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Best Fitness Tracker 2024: Make a change with these top contenders
In This Article
As the evenings get lighter and warm summer days draw ever closer, you might want to get yourself in good shape with the help of a fitness tracker that gives you the feedback and insight you need.
Having tested a very wide variety of fitness trackers with different price tags and features, we can confirm that a decent device can help with everything from motivating you to step outside walk more often to dramatically improving your personal bests.
But which one should you get? At the moment the market is flush with options. Just check out the stock list of any online retailer and you’ll see everything from affordable band design trackers for counting your daily steps and little else to uber-expensive GPS wearables made for hardcore triathletes who compete in all conditions.
Here to make sure you get a wearable that’s right for you, we atTrusted Reviewshave created this guide detailing the top performing fitness trackers we’ve tested that you can buy in 2024.
Every tracker on this guide has been used by one of our team of reviewers for at least a week. During that time, we made sure to have tested every feature on offer to ensure they deliver accurate tracking data, decent battery life, a robust build quality, and good value for money.
Knowing that one size doesn’t fit all, we’ve also made sure to include a good variety of trackers that cover different markets and price points to give readers a full spectrum to suit their needs best.
If you do know what you’re after and are on the lookout for some more narrowly focused advice then you can also check out ourbest running watch,best Garmin Watch,best Fitbitandbest smartwatchguides for more tailored ideas.
Which is the best fitness tracker?
How we test
We use every fitness tracker we review as our primary wearable for at least a week – or longer, if the battery life lasts beyond that point or we need more time to trial its features.During that time we will test it on a variety of different activities. These will range from basic step tracking, to how well it tracks runs, swims, cycling and more.For distance tracking, we assess how accurately the device records runs on tracks we know the length of. We also evaluate the level of battery life lost per hour using features such as built-in or connected GPS. To check heart rate accuracy, we compare the results from the wearable to a dedicated HRM strap.Next we combine the data recorded with our general experience of using the wearable day-to-day, revealing whether the device proved comfortable to wear, alongside any issues we may have encountered with unexpected bugs over the review period.We then evaluate key metrics including app support, usability and battery life.
Garmin Fenix 7 Pro
Pros
Cons
The latest high-end Fenix watch from Garmin might not be a massive overhaul from the originalFenix 7, but it’s still a great wearable nonetheless and deserving of our fitness tracker top spot.
Right off the bat, the 7 Pro builds upon the unbelievable foundations of its predecessor but this time around it adds an improved heart rate sensor and upgraded mapping features to give you more insights when you’re out on a run.
With the Fenix 7 Pro to hand, GPS maps are now given more detail via relief shading which better represents the topography of whatever route you’re on, which is handy if you’re exploring an area that you’re not too familiar with. There’s also the new Up Ahead feature which highlights points of interest on any given route, so the 7 Pro will alert you when essential spots like water/aid stations or tricky turns are on the horizon.
As you’d expect from a Garmin watch, the Fenix 7 Pro is built to withstand some serious damage, boasting a ruggedised fibre-reinforced chassis with a titanium backing. Plus, with 10ATM water resistance, you can take the Fenix 7 Pro out in open waters without any worry, so if you have any triathlons in the calendar then you’ll be covered.
There’s even a dedicated flashlight built into the watch, so you won’t have to bring a torch with you if you plan on running any trails after the sun’s gone down. Even with all of these features, the Fenix 7 Pro doesn’t leave you wanting on battery life, with the ability to get up to 22-days of use thanks to the device’s solar charging capabilities.
The key thing to bear in mind is that the Fenix 7 Pro has an RRP of £749.99, so unless you plan on making the most of it with a schedule full of marathons and events, then you’re better off opting for something cheaper. For the hardcore athletes out there however, it’s easily the best wearable you can get right now.
Reviewer:Michael SawhFull review:Garmin Fenix 7 Pro Review
Apple Watch Series 9
Pros
Cons
If you’re an iPhone owner on the market for a fitness tracker that’s perfectly optimised to make the most out of iOS and all of Apple’s in-house features then the Apple Watch is your best bet. This has been the case for a long time but with each iteration, the experience just gets even better.
TheApple Watch Series 9is the latest in a long line of Apple Watches to get our recommendation, not only because it’s only of few fitness trackers to offer such high levels of iOS integration, but because it’s simply leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in several key areas. For starters, automatic workout tracking is incredible on the Apple Watch Series 9, having a key understanding of when you start to break out a sweat and when a workout is over based on your movement.
Apple Rings also does a great job of breaking down a day’s exercise into three-key components, although it isn’t quite as forgiving as Fitbit’s Active Zone Minutes, pestering you to hit your workout goals every single day as opposed to working around your schedule and hitting them on a weekly basis.
Still, there are no shortage of workouts to be tracked on the Apple Watch and more are added year after year, so it’s a great investment for anyone already synced up in the Apple ecosystem.
Fitness aside, it offers a great smartwatch experience for iPhone users with a high level of interoperability with iPhones and other Apple products, and new features like Double Tap to interact with the Watch without tapping the screen keep Apple’s wearable competitive in a growing market.
Reviewer:Max ParkerFull review:Apple Watch Series 9 Review
Garmin Vivomove Trend
Pros
Cons
Even though Garmin is one of the most established brands in the world of fitness tracking, the company isn’t exactly a trendsetter when it comes to making fashionable wearables. The average Garmin watch is definitely feature-rich, but form tends to get left on the wayside in favour of function – that is until the Garmin Vivomove Trend hit the scene.
This stylish wearable combines the trappings of a traditional analogue watch with the fitness tracking features that have made Garmin so successful. The tracking in question is shown on a display that sits beneath the watch’s physical dials, so you can discreetly start your next workout or check up on a few notifications.
As an added bonus, the Garmin Vivomove Trend is also one of the few wearables out there to support wireless charging, so if you have a Qi wireless charging station to hand then you can pop the Vivomove Trennd on it and get on with your day.
The watch also does a great job at keeping an eye on your overall wellness and mental health, with stats such as heart rate variability and respiration levels that can be key indicators of overall stress levels.
Reviewer:Michael SawhFull review:Garmin Vivomove Trend Review
Fitbit Luxe
Pros
Cons
Fitness trackers tend to be split into watch and band form factors. Watches offer a larger screen to interact with and generally have more developed hardware. But for entry level athletes, or people that don’t want a large wearable on their wrist 24/7, there’s a lot to be said for the smaller band design.
If that sounds like the sort of wearable you’re after, then the Fitbit Luxe is the best option we’ve reviewed at the moment.
The Luxe comes with a solid array of band options and its colorful AMOLED panel is the brightest and sharpest we’ve seen on a band design fitness tracker its price. This made it much more pleasant to use than many of the competing band design trackers we’ve used recently, including the Garmin Vivosmart 5, which has a more basic black and white display.
The key selling point here is the Fitbit OS easy to understand and use software and navigation system which offers basic, but easily digestible snippets of workout data that are really good at motivating, rather than intimidating, users. This makes it a really solid option for people who are just getting started or just care about boosting their daily step count. The 5 day battery life we enjoyed during testing also means you’ll generally get through the work week before needing to give it a top up charge.
The only downside is that we found it’s not terribly well suited to even semi-serious athletes, with Fitbit locking the more in-depth data regular runners need behind a paywall and its connected GPS providing less accurate distance tracking than we’d like.
Reviewer:Michael SawhFull review:Fitbit Luxe Review
Huawei Watch Fit 3
Pros
Cons
Even though theXiaomi Smart Band 8is great for those on a budget, anyone who’s looking to buy their first fitness wearable and can spare a bit more money will be better suited with theHuawei Watch Fit 3.
Unabashedly taking its design cues from the Apple Watch, the Watch Fit 3 feels far more premium than its £139.99 price tag would have you believe, and there’s a fashionable array of colours and watch straps to pair with it, making it less likely to clash with your wardrobe in a way that some fitness trackers have in the past.
Beyond the design, the Watch Fit 3 offers standalone GPS tracking which, along with its heart rate readings, provide surprisingly accurate results. Race finish estimates did prove to be off the mark during testing, but otherwise this is a solid wearable for understanding key bits of health data.
The only major caveat is that because of Huawei’s ecosystem, the Watch Fit 3’s functionality is limited to users in the west. There are no major third party apps to install so if you want a smarter experience away from the gym then you’re better off opting for a Wear OS device, or one of the latest Apple Watches.
Reviewer:Conor AllisonFull review:Huawei Watch Fit 3 Review
Xiaomi Smart Band 8
Pros
Cons
Xiaomi has proven time and time again that you can get a solid wearable device for well under £50/$50, even if the company’s ambition doesn’t quite match the final product. What we mean by this is that theXiaomi Smart Band 8isn’t lacking for features, but only some of them are really worth writing home about.
For instance, step counts and calories burned tend to be underreported, and we found the statistics of the training load and VO2 Max rating to be unreliable, so if you’re after a full slate of quality health statistics then you’re better off with something like theGarmin Forerunner 165.
However, the Smart Band 8 more than held its own when reporting on maximum BPM rates during a workout, and the device really shines in Xiaomi’s Pebble Mode. Here, via the use of an accessory, the Smart Band 8 can attach to your running shoes and accurately report on your foot-strike pattern. You do need to stay connected to your smartphone in this mode, but it’s definitely handy for runners on a budget.
Sleep tracking times were also on the money, and when paired with the solid battery life of up to 16-days on a single charge, the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 offers plenty of value for money.
Reviewer:Conor AllisonFull review:Xiaomi Smart Band 8
Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar
Pros
Cons
If you don’t need an ultra rugged design that’ll survive the odd accidental encounter with a climbing wall or ocean rock then theForerunner 955is the best premium fitness tracker we’ve tested.
The Forerunner is a smaller cardio-focused wearable from Garmin that shares a lot of the best features seen on the more premium Fenix 7. This potent combination seriously impressed our reviewer during testing.
With it being the first 9-series Forerunner we’ve tested to feature multi-band GPS, the watch offered top-tier distance tracking accuracy. As well as locking a connection in seconds, the watch proved incredibly accurate during our 5km run tests. Running around a track we know is 5.3km, the watch offered a maximum variance of just 0.1km, which is excellent.
Add to this its local map support, which let us get turn-by-turn directions on routes we didn’t know and inbuilt music support for both local and Spotify/Deezer and it becomes an easy recommendation at a hardware level.
But what truly sets it apart from competing devices, like the Polar Vantage V2 and its ilk, is its advanced post workout and training analytics. Unlike some brands, such as Fitbit, Garmin offers users complete access to their workout and health data free of charge. So, like the Fenix you get nicely uniform VO2 Max estimates, SpO2 readings and guidance on how effective your workouts have been. But as an added bonus the 955 can also factor races and events you’ve added to your calendar to the coaching advice it gives.
This, plus new HRV and Training Readiness metrics make it great at helping avoid overtraining. The latter is a custom feature that tells you how well-prepared your body is to train. What’s great is that it also tells you why you may not be in an optimal state for a run. Our tester was frequently told to get more sleep ahead of his next training session and race, an insight that helped him change his routine to improve results.
Reviewer:Alastair StevensonFull review:Garmin Forerunner 955 Review
Pixel Watch 2
Pros
Cons
Unlike how it was even just three or four years ago, there’s now an abundance of great Wear OS smartwatches that excel in fitness tracking. TheGalaxy Watch 5 Proand theTicWatch Pro 5are just some examples but for our money, it’s the new Pixel Watch 2 that’s the best bet for most people.
Aside from running the latest version of Wear OS from the get-go, the Pixel Watch 2 has a massive ace up its sleeve in the form of Fitbit integration. By default, the Pixel Watch 2 tracks your workouts via the Fitbit Wear OS app, allowing it to easily sync up with the Fitbit app on your smartphone.
While the likes of Garmin and Coros offer a bit more for seasoned athletes, Fitbit’s approach is far more geared towards those who are just starting out on their fitness journey, or are simply interested in implementing better habits for a healthier lifestyle.
Part of the reason for this is that the Fitbit app tracks your Active Zone Minutes on a weekly basis, which makes a lot more sense for most working adults and saves you from any guilt during those busier days when it’s just impossible to get in a workout.
Beyond exercising, the Fitbit tracking can also offer up a sleep score each day to let you know how well you’ve rested, giving you a good indication as to whether your body is ready to take on a difficult workout.
It also helps that the Pixel Watch 2 has an improved heart rate sensor over its predecessor, which we noted as throwing our far more accurate results this time around, which is particularly handy for keeping an eye on your heart rate zone during a workout.
As you might expect from a smartwatch, there’s plenty of functionality beyond the fitness tracking experience and this device in particular benefits from a seamless integration with Google’s own-brand apps. If you have a Pixel phone then the Pixel Watch 2 makes for a solid accessory.
Reviewer:Conor AllisonFull review:Pixel Watch 2 review
Huawei Watch D
Pros
Cons
With plenty of affordable fitness trackers and high-end smartwatches to its name, Huawei is no stranger to the wearables market but it has still managed to deliver something new and exciting in the Huawei Watch D.
Blood pressure tracking, while an important metric in the medical community for judging one’s overall bill of health, has yet to take off on the consumer wearables market. This hasn’t perturbed Huawei however, as the Watch D can expand and contract its unique watch band to conduct a blood pressure test from your wrist.
Beyond its capabilities in the realm of blood pressure tracking, the Watch D can also offer fairly accurate ECG tests to pick up any signs of arrhythmia, the presence of which could be indicative of underlying health issues.
As a cherry on top, the Huawei Watch D also benefits from a week-long battery life so that you can cruise through a fairly substantial workout routine before needing to top the device up.
Working against the Watch D is the fact that it doesn’t depict Huawei’s HarmonyOS in the best light. If you want to see the full extent of Harmony OS’s capabilities then you’re better off checking in on one of Huawei’s more premium smartwatches like theHuawei Watch 3.
The Watch D isn’t much of a looker either, so if you’re in the market for a fitness tracker that also doubles as a fashionable wearable for night out then unfortunately, this isn’t it. Still, if you can look past its industrial design and less than brilliant interpretation of HarmomyOS then there’s still plenty to get excited about, not the least because it currently leads the charge in blood pressure tracking on the go.
Reviewer:Michael SawhFull review:Huawei Watch D review
Ultrahuman Ring Air
Pros
Cons
Wrist-based fitness trackers won’t be for everyone, so if you want to have a means of tracking your health and fitness data without being weighed down by a watch then look no further than the Ultrahuman Ring Air.
As its name suggests, this fitness tracker does away with convention as it can be worn on your index finger, just like how you might adorn a traditional ring except this one has tons of great features hidden under the surface.
Despite its discreet nature, the Ring Air can track your heart rate throughout the day and pick up on any potential anomalies therein. It can even be worn to bed as the Ring Air uses a temperature sensor to record the quality of your sleep, giving you a recovery score similar to what you’ll find on theWhoop Strap 4.0.
One of the most impressive features of the Ring Air doesn’t have anything to do with the tech, but rather the price. At present, the Ring Air’s biggest competitor is theOura Ring 3and while that is a great smart ring in its own right, it does utilise a subscription service for users to access their data after the initial upfront cost, which can add up over time.
By comparison, the Ultrahuman Ring Air has a one-time payment of £329/$349 and then no additional costs to speak of. This is a huge win for consumers as the continuing trend towards subscription models just isn’t practical for those tied to a strict budget who simply want to keep a better eye on their health and fitness.
One issue however is that the Ring Air doesn’t track workouts automatically and the process needs to be initiated from within the accompanying app. Still, it’s a minor issue that’s outweighed by just how discrete the Ultrahuman Ring Air manages to be in daily use.
Reviewer:Lewis PainterFull review:Ultrahuman Ring Air review
Whoop Strap 4.0
Pros
Cons
If there’s one area where most fitness trackers fumble, it’s in prioritising recovery as part of a healthy fitness routine. Companies like Samsung and Huawei have made some strides here within the context of sleep tracking, but it pales in comparison to what’s available on theWhoop Strap 4.0.
It’s no wonder that the Whoop Strap is a favourite amongst a handful of professional athletes as no other fitness tracker goes so in-depth into one’s recovery, which is essential avoiding injury.
With no screen to speak of, there’s very little interaction on the Whoop Strap itself (outside of needing to tap it to stop an alarm) with the bulk of interactivity kept to the accompanying Whoop app. Here you’ll find an immediate look at how well rested you are, giving you an idea of how much you’re able to take on in a single day, alongside the strain that you’ve exerted since waking up.
This system gives you a better idea of the goals you need to hit in a day, ensuring that your strain never greatly outweighs your recovery. The app can also let you know the exact times for when you need to go to bed in order to excel or simply get by in the following day.
There’s even a stress monitor which shows fluctuations in your heart rate at specific times, giving you a better understanding of what causes you the most stress so you can take moves to mitigate it.
The Whoop Strap is able to achieve all of this by honing in on your ‘Heart Rate Variability’, which indicates the time variance between your heartbeats, a metric that Whoop claims is far more telling when determining your overall bill of health.
There’s a lot to like here, but there is one big caveat for the Whoop Strap 4.0 and it’s the price. While the device itself is free, you have to fork out for the Whoop membership (essentially access to the app) at £229/$239 a year. There are more cost effective options including a payment every two years, but it’s still a considerable expense that’s really best saved for professional athletes and those who want to get serious about prioritising their recovery.
Reviewer:Chris SmithFull review:Whoop Strap 4.0 review
We also considered…
A solid tracker that’s easy to use.
The smartest band you’ll find at this price
A wearable winnner
The Garmin Epix puts colour maps on your wrist alongside comprehensive sports activity tracking.
We’ve reviewed
2,730
Wearable & Fitness
FAQs
GPS is a key functionality we recommend any buyer who regularly exercises outdoors invests in. The feature uses satellite networks to offer reliable location and distance tracking. This lets most trackers with it provide better analytics on activities like hiking, outdoor running and cycling.
The answer to this depends largely on what you want to use the tracker for. If you want a top end multi-sports tracker to help you train for a triathlon then you’ll want to spend a little more on a tracker with a decent water resistance rating, reliable in-built GPS and lengthy battery life. These tend to cost $400/£400-plus. But if you’re just getting started and only need basic things like step tracking and heart rate zones, then there are plenty of decent affordable trackers, many of which cost less than $150/£150.
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Comparison specs
You can see a detailed breakdown of all the trackers in this list’s specs in the table below. For fitness tracking the Fenix 7 is the most developed, featuring the longest battery life, ruggedest design and largest amount of internal storage.
After graduating with an MA in History from University College London and cutting his teeth for several years as a journalist in the film and TV industries, Tom joined the Trusted Reviews team as a Co…
Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Why trust our journalism?
Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.
Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
