Virgin Active SA vs Sessei
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Virgin Active SA
This app rewards you for achieving personal wellness goals with exclusive partner offers. Access on-demand classes, book club sessions up to 8 days ahead, and use your digital card for club entry. It's designed to support your progress with guidance and tangible benefits.
- Real rewards from partners
- Book club classes up to 8 days in advance
- Digital access card for club entry
- On-demand classes for anytime training
- Personalized wellness guidance
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Welcome to Virgin Active’s new wellness app that gives you real rewards for hitting your personal wellness goals. • Real rewards: Instant fist-bumps from iconic partners • Real endorphins: Book all your fave club classes up to 8 days in advance • Scan the app to enter the club with your digital access card • Real support: Train anywhere, anytime, with on-demand classes • Designed to support real progress with real rewards and guidance, this isn’t an app… It’s your personal, free smoothie-giving, endorphin unleashing, goal crushing, wellness weapon.
Sessei
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Sessei is a calm, local-first tracker for the three habits that make the rest of your wellness routine work: drinking enough water, sticking to your fasting window, and remembering your daily supplements. No account. No cloud. No tracking. Your data stays on your device. — WATER — Log drinks in two taps from the home screen, the Add sheet, or a home-screen widget. Eight drink types are built in with research-backed hydration coefficients, so a coffee or a glass of wine doesn't quietly inflate your daily total. Quick-add presets remember your usual sizes and drink types. — FASTING — A clean, focused timer for intermittent fasting. Pick a window from 12:12 to 23:1 and tap to start. The ring evolves through ten phases — from glycogen burn through autophagy to extended fasting — with a personalised autophagy estimate tied to your profile. A flame marks where autophagy is generally observed. Tap to learn more about the science. — SUPPLEMENTS — Add supplements from a curated catalog of ~50 vitamins, minerals and common stack items, or scan a label with the camera. Daily and weekly cadences. Tap to log, swipe to deactivate. The app gently nudges you when something is due based on timing hints (with-meal, fasted, evening, etc.). — INSIGHTS — Day, week and month views per category. Swipe horizontally to scrub through history. See your weekly hydration cadence, fasting consistency, and supplement adherence at a glance. — HOME-SCREEN WIDGET — Three sizes. The small widget is water at-a-glance plus a +50 and +250 mL quick-log button. The medium widget shows water and your current fast side by side. The large widget adds supplements still to take today. — PRIVATE BY DESIGN — Everything you log lives in a local database on your iPhone. There is no Sessei account, no analytics, no third-party SDK collecting your data. The optional Apple Health integration is two-way and entirely under your control — turn it on or off in Profile at any time. — PRICING — Free 7-day trial unlocks every feature. After the trial, water and fasting stay free forever. The Supplements module requires a one-time Premium purchase — no subscription, no recurring fee, no expiry. Restore Purchases is available in the paywall if you change devices. — DESIGN NOTES — Sage palette, copper accents, generous whitespace. Built for iOS 17 — interactive widgets, Live Activities-ready, Dark Mode throughout. The app respects Reduce Motion and uses Dynamic Type everywhere. — WHAT SESSEI WILL NOT DO — No streaks-as-shame. No alarm-bell notifications. No "you missed yesterday" guilt copy. The tone is supportive, the data is yours, and the goal is to make showing up easier — not noisier. Support: feedback@sessei.app Privacy Policy: https://sessei.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Virgin Active SA at none against Sessei's 1. Sessei's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 3 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Sessei sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Virgin Active SA asks for nothing beyond the download.
Virgin Active SA ships an update every 3 weeks, Sessei daily. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Virgin Active SA | Sessei |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (746 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 5.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 746 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 361 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Virgin Active South Africa | Benjamin Christmann |
Bugs and requests
Virgin Active SA
Reported bugs
15 issues- Login error messages with no resolution
- Password reset emails delayed or not received
- App freezes during booking attempts
- Gym attendance not logged for rewards
- Rewards expiring before being credited
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- Inconsistent reward tracking between users
- Internet connection errors despite valid connection
- Session timeout and forced re-login
- Account creation errors during registration
- Class cancellation not reflected in app
- Timetables fail to load
- App crashes on password reset screen
- Add-to-calendar button non-functional on iPhone
- Rewards goals resetting incorrectly
- Club entry button disappeared after update
Requested features
8 requests- Apple Wallet integration for digital card
- Apple Watch device support
- Graphical display of visit statistics per month
- Bike assignment visibility for spinning bookings
- Club entry button on home page
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- Instructor rating/comments functionality
- Class calendar add-to-calendar functionality
- Cross-club timetable access for weekend bookings
Sessei
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Virgin Active SA
No in-app purchases
Sessei
- Premium Lifetime$7.99









