Last updated: September 4, 2026. Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you sign up through one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we recommend. See our Affiliate Disclosure.
Short answer
The free plan is permanent and genuinely usable — 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, unlimited emails, 0% transaction fees, no credit card. The limit most people hit first isn’t contacts or funnels; it’s 1 automation rule. Know that going in and the free plan will take you further than the marketing copy implies.
Start on the free planNo credit card required. Affiliate link — see our disclosure.
Systeme.io’s free plan is not a seven-day trial. It never expires, needs no credit card, and covers more than most “free” tiers in this category — the full feature breakdown by tier is on systeme.io/pricing. But “free” still means limited somewhere — this page lists every number, and which one is most likely to be the first wall you actually hit.
Every free plan limit, in one table
| Resource | Free plan limit |
|---|---|
| Contacts | 2,000 |
| Tags | 1 |
| CRM pipelines | 1 |
| Sales funnels | 3 |
| Funnel steps | 15 |
| Automation rules | 1 |
| Workflows | 1 |
| Email campaigns | 1 (emails sent: unlimited) |
| Courses | 1 (up to 500 students) |
| Websites | 1 |
| Blogs | 1 |
| Custom domains | 1 |
| Sub-accounts | Unlimited |
| Transaction fees | 0% |
| File storage | Unlimited |
Source: the comparison table on systeme.io’s public pricing page, checked September 14, 2026. Three things on the free plan are unmetered even at $0: emails sent, file storage, and transaction fees. That’s unusual — most competitors meter at least one of those even on a paid entry tier.
The wall you’ll actually hit: automation
1 automation rule and 1 workflow is enough to build a single welcome sequence or a single tag-based trigger — and not a second one. Most free-plan projects run out of automation before they run out of contacts, funnels, or courses. If your plan depends on more than one automated sequence (a welcome series and a cart-abandonment nudge, say), you’ll hit this before anything else on the table.
See the Startup plan (10 rules, $17/mo)Affiliate link — see our disclosure.
The wall nobody mentions: sending email requires a verified domain
This isn’t listed as a limit on the pricing page, but it’s the first thing we hit testing the free plan ourselves: you cannot send a single email — not even a test — until you connect and verify a custom domain under Settings > Emails. The sender address dropdown is simply empty until then. “Unlimited emails” is accurate once you clear that step, but budget time for domain verification before you plan on sending anything on day one.
Where the free plan is more generous than it looks
- Funnel setup isn’t manual. Choosing a funnel goal auto-generates the page structure — we tested this ourselves and got a two-step opt-in funnel with a template already attached, no blank-canvas start.
- Sub-accounts are unlimited, even free. Each is a fully separate workspace with its own contacts, funnels, and courses — useful if you’re testing more than one project without paying per client.
- 15 funnel steps across 3 funnels is enough for most single-offer businesses: opt-in, sales page, order bump, upsell, thank-you easily fits inside one funnel’s step budget.
Note: this page will get an update once we’ve actually hit the funnel, contact, and course caps in a live account and can show the exact screen you’ll see — not just the published numbers. Until then, everything above is what systeme.io states officially plus what we’ve personally tested (automation setup, email sending, sub-accounts, funnel generation).
One more thing we tested on the free plan: the included blog works. We published a short companion guide on that free account’s blog, at keptpicks.systeme.io. One caution from setting it up: the blog template we picked came with published sample posts, a sample author page and a newsletter sign-up form, so check every page of a new blog before you share the link.
Free template: we also built a two-step lead-magnet funnel that stays inside the free plan’s limits — an opt-in page with the email field wired to a thank-you page, with placeholder copy in brackets. Open the funnel-sharing link while logged in to a Systeme.io account (free is enough) and it copies into yours. It uses 2 of your 15 free funnel steps and no automation rule. A sharing link is also an affiliate link — see our disclosure.
Free Plan Starter Kit: if you create your account through our link (affiliate link), email the address you signed up with to hello@keptpicks.com and we’ll send back four one-page tools for the things people get stuck on first: a free-plan allocation sheet, the domain-verification checklist above turned into a step-by-step, a welcome-email template with fill-in prompts, and an upgrade-timing worksheet. No purchase required, nothing to buy.
Frequently asked questions
What is the biggest limit on Systeme.io’s free plan?
Automation, not contacts. 1 automation rule and 1 workflow is the tightest cap in practice — most people run out of contacts (2,000) or funnels (3) far later, if ever.
Does the Systeme.io free plan expire?
No. It’s permanent, not a trial, and requires no credit card to start or continue using.
Can I send email on the free plan?
Yes, unlimited emails — but only after you verify a custom domain under Settings. The sender list is empty until then, even on a free account.
How many funnels can I build for free?
3 funnels, up to 15 steps total across them. That’s usually enough for one full offer: opt-in, sales page, order bump, upsell, and thank-you.
Do I need to upgrade to avoid transaction fees?
No — 0% transaction fees apply on every tier, including free. You still pay your payment processor’s standard fees (Stripe or PayPal), same as anywhere else.
I’ve been building and maintaining websites for about ten years. The first one is still online a decade later, and I still fix it when something breaks — which is how I learned that the interesting part of any platform is not the launch, it’s year three. I co-owned that site’s business, though I am not a co-owner today; the business itself has since closed. Separately, I have also run an online store on Shopify, until the fees pushed me onto a different payment system. Today I choose the host, the theme and write the plugins that run this site, and I pay for the tools I test out of my own pocket. More on the About page, and exactly what we did and did not test in how we test.
Limits verified against systeme.io’s public pricing page on September 3, 2026. Vendors change plan limits without notice — check before you rely on this, and tell us if you find something out of date. Full hands-on testing notes in our Systeme.io review.
Try it yourself: Systeme.io’s free plan is permanent, not a trial — 3 funnels, 2,000 contacts, unlimited emails, 0% transaction fees. Start on the free plan and find out in a weekend whether the limits above actually get in your way. (Affiliate link — see our disclosure.)