Email · Comparison
systeme.io vs Kit (ConvertKit) 2026: I Use Both Free Plans
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Is systeme.io good enough at email that you can skip Kit? If you’re weighing the two (Kit is the platform formerly called ConvertKit), that’s the question underneath, and I run both free plans side by side to answer it.
For sending newsletters, I found the two almost identical. So pick systeme.io if you want your list, pages, sales funnels and a course in one free account, with one automation included. Pick Kit if your focus is an email list with a free lead magnet: its free plan holds up to 10,000 subscribers to systeme.io's 2,000 contacts, but has no automations.
- Free plans (as of November 2026 - check current pricing, it changes): systeme.io 2,000 contacts, 1 automation rule, no systeme.io fee on up to $10,000 in lifetime sales; Kit up to 10,000 subscribers, no automations, 3.5% + 30c per sale.
How I compared them
As of November 2026, I’ve used both free plans the same way for about 5 months. Each holds its own small list of about 100 subscribers (neither is H28’s own list), and I’ve sent 3 or 4 newsletters on each, about 8 in total, plus one-off emails. On both I built a landing page, styled emails in a logo’s colors and set up domain authentication. On systeme.io I also built one automation; on Kit I built a subscribe form, and the list there came over from Mailchimp.
One caveat for the design comparison: my systeme.io landing page was a real, customized one, while on Kit I only built a trial page to get a feel for the editor.
I haven’t paid for either, sold anything, run a course or a sales funnel, gone past systeme.io’s one automation, set up app integrations or sent at scale. Those parts, and every price and plan limit below, come from the two vendors’ pricing pages, terms and help centres, checked at the same time. These numbers move, so check the live pages before you decide.
The two free plans, side by side
Here’s what each free plan gives you.
| Free plan | systeme.io | Kit |
|---|---|---|
| List size | 2,000 contacts | Up to 10,000 subscribers |
| Email sends | Unlimited | Unlimited newsletters, no sending limits |
| Automations | 1 automation rule, 1 workflow, 1 email campaign | None: sequences and visual automations start on Creator |
| Tags | 1 | Included (no number given) |
| A/B tests | 1 | 2 subject lines, on broadcasts |
| Forms and pages | Inside 3 sales funnels (15 funnel steps), plus 1 website | Unlimited forms and landing pages |
| Page editor | Drag and drop | Template, click to edit, blocks moved with arrows |
| Custom domain | 1 | Yes, for landing pages |
| Selling | Products and a course through order forms; 0% systeme.io fee (your card processor still charges); up to $10,000 in lifetime sales | Digital products, paid newsletters, subscriptions, tips; 3.5% + 30c per sale, card processing included |
| Course, community, blog | 1 course (up to 500 students), 1 community, 1 blog | No course or community listed; a newsletter feed and website |
| Integrations | API, plus native Google Sheets, Calendar, Meet, Zoom and a few more | API; the 100-plus direct apps need Creator |
| Users | Unlimited assistant accounts | 1 |
| Support | 24/7 email |
Read across, the split is plain. systeme.io gives you more kinds of things on the free plan, usually one of each: one automation, one course, one community, three funnels. Kit gives you far more room for the list and its forms and pages, plus selling, but no automation at all. (An “email campaign” on systeme.io means, as far as I can tell, a timed series of emails, separate from the unlimited one-off newsletters.)
Building the list and sending email
Is systeme.io good for email marketing? For what I’ve done with it, yes. Building a newsletter was about equally easy on both, and with simple designs the results came out almost identical.
Inbox placement didn’t separate them either. On both lists most emails reached the inbox and the rest went to Promotions or spam, and domain authentication went through cleanly on each. With lists this small, that can’t show how either would perform at scale.
The differences are in the details. systeme.io has a drag-and-drop email editor, plus a classic text editor, and allows 1 A/B test on free. Kit has a visual template editor, A/B tests on two subject lines, and custom HTML/CSS email templates on its free plan.
Automations: one on systeme.io, none on Kit
This is the clearest free-plan difference. On systeme.io, the free plan includes 1 automation rule, 1 workflow and 1 email campaign. I built my one automation there, a follow-up when someone opened my first email, and couldn’t add a second. It’s a small allowance, but a real taste.
Kit’s free plan has none: visual automations and email sequences both start on Creator, which stands out for a platform best known for automation.
On the paid side, the Startup plan on systeme.io gives you 10 automation rules for $17/mo, and Kit’s Creator gives you unlimited automations from $39/mo at 1,000 subscribers. When I clicked through systeme.io’s automation options, there were only a few types to choose from. If automations are the heart of your plan, Creator has a 14-day free trial with no card, so you can judge its depth yourself.
Selling your first digital product
systeme.io’s free plan lets you sell with no systeme.io transaction fee; Stripe or PayPal still charge their own processing fees. There’s a ceiling: $10,000 in lifetime sales. When you reach it, you get 3 days to upgrade, and if you don’t, your payment pages stop accepting new sales; nothing is charged automatically. The free plan also includes 1 course with up to 500 students, 1 community, and 3 sales funnels with 15 funnel steps, where a payment page is one of the steps. Its help centre shows how to sell an ebook or PDF through an order form.
Kit’s free plan sells digital products, paid newsletters, subscriptions and tips at 3.5% + 30c a sale, card processing included. Its plans don’t list a course or funnel builder.
So the two fees aren’t like for like: Kit’s figure already covers card processing, while systeme.io’s 0% leaves Stripe or PayPal to charge you on top. The bigger differences sit elsewhere: the $10,000 lifetime cap on the free plan, and the course, funnels, upsells and order bumps systeme.io gives you around the checkout.
My pick for a first digital product is systeme.io: you can sell on its free plan without paying it a fee, and the checkout, the pages around it and a course sit in one account. Kit’s free plan sells too, so this comes down to fit, not to which one can.
Pages, design and ease of use
systeme.io’s page editor is drag-and-drop: you pull elements onto the page and place them. The page I built there customized well, and I didn’t hit a design limit for my needs. The plainer part is the dashboard you work inside, not the page your visitors see. My read, though I never needed to go that far, is that heavy custom CSS for a very bespoke look would push you outside systeme.io.
Kit works from a template instead: you click into its sections and blocks and nudge them into place with arrow buttons rather than dragging. It styles by clicking too, and adds a CSS route on top. For anyone who codes, that’s the difference that matters here: from what I’ve seen, they could get a nicer-looking result on Kit that way.
Building a landing page took me about 3 hours on either tool, from memory. The gap between them was a matter of minutes, possibly down to me getting distracted, so I won’t call either one faster. On both, you quickly know where everything is.
Price when you outgrow free
Here’s what each costs as a list grows, on monthly billing, at standard prices:
| List size | systeme.io (cheapest plan that fits) | Kit, no automations | Kit with automations (Creator) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $0 (Free) | $0 (Free) | $39 |
| 3,000 | $17 (Startup) | $0 (Free) | $59 |
| 5,000 | $17 (Startup) | $0 (Free) | $89 |
| 10,000 | $47 (Webinar) | $0 (Free) | $139 |
Two things stand out. If you don’t need automations, Kit’s free plan costs nothing up to 10,000 subscribers, while systeme.io starts charging past 2,000 contacts. If you do need automations, systeme.io is the cheaper of the two at every size in this table. Both discount yearly billing: systeme.io gives two months free (Startup is $170 a year), and Kit takes 17% off (Creator is $33/mo at 1,000 subscribers).
The table compares list sizes, not identical bills. One counts unique, active subscribers and the other counts contacts, which are close but not proven to be the same thing. And the plans don’t buy the same things: Creator adds email depth and app integrations, while systeme.io’s paid plans add more of everything inside its all-in-one.
Integrations
systeme.io’s free plan includes its API (30 requests per minute) and native connections to Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Zoom, ActiveCampaign, SendGrid and Twilio SMS. Kit’s free plan has the API too, plus the free apps in its App Store, but its 100-plus direct app integrations sit on the paid plans. If you need one of the connections above without paying, systeme.io’s free plan has it built in; on Kit, check first whether the app you need is a free one.
Can you use both?
I do run both, but not as one system. Each has a separate small list, and running them in parallel is how I test them; I haven’t wired them into a single funnel. For a beginner, my advice is simple: pick one.
Who should pick which
Pick systeme.io if...
- You'd rather run the list, the pages, a funnel and a course from one dashboard.
- You're a beginner and want to see everything in one place before choosing what to use.
- You want to sell a first digital product with no systeme.io fee, and $10,000 in lifetime sales is a long way off.
- You want a taste of automation on the free plan.
Pick Kit if...
- The list is the whole point, built on a free lead magnet.
- Your list could pass 2,000 soon, and you'd rather not pay until it reaches 10,000.
- Your first product is a paid newsletter or a download sold to your own list.
- You code, or plan to, and want styling you can push further with CSS.
And if you’re a beginner who only wants a newsletter, I’d skip both: beehiiv is built for exactly that, and it’s where I’d start.
- systeme.io and Kit are both free to start, so you can try the one that fits before paying anything.
FAQ
Which free plan is better, systeme.io or Kit?
Each is better for a different job. systeme.io’s free plan does more kinds of things: 3 sales funnels, 1 course, 1 community and 1 automation rule, for up to 2,000 contacts. Kit’s holds far more subscribers, up to 10,000, with unlimited forms, landing pages and newsletters, but no automations. For an all-in-one, systeme.io; for a bigger list, Kit.
Is systeme.io good for email marketing, or do you need Kit?
For a small list, it handled my email well: building newsletters was as easy as on Kit, the results looked almost identical, and most emails reached the inbox on both. You’d want Kit mainly for list size (up to 10,000 free subscribers against 2,000 contacts) or for its paid automations.
Do you get automations on either free plan?
Only on systeme.io’s: its free plan includes 1 automation rule. Kit starts automations and email sequences on its paid Creator plan.
Can you sell digital products or a course on each free plan, and what are the fees?
On systeme.io’s free plan, sales carry no systeme.io fee (your payment processor still charges), a course with up to 500 students is included, and total sales are capped at $10,000 lifetime, after which you have 3 days to upgrade. On Kit’s free plan, selling digital products, paid newsletters and subscriptions costs 3.5% + 30c a sale with card processing included, and there’s no course builder listed.
Which is cheaper as your list grows?
Without automations, Kit: its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers. With automations, systeme.io: on monthly billing it’s $17 (Startup) at 3,000 or 5,000 contacts and $47 (Webinar) at 10,000, against Kit Creator’s $59, $89 and $139 (standard prices). The plans don’t include the same features, so compare them for what you need.
Can you build a sales funnel in Kit?
Not in the systeme.io sense. Kit’s plans list landing pages, forms and product pages, but no funnel builder with upsells or order bumps. systeme.io’s free plan includes 3 sales funnels, with 1 upsell and 1 order bump.
Can you use systeme.io and Kit together?
You can run both, as I do, but I keep them separate: each holds its own small list, and they aren’t connected into one funnel. For a beginner, I’d pick one rather than run both.
