If you've been researching course platforms for any length of time, you've almost certainly come across Systeme.io. And if you've looked at the pricing page, you've seen something that probably made you do a double take.
If you'd rather watch than read, the full video breakdown is shown above.
A free plan. Not a free trial. Not a freemium teaser that locks everything behind an upgrade prompt after seven days. An ongoing, genuinely free plan that lets you build and sell an online course without handing over a penny.
Naturally, your next question is: what's the catch?
That's exactly what this post is here to answer. We're going to go through every feature on the Systeme.io free plan in detail — what's included, what works well, where the limits are, and who this plan is actually right for. No fluff, no sales pitch. Just the honest picture.
What Is Systeme.io?
Before we get into the free plan specifics, a quick bit of context for anyone who hasn't come across Systeme.io before.
Systeme.io is an all-in-one platform designed specifically for course creators, online coaches, and digital product sellers. The idea behind it is straightforward: instead of paying separately for a course hosting platform, an email marketing tool, a funnel builder, and a payment processor — and then spending half your life trying to get them all to talk to each other — Systeme.io puts all of it under one roof.
One login. One dashboard. Everything connected by default.
It was founded by Aurélien Amacker in 2018 and has grown significantly since then, largely because it offers a level of functionality that competing platforms charge substantially more for. The Webinar plan — which is what we use here at Seller School — is around £35 a month and includes features that some platforms charge four times that for.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start at the beginning: the free plan.
What the Systeme.io Free Plan Actually Includes
Contacts and Email Sending
The free plan gives you up to 2,000 contacts on your email list.
For most people launching their first course, 2,000 contacts is considerably more headroom than it might sound. Building an email list from scratch takes time. The majority of new course creators won't hit that ceiling for several months — possibly longer. So for the purposes of getting started, this is not a meaningful constraint.
What makes this even more generous is that Systeme.io does not cap the number of emails you can send on the free plan. Some platforms impose monthly sending limits even on paid plans. On Systeme.io's free plan, you can email your list as often as you like. There's no per-email charge and no monthly sending ceiling.
Courses
You can create one course on the free plan, with unlimited student enrolments.
Let's sit with that for a moment. One course — but as many students as you can sell it to. There's no per-student fee, no enrolment cap, no point at which your success starts costing you more money.
For someone launching their first course on a single topic, one course slot is entirely sufficient. The common mistake new creators make is trying to build multiple courses before any of them are validated. One course, done well, sold to real students, is the right starting point. The free plan is built for exactly that.
The course builder itself allows you to create modules and lessons, embed video content from YouTube or Vimeo, add text, upload files and PDFs, and include quizzes. It's not the most feature-rich course builder on the market — we'll address that honestly in the limitations section — but it covers everything a first course needs.
Sales Funnels
The free plan includes three sales funnels.
A funnel, in simple terms, is a sequence of pages that guides someone from discovering your offer to buying it. Typically: a landing page, a sales page, and a thank you page. Three funnels gives you room to have one for your main course, one for a lead magnet or freebie to build your list, and one spare for testing or a secondary offer.
That's a workable setup for a first launch. You're not going to feel constrained by three funnels while you're building your first course and finding your first students.
The funnel builder itself is drag-and-drop, template-based, and genuinely accessible without any design or coding experience. You pick a template, customise the text and images, connect your product, and you're done.
Email Automations
The free plan includes one automation rule.
An automation rule tells Systeme.io what to do when something happens — for example, when someone buys your course, automatically send them a welcome email and give them access to the content.
One automation rule is limited. We'll be honest about that. But for a first launch, one well-constructed automation rule is often all you need. The essential workflow — someone pays, they get access, they receive a welcome email — can be handled with a single rule.
As your business grows and your automation needs become more sophisticated, you'll want to upgrade. But at the start, one rule covers the most important job.
Blogging
Systeme.io includes a basic blog on the free plan. You can publish posts, which can contribute to search visibility over time.
It's not a sophisticated blogging platform — if SEO content is central to your strategy, a dedicated WordPress site will serve you better. But for someone who wants everything in one place and isn't ready to manage a separate website, it's a useful inclusion.
Storage
Systeme.io doesn't host video files directly — you embed video from YouTube or Vimeo. This means traditional storage limits aren't really relevant for your course video content.
For other files — PDFs, worksheets, audio files — you're working within reasonable limits that won't cause problems at the beginning.
Payment Processing
The free plan integrates with Stripe and PayPal for payment processing. There are no transaction fees charged by Systeme.io on any plan, including free.
This is worth emphasising. Some platforms take a percentage of every sale you make, particularly on their free or lower tiers. Systeme.io takes nothing. Whatever your payment processor pays you, you keep.
The Limits You Need to Know About
The 2,000 Contact Cap
Two thousand contacts is generous for a starting point — but it is a ceiling. As your list grows, you will eventually reach it. At that point, you'll need to upgrade to continue growing.
The first paid tier — the Startup plan at around £13 a month — raises the contact limit to 5,000. By the time you're approaching 2,000 contacts, your course should be generating enough revenue that £13 a month is a comfortable and obvious investment.
One Course
If you're planning to launch multiple courses from day one, the free plan will feel restrictive quickly.
Our honest advice: don't plan to launch multiple courses from day one. Launch one course. Validate it with real students. Make your first sales. Then expand.
Trying to build several things simultaneously before any of them are proven is one of the most common reasons new course creators never actually launch. The free plan's single course limit is, in this sense, a feature as much as a restriction.
One Automation Rule
If you want to build sophisticated email sequences, tag-based segmentation, or complex post-purchase workflows, one automation rule won't be enough.
For a first launch with a single course and a simple welcome sequence, it's adequate. Plan to upgrade when your automation needs outgrow it.
No Custom Domain on the Free Plan
Your pages will sit on a Systeme.io subdomain — something like yourname.systeme.io — rather than your own domain. For many beginners, this isn't a significant issue, particularly in the early stages when your first students are likely people who already know you.
If a custom domain is important to your brand positioning from day one, the Startup plan at £13 a month includes it.
The Course Builder Is Functional, Not Premium
Systeme.io's course builder does the core job well. But compared to the student-facing experience on platforms like Kajabi or Thinkific, it's more basic. There are no native assignment submission tools, the completion certificate options are limited, and the overall polish of the student interface is modest.
For a first course at an accessible price point, this won't matter to your students. If you're charging a premium price and the learning environment itself is part of the value proposition, it's worth being aware of.
How the Free Plan Compares to Competitors
It's worth putting the Systeme.io free plan in context by briefly comparing it to the free options offered by major competitors.
Teachable's free plan also exists — but it charges a 10% transaction fee on every sale. Sell a £200 course ten times, and £200 goes straight to Teachable before you've paid yourself anything. Systeme.io charges no transaction fees on any plan.
Thinkific's free plan is more comparable — no transaction fees, one course, unlimited students. The course builder experience is slightly more polished, but you don't get funnels or email marketing included. You'd need to add separate tools to handle those functions.
Kajabi has no free plan. Their entry level starts at £133 a month.
For a beginner who needs a complete system — course hosting, funnels, email marketing, and payment processing all in one place, all for free — Systeme.io's free plan is the most complete offering currently available.
Who Is the Free Plan Right For?
The Systeme.io free plan is the right starting point if:
You're launching your first course on a single, clearly defined topic. You're building your email list from scratch and 2,000 contacts gives you plenty of room to grow. You want to test whether course creation is the right path for you before spending anything. You need a complete system — not just a course builder, but funnels and email marketing too — without paying for multiple tools.
The free plan is probably not the right fit if:
You're planning to launch multiple courses simultaneously. You need complex automation workflows from the start. You're moving an established course business across from another platform and need more capacity immediately. Or you're positioning at a premium price point where the polish of the student experience is a meaningful part of the offer.
For the vast majority of people at the beginning of their course creator journey, the free plan is a legitimate and entirely sufficient starting point.
How to Get Started
Getting started on the free plan takes about five minutes.
Go to the link below, create an account with your email address and a password, confirm your email, and you're in. No credit card required.
Once you're inside, the dashboard is straightforward. Your course builder, funnel editor, email tools, and contact management are all accessible from the left-hand navigation. If you want a full step-by-step walkthrough of building your first course from scratch, we've covered that in detail here:
[INTERNAL LINK: How to Set Up Systeme.io Step by Step — link to Week 4 blog post]
The Honest Summary
Systeme.io's free plan is not a trick. It's not a bait-and-switch. It's a genuinely functional starting point that includes more than most paid alternatives offer at their entry level.
The limits are real — one course, one automation, 2,000 contacts, no custom domain. But those limits are unlikely to matter during the most important phase of your course creation journey: getting the first course built, in front of real students, generating your first sales.
Start free. Build something real. Upgrade when the numbers justify it.
That's the right order.
👉 [Create your free Systeme.io account here: https://iosysteme.com]
Further Reading on Seller School
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