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by Karl

Systeme.io Review – A FREE Tool That Does It ALL

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systeme.io review - is it worth it

Systeme.io Review – A FREE Tool That Does It ALL

Home / Tools / Systeme.io Review – A FREE Tool That Does It ALL
systeme.io review - is it worth it
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Welcome to my Systeme.io review.

I’ve been in digital marketing for nearly 15 years now, and I’d never seen a marketing platform where you could run an entire online business 100% free.

Until now.

I spent the last few days taking a deep dive into this multifunctional marketing software and was really surprised by just how good it was for a free tool.

Obviously, it has its limitations, but for a free all-in-one platform, it’s awesome.

We'll cover:

  • Why I think every new entrepreneur should try it
  • How to build a profitable sales funnel for free
  • If it really is as easy as everyone says
  • If it’s the best full marketing solution
  • My experience with the tool compared to others I use
  • If you really can use it to run your internet business for free
  • Key platform features
  • Who it’s for and not for
  • A few important things you should know before signing up

Quick Verdict: Worth it or Not?

In my opinion, yes.

Systeme.io is probably the fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to start a successful online business. It does pretty much everything that Kajabi, Teachable, and Kartra do. It’s just way cheaper and a lot easier.

It’s definitely lacking the higher-end features that other internet marketing platforms have. But that’s not the point. Systeme.io is for entrepreneurs that don’t want to pay for advanced features that they’ll never use.

It contains literally everything you need to start, grow, and run an entire online business in ONE PLATFORM and it starts at 100% FREE.

You don’t need to waste time and money on a dozen different tools and subscriptions. It’s all in one place on an easy-to-use dashboard. Everything in your entire business is just a few clicks away.

What Can You Do For Free?

Just to put this in perspective, here’s what you can do for $0 right now:

  • Create products like online courses
  • Create membership sites
  • Create home pages and sales pages
  • Build sales funnels to generate leads and increase conversions
  • Run email marketing campaigns
  • Create an affiliate program
  • Start a blog with unlimited posts
  • Use order bumps and upsells to make more sales
  • Run A/B tests to optimize conversions
  • Accept payments
  • Generate coupons
  • Work with up to 2,000 contacts

There's literally ZERO catch to this. You can do everything for free, forever.

Click here to set your account up.

It really is an all-in-one platform for sales funnels, email marketing, sales pages, payments, and online business optimization.

Hang on, Karl. This sounds too good to be true. What’s the catch?

There really is no catch. Systeme.io is a simple, all-in-one solution for small businesses, infoproduct sellers, online courses, and solopreneurs like coaches that don’t need all the fancy bells and whistles of the more expensive platforms.

It isn’t as advanced or powerful as Kajabi or Thinkific, but it’s not pretending to be. And, dude, it’s UP TO 10X CHEAPER.

Personally, I use Kajabi now because I actually need it for advanced tagging, project management, and next-level upsells. But chances are, if you’re reading this, you don’t need to pay hundreds of dollars for competitors like Kajabi or ClickFunnels.

Who's it For And Not For?

Systeme.io is ideal for solopreneurs, lifestyle entrepreneurs, and other small business owners. It’s perfect for:

  • Creating and managing courses
  • Offering coaching or consulting packages
  • Starting a blog
  • Creating a community and nurturing leads
  • Building membership sites where you regularly feed your followers helpful content
  • Selling digital products like ebooks
  • Freelancers trying to build a brand

It’s important to understand what Systeme.io is at its core. It’s a simple marketing platform that lets you offer a product, build a funnel, convert leads, and market via email.

It’s not ideal for physical product shops or large agencies. If you’ve got a digital product or service, or want to start a community or blog, this is for you. If not, look elsewhere.

Why I Recommend That Everyone Tries Systeme.io

When I first started, I was paying almost $1,000 a month for all the software I needed.

If I had the chance to do it all again, I would have just used Systeme.io.

When you’re just starting out with a course, infoproduct, coaching service, or whatever, you don’t need much at all. All you need is:

  • A one-page site
  • Basic email marketing, automation, and tagging
  • 1-2 sales funnels
  • Affiliates
  • A blog

You could easily scale to six figures a year with just this. Add in webinars, and it’s super simple. You just need to put in the time and grind. Systeme.io starts at free and its paid plans are up to 10x cheaper than its competitors. All that money can be used to pay for ads, content, or whatever else you need to scale rather than waste it on BS you’ll never use.

The #1 Reason Why New Entrepreneurs Fail

Where do so many online business owners go wrong? They want all the super fancy advanced workflows and automations, so they pay $300/mo for BS they never use. All of a sudden, they’re paying $3,000+ a year and go broke.

Trust me, for the first few stages of your business, you will notice no difference at all between Systeme.io and its competitors.

It’s literally free to get started. You have nothing to lose. So either pay $0 or pay $100+ for essentially the same exact thing. If you REALLY don’t like Systeme.io for some reason, then just switch. You lose nothing. It’s really a no-brainer.

That’s why I tell everyone to at least try it. There’s no reason not to.

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • A simple and fast way to start an online business: Small business owners will love having everything under one roof and in one subscription plan. No fumbling with 10 different tools. No paying 10 different subscriptions.
  • It’s free: Do I even need to explain this? Systeme.io is one of the few tools with a free plan that actually provides what you need to start a profitable online business.
  • Grow quickly and pain-free: Systeme.io is super simple to use. It’s got everything you need and nothing you don’t. What it lacks in power it easily makes up for in simplicity and convenience.
  • Enough high-end features at low-end prices: Systeme.io’s paid plans are up to 10x cheaper than its competitors, but they still come with advanced features like webinars, tagging, and automations. The idea that this marketing platform is super basic is a myth.
  • Stop wasting time: I like how you can choose a template, drag and drop some design elements, and get on with life rather than wasting weeks building sites, sales pages, or funnel elements. Everything is dead simple.
  • Save a s**tload of money: Systeme.io starts at free, and even its paid plans are up to 10x cheaper than its competitors. And they’re probably 50x cheaper than buying 10 different internet marketing tools.

Cons

  • Lacks next-level features: This online platform lacks ultra high-converting templates, advanced tagging, and other next-level features like podcasting, CRM, and helpdesks. But chances are you won’t need any of these things for a LONG TIME, so there’s no need to pay for them now.
  • Integrations are a B***!: The whole point of Systeme.io is to be a one-stop marketing platform, so I get why there aren’t integrations. You CAN use Zapier to integrate just about anything, but that creates 2-3 extra steps that make life hell.
  • Not for physical products: Plain and simple, this is NOT for a physical product business like FBA or dropshipping. Just don’t. You need something with inventory and tax management software and more advanced website building to host your product catalog.

Ready go get going? Click here!

Their Reputation: What Are Other People Saying?

The first place I usually check is TrustPilot. They actually have legit, verified reviewers with a tiny bit of bot propaganda sprinkled in rather than the other way around. That, and the company reps respond to reviews so you can actually see what’s going on.

is systeme.io legit

HO-LY S…..mokes.

4.9/5 based on 1,300 reviews. That’s insane. Even companies that hire bots don’t do this well.

Here’s an example of a verified review:

systeme.io review from trustpilot

He seems a bit excited, but he doesn’t sound like a bot. Plus, I agree with what he’s saying. Builderall and ClickFunnels are bloody expensive, mate.

The only bad reviews are clearly bots or competitors with a bone to pick. For example…

systeme.io scam

This just screams fake to me. Super emotional, unrealistic gripes, identifying a “conspiracy” (bots earning a living from a fraud company), and then ultra drama with “it’s useless”.

By the way, this profile’s only other comment is basically the same thing with CAPS. Clearly a bot or angry competitor.

By the way, the Systeme.io founder replied and this profile never got back to him, so I doubt it’s real.

systeme.io customer support
systeme.io reviews on software platforms

A 4.8/5 rating with 528 reviews is excellent. Here’s an example of a legit review from someone who clearly has their own business and has used both Systeme.io and ClickFunnels:

clickfunnels vs systeme.io

Also, their public Facebook group has over 26,000 members, and it’s pretty active with lots of creators asking questions and getting help from experts who currently use the tool.

If this were in any way a scam, that group would be a complete nuclear war of angry customers. Instead, it’s a thriving group with thousands of people helping each other.

Reputation Verdict: Systeme.io has almost 5-star ratings on all the major trust sites and hundreds upon hundreds of positive reviews. Plus, its public Facebook group is full of happy people. It’s legit.

Features Breakdown

Systeme.io’s goal is to put everything you need to run a business under one roof and prevent you from paying for extra subscriptions, wasting time, or losing an entire day to downtime when one of the tools is down for maintenance.

I don’t understand why people constantly try to belittle it by saying things like “WeLL yEaH, BuT ActiVEcaMpaIgn Haz 2,000 More TEMplATES”.

Yeah, well ActiveCampaign doesn’t do half of what Systeme.io does either. They are different types of tools.

Why Systeme.io’s Features Are as Basic as Possible

Systeme’s angle is to make this fast, easy, and free so anyone can start an online business. Remember that you are skipping all of the fancy stuff for these advantages:

  • A cheap price
  • No learning curve
  • Simplicity and usability
  • Convenience
  • Speed

OK, let’s take a quick look at each feature:

Sales Funnels

systeme.io dashboard and templates

The easiest, simplest sales funnel builder I’ve ever used.

Everything is just a few clicks away, and with simple templates, you can easily build sales funnels in about half the time of other software. That’s the beauty of Systeme.io. When I first started, I wasted hours trying to create effective sales funnels. With Systeme.io, I barely break a sweat.

Let’s create one together:

creating funnels with systeme.io

Click Create Step on the left-hand side:

funnel building process

Then choose which type of page you want to create:

step by step funnel creation

Select a template:

landing page templates in systeme.io

From there, all you have to do is add your content. If you’ve ever made a lander before, you should be able to do that in no time.

It’s pretty easy. Make your offer, create a way to bring in leads like a webinar (you can do that inside Systeme.io), create a landing page, and that’s it. You’ve got a funnel.

As I said, it’s the easiest funnel builder out there.

Marketing Automation Features

Systeme.io’s marketing automation features put your business on autopilot. They aren’t lavish, but they’re good enough for solopreneurs, courses, and other digital businesses.

​​The gravy is missing, but the meat and potatoes are there:

  • Automate repetitive email sequences
  • Automatically trigger emails or course access
  • Create workflows with semi-advanced rules

Let’s check out workflows quickly since it’s pretty much all that matters.

To start a workflow, you need to create a trigger. A trigger is an action that sets off another automated action. For example, a trigger might be “customer signs up using email” and this triggers Systeme.io to send them a welcome email with a discount offer.

All you do is click Add a Trigger:

marketing workflows and triggers

Then choose which one you want. You can choose:

  • Tag added/removed
  • Subscribed to email list
  • Subscribed to webinar
  • Enrolled in a course
  • Visited page

All the basic ones are there.

Remember, triggers trigger actions. So once you create a trigger, you must choose the action that follows. Check it out:

using triggers to automate marketing

Here’s an example:

Say, someone signs up with their email from my “squeeze page.” They will automatically subscribe to my email campaign that’s trying to sell them my product. If they buy my product, they are unsubscribed from that sales sequence and put on my long-term nurture sequence. If not, they are assigned to a new campaign.

You can do ALL OF THIS for free. Wild. Many online business owners pay hundreds of dollars a month for this and can’t even figure out how to do it.

Email Marketing

Read what I am about to write very carefully:

With Systeme.io, you can send unlimited emails for free.

LOL.

Back in the day with MailChimp, you could send 10,000 (I think) for free before needing to pay. Unlimited is nuts.

Systeme definitely flexes its “less is more” approach here.

customizing email newsletters

It’s super easy to create and customize emails. I like that. I don’t want to waste half the day fixing font sizes. Plain text emails perform better than super nice ones anyway.

Their email marketing feature allows you to:

  • Manage your contacts and lists
  • Send unlimited marketing emails
  • Use email marketing automation
  • Add fields with our drag-and-drop capabilities
  • Create your own email marketing campaigns

And keep in mind the real benefit to all of this: Your email marketing tool is automatically plugged into your ecosystem. That means no extra work to connect it to your site, sales funnels, or contacts.

The best part about Systeme.io is, of course, the price. This tool is totally free up to 2,000 people. See the benefit there? You don’t have to pay for email marketing until you have an audience. And with 2,000 people, Systeme.io should easily pay for itself by then.

Website Builder

systeme.io free tools

Systeme.io’s drag-and-drop page builder makes it dead simple to create pages in just minutes.

Just choose a template, and from there it’s just a matter of filling in the page. There are rows, sections, and elements just like you’d find on Divi, Elementor, or any other page builder, so it’s pretty easy.

If you want to get fancy, add some elements or blocks. You’ll find them on the left-hand side.

Systeme.io definitely doesn’t have as many templates or options as other competitors, but that’s really not the goal here. And if you’re selling a course or something, what fancy elements do you really need?

The builder can be a bit wonky at times, though. I noticed some elements not sticking to the page, and sometimes things went very slow for some reason. Other than that, no issues.

NOTE: The free plan comes with a custom domain, so you don’t need a .systeme.io URL. You’ll need to upgrade for unlimited custom domains.

The Affiliate Program

Systeme.io allows you to create your own affiliate program 100% free. I know a few other platforms that don’t (KAJABI!!!).

In the beginning, affiliates are the easiest way to grow a business. You pay nothing and do none of the work. Let your affiliates make all the sales while you chill by the pool. Toss them 40% for their troubles.

There’s nothing overly special about their affiliate marketing program. It’s pretty much the same as everyone else’s. You manage all of your affiliates and payouts inside the dash. That’s about it.

They also have a marketplace where you can publish your affiliate program to convert others to your cause.

The main value here is that you can run affiliate programs 100% free. This is almost always hidden behind a paywall.

Online Courses

how to create a course in systeme.io

Systeme’s online course builder is also super simple. Give your course a name, add some modules, build individual pages for each lesson with key takeaways and a video, and go live.

Again, this is all about “let’s get this done fast.” Systeme.io’s course creation process is headache-free:

  • No lag
  • No confusion over what goes where
  • No long wait times to upload videos
  • No hours wasted figuring out how to even make a course

The downside is that you are missing some advanced features like high-end quizzes/assessments and certifications. But how valuable is that to you? You need to ask yourself: Do I want to pay 5-10x more per month JUST for quizzes? Or can I integrate a different plugin or certify students outside of my course and pay $0 a month?

You can build a fully functional membership website for free too. So, you can build a membership site where you drip-feed all of this content to your subscribers and earn a recurring monthly income. Most marketing software charges hundreds of dollars a month for that.

And remember, everything is connected to your ecosystem. So, creating a funnel that leads directly to your course is cake. That’s the beauty of a platform like Systeme.io.

Blogging

setting up a blog in systeme.io

Blogging is one of the best ways to generate leads for your business, but it’s often a complete nightmare.

I used to have to connect my WordPress blog to a separate hosting service, then connect that to my funnel-building software…then connect that to my course platform.

With Systeme, it’s all streamlined with no headaches.

Choose a template, then start creating pages. You’ll be able to put it on a custom domain as well.

You aren’t missing much at all compared to other platforms, and this is 100% free. Obviously, WordPress has a ton of plugins for SEO and analytics, but keep in mind how much that’ll cost you.

Systeme is great for beginners since the learning curve is effectively 0 and it costs nothing. You probably won’t notice any difference.

Webinars

webinar creation in systeme

For $47/mo, you can start running evergreen webinars (probably the highest converting form of advertising there is). For $97/mo, you can run unlimited webinars.

After tinkering with the webinar funnel, I found it to be way easier than other webinar funnel builders. Basically, you choose a funnel template that automatically sets up 3 pages: registration, webinar page, and thank you page.

From there, you just add your content and upload your video to the webinar page. All the key elements are there like countdowns, elements, templates, and blocks so you can add things like “course bundles” or “what you’ll learn inside” areas to your page.

The only issue I see with the evergreen webinars feature is that the colors are not flush between all the funnel pages. I really have no idea why. That’s a bummer, but it’s pretty easy to change the colors.

Customer Service

evergreen webinars in systeme

I don’t understand why some people complain that Systeme.io has terrible customer service.

First off, it’s free. So, what do you expect?

Second, they have help pages, a Facebook group, and email support available 7 days a week with an average response time of 2 hours. For the most part, everyone raves about their friendly customer support.

For $0, email support every day of the week sounds awesome to me.

Pricing – Is it REALLY Free?

systeme.io pricing

Systeme.io’s pricing is stupid cheap. At first, I had doubts that it was even going to work. How can you get ALL of these features with a free account? I’d never seen anything like this before.

Aside from a FREE PLAN that lets you run sales funnels, start your own affiliate program, do email marketing, and build free pages, the other plans are also stupid cheap.

$47/mo for all of that plus 10,000 contacts AND 10 webinars?

That’s the beauty of Systeme.io to me. You don’t need to pay anything until you have over 2,000 contacts. By that time, you’ll be making money and the platform will pay for itself.

With other platforms, you need to pay to grow. With systeme.io, you don’t pay until you’re already growing.

And yes, for $97/mo, you get everything unlimited. Annually, it's about $800. $800 gets you 2.5 months of Kajabi. So for 2.5 months of a competitor, you get a whole year of Systeme.io.

Pretty amazing.

Final Verdict

I’m not even sure how you got this far. Thanks for reading this beast.

I think the verdict is clear.

Systeme.io is a simple, powerful, and complete marketing solution that’s ideal for beginner online business owners, solopreneurs, and small businesses. It’s especially valuable for courses, ebooks, coaches, consultants, and other lifestyle entrepreneurs selling digital products.

It contains everything you need to start, grow, and manage a business 100% FREE, and you don’t need to pay anything until you’re large enough to be making money. If you have a small online hustle, you don’t need fancy marketing automation tools. You just need the basics to get going.

You have two choices here: Pay $0 for everything you need or pay $100+ a month for everything you need plus a bunch of stuff you don’t.

It’s FREE to try, so you have nothing to lose. My only regret is NOT using Systeme.io when I started my online business. Don’t be like me.

If you really need more powerful marketing software with more set marketing automation rules, then check out some of my alternatives below.

Systeme.io Alternatives

OK, if you still aren’t sold on trying this platform for free, let’s check out Systeme.io vs. the competition.

1. Kartra – The High-End Alternative

systeme vs kartra

I love Kartra. It’s the next-level Systeme.io. When your business is ready to level up down the road, either migrate to Kartra or find a way to make the two ecosystems work in tandem.

When it comes to Systeme.io vs Kartra, there are 3 main advantages for Kartra in my opinion:

  • Analytics: Kartra’s native analytics are so much more in-depth and actionable. You can use all that granular data to focus on the 80/20 and scale to Mars and beyond. But that’s way down the line for you.
  • Helpdesks: Your very own support team connected right to your business. Now we’re doing some real next-level stuff.
  • Agencies: This feature lets you manage all of your accounts from within one easy dashboard, and it connects it to the rest of your business ecosystem for easier functionality, accounting, and analytics. If you’ve got an agency, Kartra is for you.

Check out my full Kartra review.

2. ClickFunnels – The Grandaddy of all Funnel Builders

clickfunnels vs systeme

The company that practically invented sales funnels. If you’re only looking to build effective sales funnels with the best design, forms, and funnel steps, then this is for you.

If you know your way around ClickFunnels, you’ll build better, higher-converting sales funnels than you can with any other tool. That, and you’ll get awesome marketing education with FunnelFlicks.

Just keep in mind that ClickFunnels is super expensive, and you’ll need to integrate other tools to actually run your business.

Systeme.io vs ClickFunnels winner: Systeme.io.

3. Kajabi – The Ultimate Course Creation Tool

kajabi vs systeme.io

Kajabi is the ultimate course creation platform. There isn’t anything it can’t do (at least for online courses).

Let me set the record straight on Systeme.io vs. Kajabi…

Kajabi has better templates, education, assessments, and community features that make it the absolute best tool online for creating, growing, and managing courses. But to really get the most out of it, you’ll need to pay $300 a month. Be my guest, but it ain’t cheap.

Check out my full Kajabi review here.

F.A.Q

Q: Is Systeme.io really free?

A: Yes, Systeme.io is really free. The free plan is enough to run an online business easily and includes a funnel builder, one membership site, an online course builder, the ability to run affiliate programs, great customer service, unlimited file storage space, email marketing tools, unlimited students, and a simple drag-and-drop editor for landing pages. However, after 2,000 contacts, you need to pay.

Q: What is Systeme.io?

A: Systeme.io is a full marketing platform that contains all of the features you need to run a business online for free. With this one tool, you can start an online business with little to no relevant technical knowledge or coding skills. It includes marketing strategies and features across multiple marketing channels including funnels, blogging, email, custom domains, evergreen webinars, membership sites, and affiliate marketing.

Q: Can you create a website with Systeme.io?

A: Yes, you can create a website with Systeme.io, but just small, simple websites. In this Systeme.io review, I detailed how to create pages for online courses and other digital products, and I explained why Systeme.io is ideal for these types of businesses. You probably won’t need a large website for your business online as long as you use the right marketing strategy.

Q: Why should I trust your Systeme.io review?

A: My Systeme.io review is based on my 10 years of experience in digital marketing as a small business owner as well as hands-on experience with the tool’s free plan. I set up a test sales funnel and investigated features like the page builder, managing affiliate programs, membership sites, evergreen webinars, and the other free platform features. The difference between my Systeme.io review and others is that I have extensive experience with Kajabi, Kartra, and ClickFunnels, which gave me the perspective to compare all of these platforms.

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