Everything you can build on Systeme.io before you pay a penny

Most people spend money on marketing software months before they need to. They buy the plan, feel committed, then feel guilty about not using it, which is a terrible way to start anything.

So here is what you can build on the Systeme.io free plan, which is what I point people at when they want to try before they commit.

What the free plan actually gives you

• 2,000 contacts
• Unlimited emails to them
• 3 sales funnels
• 1 blog
• 1 online course
• 1 affiliate programme

No card. No trial clock counting down. It is a free tier rather than a free trial, which is a meaningful difference when you are building something in the evenings.

What that is enough for

A real website

Home, about, services, contact. Your own domain connected. Not a holding page, a proper site. Most service businesses need four or five pages and the free plan builds them.

A lead magnet funnel that works end to end

Opt in page, thank you page, the email that delivers the thing, and the sequence that follows. That is one of your three funnels and it is the single most useful thing you can build.

A welcome sequence that sends itself

Unlimited sends to 2,000 people covers the first year or two for most service businesses. You are not going to outgrow this quietly.

A checkout that takes money

Connect Stripe or PayPal and sell something. The free plan does not stop you getting paid, which is the bit people assume is locked.

It is a free tier rather than a free trial, which is a meaningful difference.

Where the caps actually bite

Being honest about the ceiling, because the point of a free plan is to find the ceiling.

Automation rules. This is the one that gets people. Automations are capped, and the cap bites exactly when things get interesting, usually the moment you add a second offer. Worse, building past the cap fails quietly: the save button lights up, the click registers, nothing persists, no error appears.

Three funnels. Fine for one lead magnet and one offer. Not fine once you are running a few things at once.

Tags and custom fields. Also capped, and every automation you build depends on them, so count what you will need before you design anything.

The order to build in

This order exists to save you rework, and the first step is the one everyone skips.

1. Connect your domain and authenticate your sending email. It is the only step that cannot be rushed at the end, because DNS records take time to propagate.
2. Set your brand fonts, colours and button styles once, before you build any pages, so every page inherits them.
3. Build your website pages.
4. Agree your tag names and write them down.
5. Write and build your email sequences.
6. Build the funnel, the product and the checkout.
7. Then, and only then, the automations.
8. Test it as a stranger would, on the live URL, not in the editor.

The one habit worth having from day one

This platform very rarely tells you when something has gone wrong. It tells you when things have gone right. A save returns success and the live page does not change. A rule says active and has never fired. So after every change that matters, go and look at the live thing rather than the button you just pressed.

When it is worth paying someone

If you enjoy building, build. The free plan genuinely lets you.

If you have tried and the joins are the bit defeating you, that is not a you problem, it is the part of this that is fiddly and silent when it breaks.