Garmin Cirqa vs Fitbit Air vs Whoop 5.0 vs Oura Ring 5: Which fitness tracker should you buy?

It’s official: 2026 is the year of the screenless tracker. In a world of constant buzzing and non-stop notifications, it seems that more people than ever are embracing the silence of the screenless fitness tracker.

In this article, I’ll look at three new screenless devices launching this year: the Garmin Cirqa, Fitbit Air, and Oura Ring 5, as well as the popular Whoop 5.0. Which deserves a spot on your wrist, bicep, or finger? Read on to find out more.

Garmin Cirqa vs Fitbit Air vs Whoop 5.0 vs Oura Ring 5: Price

Let’s start with the price of the trackers and their subsequent subscriptions. The easiest way to see this data is in this table:

Winner: It goes without saying that the Fitbit Air is the most affordable of all the screenless trackers at $99, with an optional subscription. I would argue that some of the best features of the Fitbit Air, including the Gemini AI Health Coach and advanced sleep tracking, require the $10 monthly subscription, but it’s still far cheaper than the other options on this list.

The next best option from a price point of view would be the Garmin Cirqa, which gives you almost everything without the need to pay a monthly subscription. In fact, Garmin Connect+ will only give you nutrition and coaching plans; Garmin gives you access to all your health and fitness data under the free plan.

With Whoop and Oura, you’re committing to a monthly subscription to the respective platform if you want to use the tracker.

Garmin Cirqa vs Fitbit Air vs Whoop 5.0 vs Oura Ring 5: Design and fit

From a design standpoint, the key difference to note is that the Garmin Cirqa, Fitbit Air and Whoop 5.0 are all screenless bands designed to be worn around the wrist or bicep, whereas the Oura ring is, obviously, a ring.

The Fitbit Air is the smallest and lightest of the screenless trackers, with a fairly wide selection of straps starting at $34.99, in all sorts of eye-catching colors. Choose from sporty silicone or stretchy knit fabric.

While the Garmin Cirqa and the Whoop 5.0 are bulkier on the wrist, they are both still comfortable; however, I found that both material bands stayed wet for ages after a swim or shower. It’s not enough to put me off completely, but it’s not the most comfortable.

Both Garmin and Whoop sell bicep bands for their trackers: the Garmin Cirqa bicep band costs $60, and the Whoop band is $50. Google doesn’t make a specific bicep band for the Fitbit Air, but there are plenty of options from third-party retailers.

One thing that really sets the Cirqa apart from the competition, design-wise, is the inclusion of a single physical button on the side of the tracker used to start and stop a workout.

Users can customize exactly what that workout is in the Connect app. When pressed, an onboard vibration motor provides haptic feedback confirming that your workout has begun. Another buzz happens when you end a workout. The button has additional functions: A triple-press forces the Cirqa into pairing mode, while a press-and-hold turns on the broadcast heart rate feature.

The Oura Ring 5 is the smallest and lightest smart ring on the market and is extremely comfortable to wear. The width of the ring has dropped to 6.09mm from 7.9mm, and the thickness is now 2.28mm, with the ring weighing 2 grams. The exact weight and size of the Oura Ring 5 will depend on the size you’re wearing. The Oura Ring 5 comes in sizes 6-13.

Battery-wise, you’re getting more than a week between charges with all of these devices. The Fitbit Air has the lowest battery life at 7 days; you’ll get around 9 days with the Oura Ring 5 (depending on ring size); the Garmin Cirqa gives you 10 days between charges; and finally, the Whoop 5.0 has a battery life of 14 days.

One thing to note is that the Whoop 5.0 is the only screenless device on this list that you can charge without taking it off — a handy feature if you’re desperate not to miss out on any data whatsoever.

Winner: This one really depends. I personally find the Oura Ring 5 or the Fitbit Air the most comfortable out of these four, but I have really petite wrists and prefer a fitness tracker that disappears. None of them are uncomfortable, and if you don’t mind a bigger tracker, there’s not much between the Cirqa and the Whoop.

Garmin Cirqa vs Fitbit Air vs Whoop 5.0 vs Oura Ring 5: Apps

A screenless tracker is only as good as its compatible app. All of the respective apps are available on both Android and iOS. The main differences between all of them are how easy they are to understand when you log in.

Let’s start with the Garmin Cirqa, which uses Garmin’s Connect app. If you’re familiar with Garmin, you’ll already know your way around the Connect app, which makes it easy to see your data once you know where to find it. I’d argue it’s not quite as user-friendly for beginners as the Fitbit or Oura app, but Garmin does a great job of giving you a lot of data and information, should you want it. You can also pair multiple trackers to the app and easily switch between them.

The Fitbit app has had a complete redesign and is now called Google Health. Again, I’ve found this app really easy to use and have found the Gemini Health Coach to be the best AI coach on the market right now. It breaks down your data into actionable advice, which is handy for beginners and more experienced users alike. The downside is that it’s locked behind the subscription.

I always say the Whoop app is best suited to athletes, as the amount of data you get is unprecedented. Feedback seems to be mixed — dedicated users love drilling down into the app, which focuses on how well your body has recovered; others find it overwhelming.

The Oura app has three main sections: Today, Vitals, and My Health. The first gives you a snapshot of your readiness, sleep, and activity scores from the day. Vitals go a step further and include things like your daytime stress and heart health. Then, My Health is an overview of the past 90 days.

Winner: It’s a tie. All of these apps will make it easy to make changes to your health once you’ve gotten to grips with them. They are designed to give you feedback and track your activities, sleep, stress levels, and menstrual cycle.

One thing to note from a women’s health perspective is that, at the time of writing, Oura, Garmin, and Whoop are compatible with Natural Cycles, which uses the devices' skin temperature sensors to predict your fertile window.

Garmin Cirqa vs Fitbit Air vs Whoop 5.0 vs Oura Ring 5: Health and fitness tracking

All of these trackers are designed to be worn 24/7 to give you an overview of your health. None of these devices have built-in GPS, so for accurate GPS tracking, you’ll need to take your phone with you.

All of the devices support multiple workout types, including most of the most common ones you’d expect. The Fitbit Air has the least amount of supported workouts, but there are still 71 to choose from, so it’s unlikely you’ll be lacking here.

All of the devices use autodetect to predict when you’ve started a workout, and in my testing, this can be sketchy for the first few months of wearing the device. With all of the trackers, you can manually start a workout in the app, but the Garmin Cirqa makes this a little easier, as you can start and stop a workout of your choosing using the device’s button. By default, the button logs a basic timed workout with limited metrics. However, users can change that via a setting in the Connect app.

The Garmin Cirqa, Fitbit Air, Whoop 5.0 and Oura Ring 5 will all do more than just count your steps and calories burned. You’ll get continuous heart rate tracking, sleep tracking, women’s health tracking, stress monitoring, skin temperature and more. The most advanced of the bunch is the Whoop MG, which has a medical-grade ECG sensor on board.

As mentioned before, Whoop’s health tracking is extensive, but the level you receive depends on your subscription package (read more about this in my Whoop review). The more expensive packages give you access to Whoop’s Healthspan feature, with the idea being that it can offer deep insights into your long-term health.

There are two different parts to it — Whoop Age and Pace of Aging. Whoop Age updates gradually over time, whereas Pace of Aging is a score ranging from -1x to 3 based on the immediate impact of your lifestyle choices.

I personally loved Whoop’s stress tracker, which showed me just how stressed I was getting about work or my toddler emptying the kitchen cupboards throughout the day.

From a testing perspective, I found all the devices to be pretty similar for tracking things like steps and sleep. The differences between them often sit with calorie burn (Whoop always seems to predict the lowest calorie burn; Fitbit the highest). All the devices were pretty similar in tracking my heart rate, and it’s worth noting that the Garmin Cirqa, Fitbit Air, and Whoop can all be used as external heart rate monitors.

While you can’t use your Oura Ring as a heart rate monitor, you can now use it to see your live workout data on your phone. When starting a live activity from your Oura app, you can see your live data from a lock screen widget on your phone. This can track your pace and distance during workouts like runs, cycles, and strength training sessions. I've been testing the Live Activity Tracking alongside Garmin and have been impressed.

Winner: Again, this one is too tough to call, as all of these devices track your health and workouts really well. From a fitness perspective, being able to start and stop a workout manually on the Garmin Cirqa gives it a slight edge. From a health-tracking perspective, if you want medical-grade ECG readings, the Whoop MG takes the top spot.

For most people, however, all of these devices will help you better understand your body and keep track of your fitness goals.

Garmin Cirqa vs Fitbit Air vs Whoop 5.0 vs Oura Ring 5: Which should you buy?

The answer to this question really depends on your budget and your preference. If you don’t want to pay an ongoing subscription fee, it’s between the Garmin Cirqa and the Fitbit Air.

When looking at these two devices side-by-side, I’d say if you don’t want to pay the monthly Google Health subscription, go for the Garmin; you’re getting more data for free. That said, if you prefer a smaller tracker that really does disappear, the Fitbit Air is lighter and more comfortable in my experience.

If you don't want to wear a sports watch, or a watch in general, I’d say your best options are the Fitbit Air or Oura Ring 5. The former is the smallest and lightest screenless tracker on this list, and the latter looks like jewelry.

Either way, if screenless tracking is the future, all of these devices do it really well. Whichever you decide on, you’ll be getting tons of data without the updates from that WhatsApp group you really should leave.

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• I tested the Fitbit Air vs Whoop 5.0 side by side — here's the winner
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