The free tier is permanent, requires no card, and includes:
- 2,000 contacts and unlimited email sends, plus 1 email campaign and unlimited newsletters.
- 3 funnels with 15 steps in total, 1 website, 1 blog, 1 community, 1 link-in-bio page.
- 1 course with up to 500 students, 1 automated rule, 1 workflow, 1 A/B test.
- 1 custom domain, 1 upsell, 1 order bump, 1 coupon, 50 product variants.
- 0% transaction fees, Stripe and PayPal integration, a booking calendar with 1 event.
- An affiliate program of your own on the free plan, and unlimited sub-accounts.
Fifteen funnel steps sounds small until you count a real funnel: opt-in page, thank-you/download page, sales page, order page, upsell, thank-you page, plus a course module or two. A lead-magnet funnel fits comfortably; a five-product launch does not.
Our own Systeme.io account on the free plan: a funnel step published from a template. Three funnels and fifteen steps is the real ceiling, not the price.
The five things that will actually make you upgrade
- You pass 2,000 contacts. Startup ($17) buys 5,000. This is the upgrade most people hit first, and the cheapest one.
- You want a fourth funnel or a 16th step. Startup allows 10 funnels and 50 steps. Real launches with multiple offers run out here before they run out of contacts.
- You need more than one automation rule. The free plan’s single rule is generous until you want a welcome sequence and a cart-abandonment sequence and a tag-based branch. Ten rules at $17 is the usual second upgrade.
- You want evergreen webinars. That is Webinar-only ($47), and it is the one feature that cannot be bought at $17. If your funnel is a pre-recorded webinar, the $30 jump is not optional.
- You pass 10,000 contacts. Then you are on Unlimited ($97), which is still cheaper than ClickFunnels’ $97 launch tier with unlimited contacts instead of 10,000.
Annual billing: the only discount on the page
Systeme.io advertises two months free on annual billing and nothing else — no coupon culture, no limited-time upgrade ladder. The effective monthly prices are $14.17 / $39.17 / $80.83 ($170 / $470 / $970 a year). If you are going to use the platform for six months, annual pays for itself inside the first year; if you are testing, monthly exists precisely so you do not have to commit.
What is not in the price
- Payment processing. Stripe or PayPal charge their own rate — typically 2.9% + 30¢ — on every sale. Systeme.io’s 0% is a platform fee, not a processing fee.
- Your domain. A custom domain is included in the plan limits, but you still register it elsewhere for roughly $10–$15 a year.
- Email deliverability. Unlimited sends does not mean unlimited inbox placement. A new sending domain needs warm-up, and authentication (SPF/DKIM) is on you.
- Your time. The editor is simpler than ClickFunnels’ and the design ceiling is lower. If the funnel’s conversion depends on design, that gap has a price.
How it compares at the same price points
| Systeme.io Free / $17 | ClickFunnels $97 | Kajabi $179 | Teachable $39 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contacts | 2,000 / 5,000 | 10,000 | 2,500 | — |
| Emails | Unlimited | 50,000/mo | Built in, contact-tiered | Separate tool |
| Transaction fee | 0% | 0% | 0% (Kajabi Payments); 2% third-party on Basic | 7.5% on Starter |
| Best at | Funnels + email + courses on a budget | Funnel design, split testing, checkout | Courses + coaching + community | Course delivery |
Full breakdowns: ClickFunnels Review · Kajabi Review · Systeme.io vs ClickFunnels vs Kajabi.
How we ranked and what we tested
Honest disclosure: every limit in this article comes from Systeme.io’s own pricing page, read on October 18, 2026. The hands-on part is real: this site’s funnel, emails, automation rule and course were built on the free plan in a single afternoon, without a card, and the screenshots are from that account (full Systeme.io review). I have not tested the Webinar tier’s evergreen webinar feature or the Unlimited tier’s API limits, so those are documented rather than experienced.
On affiliate links: Systeme.io is an affiliate partner of this site. If you sign up through my link I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it does not change the plan limits quoted above.
FAQ
How much does Systeme.io cost?
$0 for the free plan, $17/month for Startup, $47/month for Webinar and $97/month for Unlimited. Annual billing is two months free: $170, $470 and $970 per year.
Is the free plan really free, or a trial?
It is a permanent tier, not a trial. It does not expire, does not require a credit card, and includes unlimited email sends and 0% transaction fees. The limits are 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 15 funnel steps, 1 course and 500 students.
What happens if I go over 2,000 contacts on the free plan?
You upgrade to Startup ($17/month, 5,000 contacts). There is no per-contact overage charge on the free plan — it is a hard ceiling that pushes you to the next tier.
Do I need the $97 plan to sell courses?
No. The free plan includes one course with up to 500 students, and Startup ($17) allows 5 courses. Unlimited is about contacts, funnels and automation rules, not about unlocking course features.
Can I downgrade or cancel later?
Yes, from account settings at any time. Cancelling keeps your plan until the next billing date, then the account reverts to the free plan; for a mid-term downgrade, support can convert the remaining days into the lower plan.
Is annual billing worth it?
If you know you will use it for at least six months, yes — two months free is a 17% discount, and there is no other discount to wait for.
I’m an affiliate of Systeme.io: if you sign up through my links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I built this site’s funnel and course on the free plan before writing this. Plan limits come from Systeme.io’s public pricing page, checked on October 18, 2026.
Start free (no credit card, unlimited emails, 0% transaction fees) → systeme.io
Grab the free checklist (2026 Solopreneur Tool Stack: 10 tools, free tiers, and the exact moment to pay) → Get the free checklist
Related reading: Systeme.io Review 2026 · Systeme.io vs ClickFunnels vs Kajabi · Best Funnel Builders for Solopreneurs · How to Build a Sales Funnel for Free · ClickFunnels Alternatives
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