Anytime Fitness or PureGym. It's the question every man asks when his first gym membership runs out and he starts wondering if he's paying for what he actually uses.
I've trained at both. Not as a test — as my actual gym over different periods in the last three years. Here's what that experience actually taught me.
The core difference
PureGym is volume. Lots of kit, lots of people, low price. Anytime Fitness is access — specifically 24/7 key fob access and clubs that tend to be smaller and quieter.
That's the whole trade-off. Everything else flows from it.
Equipment and facilities
PureGym has more of everything. Bigger sites, more racks, more cables, more machines. If you want variety — especially if you're training strength and hypertrophy — PureGym wins on raw equipment volume.
Anytime Fitness gyms are typically smaller. Some are excellent, some are genuinely thin on free weights. The quality varies enormously by franchise owner. I've trained at Anytime locations that had 4 squat racks and a full functional rig. I've also trained at one with 2 benches and a handful of dumbbells.
The Anytime near me was superb. Quiet at 6am, full powerlifting setup, actual foam rollers that didn't fall apart. But I've visited one near my parents in the north that was genuinely worse than a budget hotel gym. This variation is the biggest risk with Anytime Fitness.
Check the specific Anytime Fitness location before committing. The brand doesn't guarantee equipment standard — the franchise owner does.
24/7 access: who actually needs it?
Anytime's flagship feature is the key fob. You can walk in at 3am on a Tuesday if that's your thing.
The question is whether you actually will.
Most men training over 40 have predictable windows: early morning before work, lunch, or early evening. PureGym is open from 6am-11pm in most locations — sometimes earlier. That covers 99% of real-world training schedules.
24/7 access genuinely matters if you work shifts, travel frequently and want consistency across UK locations, or have anxiety about busy periods and want to train at genuinely off-peak times.
Cost breakdown
PureGym's off-peak membership (around £19/month) is the best value entry-level gym membership in the UK, full stop. Anytime Fitness typically costs more than the standard PureGym rate even before you factor in joining fees.
The verdict
Choose PureGym if: you train standard hours, want maximum equipment for minimum cost, or you're in a city with multiple PureGym locations nearby.
Choose Anytime Fitness if: you do shift work or early-morning training before 6am, you travel frequently across the UK and want guaranteed access, or you've visited your local Anytime and the equipment and atmosphere are genuinely good.
If you're stuck deciding, visit both. PureGym offers a free day pass. Anytime Fitness will let you do a trial session. See which one you'd actually use at your actual training times.
Related reading
I've written a full comparison of every major UK gym chain in my guide to the best gyms in the UK 2026. If you want to understand how these two stack up against PureGym vs JD Gyms specifically, I've covered that too.
For what to actually do when you get there, the progressive overload guide is where I'd start if you're rebuilding your training from scratch.
