Course, Coaching and VIP Tiers on systeme.io

A coach in r/systeme_io put the request plainly: "I want to do a completely standard funnel of a 3 option offer". Option one is the course, option two adds coaching, option three adds a VIP level. And the question that followed: "is there a video of the best way to do it in the free option."

The reply that answered it best came from u/marketablepins, describing how someone else builds it: "Create “membership tiers” (he actually uses the course builder; very smart)" and then "Add different things in different modules and just price it as if it were a membership."

That's the right instinct, and systeme.io's help center backs it. On systeme.io, what a buyer gets is set by the resources on the order form's product, not by the price. So three tiers are three order forms that sell the same course with different access, and the course part fits the free plan. Coaches who've moved over tend to want exactly that combination in one place. Maria N., a coach who moved her course from Payhip, wrote in a five-star Capterra review in August 2025: "I’d highly recommend Systeme.io to anyone looking for a reliable, all-in-one platform for digital products or coaching." The hard part is the middle tier. It sells a course and a call on one purchase, and the help center documents each half but never shows the two together. Most of this guide is about building that bundle so the buyer gets both and nothing leaks.

What makes a tier on systeme.io

systeme.io's order form article says that when you create an order form, you "specify which resource(s) the customer will have access to after making the purchase." For a digital product the list is courses, course bundles, tags, communities and calendar events. Price plans, per the price plan article, are added to that digital product: one-time, subscription or payment plan. The order form article lets you put "one or more pricing plans" on a payment page, but since the resources sit on the product, every price plan on it sells the same resources.

So a cheaper and a dearer price on one order form can't deliver different things. Each tier needs its own order form with its own product. The three tiers map onto resources like this:

The course is shared, so it costs Free's one course once. Tier 2 is the bundle: course access and a call, delivered by one purchase. Tier 3 is the same bundle with more in it.

One course, with a module per tier

Put the core lessons in the first modules. Then add a module for coaching-tier material, such as session prep or worksheets, and one for VIP material. The course-selling article's Partial access option opens only the modules you pick, and you choose it per product, on the order form.

The access types article uses the same idea for a different offer. Its example sells a half course and a full course from one course, plus an upgrade that opens the other half for earlier buyers. So if a tier-1 buyer wants to move up later, a fourth order form with Partial access to the missing modules does it. My free course preview guide walks through that upgrade path.

A funnel per tier

The funnel-links article links a sales page to an order form with a button set to Open URL, and then routes the buyer through any upsell and downsell to the thank-you page. It adds: "The funnel steps must be in the following order to work." It doesn't say what happens after payment when a second order form sits further down the same funnel. I wouldn't find out with real buyers, so I'd give each tier its own funnel: one order form and one thank-you page each.

That arrangement uses three funnels. Put the sales page at the start of the tier-1 funnel with three buttons: one to the tier-1 order form that follows it, and one each to the tier-2 and tier-3 order forms in their own funnels. On Free, that's all three of its funnels.

The bundle in tier 2: a course and a call on one purchase

There are two documented ways to attach the call to the course, and they hand the buyer the booking at different moments.

Booked at checkout. The selling-bookings article sells a calendar event on the order form: add Calendar events as a resource, then place the Paid calendar element on the order form page. The buyer picks a slot, then pays. That's one booking per purchase. It shows the plus icon to "add resources" but no example that pairs a course with an event on one product, so check the product saves with both before you publish the page. If it won't, keep the course on the order form and send the booking link in the coaching module instead.

Booked from inside the course. The free-bookings article puts a free Calendar element on any funnel page. Add that page to the tier-2 funnel as its last step, so it never sits between the order form and the thank-you page, and link to it from the coaching module. Buyers then find it inside the course. A funnel page isn't locked to students, though: anyone with the address can book. For a call or two that's usually fine. For anything you'd mind strangers booking, use the checkout route.

The checkout route suits a bundle with one session in it. The course route suits a bundle with a package of calls, because the buyer comes back to the module to book each one. Whichever you pick, put the same route on tier 3, so a VIP buyer never meets a different booking flow from the one your coaching buyers use.

The calendar is younger than the course tools, and it has filled in quickly. In the r/systeme_io thread this page opens with, u/marketablepins also wrote: "Systeme also implemented a calendar feature recently. It's a little buggy which is why I use Zoho Booking". Booking now has its own section in the help center, with paid events and reminders documented in articles revised in August 2026, and systeme.io's booking page pitches it against Calendly while conceding it "does not yet match the advanced team scheduling features of Calendly Teams." For one coach, that's enough to keep tier 2's call inside systeme.io. A VIP tier staffed by several coaches is the case that still points to a separate scheduler.

What goes into the VIP bundle

The simplest VIP bundle reuses tier 2's call and adds a community. The order form article lists communities as a resource, so the tier-3 product carries the course with Full access, the same calendar event, and the community, and Free allows one community. The buyer gets one purchase, one access email and one booking route.

If VIP's call is a different length, it can't share the event: the calendar events article sets Event duration on the event itself, so a 90-minute VIP session is a second event. Free allows one calendar event and Startup allows five; my paid-sessions guide covers when a second session type is worth the plan.

A welcome per tier

Each enrolment sends systeme.io's own access email, and the course-selling article's FAQ says you can't edit that email inside systeme.io for now. For a tier-specific welcome, such as how to book or where the community is, you need an automation rule. The automation rules article lists New sale as a trigger, and each tier's welcome is its own rule.

Free allows one rule and one tag. In another r/systeme_io thread, a seller on Free hit that wall while adding a bump: "Having already used the available Tag". The answer they got: "Yes only 1 order bump is allowed in FREE plan". If your tiers need order bumps too, the tripwire funnel guide covers which resources a bump can carry; calendar events aren't one of them.

Which plan the tiered offer needs

Plan limits as listed in systeme.io's pricing table, October 9, 2026, with yearly prices as of October 8:

With one shared call and the community as VIP's extra, Free holds the build: one course, one event, one community, three funnels. What it doesn't hold is the bundle's paperwork. Three tiers that each need their own welcome are three New sale rules, against Free's one, and the offer takes all three of Free's funnels, leaving nowhere for a lead magnet or webinar sign-up. Startup has 10. Every buyer of every tier sits in the one course, under Free's 500-student cap.

The line that matters most for a bundle is money. Sales pass $10,000. That's where Free's lifetime sales cap stops the payment pages (how the cap works), counting everything the account has sold.

Three tiers exist to sell the top one. At $300, a VIP bundle reaches that line in 34 sales, fewer if tier-1 and tier-2 sales are counted too. At that line the payment pages stop, mid-launch if that's when it happens. If VIP is priced in the hundreds, I'd move to Startup before launch rather than in the middle of it, at $17 monthly or $170 for the year. You can compare Startup and Free side by side while you price the tiers. Before the first paid booking, set the event's cancellation deadline; my guide to selling paid sessions explains why that setting is your refund policy. And when the list nears Startup's 5,000 contacts, the course creators' headcount guide counts students against the contact limit.

FAQ

Can I sell the three tiers as three price plans on one order form? Only if every tier gets the same thing. Price plans attach to one product, and the product's resources are what the buyer receives.

Can coaching be an upsell after the course? Not as a booking. systeme.io's help center rules calendar events out of upsell and downsell pages, and out of order bumps. Send course buyers to the tier-2 order form instead.

Do VIP buyers get the coaching modules too? With Full access, yes: every module opens. Partial access lets you leave any module out of a lower tier.

Can tier-1 buyers upgrade to a higher tier later? Yes, with a fourth order form whose Partial access opens only the missing tier modules. The access types article describes that upgrade path from one course.

Does every tier count against Free's 500 students? Yes. Every buyer of every tier is enrolled in the one course, so all of them count toward the cap. With VIP priced in the hundreds, though, the sales cap above usually binds long before 500 students. Count both before launch.

Will one purchase send one email or two? The course-selling article says each enrolment sends systeme.io's own access email, which can't be edited, and a paid booking has its own confirmation. A tier-2 buyer on the checkout route can get both. The tier's New sale rule is where you send one welcome that explains the two.

Can strangers book the free coaching calendar page? Yes, if they have the address. A funnel page isn't locked to students, so use the checkout route for anything you'd mind strangers booking.