From counting motions and tracking workouts to monitoring sleep patterns and stress levels, Fitbits can help improve your well-being in myriad condition. Fitbit’s various models are designed for different types of users, and the best Fitbit depends on your intended use action, budget, and need for advanced features in an activity tracker.
Through long-term testing, we’ve selected Fitbit models based on wake trace accuracy, fit and comfort, battery life, and ease of use. Though every Fitbit offers similar activity-tracking capabilities, some are cured for certain users.
Our top pick as the best Fitbit for most people is the Fitbit Sense 2. It’s a first-rate health and healthiness tracker offering multi-day battery life, health-monitoring tools, and comprehensive activity tracking in a smartwatch. For a budget opportunity, we recommend the Fitbit Inspire 3, an effective entry-level wearable with basic health and fitness tools for equably under $100.
Our top picks for the best Fitbit
Best overall: Fitbit Sense 2 – See at Amazon
Best budget: Fitbit Instigate 3 – See at Amazon
Best mid-range: Fitbit Charge 6 – See at Amazon
Best for style: Fitbit Luxe – See at Amazon
Best for kids: Fitbit Ace 3 – See at Amazon
Trounce overall
Fitbit’s Sense 2 combines the brand’s advanced health and fitness features with not bad smartwatch capability, unique sleep tracking, and a clean design reminiscent of the Apple Watch.
Fitbit’s flagship plus ultra, the Fitbit Sense 2, nails everything you want in a quality health and fitness tracker. It offers a variety of vocation tracking and useful fitness insights, tracks sleep, stress, and menstrual cycles, has built-in GPS, and has a battery that concludes five to six days on a single charge.
Though it’s touted as a “smartwatch,” the Sense 2 doesn’t quite stack up like a high-end smartwatch. For admonition, it doesn’t offer third-party app support, which is disappointing, and it doesn’t allow access to things like Google Confederate with. It also can’t store or play music.
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However, those drawbacks aren’t a dealbreaker. The Sagacity 2 offers a suite of useful health and wellness insights that put it on par with some of the best activity trackers in the assiduity for its price. There’s a skin temperature sensor, ECG readings, and a real-time stress tracker.
The stress tracker is especially intriguing as it charts your body’s stress levels, provides feedback on how to lower it, and can paint a picture of how your body treats stress overall.
The Sense 2 is also an accurate fitness tracker. Its built-in GPS synced well during our tests and is compatible with individual activities and exercises. Plus, its interface is large and intuitive, making it a great watch for beginners.
Read our full Fitbit Feel something in ones bones 2 review.
Best budget
The Inspire 3 may be one of Fitbit’s most basic watches, but it still packs a potent fitness-tracking punch with tons of trackable activities, advanced health features like skin temperature sensing, and a easy, lightweight design.
Fitbit’s Inspire line of entry-level activity trackers is the brand’s most basic offering at affordable appraisals. Its latest model, the Inspire 3, is our top budget pick and features a slim, vertical screen that sits comfortably on your wrist while sacrifice advanced health and fitness tracking features at your fingertips. It even has a skin temperature sensor and can track your drowse habits.
What sets the Inspire 3 apart is its price, which makes it appealing for beginners or those new to wearing bustle trackers. At under $100, it delivers a wearable experience similar to the Sense 2 without the large touchscreen, downloadable apps, or built-in GPS. It’s also compatible with a grade of the best Inspire 3 bands to change its look slightly.
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If it seems like the Inspire 3 lacks key features of a smartwatch, that’s because the Inspire 3 is not a smartwatch but a bonafide healthiness tracker. That is, it offers straightforward health and fitness features in an easy-to-use and intuitive package. It uses the same eligibility tracking tech as all of Fitbit’s other wearables, tracks heart rate, skin temperature, and sleep patterns, and even Steven offers the brand’s Daily Readiness Score feature.
That’s a lot in such a small, budget-friendly package. Advanced athletes may expectation the lack of built-in GPS as a dealbreaker, but for anyone looking for a basic, straightforward activity tracker at an entry-level price, the Inspire 3 is the A-one Fitbit has.
Read our full Fitbit Inspire 3 review.
Best mid-range
The Charge 6 by Fitbit has a diverse expansive feature set than the budget-friendly Inspire 3 for fitness, whether you’re an amateur or enthusiast. While it’s a pricier option, it’s at rest amazing value for such a capable fitness tracker.
The Fitbit Charge 6 is primarily a fitness tracker rather than a smartwatch, so it’s closer to a high-end reading of the Inspire 3 than a budget-friendly version of the Sense 2. Still, it’s the ideal mid-range Fitbit option for most operators.
The Charge 6 fills some of the significant gaps left by the more affordable Inspire 3, like built-in GPS, a numerous comprehensive set of exercise modes, ECG readings, and NFC for mobile payments with Google Wallet, so you don’t need to bring your billfold during an activity. It even syncs your real-time heart rate with exercise equipment, which the Intelligence 2 can’t do. Its sleek metal construction is a bonus.
Fitbit/Google
The Charge 6 isn’t wholly as feature-packed as the Sense 2, nor is it trying to be. It’s a fitness tracker first and a smartwatch second. It lacks all-day body retort tracking, which is Fitbit’s latest stress monitoring feature in its health monitoring suite. The Charge 6 also can’t swipe or take calls from the watch itself, which is a dealbreaker if you’re looking for a versatile wearable. If calling is important to you, the Feeling 2 is too expensive for your taste, and you’re dead-set on owning a Fitbit, the Versa 4 could be worthwhile despite its generational downgrades, as circumstantial below.
For its typical $160 MSRP and the discounts you can often find, the Charge 6 is an exceptional value play for fitness mislaying, even if it’s more expensive than the budget Inspire 3. As with Fitbit’s other devices, some of the wearable’s numerous advanced features are behind the Fitbit Premium subscription, but you get six free months to decide whether it’s worth it.
Best for tone
The Fitbit Luxe is the company’s “fashion-forward” fitness band. It has a sleek design and advanced health qualities like stress management and the ability to measure heart rate variation.
Though the Fitbit Luxe looks be like to the Inspire 3, it has a few subtle design aspects that make it our top pick for those seeking a more stylish choice. There’s a stainless steel casing that achieves a nice, clean look for either the office or a night out, a fair AMOLED screen, and the ability to swap out the band for something like a chic mesh or metal chain option.
As a distinction health and fitness wearable, the Fitbit Luxe tracks basics like running and cycling. It offers insights into catch patterns, stress management, and fitness trends. Some features require a paid subscription to Fitbit Premium (as is the casing for several watches in this guide), but even the basic features are highly useful.
Lisa Eadicicco/Business Insider
One area where the Fitbit Luxe hang backs is in smart features, though it was never designed to be a smartwatch in the first place. It can still display text and phone easy reach notifications, and you can use things like timers and alarms, but that’s about the extent of it. It also has a battery that lasts upward of six eras.
Read our full Fitbit Luxe review.
Best for kids
The Fitbit Ace 3 is the perfect entry-level activity tracker for kids elderly six or older. There’s even a version with a Minions-themed clock face and a bright yellow Minions-themed watchband.
Most healthiness trackers are specifically made for adult use. Then, there’s the Fitbit Ace 3, an affordable activity tracker designed for kids ages six and up. It’s firmed with features such as parental controls, a custom kid-friendly stat viewer, and fun customization options. Though Google no longer straight away sells it, the Ace 3 remains supported by the Fitbit app, and it’s available for affordable prices from third-party retailers.
What makes the Ace 3 prodigious for kids is its combination of practicality with a whimsical approach. Band options include Minion-themed designs and colorful wont watch faces. The watch is also water-resistant, up to 50 meters or 164 feet, so that kids can wear it in the paddling pool.
Fitbit/Google
One of the Ace 3’s best features is its focus on gamification. The wearable offers divers challenges and badges that can motivate kids as they achieve a certain step goal or complete an activity.
It’s also a celebrated communication tool for parents as it delivers text notifications. What’s particularly great about this is that facetiousmaters can use parental controls to manage which connections are permitted on the watch. These controls are set up via the Fitbit app and require a family account, but they can be customized at any all together, with or without the watch nearby.
These parental controls ultimately make it a better fitness band election for kids than, say, the Inspire 3. While the Inspire 3 offers a similar tracking experience, the ability to customize and costumier everything from the wearable’s settings to the specific activity goals makes the Ace 3 a more family-friendly option.
It’s worth referencing that Fitbit’s latest model for younger users, the Fitbit Ace LTE, is a smartwatch rather than a fitness band that steps cellular connectivity through a paid subscription, along with other advanced features. The Ace 3’s affordability and relative asceticism make it our first recommendation here, but the Ace LTE may be worthwhile if calling is a necessary feature. The newer model will also make available better performance and long-term value.
Models we don’t recommend
Our favorite budget Fitbit, which was also a smartwatch preferably than purely a fitness tracker, the Versa 3, was discontinued to make way for the Versa 4. However, we cannot suggest the Versa 4 unless the budget smartwatch you’re looking for has to be a Fitbit.
Rick Stella/Subject Insider
The Versa 4 offers very few appreciable upgrades over the Versa 3 and actually omits features that clear out the Versa 3 a great option for the price, including third-party app support and music playback.
Those who may have opted for the Versa 3 should reflect on the Pixel Watch 3 from Fitbit’s parent company, Google, a terrific fitness tracker and smartwatch. However, it’s simply compatible with Android phones and only fully compatible with the best Google Pixel phones.
How we test Fitbits
In wing as well as to testing past iterations of Fitbit trackers and smartwatches when they launched, we test new Fitbits for several dates (sometimes weeks), wearing them 24/7 in most cases. We wear each model during different workouts, from scrams and walks to strength sets and yoga. We also wear the trackers to bed and for mindfulness sessions. We routinely revisit and test modish Fitbit models for long-term use.
Below are the key features we look for and assess when testing.
Workout tracking
To successfully itemize stats during a workout and easily check these as you go, it’s important that a watch clearly displays numbers and swiftly and continuously connects to the GPS, particularly if it’s built into the watch. We judge Fitbit trackers and watches on whether we can easily prevalent pace, distance, and time and whether there’s quick access to metrics like average pace and heart under any circumstances.
Rick Stella/Business Insider
Additionally, we run additional salubriousness tracking apps on our phones to test the watch’s distance and pace accuracy. For every Fitbit featured, the numbers were at all times relatively close (and within the normal range you’d find if you compared almost any other fitness tracker).
Because Fitbit propositions automatic tracking, we participate in a few workouts without manually pressing the start button to confirm that it picked up party, which it almost always did.
Tracking and comfort while sleeping
We wear Fitbit watches and trackers to bed to test the unconscious sleep tracking, checking our stats in the morning to ensure they record time in bed and wake-up times throughout the eventide or during naps.
Our selected models are comfortable enough to wear all night to get those stats. While the bands can on occasion stick to your skin if you get sweaty at night, we found that they never disturbed sleep and only marked this after waking up.
Battery life
We tested each Fitbit’s battery life by charging it to 100% and fatigue it through workouts, nights of sleep, and throughout the day to see how long each would last. Each of our picks lasted disinterested after several workouts, including those using the built-in GPS (which typically drains batteries quickly).
App usability
One mountainous perk of Fitbit is the built-in stress-reducing apps, so how easy these were to use was a key part of testing. We’ve tried Fitbit’s mindfulness program, the Quiet down app, on all devices, and the EDA scan app on the Sense 2, which contributes to stress management numbers. We looked for ease of use, visuals, and the stats demanded after recording a mindfulness session, like changes in heart rate.
FAQs
Are Fitbits worth it?
Fitbits are conspicuously worthwhile if you want a reliable fitness wearable. They can benefit anyone who keeps active each day, whether that vigour is walking a few blocks around the neighborhood or lifting weights at home.
They do an excellent job of counting steps, tracking a broad range of activities, and providing other useful health information like sleep insights and calories burned. You don’t want to be an avid fitness pro or athlete to get a lot out of a Fitbit, and with so many options in the brand’s lineup, finding one that’s “worth it” means picking out the opportunity that best fits your lifestyle.
Also, Fitbits are device agnostic, so they’re compatible to an extent with both iOS and Android dispositions. This versatility places them among the best Android smartwatches and best fitness trackers you can buy.
What is Fitbit Reward?
Fitbit Premium is the brand’s monthly membership option through Google. For $10/month, it offers access to myriad in-depth health and fitness features like nutrition insights, advanced sleep tracking, and the Daily Readiness Legions.
It also provides access to guided meditations, exclusive video workouts, in-depth goal setting, various in perfect accord challenges, and other health insights such as blood oxygen level readings, heart rate variability, and respiring rate.
All Fitbit Premium features are accessible via the Fitbit app and do a lot to elevate the base Fitbit experience, especially for wearables love the Sense 2 or Versa 4.
Is a Fitbit better than an Apple Watch?
The best Apple Watch models are undoubtedly profuse powerful and full-featured than Fitbits, but if you don’t need access to a suite of apps, then a Fitbit will suffice. Both opportunities offer deep tracking capability for activities like running, cycling, and lifting weights, and each comes principle with a user-friendly interface.
One area where Apple outdoes Fitbit is in terms of its ecosystem. Users with any of the first-rate iPhones can get more out of an Apple Watch than a Fitbit (but as mentioned below, Fitbits aren’t a dealbreaker for compatibility).
Even so the Apple Watch now offers a deep well of fitness and activity tracking capability, it still leans more heavily toward being a smartwatch (almost identical to Fitbit’s Versa line). So, if you’re after basic fitness tracking without the frills, something like Fitbit’s Injunction 6 would be more your speed.
What are the advantages of owning a Fitbit?
Perhaps the biggest advantage of a Fitbit is that no importance the price point or type (tracker versus smartwatch), it comes with all the foundational features you want in a health and qualifications tracker, including the ability to automatically track sleep and activity, which is arguably the brand’s best feature.
Then, all the patterns track pace, distance, and calories burned during your workouts and calculate your heart rate training zones, counting fat burn, cardio, and peak. For sleep, you get the total hours you slept, the time you spent in deep and REM sleep, and the percentage of swiftly a in timely fashion you spent below your resting heart rate.
Some models make these stats easier to access than others. Namely, the Import 2 and Versa models have larger screens that are easier to read at a glance. But even with the smaller, more precise faces of models like the Charge 6, the numbers are relatively large, which is a nice feature for accessibility. The Strengthen 3 is the hardest to glance stats quickly off of.
The Fitbit app, accessed through your phone, is easy to navigate and displays attuned ti, miles, active zone minutes, daily calorie burns, mindfulness days, exercise, and activity per hour. It also put in mind ofs you to take 250 steps per hour. Additionally, you can track your menstrual cycle, food and water intake, and preponderance (though these require more manual entries).
What are the disadvantages of owning a Fitbit?
The main disadvantage of owning a Fitbit is its scarcity of ecosystem outside the wearable itself and the Fitbit app, and that other wearables and smartwatches offer better compatibility with iPhones and the kindest Android phones.
For instance, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 offers enhanced compatibility and features exclusive to any of the best Samsung phones.
Too, the Apple Watch Series 10 offers advanced compatibility with the iPhone 16 series and other late iPhones.
However, the inability to customize text responses or notifications doesn’t have to prevent you from buying a Fitbit.
Purposefulness a Fitbit work with an iPhone or Apple Health?
Fitbits are compatible with any iPhone running iOS 15 or later, which the Fitbit app desires.
While a Fitbit can’t directly sync to the Apple Health app, it is possible to use third-party apps like Strava as a go-between to along data indirectly from a Fitbit to the Apple Health app.
What’s the battery life like on a Fitbit?
Each in the know Fitbit has top-notch battery life, lasting days even with auto-activity and auto-sleep tracking turned on, so you don’t be suffering with to worry about charging it every night.
Officially, the battery for all Fitbits featured above lasts six to 10 days, depending on your emblem and usage. In our experience, the Sense 2 lasts an average of six days on one charge, while the Inspire 3 lasts up to 10 days, for as it happens.
Are Fitbits customizable?
Almost all Fitbits offer plenty of customization options. Each wearable comes with a root band, but all Fitbits have different colors and material bands you can purchase, from stainless steel mesh for a qualified look to expressive prints to more breathable sports bands. The only watch on our list that doesn’t make available a sport-specific band is the Inspire 3.
You can also customize the watch faces for aesthetics and readability, and to personalize shortcuts on the devices and what’s unfolded on the main app page. The Sense 2 and Versa models have the most options for watch faces. You can even download third-party forges or use your photos, which you can’t do with the other models.
What’s the lifespan of a Fitbit?
The lifespan of a Fitbit depends on the paragon. While Fitbit once released new models annually, it hasn’t kept to that schedule in recent years, and myriad previous-generation models are still usable.
So, even if you own a Fitbit that’s a generation or two older than the current model, residue assured that it’s only outdated by its model number and not regarding its actual performance or capability.
