Systeme.io and ClickFunnels both build funnels, send email and sell courses, but they are priced for very different businesses. One starts free, the other starts at $97 a month. We compared them head to head on price, pages, email, automation, CRM, ease of use and support, using each official pricing page in October 2026, so you can pick the right one for where you are now.
Systeme.io is better for most coaches: it has a free plan, paid plans from $17 a month, unlimited email and a booking calendar included. ClickFunnels, from $97 a month, is better if you run paid ads and need unlimited funnels, constant split testing and a stronger editor. Start cheap, and upgrade only when a missing feature costs you clients.
Who this is for: Coaches, consultants and course creators choosing between Systeme.io and ClickFunnels for their funnels and email.
Choose Systeme.io if you are a coach selling a course, a membership or a low-ticket offer, your list is under 10,000 people, and you want funnels, email, courses and a simple booking calendar in one place for free or from $17 a month. It does the basics well, it costs very little, and you can start without a card.
Choose ClickFunnels if your business already runs on paid traffic and funnels are where your money is made. It gives you unlimited funnels and pages on every plan, A/B testing, a stronger page editor and a big library of funnel training. You pay for that: plans start at $97 a month, and the automations and appointment booking most coaches want only arrive on the $197 Scale plan.
If you are not sure, start on Systeme.io's free plan. If you outgrow it, you will know exactly which features you are missing, and you can make the case for ClickFunnels with real numbers instead of guesses.
This is the biggest difference between the two. We checked both official pricing pages at the time of writing (October 2026), and all figures below are in US dollars.
Systeme.io has four plans, mostly split by how many contacts you have. The Free plan costs nothing, never expires and needs no credit card. It gives you 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, 1 blog, 1 custom domain, 1 email campaign and 1 automation rule. Startup is $17 a month for 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses, 10 automation rules and 3 custom domains.
Webinar is $47 a month for 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses, 100 automation rules and evergreen webinars. Unlimited is $97 a month and removes the caps on contacts, funnels, courses and automation rules. Every plan includes unlimited email sends, unlimited sub-accounts and 0% transaction fees, and paying yearly gives you two months free.
ClickFunnels has no free plan, but every plan comes with a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Launch is $97 a month, or $81 a month billed yearly, with 10,000 contacts, 50,000 emails a month, 2 team members, 3 courses and 5 custom domains. Scale is $197 a month ($164 billed yearly) with 75,000 contacts, 300,000 emails a month and 5 team members.
Optimize is $297 a month ($248 billed yearly) and Dominate is $5,997 a year, sold yearly only. ClickFunnels says it takes no percentage of your sales. The catch for coaches is what sits on which plan: Launch does not include Automations, Appointments or Calendars, so the real starting price for a coach who books calls is $197 a month.
ClickFunnels is built around funnels, and it shows. Every plan has unlimited funnels, unlimited pages, A/B testing, Smart Checkout, order forms and a website and blog. The editor gives you more control over layout, and countdown funnels and conversion boosters arrive on Scale. If you test a lot of landing pages against each other, this is where ClickFunnels earns its price.
Systeme.io's builder is simpler but covers what most coaches need: opt-in pages, sales pages, checkout pages, 1-click upsells, order bumps, A/B tests, deadline funnels and a blog. The limit is the number of funnels on your plan, not what a funnel can do. If you want to see what a basic setup looks like before paying for anything, our guide to building a sales funnel for free walks through it step by step.
Both tools send broadcasts and sequences from the same place your pages live, so a new lead goes straight onto your list. Systeme.io gives unlimited sends on every plan, which is generous for a growing list. ClickFunnels caps sends by plan: 50,000 a month on Launch, which is plenty for a list of a few thousand but worth checking if you email daily.
Neither is a specialist email tool. If your business lives on a weekly newsletter with detailed segments, you may still want a dedicated email platform alongside either one.
On Systeme.io, automation rules ("when someone opts in, add a tag and start a sequence") are counted by plan: 1 on Free, 10 on Startup, 100 on Webinar and unlimited on Unlimited. It also has visual workflows that can send email and SMS, add tags, give course access and wait between steps. SMS runs through your own Twilio account, so texts are billed by Twilio.
On ClickFunnels, Automations start on Scale and Advanced Workflows on Optimize. That matters, because a lead who opts in and gets nothing for a day is a lead you are likely to lose.
Both now include a basic pipeline for tracking leads from "new" to "booked" to "client". ClickFunnels gives you 1 CRM pipeline on Launch and more from Scale, with Opportunities on every plan and Appointments plus Calendars from Scale. Systeme.io has pipelines and a booking calendar that takes payment through Stripe or PayPal.
Neither is a full sales CRM. If you run a team of closers or a long sales process, read our guide to whether you need a CRM before you pick either one for that job.
Systeme.io is the easier of the two for a first funnel. There are fewer settings, the menus are plain, and most coaches can get an opt-in page, a short email sequence and a checkout live in an afternoon. The trade-off is less design freedom, so pages can look similar unless you take time over them.
ClickFunnels has more to learn. The editor is more powerful, and there are more apps to connect: workflows, the message hub, appointments, the affiliate centre. That power is useful once you know what you are doing, but it is easy to spend a week building and never launch.
Systeme.io says its support team answers 7 days a week with an average response time under 2 hours, and it offers free migration from other tools. ClickFunnels gives standard support on Launch, priority support with live chat on Scale and Optimize, and VIP support on Dominate. Every ClickFunnels plan includes group onboarding calls, and the training library (FunnelFlix) grows with your plan.
If you learn best from courses and calls, ClickFunnels has more of it. If you just want a quick answer to a quick question, Systeme.io's support is fast and included on the free plan.
This table uses each vendor's own pricing page at the time of writing (October 2026). "From" means the cheapest plan that includes the feature.
| What you need | Systeme.io | ClickFunnels |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free, then $17 a month | $97 a month ($81 billed yearly) |
| Free plan or trial | Free plan, no card needed | 14-day free trial |
| Contacts on the entry paid plan | 5,000 (Startup) | 10,000 (Launch) |
| Funnels | 3 free, 10 on Startup, unlimited on $97 | Unlimited on every plan |
| Email sends | Unlimited on every plan | 50,000 a month on Launch |
| Automations | 1 rule free, 10 on Startup | From Scale ($197 a month) |
| Booking calendar | Included, even on free | From Scale ($197 a month) |
| CRM pipeline | Yes, basic | 1 on Launch, more on Scale |
| Courses | 1 free, 5 on Startup | 3 on Launch |
| A/B testing | Yes | Yes, every plan |
| Fees on your sales | 0% | None, says ClickFunnels |
| Support | 7 days a week, under 2 hours on average | Standard on Launch, live chat from Scale |
If price is your main filter, our list of the cheapest funnel builders puts both next to six other options.
Here is how we would choose for four kinds of business we see often. Your numbers may change the answer, so treat these as a starting point.
You have a few hundred followers, one free guide and an idea for a course. Pick Systeme.io. The free plan covers your opt-in page, your welcome emails and your first course, and you will not need to upgrade until you pass 2,000 contacts or want more than 3 funnels.
You sell online with a sales page, a checkout and an upsell, and you email your list a few times a week. Pick Systeme.io, probably on Startup or Webinar. Unlimited email sends, courses, upsells and evergreen webinars cover this model for far less than ClickFunnels would cost.
Your funnel ends in a booked call, not a checkout. Either can work, but be honest about the plan. On Systeme.io the booking calendar is included. On ClickFunnels you need Scale at $197 a month to get Appointments and Automations. Many high-ticket coaches find a simple funnel tool plus a separate calendar does the job well.
You run paid traffic every day and small changes in page conversion are worth real money. Pick ClickFunnels. Unlimited funnels, constant split tests, a stronger editor and more team seats on the higher plans make sense once each point of conversion is worth more than the monthly fee. Our funnel leak calculator shows what a better step is worth to you.
If neither feels right, our guide to ClickFunnels alternatives covers six more options.
Both tools give you a place to build. Neither gives you an offer people want, a lead magnet worth opting in for, or the words on the page that make someone book. A beautiful funnel with a vague headline still loses most of the people who see it. The tool is rarely the reason a funnel does not sell.
Neither will write your follow-up emails, decide when to text a lead, or notice that people book and then do not turn up. And neither will tell you which step is losing you the most clients. That takes looking at your numbers: how many people visit, opt in, book, show up and buy, and where the biggest drop is.
So before you switch tools, fix the leakiest step on the tool you already have. Most coaches get more from a sharper offer and a faster follow-up than from moving platforms. If you would rather hand that work over, a done-for-you studio fits when you know funnels matter but do not have the hours to build, write and test them yourself. We find the leak first, then build the fix on whichever tool suits you. You can start with a free marketing audit.
For most coaches and course creators, yes, because it does the core jobs for a fraction of the price and has a free plan. ClickFunnels is better if funnels and paid traffic are the centre of your business and you will use unlimited funnels and split testing. Pick on the features you will actually use, not the longest feature list.
At the time of writing (October 2026), Systeme.io is free for up to 2,000 contacts, then $17, $47 or $97 a month. ClickFunnels is $97, $197 or $297 a month, with lower prices if you pay yearly, and Dominate at $5,997 a year. Both say they take no cut of your sales.
Yes. The free plan never expires and needs no credit card. It includes 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, 1 blog, 1 custom domain and unlimited email sends, with 1 automation rule and 1 email campaign.
No. ClickFunnels offers a 14-day free trial on its plans and a 30-day money-back guarantee, but there is no plan you can stay on for free. Billing starts once the trial ends unless you cancel.
Yes. You can export your contacts and rebuild your pages, emails and courses in Systeme.io, which offers free migration. Plan time to test every opt-in, checkout and email before you cancel the old account, so no lead falls through the gap.
Send us your setup and we will tell you honestly where it is leaking customers and what to fix first. Free, no pitch.