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A typical solopreneur tech stack for a coach or course creator runs $200 to $600 a month, and the cut platforms take from your sales can cost more than the subscriptions. Pick what you pay for in each job below, add your monthly sales, and the calculator shows your real bill next to what the same jobs cost on systeme.io, with the tools it cannot replace left at full price.
systeme.io: 10 funnels on Startup, 50 on Webinar. The page builder is plainer than ClickFunnels.
systeme.io: unlimited emails on every plan. Contacts set the plan: 2,000 free, 5,000 on Startup, 10,000 on Webinar.
systeme.io: 5 courses, unlimited students on Startup, 0% fee. Video is embedded from YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia, not hosted. No quizzes or certificates.
systeme.io: 5 communities on Startup. Simpler than Circle or Skool: no member app, no gamification.
systeme.io: checkout with order bumps and upsells, Stripe and PayPal, 0% fee. It adds VAT if you switch it on but does not file sales tax for you.
systeme.io: booking calendar on every plan with deposits, Google Calendar sync and Zoom links. Intake forms are simple.
systeme.io: 5 websites, 5 blogs and 3 custom domains on Startup. Fewer design options than Squarespace.
systeme.io runs pre-recorded (evergreen) webinars only, from the $47 Webinar plan. For live webinars, keep your tool. Untick Keep if yours are pre-recorded.
systeme.io has its own rules and workflows, so Zaps between your funnel, email and course tools go away. Keep Zapier if it also connects outside apps. Untick Keep if it only links tools you are replacing.
systeme.io: run your own affiliate program on every plan, free one included.
systeme.io does not host calls. It creates the Zoom link when someone books, so this cost stays.
| Job | Today | After the switch |
|---|
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List prices read from each vendor's pricing page on Sep 24, 2026, cheapest plan that does the job, email tools priced at your list size. Where a vendor shows only annual billing (ActiveCampaign, Circle, Wix), that price is used in both modes. Card processing (Stripe or PayPal, 2.9% plus 30 cents in the US) applies on every platform and is left out of both columns. systeme.io monthly plans: Free $0, Startup $17, Webinar $47, Unlimited $97.
What a typical solopreneur tech stack costs
This is the Course creator preset above on monthly billing, with 1,500 contacts and $3,000 a month in sales.
| Job | Tool | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Courses | Teachable Starter | $39 |
| Fee on sales | Teachable’s 7.5% of $3,000 | $225 |
| Kit Creator at 1,500 contacts | $59 | |
| Community | Circle Professional | $89 |
| Booking | Calendly Standard | $12 |
| Website | Squarespace Basic | $25 |
| Video calls | Zoom Workplace Pro | $16.99 |
| Total | $465.99 |
The same jobs on systeme.io Startup cost $17, plus Zoom at $16.99 because systeme.io does not host calls. That is $33.99 a month, about $432 less, or $5,184 a year. Circle’s own 2% fee is left out, so the real gap is a little wider.
The biggest line is the fee, not a subscription. Teachable’s Starter plan looks cheap at $39 until 7.5% of every sale goes with it.
Why systeme.io is the cheaper home for your selling tools
Most of a coach’s stack exists to sell: a page, an email list, a course, a checkout, a calendar. systeme.io puts those jobs under one login and one bill.
- 0% transaction fees on every plan, the free one included. You pay only card processing, which you pay everywhere.
- Unlimited emails on every plan. You pay by contacts, not sends: 2,000 free, 5,000 on the $17 plan, 10,000 on the $47 plan.
- Funnels, email, courses, community, checkout, booking, a blog and a website in the same account, so the Zaps that glue them together go away.
- Your own affiliate program on every plan. FirstPromoter starts at $49 a month for that alone.
- A free plan with no card, so you can rebuild one funnel and one email sequence before you cancel anything.
- Two months free on annual billing: $170 a year for Startup.
- Free migration on the Unlimited plan, if you would rather hand the move to their team.
The full plan table is on our systeme.io pricing page, and the comparison with Kajabi covers the most common switch.
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What systeme.io will not replace
The calculator keeps these at full price, because the switch does not remove them:
- Video calls. systeme.io creates the Zoom link when someone books; the call still runs on Zoom.
- Live webinars. It runs pre-recorded (evergreen) webinars only, from the $47 plan.
- Video hosting. Course videos are embedded from YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia.
- Accounting, design and AI tools, and filing sales tax. It adds VAT to a price if you switch that on, but it does not file anything for you.
It has weak spots too. The page builder is plain, pages cannot be exported if you leave, and courses have no quizzes or certificates. It rates 4.9 on Trustpilot from 8,559 reviews (Sep 24, 2026); the complaints that repeat are support replies that read like templates and migrations that ran weeks over the estimate.
When your stack is already cheap enough
Some stacks cost almost nothing, and the calculator will say so. Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers (without sequences or visual automations), Calendly has a free plan, and Zoom Basic is free with a 40-minute limit on meetings. If you run on those and take payment through Stripe links, there is no saving to chase. Keep your money.
How much does it cost to run an online business?
For a coaching or course business, not a store with stock to ship:
- Bare minimum, $0 a month in software: systeme.io Free and Zoom Basic, plus 2.9% and 30 cents per card sale through Stripe.
- Lean paid, about $34 a month: systeme.io Startup and Zoom Pro.
- A typical separate stack, $200 to $600 a month, before the fees on sales.
Outside software, budget for a domain (about $10 to $20 a year), bookkeeping, insurance and taxes. For a step-by-step plan to cut tools one at a time, see how to consolidate marketing tools.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a solopreneur tech stack?
The set of tools one person pays for to run the business: usually email, a course or membership platform, a booking calendar, a website, video calls, and often a funnel builder, community, checkout and Zapier to connect them.
How much should a solopreneur spend on tools?
A coach or course creator can run on $0 to $50 a month in software. Separate tools for each job usually cost $200 to $600 a month, plus any percentage the platforms take from sales.
Does the calculator include payment processing fees?
No. Stripe and PayPal charge about 2.9% plus 30 cents per sale on every platform, so it is the same on both sides and left out. Platform fees on top of that, such as Teachable Starter at 7.5% or Skool Hobby at 10%, are included.
Can one platform really replace my whole stack?
It replaces the selling tools: funnels, email, courses, community, checkout, booking, website and affiliates. It does not replace Zoom, live webinars, video hosting or accounting, which is why the calculator keeps those.
Is this calculator biased toward systeme.io?
We earn a commission if you pay for systeme.io, so check the numbers yourself: every price is a list price from the vendor page on the date shown, and the calculator says plainly when switching would not save you money.