Ask most people to name a type of wearable tech and smartwatch will be their first answer.
It’s easy to see why: smartwatches are incredibly capable devices, combining health tracking with access to a variety of phone features and dedicated apps.
But do you really need access to all of that from your wrist? Or could you save money by opting for something more simple?
If the answer to either of those questions is ‘yes’, a fitness tracker is the right choice for you. They offer the same core health tracking tracking as a smartwatch, including the likes of steps, heart rate and workout data. In many cases, you’ll also get the likes of sleep, stress and blood oxygen levels.
And there are two big reasons to choose a fitness tracker over a full smartwatch. The first is price, with many activity trackers retailing for a fraction of the price. Then there’s battery life, with a smaller display usually meaning they last much longer on a single charge.
There are lots of different fitness trackers to choose from in 2023, though. The obvious brand is Fitbit, which is now owned by Google but remains the market leader. However, there are plenty of alternatives, from budget bands to premium hybrid watches and even a wearable with no display.
In this article, we’ll highlight the 10 best fitness trackers you can buy right now, each of which have been reviewed at ranked. And at the bottom of the page, you’ll find detailed buying advice to help decide what’s right for you.
But if you would like the extra functionality, see our guide to the best smartwatches you can buy.
Best fitness trackers 2023
1. Xiaomi Mi Band 7 – Best fitness tracker
Pros
- Feature-packed
- All-day heart rate, blood oxygen and stress tracking
- Support for 120 types of exercise
- Large always-on display
Cons
- Always-on display comes at a big cost to battery
- Not the smartest wearable
- No built-in GPS
The Xiaomi Mi Band 7 is an excellent fitness tracker, combining a tempting price tag and an impressive array of sensors to track your health, fitness, and workouts.
The large always-on display is a particularly nice addition, helping showcase the vivid watch faces on offer while making it easier to read text at a glance, though the always-on tech comes at a heavy cost to overall battery life.
Fitness tracking includes all-day SpO2 monitoring, new workout metrics (including VO2 Max), and the ability to track more workouts than ever before.
The lack of built-in GPS may irk fitness fanatics, but this is a great little inexpensive tracker for keeping an eye on your general health and fitness.
However, you may prefer the follow-up Band 8, which has a slightly bigger display and new design which allows it to be worn as a necklace or on your shoe.
Read our full
Xiaomi Mi Band 7 review
2. Fitbit Charge 6 – Best Fitbit
Pros
- Google Maps and Google Pay access
- Great fitness features
- Impressive colour display
- Easy navigation
Cons
- Some Fitbit Premium exclusives
- No altimeter
- Hit-and-miss GPS
Price When Reviewed:
$159.95
The Charge 6 takes what made the Charge 5 so good and makes it even better.
Fitbit’s main addition this time around is access to Google Maps, Google Pay and YouTube Music (no other music streaming services available), making it closer to a smartwatch than ever before.
But its primary focus remains fitness, with support for more than 40 workouts (some automatically) and your sleep. Data collected is extensive too, with the likes of steps, distance, calories burned, hourly activity and heart rate all monitored.
The colour display is very impressive, and the device is easy to navigate using a combination or touch and the new side button. It’s also great to see built-in GPS, though it is unreliable at times.
There’s still no altimeter, so you can’t measure floors climbed, while many advanced features are reserved for Fitbit Premium subscribers. However, even if you don’t pay, the Charge 6 still delivers a very good all-round fitness tracking experience.
Read our full
Fitbit Charge 6 review
3. Withings ScanWatch Light – Best hybrid
Pros
- Stunning design
- Clever display
- Impressive battery life
- Lightweight yet durable
Cons
- Hit-and-miss step and heart rate tracking
- Not good for notifications
- No built-in GPS
Price When Reviewed:
$249.95
Withings’ ScanWatch 2 (featured below) might be the most complete hybrid watch you can buy, but the Light offers everything most people are looking for at a more affordable price.
That includes a gorgeous premium design, which is relatively lightweight but still impressively durable. Within it you’ll find a tiny 0.63-inch monochrome display, which is easy to control using the rotating physical crown.
There’s enough room to display all key information except phone notifications, which often get annoyingly cut off. The ScanWatch Light can track over 40 workouts (some automatically) with though data is generally limited to heart rate (including zones), steps, distance and pace.
But sleep tracking is good, and battery life is truly excellent. You’ll struggle to get the 30 days Withings claims, but around 1-2 weeks is well within reach.
If you can live without 24/7 temperature tracking, ECGs, irregular heart rhythm notifications and blood oxygen monitoring, the ScanWatch Light is the Withings watch to get.
Read our full
Withings ScanWatch Light review
4. Fitbit Inspire 3 – Cheapest Fitbit
Pros
- Always-on colour screen
- Stylish & comfortable
- Comprehensive tracking
- Good battery life & charging
Cons
- Tiny screen
- Premium needed for some features
- Short charging wire
- No GPS
Price When Reviewed:
$99.95
The Inspire 3 is the cheapest model in the current Fitbit line-up, making it an excellent entry point to tracking.
It’s still more expensive than rivals like the Xiaomi Mi Band 7, but Fitbit’s software experience and ecosystem are both excellent, so for some it may be worth paying a little extra – though paying more for a smaller display does sting a little.
It helps that you get up to 10 days of battery life (though a little less if you use the new always-on display feature), 24/7 heart rate monitoring now bolstered by SpO2 data, and sleep tracking. Just bear in mind that there’s no built-in GPS support, and that, as with all Fitbits, you’ll need to subscribe to the paid Fitbit Premium plan to get every bit of data out of it.
Read our full
Fitbit Inspire 3 review
5. Amazfit Band 7 – Best on a budget
Pros
- Good selection of features
- 5 ATM water resistance
- 120 sports tracking modes
- Heart, SpO2, stress and sleep tracking
Cons
- No auto-brightness
- No NFC
- Software needs some polish
Price When Reviewed:
$49.99
With good looks, sturdy construction, a big display, lengthy battery life, and solid exercise tracking, the Amazfit Band 7 makes a great first impression.
The software could do with some polish and some kind of home button would make life easier, but for the price it is more than good enough.
If you are looking for a good value smart band today, the Amazfit Band 7 should be near the top of your list.
Read our full
Amazfit Band 7 review
6. Withings ScanWatch 2 – Best health tracking
Pros
- Attractive design
- Clever display
- Excellent battery life
- Good sleep tracking
Cons
- Only basic workout data
- Unreliable heart rate monitoring
- No built-in GPS
Price When Reviewed:
$349.95
Most of what we said about the ScanWatch Light above also applies to the ScanWatch 2, but there are a few exceptions.
The addition of clinically validated ECGs is the big one, and it’s very impressive. Neither blood oxygen or irregular heart rate notifications are crucial on a hybrid watch, but they are nice to have. Though the flagship 24/7 temperature tracking requires a lot of data to be useful, and doesn’t feel like a must have.
It’s a shame that this more premium watch still doesn’t have built-in GPS, and that the heart rate monitoring is still hit and miss. But while workout data is a little basic, the ScanWatch 2 provides an impressively comprehensive overview of your health without sacrificing an attractive, durable design.
If you don’t mind the premium price tag, it’s definitely worth considering.
Read our full
Withings ScanWatch 2 review
7. Polar Pacer – Best for runners
Pros
- Very comfortable
- Excellent battery life
- Accurate tracking with GPS
Cons
- Notification experience irks
- Manual syncing to app
- No on-board music storage
If you want a running watch that lasts several days on a charge, tracks your workouts effortlessly, spits out insightful data, and won’t bug you with notifications, the Polar Pacer is it.
The Pacer supports a variety of exercise types but the focus is on running, with GPS tracking and a post-workout ‘running index’ to let you know how you’ve performed across a variety of metrics.
If you’re trying to get into running, or even if you’re already hitting the trails, the Pacer will prove an excellent addition to your kit with strong battery life, a superbly readable display, lightweight construction, and the smarts to show you how you are performing and to help you improve.
Read our full
Polar Pacer review
8. Garmin Vivomove Trend – Wireless charging hybrid
Pros
- Attractive design
- Good mix of fitness tracking and smartwatch features
- Qi wireless charging
Cons
- Can get most features for less
- Battery life good but not great
- UI takes a bit of learning
Price When Reviewed:
$269.99
The Garmin Vivomove Trend is a smartwatch hybrid similar to the Withings ScanWatch, pairing analogue and digital design elements along with some basic smartwatch functionality.
If you care mostly about steps, sleep, monitoring heart rate 24/7, and being motivated to move more each day, then that is absolutely where the Trend impresses. It can do more, but this is where its strengths as a hybrid smartwatch lie.
It also impresses by including wireless charging using the common Qi standard, meaning you can drop it onto almost any wireless charger to top it up – a level of convenience few other trackers can match.
Crucially, it delivers those features with an analogue look that rarely feels like it’s getting in the way of that digital display behind it showing off your stats and notifications.
Read our full
Garmin Vivomove Trend review
9. Fitbit Ace 3 – Best for kids
Pros
- In-app Parent and Kid Views
- Hardy, colourful design
- Family challenges
Cons
- Underpowered compared to adult Fitbits
- May not appeal to every kid
Price When Reviewed:
$79.95
The Fitbit Ace 3 is built to suit childrens’ rough-and-tumble lifestyle, providing both kids and parents with simple but insightful activity and sleep tracking data.
The Ace 3 serves as a way to motivate kids to get more active, but in a roundabout way, could also incentivise the whole family to get fitter together (provided everyone involved has a Fitbit of their own to wear).
Older kids might want to look for a tracker with a little more oomph, however, as the Ace 3 offers a cut-down range of fitness and notification features compared to Fitbit’s ‘adult’ trackers. It counts steps, logs Active Minutes, and monitors basic sleep patterns, but lacks heart-rate tracking.
Read our full
Fitbit Ace 3 review
10. Whoop 4.0 – Best for cutting screentime
Pros
- Lightweight
- Multi-day battery
- Deep data insights
Cons
- Requires expensive subscription
- Only measures strain and recovery
- Not much guidance
Price When Reviewed:
Subscription costs from $20 per month
The Whoop 4.0 is something a little different: with no display and not even any step count tracking, this is far from a traditional fitness tracker. Instead it’s a simple tracker that you can slip into a watch-esque wristband or strap onto workout clothing, and which is primarily intended to measure your strain and recovery, to tell you how hard you pushed your body and when to take a break.
There’s sleep tracking too, along with run recording – though with no GPS, you’ll need to take your phone with you. The Whoop is also best for those who focus on cardio, as it doesn’t always detect strain accurately in workouts like strength training that don’t spike your heart rate.
The big downsides are that you do miss out on basic tracking features you might expect elsewhere – yes, including a step count – and that the pricing structure is unusual. You get the Whoop tracker for free, but only if you sign up for a subscription, which at its cheapest is £18/$20 per month if you commit to two years in advance.
Committing to pay so much to try out a relatively basic fitness tracker will put some people off, but if you want a tracker that focuses on cardio data and makes you more mindful about strain and sleep, it’s a good choice.
Read our full
Whoop 4.0 review
Buying advice for the best fitness trackers
What is a fitness tracker?
Fitness trackers help you measure and log a myriad of activities each day; from a simple step count to weights sessions, swimming and more. Advanced models include sleep tracking, stress detection, and can even help monitor specific health problems.
Some users will want something that counts steps and doesn’t require frequent charging, others might be in the market for a new marathon companion.
Do you want to be able to log your routes using integrated GPS or is tethered GPS (pulling location data from your phone in real-time) enough? Do you need constant heart-rate monitoring? Does your tracker need to be water-resistant? Is integration with other fitness services, like Strava, essential? These are all additional aspects to consider before buying.
Find out how we test wearables.
What’s the difference between fitness trackers and smartwatches?
There’s no strict line here. But, broadly speaking, we define a smartwatch as a more advanced wearable with additional apps and functionality.
You should expect a smartwatch to allow you to install and run apps – including some of the ones you’d find on your phone – as well as check notifications, reply to messages, and perhaps even take calls. Some smartwatches even support eSIM for their own independent data connection.
Should I just buy a Fitbit?
Fitbit dominates the conversation and while the company’s wares are undoubtedly competent, there are lots of other trackers out there that excel in areas your average Fitbit doesn’t.
More importantly, many of Fitbit’s rivals deliver similar specs at much lower prices – so you’ll be paying a bit of a premium for the Fitbit brand and software if you want to go for it. That said, Fitbits are reliable, have great compatibility with other services, and if you’re used to their software and experience then you can skip the learning curve of new hardware.