I’ve been testing the best fitness trackers for years, and in 2025, Fitbit—now owned by Google—remains one of the top brands to choose with the Fitbit Charge 6 being my overall choice. However, the original fitness tracker company is far from being your only option.
For Android users, the Samsung Galaxy Fit3, a slim and easy-wearing band-style tracker, is an affordable and capable option at just under $60. It’s also a solid alternative to the Fitbit Inspire 3, the best cheap Fitbit currently available.
Garmin also makes some of my favorite fitness-tracking devices, including the Vivoactive 6, and for the cost-conscious, the Amazfit Active 2 and Band 7 each punch well above their respective price classes.
With hundreds of hours of testing under my belt, these are the best fitness trackers you can buy today, with an emphasis on comfort, simplicity, accuracy and value.
The quick list
The Fitbit Charge 6 ticks all the key boxes when it comes to the best fitness trackers, offering great wearability, accurate metrics, reasonably long-lasting battery life and a bright screen, all at a very reasonable cost. It also has onboard GPS so you can leave your phone at home when working out.
The Fitbit Inspire 3 is the best cheap Fitbit fitness tracker. For about $100, you’re getting ten days of battery life, a colorful band, and a bright AMOLED touchscreen, plus accurate heart rate and sleep monitoring.
The Amazfit Band 7 is a lightweight and easy-to-wear fitness tracker with great battery life, good tracking accuracy and a fairly simple user interface, all for under $50. It also boasts impressive sleep tracking and has Alexa built in.
The Amazfit Active 2 is a budget-friendly fitness-focused smartwatch with over 160 workout tracking modes, onboard GPS, support for offline maps and solid sleep and wellness monitoring tools. Available in two versions, the standard edition is just $99.
The Garmin Vivoactive 6 is my favorite modern replacement for the Fitbit Sense 2, with an impressive suite of fitness-tracking, training and wellness-monitoring tools. It also boasts just the right amount of smartwatch features, excellent battery life and a stylish, comfortable design.
The Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is a perfect modern replacement for the admittedly, again, Fitbit Inspire 3. Better yet, it costs way less and has even more features than the best cheap Fitbit. However, it's Android only.
The best fitness trackers you can buy today
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Best fitness tracker overall
The Fitbit Charge 6 is Fitbit's flagship fitness tracker and the best fitness tracker for most people. Easier to use than its predecessor thanks to a haptic side button, the Charge 6 also adds compatibility for NordicTrack, Peloton and Tonal gym equipment.
It additionally supports handy apps like Google Maps, YouTube Music and Google Wallet. However, Charge 6 users will need a Google Account now.
Of course, you buy a fitness tracker to track your fitness, and the Charge 6 does a solid job of this. Built-in GPS lets users accurately track runs, hikes and bike rides outside. It also offers support for more nuanced activities, like kickboxing, kayaking, snowboarding and rollerblading, allowing you to mix up your training.
During testing, I was impressed by how comfortable the Charge 6 is around the wrist and how easy it is to read in the bright sunlight. Simply put, the Fitbit Charge 6 is one of our favorite trackers, not just for its capabilities but also for its comfort.
The re-addition of a side button and support for a small but useful selection of Google apps have made what was already a great fitness tracker even better, in our eyes. That said, Fitbit locks some metrics behind its monthly Fitbit Premium paywall, unlike other options from Garmin.
Read our Fitbit Charge 6 review here.
Best cheap Fitbit fitness tracker
The Fitbit Inspire 3 is the best value fitness tracker because it nails the basics: heart rate monitoring, accurate workout tracking and logging sleep stages. The fact that it doesn't have a built-in GPS is slightly disappointing but you can connect it to your phone's GPS for location data when necessary.
For $100, you'll get Fitbit's Active Zone Minutes metric, ten days of battery life, touch controls, and, in the biggest update from the Fitbit Inspire 2, a bright, beautiful AMOLED screen. The Fitbit unit is only available in black but is sold with three different band colors — black, lilac and morning glow. The wristband comes in two sizes: small and large.
During testing, I loved how lightweight and comfortable this little tracker was to wear for 24/7 health tracking. I also appreciated how much more premium the tracker feels with a color screen. It won't be for everyone, but if you're looking for an affordable fitness tracker, you can't go wrong with the Inspire 3. Of course, like the Charge 6, some data points require Fitbit Premium.
Read our full Fitbit Inspire 3 review here.
Best fitness tracker under $50
The Amazfit Band 7 is a $50 fitness tracker that promises many of the marquee features found in more premium smartwatches but at a fraction of the price. It has blood oxygen (SpO2) readings, stress monitoring, high heart rate alerts, Amazon Alexa built-in, sleep tracking and several other tools found in pricier offerings.
In our testing, the fitness and sleep tracking on the Amazfit Band 7 proved reliable and accurate. Better yet, battery life is fantastic and the device is extremely comfortable to wear day and night. There's no GPS, so you will need to carry a phone while you workout for distance and location data. If that bothers you, consider the Amazfit Bip 5 instead.
Read our full Amazfit Band 7 review.
Best fitness tracker under $100
The Amazfit Active is a slender and comfortable smartwatch with a thin metal case, onboard GPS, over 160 sports tracking profiles, nearly a week of battery and support for offline maps. It's available in both a standard edition for $99 and a more durable premium version for $129.
The 1.32-inch touchscreen maxes out at an impressive 2,000 nits, more than bright enough for daylight viewing. It's also fairly responsive, as are the two physical buttons, but the operating system, Zepp OS, is a bit clunky/buggy. I tested the Active 2's tracking accuracy against some of the best fitness trackers available and found data from the device to be pretty accurate. That said, the Active 2 consistently inflated elevation numbers and occasionally turned in oddly low heart rate metrics
Sleep reports, though not as detailed as Garmin's, prove valuable and fairly accurate in our testing. You get insights into your time spent asleep, sleep cycles, REM and any noted disturbances, along with a daily sleep score out of 100. Similar to Garmin's Body Battery and Fitbit's Readiness Score, the Active 2 also presents a daily Readiness Score to help you make the most of your energy and day.
Smart features are limited, though an onboard mic and speaker let you take calls from the wrist, something I wasn't expecting. And the audio quality is good! There's also an AI-powered voice assistant that's useful for opening apps on the watch, but not much else. There's also support for NFC payments, something often lacking in wallet-friendly wearables.
Navigational tools are a major selling point of the Active 2. The offline maps feature works pretty well; users select a region using the companion app to download to their device, but beyond viewing the map, functionality is limited. The turn-by-turn navigational feature also proved utterly unreliable in testing. On the flip side, the backtrack routing tool for folks who lose their way works impressively well.
Read our full Amazfit Active 2 review
Best Garmin fitness tracker
The Garmin Vivoactive 6 is my favorite Garmin fitness tracker and a perfect alternative to folks considering the Fitbit Sense 2 or Fitbit Versa 4 smartwatches, both of which are near the ends of their lives.
Compatible with both Android and iOS devices, the Vivoactive 6 tracks 80 workout types, while offering most of Garmin's best training tools, including Body Battery (Similar to Fitbit's Readiness Score), daily Sleep Scores, recovery time recommendations and more. You also get onboard GPS for accurate location tracking, sans smartphone. However, there's no altimeter for tracking elevation changes, so climb data should be taken with a grain of salt.
The Vivoactive 6 is also a supremely comfortable and lightweight smartwatch, particularly on my 6.5-inch wrist. The AMOLED screen is bright and easy to view in direct sunlight, while the user interface is responsive and relatively simple to navigate.
The Vivoactive 6 additionally offers some genuinely useful smart features, including support for NFC payments, onboard storage to download music for offline listening and mirrored smartphone notifications.
Read our Garmin Vivoactive 6 review.
Best fitness tracker for Android
For just $59, the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 represents excellent value and capability for the money. Users get a seriously gorgeous and sizable touchscreen mounted to a thin and comfortable case that should feel at home on even the most slender wrists.
Battery life is good for up to two weeks, though there's no onboard GPS to drain it faster, and a gigantic number of workout types are supported (over 100). The sleep-tracking reports are also seriously impressive, as are the workout training and holistic insights.
Basically, if you want a Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 or Galaxy Watch Ultra 'Lite' with similar wellness tech but lacking the smarts and connectivity features, this is it. Of course, it's Android only and best paired with a Samsung smartphone.
Want to know more about how it stacks up against its Fitbit rival? Here's a spec-by-spec breakdown of the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 vs. Fitbit Inspire 3.
Read our Samsung Galaxy Fit3 impressions.
Features comparison
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Fitbit Charge 6 | Fitbit Inspire 3 | Amazfit Band 7 | Amazfit Active 2 | Garmin Vivoactive 6 | Galaxy Fit3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Screen size and type | 1.4-inch AMOLED | 0.7-inch AMOLED | 1.5-inch AMOLED | 1.32-inch AMOLED | 1.2-inch AMOLED | 1.6-inch AMOLED |
Weight | 1.33 ounces | 0.62 ounces | 1 ounce | 1 ounce | 0.81 ounces | 1.3 ounces |
Battery life (tested) | 7 days, 5 hours with GPS | 10 days | 12 days | 5 days, 21 hours with GPS | 11 days, 21 hours with GPS | 13 days |
Waterproof rating | 50 meters | 50 meters | 50 meters | 50 meters | 50 meters | 50 meters |
Onboard GPS | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Mobile payments | Yes - Google Pay | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Subscription | Optional; $9.99 (monthly) or $79.99 (yearly) | Optional; $9.99 (monthly) or $79.99 (yearly) | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
How to choose the best fitness tracker
When buying a fitness tracker, you should first evaluate your needs. What do you want to track? If you're only using it at the gym to count your steps and your heart rate, a simpler, less expensive fitness tracker will suit you fine.
If, however, you plan to do more outdoor activities, such as running or biking, you may want a fitness tracker with built-in GPS, so you can more accurately see where you're going, and where you went. Dedicated runners and athletes will want to check out our best GPS watches page, too.
If you plan to use the fitness tracker for swimming, you'll want to make sure it's not only waterproof, but that it can also track your laps in the pool.
Many of the best smartwatches have fitness-tracking capabilities, too, and have additional features such as responding to text messages and paying for purchases. But there are trade-offs. However, smartwatches as a whole tend to be more expensive and have shorter battery life than dedicated fitness trackers.
How we test the best fitness trackers
For each new fitness tracker, we evaluate its hardware design and comfort; you need to be able to wear the device all day, and we’ve found that some larger trackers don’t fit well on smaller wrists. If the device has a touchscreen, we look to see how readable it is, especially in bright sunlight. We also examine how easy it is to navigate the fitness trackers' menus; you don't want to have to dig through multiple screens to change your music if you're out running.
We also evaluate features such as step counting and sleep monitoring, distance calculations, and when applicable, GPS and heart rate accuracy. And, we see how well a manufacturer's battery life claims hold up in real-world testing.
Finally, we test how well a device pairs with its companion app, and evaluate the experience of using the two together. We also look to see what features the device's app supports, such as coaching and diet tracking, and if it can sync data with third-party apps, such as MyFitnessPal.
FAQs
How are fitness trackers different from smartwatches?
There's quite a lot of crossover between the best fitness trackers and the best smartwatches. Ultimately, the key difference between the two product categories is intended use.
Fitness trackers may offer some extra bells and whistles, like tap-to-pay and mirrored smartphone notifications, but their primary function is keeping tabs on your daily activity levels, exercise patterns, sleep quality, progress toward fitness goals and workout recovery.
Smartwatches, on the other hand, provide a wider range of functionality and third-party apps in addition to wellness tracking features. For example, smartwatch options in this buying guide, including the Apple Watch 9 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 both offer optional support for cellular connectivity. You won't find that on any fitness tracker.
This also means that the best fitness trackers tend to cost less than the best fitness-tracking smartwatches. You can expect to pay between $50 and $200 for the former and $200 to $800 and up for the latter. They also tend to be less cumbersome to wear and longer-lasting than their smarter counterparts.
Which fitness tracker brand is best, Fitbit or Garmin?
Both Garmin and Google (Fitbit) make exceptional fitness trackers. This is why two devices from each brand appear in this guide.
While Fitbits tend to be geared more toward casual workout enthusiasts, Garmin watches are designed for folks looking to take their training to the next level. For instance, devices like the Forerunner 265 and Venu 3 offer tools to help you prep for an upcoming 5K or marathon.
Garmin's top fitness-tracking devices also tend to look like smartwatches while our favorite Fitbits are more streamlined for easy-wearing. This means that the former tends to offer more screen real estate while the latter tends to be lighter and less cumbersome.
Whichever brand you choose, both Fitbit and Garmin trackers are capable of keeping tabs on your daily step count, heart rate, workouts, sleep quality, workout recovery and women's health with impressive accuracy.
Is it okay to sleep with a fitness tracker on?
Yes! In fact, all of the best fitness trackers provide some form of sleep quality tracking, so there's good reason to wear a fitness tracker to bed nightly. However, some devices offer more in-depth analysis than others.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7, for instance, tracks a wide array of factors while you snooze, like your body movement, heart rate, breathing data and more to determine the quality of your rest. Heck, it even monitors for snoring. This data is then paired with AI-backed insights to help you make the most of it.
Both the Apple Watch 10 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 also monitor for sleep apnea, a potentially serious condition that often goes undiagnosed in users.
From a comfort perspective, smaller devices like the Fitbit Charge 6 and Inspire 3, the Amazfit Band 7 and the Oura Ring 4 may be easier for folks to sleep with than bulkier options, like Garmin Venu 3.
