Not necessarily, but you probably will need to pay if you want to keep a welcome sequence running.
In the course, I’ll walk through how to set up ConvertKit. They have a free plan and a free trial, so you can set everything up without paying a cent.
But after the trial, they’ll charge you to keep automations running. (And this is true of most other email providers, too – Mailchimp, etc.)
Long-story-short, you could absolutely use email marketing effectively with a free platform – but if you are consistent / committed, I think you’ll probably find it worthwhile to pay for the upgraded features.