Head to head · Systeme.io re-checked 23 August 2026 · Kartra 14 August
Kartra vs Systeme.io: free against $52, and what the gap actually buys
Short answer: if you haven't proven the offer yet, start on Systeme.io's free plan. If you're already selling and need a helpdesk, video hosting or real design control, Kartra earns its price — but budget Starter at $99, not the $52 headline. And if you're selling a course with quizzes or certificates, neither of these is your answer. That third case is the expensive mistake this page exists to prevent.
These two get compared constantly because they look like the same product: funnels, email, checkout and courses in one login, aimed at people running a business without a team. On the surface the only difference is that one starts at nothing and the other starts at $52 a month.
That framing is wrong, and it costs people money in both directions. The useful question isn't which is better. It's which of three quite different jobs you're actually doing.
The short answer
| Your situation | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Testing whether anyone wants your offer | Systeme.io | Free tier, no card, 0% fees. Nothing to justify |
| Running a coaching or consulting business | Kartra | Helpdesk, video hosting and affiliate management built in |
| Selling a course with quizzes or certificates | Neither, probably | See below — this is the expensive mistake |
| You need real design control | Kartra | Systeme.io's builder is its most-named weakness |
| Cost certainty matters most | Systeme.io | 0% transaction fees on every tier, including free |
What each actually costs
| Systeme.io | Price | Kartra | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Essentials | $52 |
| 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, 0% fees, no card — and Systeme.io branding on your pages | — | 500 contacts, 1 course, 5% transaction fee | $59 monthly |
| Startup | $17 | Starter | $99 |
| Where almost every upgrade lands — see the box below. 0% fees | — | 2,500 contacts, 0% fee — the real entry point | $119 monthly |
| Webinar | $47 | Growth | $189 |
| Adds evergreen webinars. 0% fees | — | 12,500 contacts. Unlocks quizzes, certificates, surveys, webinars | $229 monthly |
| Unlimited | $97 | Professional | $429 |
| Roughly Kartra's second tier. 0% fees | — | 25,000 contacts | $549 monthly |
US dollars per month. Kartra's two columns are annual and monthly; annual saves roughly 17%. We have not confirmed whether Systeme.io's figures are its annual or its monthly rate, and we'd rather tell you that than guess — three separate comparisons on this site turned out to be printing an annual rate and a monthly rate as though they were one range, so check which cycle you're being quoted before you commit. We also haven't confirmed either vendor's cancellation terms; if you're testing rather than committing, ask before you prepay for a year. Kartra has no free plan — there's a $1 fourteen-day trial, card required. Systeme.io re-checked 23 August 2026; Kartra's figures are from 14 August and were not re-checked with them.
Kartra's cheapest plan is not its cheapest plan
Essentials at $52 charges 5% of every sale. Starter at $99 charges nothing. So the $47 gap between them is repaid by the fee once you're selling enough.
The arithmetic: $47 divided by 5% is $940 a month in sales on annual billing. On monthly billing the gap is $60, so the crossover is around $1,200.
Past that, Essentials is the more expensive plan while giving you less. And because the fee comes out of your sales rather than arriving as a bill, nobody notices — there's no charge to approve, just slightly less money than you expected, every month.
And here is the same arithmetic run against the tool we're paid on
It would be easy to cost Kartra's trap precisely and leave Systeme.io's upgrade path as a vague range, so here is what actually pushes you off the free plan. Almost every one of these lands on the same tier — Startup at $17.
- Passing 2,000 contacts, which arrives faster than people expect once a funnel is working
- Wanting Systeme.io's branding off your pages — the free plan puts it there, and for anything client-facing this is usually the trigger that comes first
- A fourth funnel, or a second course
Only evergreen webinars reach higher, at the $47 tier. So the honest version of "start free" is: start free, expect to be paying $17 sooner than the limits suggest, and treat $47 as the ceiling unless you need webinars.
That is still dramatically less than Kartra. It is not nothing, and we'd rather you heard the number from us.
Systeme.io charges 0% on every tier, including free
This is the genuinely unusual thing about it and it deserves stating plainly: there is no plan on which Systeme.io takes a percentage of your sales. Not the free one, not the $97 one.
At $2,000 a month in sales, that's the difference between paying nothing and paying $100 a month on Kartra Essentials — $1,200 a year, on top of the subscription.
The mistake this page exists to prevent
A lot of people arrive at this comparison because they want to sell a course. If that's you, read this part twice.
Systeme.io has no quizzes, no certificates and no drip content. On any plan, at any price. It hosts course videos behind a login and takes payment, and that's the whole feature set. If the learning experience is what you're selling, it is not an option — and no amount of paying more fixes that, because the features don't exist.
Kartra has them, but they're gated to Growth at $189 a month. Not $52. So a course seller comparing Kartra's headline price to Systeme.io's free tier is comparing two numbers, neither of which applies to them.
Which means the real comparison for a course seller isn't on this page at all. It's Thinkific or Teachable — dedicated course platforms with quizzes and certificates included from the entry tier, at a fraction of Kartra Growth's price. Both restructured recently and a great many published figures still describe retired plans, so price that stack from their own sites before you commit to $189 a month for an all-in-one.
That paragraph sends you away from the only tool on this page that pays us, toward course platforms that pay us nothing. It's here because it's true, and because a comparison that never reaches an inconvenient conclusion isn't worth reading. See Teachable vs Thinkific if that's your situation.
Where Kartra is genuinely worth the money
- A built-in helpdesk, which competitors make you bolt on — if you're doing coaching or consulting with real client support, this alone can justify the gap
- Native video hosting, so you're not paying for Vimeo or Wistia alongside
- Affiliate program management for your own products, built in rather than added
- Genuine design control. Systeme.io's page builder is the limitation people name most often once they've outgrown the free tier
- A 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans, according to its published terms. Systeme.io is widely reported to offer one too — we haven't been able to confirm either from a checkout, and one Systeme.io help article notes the window can vary by subscription type, so treat this as a reason to ask rather than a reason to choose
Where Systeme.io is genuinely the better buy
- You haven't proven the offer yet. The free tier includes 2,000 contacts, three funnels and a course — enough to find out whether anyone will pay you, without paying anyone. Expect the branding to bother you before the limits do
- 0% transaction fees at every tier, which compounds as you sell more
- Its top plan is $97 — roughly Kartra's second tier. If the extra depth isn't earning its keep, that gap is pure saving
- Contacts, funnels and emails share one database, so there's no connector to build or maintain
Questions
Is Systeme.io's free plan actually free?
Yes — permanently, no card, no countdown, and no transaction fee. It's the only genuinely permanent free tier among the all-in-one platforms we cover. The limits are 2,000 contacts, three funnels and one course, and your pages carry Systeme.io branding until you reach the $17 tier.
What will actually push me off the free plan?
Usually the branding, then the contact limit. Removing Systeme.io's branding, passing 2,000 contacts, building a fourth funnel and adding a second course all land on the same tier, Startup at $17. Only evergreen webinars go higher, at $47. So budget $17 rather than $0 if you're doing anything client-facing.
Which Kartra plan should I actually budget for?
Starter at $99, unless you sell almost nothing — the 5% fee on Essentials overtakes the price gap around $940–$1,200 a month in sales. If you need quizzes or certificates, budget for Growth at $189 instead, and price a dedicated course platform against it first.
Can I start free and move to Kartra later?
You can, and for many people that's the sensible order. Budget for real migration work though: rebuilding pages, re-importing contacts and re-testing every automation. Switching is always more expensive than it looks, which is the argument for doing this arithmetic now.
You earn from Systeme.io. Why should I trust this?
You shouldn't trust it — you should check it. That's why the prices above are the vendors' own and dated, why Systeme.io's missing course features are stated as flatly as we can put them, why the upgrade triggers that cost you $17 are spelled out rather than left as a range, and why this page sends course sellers away to dedicated course platforms that pay us nothing. Weigh it knowing the incentive, and confirm both prices before you buy.
What about GoHighLevel?
Different buyer. GoHighLevel is built for agencies managing marketing on behalf of clients, with sub-accounts and white labelling. If that's you, the comparison you want is Systeme.io vs GoHighLevel.
How to decide today
If you can't yet name a customer who has paid you for this offer, start on Systeme.io's free plan. It costs nothing and it answers the only question that matters at this stage — just budget $17 for the month you want the branding gone.
If you're already selling and you need a helpdesk, video hosting or real design control, Kartra earns its price — start on Starter at $99, not Essentials.
And if you need quizzes or certificates, close both tabs and price a dedicated course platform first.
See the Systeme.io review and free plan →
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