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A systeme.io membership site is a course area with recurring billing attached and access granted by an automation rule. That is the whole mechanism, and it means you can run a paid membership on the free plan: one course, one community, 500 members, and a checkout that charges monthly at 0% platform fee. Where it stops is video hosting and the community itself, which is a forum rather than a feed.
What a membership site needs
- Content behind a login, released on a schedule or all at once.
- A recurring payment that charges every month or year.
- A way to remove access when someone cancels or a payment fails.
- Somewhere for members to talk, if community is part of the offer.
- An onboarding sequence, because the first week decides whether they stay.
systeme.io covers all five. The quality varies by item, and this page is specific about which.
Building it on systeme.io
- Create the course. Modules and lessons, with video embedded from YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia. This is your gated content.
- Set the drip. Release lessons on a schedule so members have a reason to stay past month one, or open the whole archive if that is where the value sits.
- Build the funnel. A sales page and an order form. In the offer, choose a subscription rather than a one-off payment and set the billing interval.
- Grant access with a rule. When the purchase tag is added, give course access. When a subscription is cancelled, remove it. Two rules, which means the paid plan if you also want an opt-in rule.
- Add the community. One community on the free plan, five on Startup.
- Write the onboarding sequence. Three emails in the first week: what to do first, where to ask questions, and a nudge to introduce themselves.
Recurring payments and failed cards
Subscriptions run through Stripe or PayPal, and systeme.io charges no platform fee on them. Failed payments are handled by the processor’s retry rules rather than by a dunning system inside systeme.io, so set up Stripe’s retry schedule and recovery emails in Stripe itself. This is the part people miss, and churn from failed cards is usually larger than churn from cancellations.
Free plan limits
One course, one community, 500 students, 2,000 contacts, three funnels, and one automation rule. A membership needs at least two rules to grant and revoke access cleanly, so most people move to Startup at $17, which allows ten rules, five courses, five communities, and unlimited members.
What it does not do
No native video hosting, so a large library means a Vimeo or Wistia subscription alongside. The community is forum-style with threads, not a live feed with notifications, and there is no member-facing mobile app. There is no built-in dunning or churn reporting. If any of those are central to your offer, Membership.io handles searchable video libraries and Kajabi has the app and the polish, both at considerably higher prices.
Free plan, no card. Affiliate link; we earn a commission on paid plans.
Frequently asked questions
Can I build a membership site on systeme.io for free?
Yes, with one course, one community, and 500 members. Most people upgrade to the $17 plan for the second automation rule that revokes access.
Does systeme.io handle recurring payments?
Yes, through Stripe or PayPal, with no platform fee. Set subscription billing on the offer inside the order form.
What happens when a member cancels?
An automation rule removes course access when the subscription ends. You set that rule up yourself; it is not automatic.
Does systeme.io host membership videos?
No. Embed from YouTube, Vimeo, or Wistia. Private video needs a paid host alongside.
Related: systeme.io course builder, systeme.io pricing.