My Honest Systeme.io Review - The Best Free Sales Funnel Platform?

Sеlling products and sеrvicеs onlinе is morе accеssiblе today than еvеr bеforе thanks to thе prolifеration of еcommеrcе platforms, paymеnt procеssors, and markеting tools. Howеvеr, piеcing togеthеr all thе parts nееdеd to run an onlinе businеss can bе complеx, timе-consuming, and еxpеnsivе.

What is Systeme.io?

According to the Systeme.io website, the platform allows you to create sales funnels, build an email list, host online courses, start a blog, and much more – all within one system. The goal is to provide a streamlined online business solution rather than requiring a patchwork of different tools and subscriptions.

System Pricing Plans

Systeme.io Pricing Plans

Systeme.io Pricing Table and Key Features

Plan	Price	Key Features
Free	$0/mo	2000 Contacts 3 Funnels 1 Course 1 Blog
Starter	$27/mo	5000 Contacts 10 Funnels 3 Courses 3 Blogs
Growth	$47/mo	15000 Contacts 25 Funnels 10 Courses 10 Blogs
Scale	$97/mo	50000 Contacts 100 Funnels 25 Courses 25 Blogs

Overview of Systeme.io’s Features

Before diving into using Systeme.io, let’s take a high-level look at some of the platform’s main features:

Email marketing – Send broadcasts, create automations, segment lists, track stats
Membership sites – Host online courses with drip content delivery
Sales funnels – Build squeeze pages, upsell funnels, checkout pages
Affiliate program – Recruit affiliates and track commissions
Website builder – Quickly build marketing sites and blogs
Zapier integration – Connect to thousands of other apps

Systeme.io promises “all the tools a marketer needs in one place” at an affordable price. Its cheapest paid plan is $27/month, while established players like ClickFunnels start at $97/month.

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For businesses with more advanced needs, Systeme.io offers custom enterprise pricing. But for solopreneurs and small teams, its lower cost plans aim to provide robust functionality without the high price tag of other all-in-one platforms.

Sign up and get access to all core features for free forever.

Next, I’ll walk through how these features actually work based on creating a sample online course business on System.io.

Creating a Membership Site and Online Course

To test out Systeme.io’s course hosting capabilities, I built a mock online course called “Become a Freelance Writer.”

Setting up the course

Under the “Courses” menu, it’s straightforward to add a new course, set up pricing plans, and configure modules and lessons.

I could easily upload my video files and PDFs. Systeme.io offers unlimited storage, which is essential for courses with lots of multimedia content.

In terms of customization, there are options to change the theme colors and typography. But the templates themselves can’t be modified or rearranged.

Delivering course content

Once published, the course student portal provides drip content delivery and progress tracking. Content is organized into modules, and each lesson can be dropped based on a schedule.

As students complete modules, their progress is marked on the course overview page. It’s a simple yet effective learning management system.

For site owners, you get data on student enrollment and engagement. There’s also a bulk student management page to grant or revoke course access.

Creating the course checkout funnel

To sell the course, I used Systeme.io’s funnel builder to create a checkout process. Within the course configuration, you can attach a sales funnel to create the ordering forms and upsell offers.

The funnel builder makes it easy to put together a multi-step checkout flow. There are templates for order forms, upsell pages, downsell offers, and thank you pages.

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With drag and drop, I was able to quickly assemble an order form, one-click upsell, and final thank you page. Across the checkout, customers would remain in one branded flow vs. being sent to a third-party shopping cart.

How the student check-out experience works

When students purchase the course, they receive confirmation emails with access instructions. Buyers are instructed to create a password to log into the membership site.

The check-out email templates are basic but functional. I didn’t see any options for deep customization, which would have been nice.

Overall, I found the process of creating a membership site, online course, and check-out funnel intuitive and straightforward with Systeme.io. It includes all the core features needed to sell an online course without having to cobble together separate tools.

Building Email Marketing Campaigns

Since email marketing is key for any online business, I also wanted to test out Systeme.io’s email capabilities.

Setting up subscriber lists

Inside the Contacts area, you can view your subscriber lists and segment them using tags. It’s easy to add new contacts one by one or import a list.

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I would have liked to see more advanced segmentation options based on subscriber behavior, purchase history, etc. But the tagging systeme.io provides a simple way to group subscribers.

Designing email broadcasts

To create a standalone newsletter, the platform provides an email editor with basic formatting options and WYSIWYG design.

I found the email editor intuitive overall. It includes options to schedule sends, create sign-up forms, and view mobile previews. Images can be added via URLs.

There aren’t fancy drag-and-drop blocks like more advanced email editors. But for simple newsletters, it provides adequate formatting capabilities.

Building email sequences

For automated sequences, Systeme.io allows you to build multi-email campaigns with timed delays.

Within a campaign, you can easily drag-and-drop emails to create sequences like:

Day 1: Welcome email
Day 3: Lesson 1
Day 7: Lesson 2
Day 14: Offer

It’s a user-friendly way to create and visualize dripped email campaigns.

Evaluating the analytics

To track email performance, campaigns provide basic statistics like open rates and click-through rates.

I’d like to see more segmentation and deeper reporting on subscriber engagement over time. But for high-level benchmarks, the current analytics give you helpful indicators.

Overall for both broadcasting and sequences, I found the email editor smooth and uncomplicated. It covers the email essentials without being overwhelmed with excessive options.

Building Landing Pages

Another big need for online businesses is converting visitors through landing pages and lead gen forms. So I explored how Systeme.io handles landing page creation.

Selecting templates

In the Pages area, you can build standalone pages or funnel steps using pre-made templates. Most templates are designed for conversion vs. purely informational pages.

I picked a simple high-converting template for my sample squeeze page. The platform offers quite a few template options between welcome pages, sales pages, opt-ins, and other conversion-focused formats.

Customizing the page design

Systeme.io’s drag-and-drop page editor makes it very quick and easy to customize templates. Just drag in new elements like text, images, or forms and tweak the styling.

There weren’t options for super advanced customization – it’s mainly meant for simple personalization. But I was able to quickly adapt the template with my own branding.

Connecting form submissions

A key aspect of landing pages is integrating the lead gen form. Helpfully, you can link forms directly to your Contacts database and email automations.

For example, I set my opt-in form to add new subscribers to an onboarding email flow. This way leads are automatically tagged and funneled into campaigns.

Previewing across devices

The page builder provides a responsive mobile preview mode, allowing you to see how your pages render on mobile vs desktop.

Designing natively for mobile is essential, so I found the mobile previews very useful when styling my landing page. I could easily test the responsive behavior and make tweaks.

Speed of page building

Overall, I was able to build a customized landing page in around 20 minutes thanks to the intuitive editor and large template library.

I appreciate how Systeme.io simplifies and accelerates multi-channel campaign creation. You can quickly go from idea to execution when everything is housed in one unified platform.

Evaluating E Commerce Capabilities

Some online businesses need to sell physical or digital products directly. So I explored whether Systeme.io could support ecommerce needs beyond online courses.

Physical products

If you sell physical products, Systeme.io isn’t the best choice. There isn’t an integrated shopping cart where customers can browse inventory and add multiple items to a cart.

Physical product merchants would be better served by e-commerce-focused platforms like Shopify. Systeme.io aims more at info products, services, and online courses.

Digital products

For digital products, Systeme.io does let you create simple order forms to sell downloads like ebooks, videos, etc.

You can configure payment plans, coupons, order bumps, and attach a digital fulfillment file. So it covers the basics for selling one or more digital items.

But the purchasing process would be simpler vs. a full shopping cart flow. There also aren’t extensive additional merchandising features.

Subscriptions and memberships

In addition to one-time purchases, Systeme.io supports subscription billing for ongoing access passes like membership sites.

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You can manage recurring billing, preview scheduled payments, and track/cancel subscriptions in the platform backend.

So digital subscriptions and SaaS-style access plans are well supported even if traditional multi-product ecommerce isn’t.

Creating Websites and Blogs

Websites and blogs remain important online visibility drivers. So I explored how well Systeme.io handles basic website building.

Selecting templates

There’s a portfolio of multi-page website templates you can select as a starting point. Most layouts are modern and marketing-focused.

I picked a clean, contemporary website template with pages for services, about, contact, blog, etc. There weren’t as many options for portfolios, agencies, or other industries however.

Adding new pages

Within the template, you can easily add or delete pages like normal WordPress pages. The page editor has familiar formatting capabilities for adding text, images, buttons, and other elements.

It was simple to customize the template by deleting any demo content and inserting my own text, photos, and content blocks.

Creating blog posts

For blogging, Systeme.io provides a basic blog module that you can attach to a website. You can publish posts, add categories and tags, and create author profiles.

The blogging features cover the basics for news-style blogging. But if you want in-depth blogging capabilities, a dedicated platform like WordPress would be a better fit.

Optimizing for search engines

Helpfully, Systeme.io allows you to customize SEO titles, meta descriptions, URLs, and open graph tags for each page and blog post. This helps optimize pages for search engines.

There are also options to insert Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel tracking codes. So the platform supports basic search optimization and conversion tracking needs.

Speed of website building

Due to the template starting point and intuitive editor, I was able to put together a polished 5-page website in around 1 hour.

If you need a marketing-focused site up and running quickly, Systeme.io provides solid website creation capabilities for small businesses without technical expertise.

Learn more about Systeme here.

Setting Up Automation Workflows

To leverage the platform’s automation features, I set up some multi-step workflows for common business scenarios.

Welcome and onboarding sequences

One key use of automation is welcome and onboarding sequences. When a subscriber signs up, you can automatically enroll them in a pre-configured multi-email flow.

I set up a 5 email onboarding sequence to deliver a series of lessons over two weeks. Systeme.io makes it easy to visualize and create these dripped campaigns.

Cross-promotion workflows

You can also leverage automation to cross-promote products and offers. For example, if a contact purchases Product A, they can be automatically added to a workflow to upsell Product B.

I created a sequence that tags purchasers and sends them to a multi-step promotion flow with special cross-sell discounts. Workflows like this increase order value and capitalize on existing buyers.

Abandoned cart recovery

One other powerful automation is cart abandonment re-engagement. Website visitors who enter the checkout flow but don’t complete it can automatically be added to a follow-up campaign.

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My sequence reminds customers of abandoning their cart and sends a series of emails with exclusive discounts to incentivize purchase completion.

Customer re-engagement

You can also leverage automation to win back disengaged subscribers. For example, contacts who haven’t opened in 60+ days can be automatically added to a reactivation campaign.

I set up a flow to target inactive subscribers with content upgrades, new releases, and promos to re-engage them with my brand. Automation makes this level of personalization scalable.

The pre-built templates and workflow builder make it simple to set up these intelligent automations without any technical skills.

Testing Zapier Integrations

One powerful feature is Systeme.io’s integration with Zapier, which unlocks connections to thousands of other apps.

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I enabled integrations with Slack, Google Sheets, and Gmail to simulate real workflows.

For example, I set up a Zap to notify a Slack channel whenever a new course enrollment came through. I also integrated Google Sheets to capture lead data for tracking and syncing with other software.

The Zapier connectivity opens up many possibilities for connecting Systeme.io into a wider software stack. It’s a major advantage compared to less integrated platforms.

Pros and Cons of Systeme.io

Based on my hands-on testing, here’s an overview of the key advantages and disadvantages I found with Systeme.io:

Pros

All-in-one integration for less tool switching
Affordable pricing tiers for solopreneurs
Easy-to-use page and funnel builders
Large library of templates
Unlimited storage for online courses
Automation builder for complex workflows
Zapier integration

Cons

Can’t deeply customize some templates
No shopping cart for physical products
Email segmentation and analytics could be deeper
Some notifications like cart abandonment are pre-set

Overall, Systeme.io seems best suited for digital product businesses, online course creators, and service providers who want an integrated platform without the hassle of piecing together many systems.

The combination of email marketing, funnels, courses, and automation in one place is a major benefit. But it may not be ideal for larger or more complex business needs.

The reviewer summarized that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, so you need to evaluate if Systeme.io aligns with your business goals and priorities.

Get A Free Systeme.io Account Now — Click Here.

Systeme.io Review Verdict

So is Systeme.io worth trying for your online business? Here are my final recommendations based on different use cases:

For online course creators and membership site owners, Systeme.io provides a super simple all-in-one platform for creating and marketing your programs.
For digital product sellers like ebooks, downloads, etc. Systeme.io can support creating order forms and checkout processes for selling simpler products.
For info product marketers who need sales funnels, email marketing and automation, Systeme.io should cover most required functionality at an affordable price.
For physical/multi-product stores, Shopify or WooCommerce would still provide more mature ecommerce sites versus Systeme.io.
For bloggers/publishers who want to quickly launch sites, Systeme.io makes it easy to create content-driven websites. But WordPress offers more content features.

The bottom line is Systeme.io aims to provide 80% of the functionality online businesses need at 20% of the price of competitors. For solopreneurs and early stage businesses, it’s certainly worth considering as an alternative to costlier established players.

The free tier means you can test it out at no cost. Overall I was impressed with Systeme.io’s capabilities given its lower pricing compared to the competition. The platform covers all the marketing, sales and promotion essentials in a user-friendly way.

User Testimonials on Systeme.io

Here’s a sampling of testimonials from real Systeme.io users highlighting what they like about the platform:

“I find your systeme.io extremely easy to use – very similar in a lot of ways to ClickFunnels, but at a much lower price. I am a very happy customer and I wish that I had found you a few years ago.” – Barry F.
“I was using the tool to build a landing page and it’s super easy to use…well done!” – Spencer H.
“Systeme.io has become a serious force in the funnel world. Don’t be fooled by the price” – Eric K.
“I checked systeme.io and I like it more than clickfunnels.” – Aleksander V.
“I really love Systeme.io I think it is the best app out there to create funnels and create marketing strategies” – Ivan R.
“I changed from kajabi to system.io. Its amazing value and most of all (for me) so much easier to use than kajabi….” – Natacha S.
“The easiest to use and the cheapest among many funnels. I love it.” – OLUGU M.
“I find systeme extremely useful and far better than many softwares in the field of digital marketing” – Abraham L.
“I have to really give you my compliments for the great job you’ve done with your product. The UX is intuitive and blazing fast, great templates and a set of features.” – Angelo S.

The overwhelmingly positive user feedback is encouraging. Systeme.io seems to delight customers with its ease of use and breadth of features at affordable pricing compared to alternatives.

Signing Up on Systeme.io for Free

If you want to test out Systeme.io for yourself, you can sign up for a free account directly on their website. The free plan provides full access to all the core features, just with some limitations on number of contacts, funnels, courses etc.

But as a free user you can create a complete online business presence with:

1 fully functioning blog site
1 online course
Email marketing and segmentation
3 sales funnels with 10 steps each
Plus more

With no financial risk, the free account allows you to experience the Systeme.io platform first-hand. You can build out your business on the free plan, then upgrade later as you grow.

Conclusion

In summary, Systeme.io provides a promising all-in-one alternative for solo entrepreneurs looking to minimize costs and tool switching. Although not yet as advanced as some established players, Systeme.io already gets a lot right.

If you run a smaller online business, I’d certainly suggest trying out the forever.

My Honest Systeme.io Review – The Best Free Sales Funnel Platform?