I almost treated a link-in-bio page as a tiny design task. Pick a template, add the social links, make sure the colours match Built on Zero and move on. Then I realised that the page sitting behind the link in your Instagram or TikTok bio can be one of the most commercially important pieces of space you have. If someone has cared enough to leave the platform and tap your link, they are warmer than the average person scrolling past your content. Sending that person to a cluttered list of twelve unrelated buttons is a surprisingly easy way to waste the moment.
That is what made Beacons interesting to me. Beacons is much more than a basic list of links now. Its current free plan includes a customisable link-in-bio page, a media kit, the ability to sell digital products, affiliate-link tools, analytics and limited email sending. The paid tiers add custom domains, more email capacity, advanced creator tools and, at Creator Plus, 0% seller fees and unlimited email sends. It is clearly designed around creators who want one attractive hub for their social presence and monetisation.
The free plan is genuinely useful, but the commercial details matter. Beacons currently says its free tier allows 50 email sends per month and charges a 9% seller fee on sales. Its $10-per-month Creator tier raises email sending to 500 per month but still carries the 9% seller fee, while the $30-per-month Creator Plus plan removes that seller fee and includes unlimited marketing emails. If your primary goal is a polished creator page, media kit and digital storefront, that pricing structure can make sense. If your primary goal is building an email-driven funnel from zero, the limitations appear in a different place.
Systeme.io’s free plan currently allows up to 2,000 contacts and unlimited email sends, along with three funnels, a blog, a course and one custom domain. That immediately changes the comparison for Built on Zero. I do not need to send fifty emails in a month; I need the freedom to build an email list and actually communicate with it. If 300 people eventually download the $0 Business Stack and I want to send them a useful email every week, a very small monthly send allowance becomes a real constraint long before 2,000 contacts does.
Beacons, however, is better at some things I would be silly to ignore. Its creator identity is stronger. The media-kit functionality is useful for creators seeking brand deals, and the link-in-bio customisation is a core part of the product rather than an extra page you happen to build in a funnel tool. Beacons also has creator-focused AI and social tools that may matter much more to somebody whose business revolves around sponsorships, social partnerships and a public creator profile. Systeme.io is not trying to be a media-kit platform.
This is why I think the phrase “all-in-one” can be misleading. Both products can claim to cover several jobs, but they organise those jobs around different centres of gravity. Beacons starts with the creator’s public hub and expands into selling, email, media kits and social tools. Systeme.io starts with the machinery of marketing and selling: funnels, email, automation, courses and related business functions. The overlap is real, but the feeling of the products is different because the first problem they are trying to solve is different.
For Built on Zero, I keep coming back to what happens after somebody clicks. I do not simply want them to see my YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram buttons. I want them to take a next step that has value for both of us. Maybe that is downloading the $0 Business Stack. Maybe later it is reading a comparison article, joining a short email series or looking at a tool I use. A simple Systeme.io page can act as a link-in-bio destination, but more importantly, it can send each button into a funnel or page that continues the relationship.
If you are a creator who lives primarily on Instagram and your immediate goals are to look polished, present your brand, show a media kit, sell a few products and keep everything in one attractive creator hub, I would absolutely test Beacons. Its free plan makes that easy to do without committing. If your priority is building a marketing system where email, funnels and lead generation are central from day one, Systeme.io gives you more capacity in those areas without paying.
The transaction-fee question also becomes important once you sell. Nine percent does not sound enormous when you have made no sales, because nine percent of zero is wonderfully affordable. Once the numbers grow, percentage fees become more noticeable. On the other hand, paying a monthly subscription before you have sales can feel worse at the beginning. There is no universally correct pricing model; there is a model that suits your current revenue and how you sell. This is another reason I dislike comparisons that declare a winner without describing the person who is supposed to be winning.
My choice for Built on Zero is Systeme.io because I am building a funnel-and-email business first and a creator storefront second. I need traffic from Pinterest and Google to have somewhere useful to go. I need social followers to become subscribers instead of remaining anonymous numbers on somebody else’s platform. I need the $0 Business Stack to be part of a relationship rather than a file people download and forget. Systeme.io is better aligned with that chain.
There is also a money reason that is impossible to ignore given the name of this project. I can build the first version without paying Systeme.io. Beacons also has a free plan, so this is not a case of “free versus paid.” The difference is where the free limits sit. Beacons gives me stronger creator-facing tools but much tighter email sending and a seller fee. Systeme.io gives me much more email capacity and funnel infrastructure but does not give me Beacons’ media-kit and creator-brand focus. I would rather have the latter when the objective is turning traffic into an owned audience and, eventually, affiliate revenue.
There is a second issue that matters if you are trying to make affiliate income rather than primarily selling your own products: what you want the visitor to remember. A highly customised creator hub can make the creator herself the centre of the experience, which is useful for brand partnerships and personal-brand businesses. Built on Zero is slightly different. I want the promise of the project to be the centre: useful ways to start without spending unnecessarily. The page should therefore push people toward the most useful next resource, not simply display everything I have ever created.
That has changed how I think about my link-in-bio layout. I do not need a button for every social account at the top. If someone has just come from Instagram, sending them immediately to TikTok does not move the business forward very far. A stronger first option might be the $0 Business Stack. Another could be the latest practical guide. A third might be the tool I am currently using to build the system. Social links can still exist, but they do not have to receive the most valuable real estate simply because link-in-bio tools traditionally put them there.
Whichever platform you choose, look at the page on a phone and ask one question: if a stranger gives me ten seconds, do they know what to do? The cleverest software cannot compensate for a page with no priority. Conversion often improves not because you add another feature but because you remove another decision.
I would also avoid rebuilding your entire social presence just because a link-in-bio platform offers more features. The page has one job: help an interested person continue. If a free Beacons page already does that perfectly for you, keep it. If you need stronger email and funnel capability, test Systeme.io. The costliest mistake is often not choosing the “wrong” tool; it is spending days migrating between perfectly adequate tools while no new content, traffic or offers are being created.
BUILD YOUR FIRST FUNNEL AND EMAIL LIST FREE WITH SYSTEME.IO — CLICK HERE
That is my affiliate link. If you later buy an eligible Systeme.io plan, I may receive a commission without your price increasing. If what you really need is a beautiful social hub and media kit, I would rather you try Beacons than force yourself into my recommendation. But if you have been treating your link in bio as a digital business card, I would rethink it. That click is an opportunity. Give the person something useful to do next, collect the relationship where appropriate, and make sure the page is connected to the way you eventually intend to make money. A link in bio should not merely tell people where else they can find you. It should quietly move the business forward.
A quick note before you go: Software pricing, features, free-plan limits and terms can change, sometimes without much notice. Everything in this article was accurate to the best of my knowledge when it was written or last updated, but please check the provider’s official website for the latest pricing, features and terms before making a decision or signing up. Built on Zero does its best to keep our guides current, but we can’t guarantee that every price or feature will remain unchanged after publication.
