I Used Systeme.io for 30 Days — Here's What Actually Works

I kept seeing Systeme.io recommended as the "free forever" all-in-one marketing platform. After years of paying $97/month for ClickFunnels and $13/month for Mailchimp separately, that price point was intriguing enough to actually try it properly.

So I spent 30 days using it seriously. Not just clicking around — running real email sequences, building a real funnel, and testing the course builder. Here's what I found.

What Systeme.io Actually Is

Systeme.io is a marketing platform that combines landing pages, email marketing, sales funnels, course delivery, and affiliate management in one place. The free plan is genuinely free — no time limit, no watermark, no feature restriction on the core email and funnel tools.

The paid plan at $27/month adds:

• Unlimited order bumps and upsells
• 3 custom domains
• A/B split testing
• Your own affiliate program (pays 40% commission to your partners)

What Worked Well

Email Sequences That Actually Convert

The automation builder is visual and intuitive. I built a 7-email onboarding sequence in about 90 minutes. The drag-and-drop editor is functional, not fancy — but it gets out of your way.

Delivery rates felt solid. My open rates on the first three emails ranged from 34% to 41% — better than what I saw on Mailchimp with a similar list size.

The Sales Funnel Builder

This is where Systeme.io genuinely surprised me. I expected a bare-bones page builder. Instead, I got a proper funnel builder with:

• Order bumps (add-ons at checkout)
• One-click upsells
• Downsells
• A/B variant testing

I built a simple lead magnet → tripwire → core product funnel. Nothing revolutionary, but it took 3 hours instead of the 2 weeks it would have taken me in WordPress + WooCommerce.

The Course Builder

Upload your videos, arrange them into sections, add a price. That's it. No native video hosting (you use YouTube/Vimeo embeds), but the delivery and student tracking work well enough for most creators.

I priced a short course at $29 and had 3 paying students in the first week from my email list. No additional promotion.

What Didn't Work

The Page Builder Is Functional, Not Beautiful

If you're a designer or your audience is design-sensitive, you'll feel the limitation. The templates are dated and the customisation options are limited compared to dedicated tools like Carrd or WordPress + a page builder plugin.

My landing pages looked professional enough — but they looked like Systeme.io pages. That's a real tradeoff.

Reporting Is Basic

You get open rates, click rates, and conversion rates. That's about it. No cohort analysis, no revenue attribution, no heatmaps.

For a solo creator this is probably fine. For someone running serious volume marketing it will feel limiting.

No Native Video Hosting

The course builder expects you to host your videos elsewhere. If you're coming from Teachable or Kajabi (both $99+/month), this feels like a step backward. YouTube embeds work fine, but it's an extra step.

The Real Cost Comparison

Here's what I was paying before vs. what I pay now:

That's $132/month saved, or $1,584/year.

Who Systeme.io Is Right For

Great for:

• Solopreneurs and indie hackers on a budget
• Anyone migrating from multiple expensive tools
• Course creators who don't need native video hosting
• Affiliate marketers who want to build funnels fast

Less ideal for:

• Design-sensitive brands that need pixel-perfect pages
• High-volume marketers who need advanced analytics
• Anyone who needs native video hosting in the platform

Bottom Line

After 30 days, Systeme.io replaced $159/month of tools for $27/month. The migration took a weekend. The quality tradeoffs were acceptable for my use case.

The free plan is genuinely worth starting with. If you're paying for any of the tools it replaces, you owe it to yourself to at least test the migration.

Start free with Systeme.io →

No affiliate commission factored into this review. I recommend tools based on whether they solve real problems — Systeme.io genuinely does.