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The cheapest way to sell a course with email in 2026
Selling a course means three things in one bill: somewhere to host the course, a way to take the money, and email to sell it. These four platforms each do all three, and their entry prices differ by more than ten times. Every number below is read from the vendor's own pricing page.
Prices last re-checked 2026-10-05. Numbers are read from each vendor's own pricing page; any exception is flagged under "What to watch".
Which one should you pick?
- Pick Systeme.io if systeme. Visit Systeme.io
- Pick Kajabi if the course is the business, this is the best course product. Visit Kajabi
- Pick ClickFunnels if the funnel is the product. Visit ClickFunnels
- Pick Kit (formerly ConvertKit) if you already have a course host. Visit Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Some buttons are affiliate links — how this works.
The short answer
Short answer: Cheapest way to sell a course with email: Systeme.io Systeme.io is free up to 2,000 contacts with one course and three funnels, then $17/mo Startup for 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels and 5 courses. It is the only one of the four that hosts the course, takes the payment and sends the email on one bill at that price.
| Tool | Entry price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, unlimited emails. Never expires, no credit |
| Startup | $17/mo, or $14/mo billed annually | 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses |
| Webinar | $47/mo, or $39/mo billed annually | 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses, evergreen webinars |
| Unlimited | $97/mo, or $80/mo billed annually | Unlimited contacts, funnels, courses, and automation rules |
Prices checked 2026-10-05.
Cheapest way to sell a course with email: Systeme.io
Systeme.io is free up to 2,000 contacts with one course and three funnels, then $17/mo Startup for 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels and 5 courses. It is the only one of the four that hosts the course, takes the payment and sends the email on one bill at that price. The trade-off: the course builder is basic next to Kajabi's, and the free plan holds one course only.
See Systeme.io pricingBest course product if the course is the business: Kajabi
Kajabi is $179/mo Basic for 5 products, 2,500 contacts and 1 website, or $143/mo billed annually. It is the most complete course and community platform of the four and takes no revenue share. The trade-off: at $179/mo it is more than ten times Systeme.io's entry price, so it is the wrong first purchase for anyone who has not sold a course yet.
See Kajabi pricingBest if the funnel is the product: ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels 2.0 is $97/mo Launch for 1 workspace, 10,000 contacts and 3 courses, or $81/mo billed annually. Its template library and funnel builder are the deepest of the four. The trade-off: the contact and email caps are the real cost - 50,000 emails a month on Launch - and it is five times Systeme.io's entry price.
See ClickFunnels pricingCheapest if you already have a course host: Kit (formerly ConvertKit)
Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers and $33/mo Creator for unlimited visual automations, unlimited sequences and selling digital products. If your course already lives somewhere else, Kit is the cheapest way to sell it by email. The trade-off: Kit is not a course platform - there is no lesson player, no progress tracking and no community.
See Kit (formerly ConvertKit) pricingThe prices, plan by plan
Systeme.io
Systeme.io is free up to 2,000 contacts, then $17/mo Startup, $47/mo Webinar and $97/mo Unlimited on monthly billing. Annual billing gives you two months free. Every plan includes unlimited email sends, unlimited sub-accounts, and 0% transaction fees. The free plan never expires and does not require a credit card.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, unlimited emails. Never expires, no credit card. |
| Startup | $17/mo, or $14/mo billed annually | 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses |
| Webinar | $47/mo, or $39/mo billed annually | 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses, evergreen webinars |
| Unlimited | $97/mo, or $80/mo billed annually | Unlimited contacts, funnels, courses, and automation rules |
What to watch: Monthly rates $17, $47, and $97 were read on systeme.io/pricing on 2026-10-13, in the page's own FAQ. That FAQ prints Webinar as 50 funnels and 20 courses, Unlimited as unlimited courses and automation rules, and every plan as unlimited email sends, unlimited sub-accounts, and 0% transaction fees. The free plan never expires and does not require a credit card. The same FAQ lists extra free-plan caps of 1 blog, 1 affiliate program, 1 custom domain, 1 automation rule, 1 email campaign, and 500 students. The pricing page prints Annual billing and 2 months free. The page HTML does not print the annual dollar amounts. Those dollars stay the 2026-10-05 reading from systeme.io's own affiliate page.
Source: https://systeme.io/pricing, read 2026-10-05.
See Systeme.io pricingKajabi
Kajabi is $179/mo Basic, $249/mo Growth and $499/mo Pro on monthly billing, or $143 / $199 / $399 per month billed annually. Kajabi takes no revenue share.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $179/mo, or $143/mo billed annually | 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website, 1 community, 2 admin users |
| Growth | $249/mo, or $199/mo billed annually | 50 products, 25,000 contacts, 1 website, 1 community, 11 admin users |
| Pro | $499/mo, or $399/mo billed annually | Unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 3 websites, 3 communities, 26 admin users |
Prices checked 2026-10-05.
What to watch: Every plan price, annual rate, contact limit and payment fee on this page was read from kajabi.com/pricing itself. Kajabi takes no revenue share, but its own card rate and the third-party processor fee are listed separately above because they change the real cost.
Source: https://www.kajabi.com/pricing, read 2026-10-19.
See Kajabi pricingClickFunnels
ClickFunnels 2.0 is $97/mo Launch, $197/mo Scale and $297/mo Optimize, or $81 / $164 / $248 per month billed annually. Dominate is $5,997/year, annual only. Each plan button says Start Free Trial. The page description says that trial is 14 days. The FAQ markup says that 14-day trial plus a 30-day money-back guarantee is 44 days. The FAQ you can read on the page only mentions the 30-day money-back and does not say how long the trial is.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | $97/mo, or $81/mo billed annually | 1 workspace, 2 team members, 10K contacts, 50K emails/mo, 3 courses, 5 custom domains, 1,000,000 AI words/mo |
| Scale | $197/mo, or $164/mo billed annually | 5 workspaces, 5 team members, 75K contacts, 300K emails/mo, 6 courses, unlimited domains, 2,000,000 AI words/mo, 5 calendars |
| Optimize | $297/mo, or $248/mo billed annually | 10 workspaces, 10 team members, 150K contacts, 750K emails/mo, 10 courses, 5,000,000 AI words/mo, 10 calendars |
| Dominate | custom quote | 20 workspaces, 20 team members, 400K contacts, 1.2M emails/mo, 20 courses, 10,000,000 AI words/mo, 20 calendars, VIP support. Annual only. |
What to watch: Every plan price, annual rate and contact/email limit on this page was read from clickfunnels.com/pricing itself. Dominate is annual-only and is not sold month to month. On 2026-10-11 the same cards still showed those prices, and every plan card labeled Unlimited Funnels as Limited Time. The feature table still listed Funnels as Unlimited. The contact and email caps were not marked temporary. On that same read, every plan button said Start Free Trial. The page description said the trial is 14 days. The FAQ markup said that 14-day trial plus a 30-day money-back guarantee is 44 days. The FAQ you can read on the page only mentions the 30-day money-back and does not say how long the trial is. On that same read, the Scale card carried ClickFunnels' own Most Popular badge. This page does not treat that badge as a count of customers. On 2026-10-11, one Start Free Trial button on the Launch card opened clickfunnels.com/launch-annual-step-1-7dt, titled Step 1 Create Account. The heading was Start Your Free Trial Today, and the form said Create Your Account: Step 1 of 2. That screen showed Full Name and Email Address, and a Continue button. It did not show a card number, expiry, or CVC field. Step 2 was not opened, so this page does not say whether a card comes later, and it does not say the other plans open the same screen. On 2026-10-12 the comparison table listed AI Tools (Words) as 1,000,000 on Launch, 2,000,000 on Scale, 5,000,000 on Optimize, and 10,000,000 on Dominate, and the plan cards printed those same caps as 1M, 2M, 5M, and 10M words. That table listed Calendars as a dash on Launch, then 5 on Scale, 10 on Optimize, and 20 on Dominate. Dominate's card lists 20 courses.
Source: https://www.clickfunnels.com/pricing, read 2026-10-19.
See ClickFunnels pricingKit (formerly ConvertKit)
Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers on the Newsletter plan. At 1,000 subscribers Creator is $39/mo billed monthly or $390/yr and Pro is $79/mo or $790/yr. Yearly billing also prints an extra 25% off Pro for the first year only: $50/mo, $593 billed, then it renews at the standard rate. Both plans scale with list size (Creator $169/mo at 15,000, Pro $249/mo).
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Newsletter) | $0/mo | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, sell digital products |
| Creator | $39/mo, or $32.5/mo billed annually | Everything in Free plus unlimited visual automations, unlimited sequences, A/B subject lines, SMS, remove Kit branding |
| Pro | $79/mo, or $65.83/mo billed annually | Everything in Creator plus Subscriber Signals, engagement analytics, unlimited users, deliverability reporting, newsletter referral system. Yearly billing at 1,000 subscribers prints an extra 25% off the first year ($50/mo, $593 billed). The page says that discount is the first year only and the plan then renews at the standard rate. |
What to watch: Free / Creator / Pro were read from kit.com/pricing itself, at 1,000 email subscribers, on 2026-10-12. The monthly toggle prints Creator $39/mo and Pro $79. The yearly toggle prints Creator as $33/mo ($390 billed yearly); that $33 is the page's rounding of $390/12, so the table keeps $32.50. The same yearly view prints an extra 25% off Pro for the first year ($50/mo, $593 billed) with $66 struck through, and says the plan renews at the standard rate after that year. The card does not print the standard Pro yearly total of $790. Kit's paid plans scale with list size, so the price shown is the price at 1,000 subscribers, not a flat rate. Both paid plans say the trial is 14 days and that no credit card is required.
Source: https://kit.com/pricing, read 2026-10-05.
See Kit (formerly ConvertKit) pricingQuestions people ask
What is the cheapest option here?
Systeme.io, at $17/mo on Startup for 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels and 5 courses - and free up to 2,000 contacts with one course. Kajabi is $179/mo, ClickFunnels is $97/mo and Kit is $33/mo.
Can I sell a course for free?
Yes, on Systeme.io: the free plan covers 2,000 contacts, three sales funnels and one course, and it takes payments. Kit's free plan also sells digital products, but it is not a course platform, so there is no lesson player.
Which one is best if I want the most complete course platform?
Kajabi, at $179/mo Basic for 5 products, 2,500 contacts and a community. It is the best course product here and also the most expensive - more than ten times Systeme.io's entry price.
Do any of these take a cut of my course sales?
Kajabi takes no revenue share, and Systeme.io and Kit do not charge a platform percentage either - you pay your card processor. ClickFunnels likewise charges a subscription rather than a share of sales.
What does a course business actually pay in year one?
On Systeme.io Startup that is $17/mo, or $170/yr billed annually. On Kit Creator it is $33/mo. On ClickFunnels Launch it is $97/mo or $81/mo annually, and on Kajabi Basic it is $179/mo or $143/mo annually.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We do not accept payment for placement, and the price tables are generated from the same dataset we re-check weekly. Full disclosure. How we check prices.