Hands-on setup test · Free plan
Systeme.io Free vs Startup: limits, costs and our free-plan test
We built a simple page and contact pipeline, then delivered one permission-based test email and verified its unsubscribe path. New-subscriber confirmation and automated follow-up remain unverified.
For a solo consultant or small service business, the useful question is whether an enquiry can reach the right next step with little extra administration. A long list of features cannot answer that on its own. We opened a free account and began a deliberately small test on 27 September 2026. This report was updated on 28 September after checking the delivered message and completing the unsubscribe test.
Our verdict: a reasonable candidate for a small, no-payment setup trial. Keep your existing process until you have tested sender setup, permission-based contact capture and follow-up with your own requirements. Do not buy a larger plan just to reproduce the page and pipeline we built.
Free or Startup: what would you actually pay for?
Start with the smallest plan that covers your real workflow. We tested the Free account only. The Startup figures below come from the provider's detailed pricing table checked on 28 September 2026; we have not tested a paid account.
| Allowance or cost | Free | Startup |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription, monthly billing | $0 | $17 per month |
| 12 months at the monthly price | $0 | $204 |
| Annual billing | $0 | $170 for the year, paid annually |
| Contacts | 2,000 | 5,000 |
| Funnels / total funnel steps | 3 / 15 | 10 / 50 |
| Email campaigns | 1 | 10 |
| Automation rules / workflows | 1 / 1 | 10 / 5 |
| CRM pipelines | 1 | 5 |
| Custom domains | 1 | 3 |
These are displayed USD subscription prices, not a checkout quote. Confirm applicable taxes, currency, payment-provider fees and any separate domain or service costs. Annual billing saves $34 against twelve $17 payments at these prices, but commits $170 to the year. The $14.17 monthly equivalent is a budgeting calculation, not a monthly payment option.
Three example decisions
- One consultant, 500 contacts, one enquiry journey: Free is the first plan to test if one campaign, one rule and one workflow cover the job. Our page, pipeline and one newsletter did not require a paid plan.
- Two distinct email sequences or two pipelines: these exceed the displayed Free allowances even with fewer than 2,000 contacts. Map the steps first. Startup's documented allowances may fit, but test the required behaviour before migrating.
- Several opportunities per customer, ownership controls or detailed forecasting: neither a higher allowance nor a six-stage board proves those needs are met. Compare a dedicated CRM and test its deal model; our spreadsheet-or-CRM guide is a starting point.
See the checks to complete before signing up or upgrading. Choosing Free is a valid outcome; a paid plan does not by itself create enquiries or sales.
What we tested, and what we did not
| Check | Observed result | Limit of the finding |
|---|---|---|
| Free account | The account displayed Free as its current plan. | No paid subscription or payment-card setup was needed for our test. |
| Page builder | Created a custom funnel, added an information-page step, dragged in a text block, edited it and saved. | A minimal text page, not a designed sales funnel or a form test. |
| Public page | The saved text loaded on the supplied systeme.io subdomain. | Save made this page accessible by URL. Do not assume a saved example is private. |
| Narrow screen | At a 375-pixel viewport, the text wrapped without horizontal overflow. | One simple page and viewport, not a full accessibility or device audit. |
| Contact pipeline | Created six stages, added an existing owner-controlled test contact, and dragged it from New inquiry to Contacted. The new stage persisted after a reload. | A manual move of one test contact, not a customer, sale, deal forecast or automation test. |
| Contact note | Saved a clearly labelled demo next action and example date. The note remained after reloading the board and reopening the contact. | The date was ordinary note text. A scheduled task, reminder, assigned owner and execution were not verified. |
| Fictional contact | The form rejected an address on the reserved .example domain because it lacked a valid MX or A DNS record. | The record was not saved. We did not import real customer data to get around this check. |
| Sender and domain setup | Verified our business-domain sender. The provider confirmed domain authentication; Gmail later reported SPF, DKIM and DMARC passing on the test message. | One configured domain. This is not a security audit or a guarantee for other senders. |
| Test newsletter | Sent one newsletter to the consenting owner's Gmail. It arrived in the inbox's Promotions category; the provider showed one email sent. | One recipient, not an inbox-placement benchmark. A newsletter is not an automated sequence. |
| Unsubscribe | Used the delivered message's unsubscribe link and confirmed. The page said no further mail from this sender; the contact record then offered resubscription. | Verified the unsubscribe confirmation and recorded state. We did not send a further message to test enforcement. |
| Signup confirmation | A test form accepted the owner's email, but it matched an existing contact. A confirmation message was not observed. | A first-time subscriber's double opt-in journey remains unverified. This was not a new lead. |
The interface in our account was Russian-language, and page text was English. A setting label or displayed currency can depend on account context. It does not prove what every visitor will see or which currency their bank will receive.
The free limits we saw in the account
These are the limits displayed in our account on the test date, not promises that the limits will never change. We did not deliberately fill each allowance to test enforcement.
| Feature | Displayed Free allowance | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | 2,000 | Check how your audience and existing records count before importing. |
| Funnels and steps | 3 funnels, 15 steps | A small prototype can fit; several distinct service journeys may use the allowance faster. |
| Email campaigns | 1 | Plan which sequence belongs in that campaign before building several independent journeys. |
| Automation rules / workflows | 1 rule / 1 workflow | Separate limits, not an unlimited automation allowance. We have not tested execution. |
| Contact pipelines | 1 | We could create six stages inside the one pipeline. |
| Custom domains | 1 | Our test used the included subdomain; custom-domain setup was not part of it. |
| Course students | 500 | Relevant if your service later includes a course. Course delivery was not tested. |
We also found inconsistencies between broad wording in the public pricing-page FAQ and its detailed table. For these figures we used the specific account allowances. Check your account and the current official pricing table before committing to a workflow or purchase.
The page-building test
We started with a custom funnel rather than importing a ready-made sales template. Its information-page step contained one text block describing a fictional consultation and clearly stated that no service, form, payment or mailing list was connected.
The basic sequence worked: create the funnel, add a step, open Configuration, choose Edit page, drag a text element into the canvas, edit it and save. In the narrow dashboard layout we had to open Configuration explicitly to reveal the page settings. We verified the saved result by opening its public address.
That establishes a working route from an empty page to a public text example. It does not establish that a multi-step form, a checkout, a booking calendar or a thank-you redirect works correctly. Those deserve separate tests before inviting real customers.
A manual follow-up test on the Free pipeline
We named the stages New inquiry, Contacted, Proposal sent, Negotiation, Won and Lost. The saved board offered Add contact in each stage. Creating a new contact required an email address; an intentionally non-deliverable example was rejected in our earlier test.
On 28 September we tried the existing-contact path using only our owner's previously created setup-test contact. Before doing so, we checked that the active automation-rule list and workflow list were empty. We did not create a subscriber, send an email or use a real customer.
- Add an existing contact: under New inquiry, choose Add contact, keep the existing-contact option, search for the test record, select it and save. Our card appeared under New inquiry.
- Record the next action: open the card, choose Notes, enter a clearly labelled demo action and example date, then save. Our text appeared in Previous notes.
- Move the card: close the note and card views, then drag the card to Contacted. This is a manual stage change; it does not prove anyone was contacted.
- Check persistence: reload the board and reopen the card's notes. Our Contacted stage and saved note were both still present.
We did not establish whether the product can represent your full deal model, such as several opportunities per client, forecast values, separate owners or a detailed activity history. If these are essential, test them directly. A six-column board alone is not evidence that all of those needs are covered.
Email: what worked after setup
The initial campaign form had no verified sender. We subsequently verified a business-domain address, added the domain-authentication records supplied by systeme.io and received confirmation from its support team that the domain was ready.
We submitted one newsletter to one consenting owner-controlled address. It initially waited for manual review; the later newsletter report showed one email sent, and Gmail contained that message from our domain. Gmail's received timestamp was 27 September 2026 at 17:12 UTC. It appeared in Promotions within the inbox, not in Spam. Its authentication results reported SPF, DKIM and DMARC passing.
On 28 September we followed the message's native unsubscribe link. The page confirmed the address would no longer receive email from this sender. The corresponding contact record offered resubscription, supporting that the contact had been marked unsubscribed. We left it unsubscribed and did not send another message to test suppression.
The signup part is still incomplete: the test address was already a contact, so submitting the form did not establish a new subscriber's confirmation flow. No double opt-in message was observed. The private test form is now closed in its visible interface, and no public mailing list or automated follow-up sequence is running.
What this means for a buyer: sending one newsletter from an authenticated domain and completing its unsubscribe path worked in our account. It does not establish delivery rates, delivery speed, first-time signup confirmation, campaign automation, conversion rates or suitability for your whole business. Our delivered footer used Russian labels, so check the recipient language as part of an English-language launch.
Who should try it first
- A solo service provider exploring one simple journey: start with a clearly labelled example page and a small pipeline. Check the limits against that job.
- A business with an existing customer process: trial the required steps alongside it before moving contacts, a live domain or payments.
- A team needing several separate pipelines or campaigns: the Free allowances above are a reason to map the workflow carefully before investing time.
A free subscription can still cost time: sender and domain setup, consent wording, page design, testing and later migration. Our test did not measure those costs or establish a return on investment.
A sensible next test before you buy
- Write down one enquiry journey and the fields you actually need.
- Build a clearly labelled page; check whether its URL is public after saving.
- Verify a sender and test a permitted signup with a consenting recipient.
- Check the form, confirmation, next-step page and unsubscribe path on phone and desktop.
- Test your one required automation, keeping payment actions out of the trial.
- Check export and deletion before importing a customer list.
We completed page and pipeline setup, domain-sender verification, one newsletter delivery and the unsubscribe confirmation/record checks described above. First-time double opt-in, automation execution, export and deletion remain further tests, not claimed results.
Sources and scope
- Our authenticated Free-plan page, page editor, campaign form and email settings, observed 27 September 2026; newsletter delivery, received-message authentication, unsubscribe state, existing-contact pipeline movement and note persistence checked 28 September 2026.
- Official pricing, monthly and annual views and the detailed comparison table checked 28 September 2026. Paid-plan figures are documentation-based; account allowances observed in our Free account are distinguished above.
- Terms and conditions and provider privacy policy.
This is a limited hands-on setup report, assisted by AI for browser operation, drafting and structure. It is not a long-term use review, performance benchmark, security audit or claim of increased sales. No star rating has been assigned.