systeme.io vs GetResponse (2026): Sell Your First Product
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A quick, honest note: Some links on this site may be affiliate links. If you sign up through one, we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. I’ve stuck to what each platform’s own pages say and tried to keep this fair.
If you want to sell your first digital product, like a small course, a guide or a paid workshop, you’ll probably land on two names sooner or later: systeme.io and GetResponse. Both promise email, landing pages and a way to take payments in one place. They get there in very different ways, and the price gap at the start is bigger than you might expect.
I’ll be upfront: I haven’t used systeme.io or GetResponse. My own hands-on time is with Kit (a long time ago) and beehiiv. Everything below comes from each company’s official pricing pages, help centers and terms, checked on Nov 3, 2026. I haven’t started selling anything yet myself, so I’ve tried to answer the questions I’d want answered before I picked one.
If you’re still deciding whether you even need a sales tool yet, my guide on how to start a newsletter covers the steps before this one.
The short answer
- systeme.io lets you build a funnel, host a course and take payments on its free plan, with 0% transaction fees from systeme.io. Its first paid plan is $17 a month.
- GetResponse has a free account, but selling courses and running sales funnels need a paid plan. The plan with the course creator and webinars, Creator, starts at $69 a month for 1,000 contacts on monthly billing.
For a first product on a tight budget, systeme.io’s free plan covers more of the selling side. GetResponse makes more sense if live webinars are a big part of how you plan to sell, and you’re ready to pay for that from the start.
Comparison chart
| systeme.io | GetResponse | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, no end date, no card needed | Yes, “forever free”, no card needed |
| Free plan contacts | 2,000 | Up to 500 |
| Free plan email sends | Unlimited | Up to 2,500 messages a month |
| Selling on free | Yes, up to $10,000 in lifetime sales | Selling courses is paid plans only |
| Course hosting | Free: 1 course, up to 500 students | Creator plan and up |
| Webinars | Evergreen webinars on the Webinar plan, $47/mo | Live webinars on Creator, up to 100 attendees |
| Transaction fees from the platform | 0% on every plan | 0% on Creator |
| Starting paid price | Startup: $17 USD/month, 5,000 contacts | Starter: $19 USD/month billed monthly, 1,000 contacts |
| Price to sell a course | $0 on Free, within its limits | Creator: $69 USD/month billed monthly, or $56.58/month billed yearly, 1,000 contacts |
| Best for | A first product on a $0 budget | Selling through live webinars, with budget for Creator |
Prices checked Nov 3, 2026, in USD, from each official pricing page. GetResponse says its prices are net amounts and local taxes may apply.
Free plan or trial
systeme.io has a free plan with no end date and no credit card required. It includes 2,000 contacts, 3 sales funnels, 1 blog, 1 course with up to 500 students, 1 affiliate program and 1 custom domain, with unlimited email sends. Its pricing FAQ also lists lower limits on some features on Free, like 1 automation rule and 1 email campaign.
Two catches are worth knowing. Free accounts with no login or activity for 6 months are deactivated. Free accounts are also capped at $10,000 USD in lifetime sales, and sales in other currencies are converted to USD for that count. Once you hit the cap, you have 3 days to upgrade to keep taking payments.
GetResponse has a Free account that’s “forever free” with no credit card required. For the first 14 days you also get trial access to premium features. After those 14 days, a lot switches off. You can still send newsletters, but autoresponders and automation messages stop, workflows are switched off, conversion funnels are disabled, the website builder isn’t available, and courses and premium newsletters can’t be used. Every message from a Free account also carries a GetResponse badge.
So the free options aren’t really equal. systeme.io’s free plan is built to let you sell. GetResponse’s free account is closer to a long trial that drops back to basic newsletters.
Contact limits
On systeme.io, Free holds 2,000 contacts, Startup holds 5,000, Webinar holds 10,000, and Unlimited has no contact cap. If a free account goes over its limits and nothing changes for 3 days, opt-in forms and payments stop working until you upgrade or get back under the limit. Nothing is deleted.
On GetResponse, the Free account allows up to 500 contacts, and unconfirmed and removed contacts count toward that. New contacts past the limit go into a contact queue and are removed after 32 days unless you upgrade. One FAQ answer on the free plan page mentions adding up to 1,000 contacts in the first 14 days, while the rest of that page says 500. I’d plan around 500. Paid plans come in list sizes of 1,000, 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, 25,000, 50,000 and 100,000.
Funnels and landing pages
systeme.io’s free plan includes 3 sales funnels, and Startup raises that to 10. You can sell straight from those funnels, which is the main reason it comes up for first products.
GetResponse lists a landing page builder on all three standard plans. Sales funnels start on the Marketer plan, $59 a month for 1,000 contacts billed monthly. On the Free account after the trial, you can keep 1 landing page published, and landing page visits are limited to 1,000 unique visitors a month.
Course hosting
On systeme.io, Free includes 1 course with up to 500 students, Startup includes 5 courses, and Webinar includes 20. Courses are built as modules and lectures inside your account.
On GetResponse, the course creator is on the Creator plan, with unlimited courses. Creator at 1,000 contacts includes up to 500 students, and the student allowance rises with bigger list sizes. During the free 14 days you can build courses for up to 250 students, but selling them needs a paid plan.
Payments and transaction fees
systeme.io says every plan includes 0% transaction fees. Its pricing page lists Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay and several regional processors as payment options. If you’re in Canada, Stripe through systeme.io supports CAD among 46 currencies.
GetResponse lists 0% transaction fees on its Creator plan. It says it doesn’t take a cut of course or premium newsletter revenue, but Stripe and PayPal charge their usual fees. The same applies on systeme.io: your payment processor still charges its own fees, so check Stripe’s or PayPal’s current rates for your country.
Checkout, order bumps and upsells
systeme.io lists 1-click upsells and order bumps among its features. Its pricing table didn’t load cleanly for me, so I couldn’t confirm which plans include them. Check the table before you count on them for Free.
GetResponse documents upsell pages inside sales funnels and paid webinar funnels. You can have up to 3 upsell pages per funnel, and buyers add an extra product without re-entering payment details. Upsell pages only work with PayPal or Stripe. I couldn’t find order bumps described on GetResponse’s official pages, so I’ve left that out.
Email sending and automations
systeme.io includes unlimited email sends on every plan. Free has 1 automation rule, and Startup has 10. You’ll need your own domain to send well: systeme.io says you can’t authenticate addresses from Gmail, Yahoo or ProtonMail, only custom domains. Free users also can’t remove the affiliate badge from their email footer.
GetResponse paid plans include unlimited monthly email sends. Starter includes 1 custom automation workflow, while Marketer and Creator include unlimited workflows. On the Free account, the cap is 2,500 messages a month across newsletters, autoresponders and automation messages.
Webinars
This is where GetResponse is stronger. Creator includes live webinars for up to 100 attendees, and webinar funnels start on Creator too. After the free trial, Free accounts can’t set up or run webinars at all.
systeme.io offers evergreen webinars on its Webinar plan at $47 a month. I didn’t find live webinars listed on its pricing page, only evergreen ones. If you want to teach live and sell at the end, GetResponse is built for that.
Blog or website
systeme.io’s free plan includes 1 blog, and its feature list includes a website builder.
GetResponse’s website builder is on the Creator plan, not Starter or Marketer. On the Free account after the trial, you can’t create or publish websites. I didn’t find a separate blog feature on GetResponse’s pages.
Support
systeme.io says its support team is available 24/7, with an average response time of 2 hours that can vary with volume.
GetResponse’s pricing FAQ lists live chat in English from 7 AM to 11 PM (weekends 7 AM to 9 PM, GMT+1), a 24/7 chatbot, and 24/7 email support in several languages. After the free trial ends, Free accounts lose chat and the email support form and keep Help Center access only.
Exporting your list
Both let you take your list with you, which matters if you switch later.
systeme.io exports selected contacts as a CSV file sent to your account email, and the download link lasts 3 days.
GetResponse exports active contacts as CSV or XLSX, and export files older than 7 days are removed. Free accounts can still import and export contacts after the trial.
Starting paid prices
systeme.io: Startup is $17 a month for 5,000 contacts, 10 sales funnels, 10 automation rules and 5 courses. Webinar is $47, and Unlimited is $97. Annual billing is advertised as “2 months free”. Payments are non-refundable.
GetResponse: for 1,000 contacts on monthly billing, Starter is $19, Marketer is $59 and Creator is $69. Billed yearly, those work out to $15.58, $48.38 and $56.58 a month. Yearly billing is an 18% discount.
The gap is the thing to notice. To sell a course with GetResponse, you need Creator. On systeme.io, you can start on Free and move to $17 when you outgrow it.
Which one I’d look at first
If I were selling my first small product with no budget, I’d look at systeme.io first. Its free plan covers a funnel, a course, checkout and email, with no platform transaction fee, until you reach $10,000 in sales or 2,000 contacts. I’d just read its terms on the sales cap and inactivity rules first. My systeme.io review goes deeper.
I’d look at GetResponse if live webinars are central to how you’ll sell, or you want strong email automation and can budget for the Creator plan from day one.
If your plan is mostly a newsletter, with a product later, neither may be the best fit. I compared systeme.io with a newsletter-first tool in systeme.io vs Kit, and beehiiv is the tool I’d pick for a newsletter today. My roundup of the best free email marketing tools for beginners covers more free options.
Whichever you choose, check the pricing page on the day you sign up. Plans and limits change.