Comparison

Sessioneer vs Jam

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β€” with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Sessioneer

Features
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Sessioneer is a tune book for Irish traditional musicians, on iPad and iPhone. The full thesession.org database is built in and works offline: - Tens of thousands of tunes: jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, slides, and more - Search by title, alias, composer, and submitter/transcriber - Multiple settings per tune - Build your own sets or browse thousands from the thesession.org community - Create Books of tunes, sets, PDFs and Images - Import Tunebooks and Bookmarks from thesession.org - Write notes with Apple Pencil directly on the music - Mark favorites, track your history - Import your own sheet music as PDFs or Images: read, search, and annotate with Apple Pencil - Add PDFs and Images to Books alongside tunes and sets - Tablature for fiddle, mandolin, and guitar with tuning and capo options - Favorite and share PDFs and Images Syncs through iCloud across your devices. No account, no email, no analytics, no data sold. Subscriptions are optional. The whole app is free. Subscribers remove a small support banner; nothing is gated. Tune database by thesession.org, used under Creative Commons. Built by an indie developer. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Jam

Features
Read full description

The folk tunes you carry with you and the ones you want to learn. Jam-da is an app for playing folk music together. Your repertoire Keep your tunes in one place and sort them into playlists. Mark whether you can play a tune, are practising it or want to learn it. Notation and playback Over 30,000 Swedish, Nordic and Irish tunes come with the app, all with notation. Press play and the tune plays from the notation. Each tune also links to Spotify and YouTube. Record Tap the microphone when someone starts playing. Type the name afterwards and the recording is filed under that tune, with the notation if the tune is in the app. Practise Pick a part and the app plays it one phrase at a time. You play it back and the app listens for the right notes: if one is off, it shows where and plays that bit again, and when the phrase sits you go on to the next. It works from the notation or from a recording. You can also pick a few bars, let them loop and slow the tempo down. Practising with the app listening is free for your first week, then part of Pro. What can we play together? Mark the tunes you know. When you start a jam, the app compares your repertoires and shows the tunes you have in common. Add friends and you can see it before you meet. What's that tune? Play, hum or whistle part of the melody and the app suggests which tune it might be. Tune up The tuner listens while you play a string and shows how far off it is. Fiddle in standard tuning or cross-tunings such as ADAE, hardingfele, nyckelharpa and viola. Tap a string to hear its note. Tunes on the map See where the tunes come from and find more from the same region. Sharing Send a recording as a link and whoever gets it can listen straight away. Share a playlist with a link or a QR code and anyone in the group can add tunes. Jam-da Pro Sign in and your tunes and recordings are backed up. With Pro they also sync between your phone and tablet, and you can record in higher quality. You hear the tunes on accordion, flute, cello and 15 other instruments besides the fiddle, and get a fingerboard that shows where your fingers go, a tempo that rises as you get the tune, your own map and statistics. Terms: https://jamda.app/terms Privacy: https://jamda.app/privacy

Screenshots

Sessioneer4 screens
Jam4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Jam at daily against Sessioneer's every 3 weeks. Jam also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Sessioneer sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Jam sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $19.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sessioneer ships an update every 3 weeks, Jam daily. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 4 level
Sessioneer versus Jam: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSessioneerJam
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksDaily β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.016.4 β€” better
Further details β€” not scored
Size71 MB131 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRUSSELL JAMES SCHICKVΓ€der AB

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Sessioneer

Subscriptions4
  • Supporter (Monthly)$0.991 Month
  • Patron (Monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Supporter (Annual)$6.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Patron (Annual)$39.991 Year
1 purchases

Jam

Subscriptions1
  • Jam-da Pro$19.991 Year

Questions

Is Sessioneer free?
Sessioneer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Jam free?
Jam is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Sessioneer or Jam have ads?
Neither Sessioneer nor Jam shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sessioneer or Jam?
Sessioneer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Jam daily. Most recently, Sessioneer was updated on October 8, 2026 and Jam on October 31, 2026.

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