Systeme.io's pricing page shows four numbers, and the interesting thing about them is that only one limit actually moves people between tiers. This guide reads the plans the way an owner should, using figures verified on 2026-09-09, and ends with the cases where a cheaper or narrower tool is the better buy.
The four plans
Free is $0, never expires, and does not ask for a card. It includes 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 automation rule, 1 workflow, 1 custom domain, 1 course, 1 blog, 1 community, unlimited emails and unlimited file storage. Read that list again, because it is unusual: a custom domain, a course area and a checkout are all things competitors put behind a paywall.
Startup is $17 a month. It raises you to 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 10 automation rules, 3 custom domains and 5 courses.
Webinar is $47 a month. 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 100 automation rules, 10 custom domains, and 10 evergreen webinars.
Unlimited is $97 a month. Unlimited contacts, funnels, automations and domains, plus free migration from another platform and early access to new features.
Annual billing gives two months free on every tier, but Systeme.io does not display the resulting per-month figure, so the annual price has to be worked out rather than compared.
The number that actually forces the upgrade
Everyone assumes it is the 2,000 contacts. In practice it is 1 automation rule.
A working funnel needs more automation than one rule almost immediately. Tag a buyer and remove them from the promotion sequence: that is one rule, and you have spent your entire free allowance before you have sent a welcome email. Add an abandoned-checkout nudge and you are on Startup. Most people who upgrade do so at a few hundred contacts, not at two thousand, and the reason is always the automation count.
This matters because it changes what the free plan is for. It is not a small version of the paid product. It is a complete, permanent home for a business whose follow-up is manual or broadcast-only — and there are a lot of those. Sell one course, email the list when you have something to say, take the payment: that runs on $0 forever. The moment follow-up becomes conditional on what someone did, it is $17.
What $17 actually buys
Not features. Systeme.io does not lock the good parts behind the paywall the way most tools do; the free plan has the course area, the checkout and the custom domain already. What $17 buys is permission to use them more than once: ten funnels instead of three, ten automation rules instead of one, five courses instead of one.
That is an unusual pricing shape and it is worth naming, because it means the upgrade decision is about volume, not capability. You will know when you need it, and until then you are not missing anything.
Where it stops being the cheap option
You are at $97 and only need funnels. At the Unlimited tier you are paying the same as ClickFunnels, which is a better funnel builder with better templates. Systeme.io wins on price at $0 and $17; at $97 the argument is much weaker. Systeme.io vs ClickFunnels prices both at real list sizes.
You only need email. If there is no course, no funnel and no checkout, you are buying a suite to use a fifth of it. MailerLite is $12 a month with a nicer editor and better deliverability tooling, and free to 250 subscribers. Systeme.io vs MailerLite covers the split.
Design matters to you. The editor and templates are the weakest part of the product and no tier fixes that. If the landing page is the offer — a designer's portfolio, a premium product — this is the wrong tool at every price.
The honest summary
The free plan is the best free plan in this category and it is not close: a course, a checkout, a custom domain and 2,000 contacts that never expire. Start there, ignore the contact count, and watch the automation rules — that is the number that will move you to $17. Above $17 the value falls off quickly unless you specifically need webinars or genuinely have unlimited-scale volume, at which point compare against tools built for that scale rather than upgrading out of loyalty.
For where this sits against every other free tier, see the Free Plan Index. For the build itself, set up a sales funnel for free walks through it step by step.