Softwr

Communication · head to head

Gupshup vs Sessions

Gupshup logo

Gupshup

Communication

Conversational messaging and CPaaS with a flat platform fee stacked on top of Meta per-message rates

From
$0.001/message
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
S

Sessions

Communication

Meetings and webinars with a prepared agenda, interactive blocks and a recorded outcome

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Sessions has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Gupshup the Gupshup platform fee of about 0.001 dollars per message is negligible next to Meta pass-through rates, so comparing providers on their own fee is misleading, and the country and category mix of your traffic determines almost the entire bill.; Sessions it will not replace Microsoft Teams or Google Meet for everyday internal calls, so most buyers end up paying for two conferencing tools and asking staff to know which one to open.
  • They diverge on capability: Gupshup covers WhatsApp Business API, Sessions covers Agenda blocks.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Gupshup and Sessions actually diverge.

Attributes where Gupshup and Sessions differ
AttributeGupshupSessions
Starting price$0.001/messageFree
Pricing modelPer message sentPer user per month
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Communication).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Gupshup

  • WhatsApp Business API
  • Flat platform fee
  • RCS messaging
  • SMS and voice
  • Bot Studio
  • Agent inbox
  • Campaign manager
  • Emerging market reach

Only in Sessions

  • Agenda blocks
  • Embedded apps
  • Webinars and registration
  • Recording and transcript
  • Resource library
  • Breakout rooms
  • Scheduling links
  • Browser-based

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Gupshup

  • An e-commerce brand sending order and delivery notifications over WhatsApp to customers across India and Southeast Asianot Sessions
  • A bank or fintech running one-time passcodes and transactional alerts with fallback from WhatsApp to SMSnot Sessions
  • A company deploying a WhatsApp chatbot for tier one support with handover to human agents for anything it cannot resolvenot Sessions
  • A marketing team running WhatsApp template campaigns to opted-in lists in markets where email engagement is lownot Sessions

Sessions

  • A sales team running the same product demo dozens of times a month that wants the agenda, the deck, the poll and the follow-up questions to be one reusable object rather than rebuilt each time.not Gupshup
  • A trainer delivering a recurring workshop where breakouts, exercises and materials need to run in a fixed order without the host juggling tabs live.not Gupshup
  • A customer success team running onboarding sessions that must produce a consistent record of what was covered and what the customer asked.not Gupshup
  • A small company running public webinars that needs registration, reminders, attendance data and a recording without buying a separate webinar platform alongside its meeting tool.not Gupshup

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Gupshup

  • The Gupshup platform fee of about 0.001 dollars per message is negligible next to Meta pass-through rates, so comparing providers on their own fee is misleading, and the country and category mix of your traffic determines almost the entire bill.
  • Gupshup publishes no single flat rate for a full send, so accurate cost modelling requires you to build a country by country and category by category forecast before any provider comparison is meaningful.
  • Meta moved from conversation-based to per message billing in July 2025, which materially changed the economics of high-frequency messaging, and any budget or ROI model built on the old conversation pricing is now wrong.
  • Template approval sits with Meta rather than Gupshup, so rejections and category reclassifications can stall a campaign regardless of provider, and support quality on chasing them is a common complaint.
  • The product surface is broad, spanning CPaaS APIs, bot building and campaign tooling, and the non-API tools are less refined than dedicated conversational marketing platforms, so many buyers use Gupshup purely as a pipe.

Sessions

  • It will not replace Microsoft Teams or Google Meet for everyday internal calls, so most buyers end up paying for two conferencing tools and asking staff to know which one to open.
  • The vendor is small and European, competing directly against Zoom and Microsoft, so any team standardising a customer-facing process on it should keep an exit plan and export recordings regularly.
  • The preparation model that makes it good is also overhead; a meeting nobody had time to structure runs no better in Sessions than anywhere else, and teams that will not prepare get no benefit from the licence.
  • Lifetime deals sold through AppSumo mean a segment of the user base pays nothing recurring, which shapes support priorities and has previously produced friction when plan terms changed.
  • It is browser-only, which keeps participation frictionless but leaves it more exposed to browser and network conditions than a native client, and there is no desktop application to fall back on when a call misbehaves.

Pricing, plan by plan

Gupshup

$0.001/message
  • Messaging$0.001/message
    • About 0.001 USD Gupshup platform fee per outgoing template message
    • Same fee on outgoing and incoming session messages
    • Meta per-message charges passed through on top, varying by country and category

Sessions

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Meetings with agenda blocks
    • Limited participants and storage
    • Basic recording
  • Solo$undefined/month
    • For a single host
    • Longer meetings and higher attendee limits
    • Registration pages
  • Business$undefined/month
    • Multiple hosts and shared resource library
    • Higher attendee limits
    • Branding and custom registration
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Unlimited participants
    • Custom integrations
    • White labelling

Which should you pick?

Choose Gupshup if

  • You need whatsapp business api.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want flat platform fee.
Gupshup review

Choose Sessions if

  • You need agenda blocks.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want embedded apps.
Sessions review

Questions people ask

Is Gupshup or Sessions better?
Neither clearly leads. Gupshup starts at $0.001/message and Sessions at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Gupshup or Sessions?
Sessions has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $0.001/message for Gupshup and Free for Sessions.
Does Gupshup or Sessions run on more platforms?
Gupshup runs on Web, API. Sessions runs on Web.
Can I use Sessions for free?
Yes. Sessions has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Gupshup starts at $0.001/message.
What is Gupshup best used for?
Gupshup is most often used for an e-commerce brand sending order and delivery notifications over whatsapp to customers across india and southeast asia, a bank or fintech running one-time passcodes and transactional alerts with fallback from whatsapp to sms, a company deploying a whatsapp chatbot for tier one support with handover to human agents for anything it cannot resolve, a marketing team running whatsapp template campaigns to opted-in lists in markets where email engagement is low. Of those, an e-commerce brand sending order and delivery notifications over whatsapp to customers across india and southeast asia and a bank or fintech running one-time passcodes and transactional alerts with fallback from whatsapp to sms are not what Sessions is typically brought in for.
What can Gupshup do that Sessions cannot?
Gupshup covers WhatsApp Business API, Flat platform fee, RCS messaging, SMS and voice. Sessions covers Agenda blocks, Embedded apps, Webinars and registration, Recording and transcript.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Gupshup: What does Gupshup charge?

About 0.001 USD per outgoing template message and per session message in each direction, plus roughly 0.0001 USD per second on voice. Meta per-message charges are passed through on top.

Sessions: Is Sessions still operating?

Yes. It is an active Bucharest-based company with a New York presence, founded in 2020, still shipping product in 2026.

Gupshup: Is Gupshup cheaper than other WhatsApp providers?

On its own platform fee it is competitive, but that fee is a small fraction of the total. Meta pass-through rates dominate, so provider choice rarely changes your bill much.

Sessions: Does it replace Zoom?

For structured external calls, demos, workshops and webinars, yes. For everyday internal meetings most teams keep Teams or Meet alongside it.

Gupshup: Did WhatsApp pricing change?

Yes. Meta retired per 24-hour conversation pricing on 1 July 2025 and moved to per message billing, and Gupshup followed.

Sessions: Is there a free plan?

Yes, with limits on participants, meeting length and storage. Paid plans are published on the vendor site and billed annually.

Gupshup: Is it only for India?

No, but its strongest carrier and operator reach is in India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Sessions: Who funded it?

Roughly 9 million euros in total, about half from the founder personally, with EarlyBird, LAUNCHub and Stride making up the rest.

Sessions: Can participants join without installing anything?

Yes, it runs in the browser with no client install for attendees.

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