Kit or Systeme.io: which costs a UK sole trader less to email and sell?
Affiliate note: Occono may earn a commission if you use the beehiiv, Make, or Systeme.io links below, at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure.
Quick summary
The cheaper tool is the one that matches the job
Best for a list you write to, with room to grow before you pay: Kit. The free plan holds up to 10,000 subscribers and unlimited broadcasts. We do not earn from Kit.
Best for a page, a checkout, and one follow-up in the same login: Systeme.io. The free plan includes three funnels, one course, and one automation rule, with no platform transaction fee.
| When | Named in the article |
|---|---|
| The list is the business | Kit |
| You would otherwise pay for a page builder, an email tool and a course host | Systeme.io |
Kit is the email tool, formerly ConvertKit. Systeme.io is the small all-in-one: a funnel, email, and a course in one account. The cheaper one is the one that matches the job in front of you. A newsletter with no checkout is a different bill from a course with a sales page. Prices below are in US dollars, as the vendors publish them.
What public reviews say
These are third-party scores, read in October 2026. They are other people’s reviews. Occono has not collected them, and they will move. Trustpilot says, on both of these profiles, that the company has not invited customers recently, so the reviews may not be representative.
| Source | Kit | Systeme.io |
|---|---|---|
| Capterra, page last updated 29 September 2026 | 4.6 out of 5, 244 reviews | 4.8 out of 5, 2,131 reviews |
| Trustpilot, read October 2026 | 4.0 out of 5, 161 reviews. On that page, 59% are five-star and 22% are one-star. 139 of the reviews are from the last 12 months. | 4.9 out of 5, 8,668 reviews. On that page, 94% are five-star. 1,850 of the reviews are from the last 12 months. |
| Older Trustpilot profile | The legacy ConvertKit profile is 1.9 out of 5, 67 reviews. That is a separate page from kit.com. | No separate legacy profile was checked for this article. |
G2’s English pages for both products did not return a rating when checked, so no G2 score is included. Systeme.io’s 4.9 is a high score on a large count, and Trustpilot’s own notice on that page still applies: the company has not invited customers recently.
The complaint that repeats on Kit’s recent Trustpilot reviews is the price once a small business needs the paid plan. Account closures, with little explanation, also show up in reviews from September 2026 on that same page. On Systeme.io, the praise is support and having the tools in one place. The grumble, including in Trustpilot’s summary of recent reviews, is a setup that feels clumsy, and contact forms that sometimes fail.
“I only have them 4 out of 5 stars though because the price is too high for the gdp of my independent business.”
Julie Kinscheck, Trustpilot, 16 October 2026, on the Kit profile.
“I love having my website, funnels, email campaigns, and CRM all in one place for a very reasonable price.”
Heather Boss, Trustpilot, 8 October 2026, on the Systeme.io profile.
“I am not technical and find some aspects of System.io challenging, however, on occasions that I have asked for help I have found the Support Desk have gone out of their way to assist…”
Mike Grainger, Trustpilot, 2 September 2026, on the same Systeme.io profile.
What you actually get
Checked October 2026 on the vendors’ pricing and help pages. The Systeme.io comparison grid did not render plan-by-plan ticks in the text of the page, so order bumps and upsells are left off this table. The figures below are the ones written in the page’s plan descriptions and help articles.
| Kit | Systeme.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan, audience | Up to 10,000 subscribers. $0. No card. | Up to 2,000 contacts. $0. No card. The free plan does not expire. |
| Free plan, sending | Unlimited email broadcasts. Tagging and segmentation included. | Unlimited emails. One email campaign on the free plan. |
| Free plan, automation | Visual automations and email sequences are on the paid plans. The free plan is for growing the list and sending broadcasts. | One automation rule. |
| Pages and checkout | Unlimited landing pages and forms. You can sell a digital product or a subscription. The fee on the pricing table is 3.5% + 30¢, on Free, Creator, and Pro. | Three sales funnels, one blog, one custom domain, one course, and up to 500 students. The pricing page states 0% transaction fees, using Stripe or PayPal. |
| Users on the account | Free: 1. Creator: 2. Pro: unlimited. | The pricing page says every plan can create unlimited sub-accounts, with the same limits as the plan, at no extra cost. |
| First paid plan | Creator, from $39 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers, then the price follows the size of the list. With yearly billing selected, the pricing page showed $33 a month, $390 billed for the year, for 1,000 subscribers. Adds unlimited visual automations and sequences. | Startup, $17 a month: 5,000 contacts, 10 sales funnels, 5 courses. |
| Plans after that | Pro, from $79 a month for up to 1,000 subscribers, on the help-centre price list. When this page was checked, the pricing page was also showing a limited-time first-year Pro discount. Check the live page before you pay. | Webinar, $47 a month: 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses, plus evergreen webinars. Unlimited, $97 a month: unlimited contacts, funnels, courses, and automation rules. |
Kit prices and the free-plan feature list: kit.com/pricing, Kit’s free-plan help, and Kit’s Creator and Pro help (the help article had been updated within the previous three weeks when read in October 2026). Systeme.io prices and limits: systeme.io/pricing. The plan answers on that page are marked last updated April 2026, and the same figures were on the page in October 2026. Checked October 2026.
The offer
Kit. Free plan: $0, up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited forms, landing pages, and broadcasts. Sequences and visual automations start on Creator. Creator and Pro each have a 14-day trial with no card. Creator starts at $39 a month, or $33 a month when you pay $390 for the year, for up to 1,000 subscribers. Pro starts at $79 a month on the help-centre list, for the same 1,000-subscriber tier. Annual billing is described as two months free. After 1,000 subscribers the price steps up with the list. Selling through Kit costs 3.5% + 30¢ on the pricing table.
Systeme.io. Free plan: $0, no card, and it does not expire. The published limits are 2,000 contacts, three funnels, one course, one blog, one affiliate programme, one custom domain, unlimited emails, one automation rule, one email campaign, and 500 students. Startup is $17 a month. Webinar is $47 a month. Unlimited is $97 a month. Annual billing is two months free. The page states a 0% transaction fee.
Which one fits you?
Julie Kinscheck’s October 2026 review, quoted above, is the Kit complaint in plain language: the paid plan feels steep for a one-person business. Heather Boss and Mike Grainger, also quoted above, are the Systeme.io split: one login and a fair price, with parts of the screen that are hard if you are not technical.
A tradesperson who wants the quote form to chase itself. You need a page on a phone and one follow-up email, not a newsletter. Systeme.io’s free plan includes one automation rule and unlimited emails, inside 2,000 contacts and three funnels. Kit’s free plan will host the form and a broadcast. The automated sequence sits on Creator, from $39 a month. For a single chase email, Systeme.io is the free-plan fit. If you later want that form to update a spreadsheet as well, Make can join the two. That is a second tool, and a second bill once you leave Make’s free plan.
A coach selling a short course. Systeme.io’s free plan includes one course and a checkout, and the pricing page states no platform transaction fee. Kit can sell a digital file on the free plan, at 3.5% + 30¢, and the pricing page does not describe a course area or a student limit in the way Systeme.io does. If the thing you sell is the course, Systeme.io is the smaller stack. If the thing you sell is the weekly letter, and the course is a PDF, Kit’s free plan holds far more subscribers before you pay a monthly fee. Mike Grainger’s review is the practical warning: leave an afternoon for the first funnel.
A shop owner who already takes payment at the till. You want a list of past customers, not a second checkout. Kit’s free plan covers broadcasts up to 10,000 subscribers. Systeme.io’s free plan stops at 2,000 contacts, which is enough for a quiet shop and tight if the list is already larger. Kit’s price complaint starts when you need sequences, or when you pass 10,000. If you only want to publish the letter, beehiiv is another newsletter tool. It is not a funnel or a course platform, so it does not stand in for Systeme.io when the offer has several steps.
Where Kit is the better buy
Kit wins when the list is the business. Ten thousand subscribers before a monthly fee is a wider free plan than Systeme.io’s 2,000 contacts. Broadcasts, tags, and forms are on that free plan. The writing tools are the reason to pick it, and this page does not earn a commission if you do.
The bill changes when you need a sequence. Creator starts at $39 a month even if you only have a few hundred subscribers, because the published entry price is the “up to 1,000” tier. Julie Kinscheck’s review is that moment. The legacy ConvertKit Trustpilot profile, at 1.9 from 67 reviews, is also worth reading beside the newer kit.com profile at 4.0 from 161. And several September 2026 reviews on the kit.com profile describe accounts closed with little warning. Export the list if you are between tools.
Systeme.io wins when you would otherwise pay for a page builder, an email tool, and a course host. The free plan can carry one real offer: three funnels, one course, one automated rule, and no platform fee on the payment. Email depth is the weak side. One campaign and one automation rule will feel small as soon as the letter matters more than the checkout. The 4.9 Trustpilot score is what the page showed in October 2026, with Trustpilot’s own caution that the company has not been inviting reviews.
Most one-person businesses need one of these on day one. Add the second when the first one is clearly missing a step you do every week.
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Update details
- — Published.
- — Rewritten around the vendors’ published offers.
- — Canonical URL and article sidebar added, and this update note added.
- — Screenshots of the public pages added.