Best fitness trackers 2024

The best fitness trackers track your health without weighing down your wrist. Unlike fitness watches with massive displays cramming in a ton of information, trackers are lightweight, skinny fitness bands that measure your training progress and health data, and not much else. They're compact, comfortable, affordable, and last for days (or weeks) at a time.

If you're looking for a fitness tracker that truly does it all, we highly recommend the Fitbit Charge 6, which gives you premium tools like onboard GPS, advanced health monitoring, Google Wallet payments, and Google Maps — all crammed into a 1oz band. You get the tricks you'd want in a fitness watch, in smaller form.

That said, the Charge 6 is priced like a cheap watch and comes with a subscription. So even though it's the best fitness tracker available, you'll find plenty of other options that are slimmer, cheaper, or have other features you may find more appealing. Let's run through that list!

At a glance

Best overall

For the last two years, we reserved our top slot on this list for the Fitbit Charge 5, a fantastic "pseudo smartwatch" that crams useful tech into a compact package. This year, Fitbit released the Charge 6, which has the same design and sensors, but with Google smarts packed in beneath the surface and a new haptic button to complement the touchscreen. 

The Fitbit Charge 6, like the Charge 5, stretches the definition of a fitness band. Beyond the usual heart rate data, it has AFib detection, heart rate variance, breathing rate, blood oxygen, and skin temperature. Instead of relying on your phone's GPS, it has built-in GPS if needed. And its 1.04-inch AMOLED display is large enough to display data clearly when other bands still rely on monochrome or tinier displays.

Moving on to what's new, the Charge 6 has a haptic button you squeeze to activate the display, go back to the main watch face from any screen, pull up the Google Wallet screen, or perform other actions during activities. Our Charge 6 review noted that while past Fitbits had frustrating haptic buttons that didn't always work, Fitbit nailed the Charge 6's button: "it works as it should, without being prone to accidental presses like a physical button."

You also get YouTube Music playback controls, Google Maps turn-by-turn navigation, and an algorithm borrowed from the Pixel Watch to make heart rate data more accurate during fast-moving activities like HIIT. Our reviewer praised the last two perks, but noted that it's frustrating for subscribers of other music streaming services not to have playback controls as well. 

Overall, we mostly had praise for the Charge 6 despite how many features remained unchanged from the last generation. Our reviewer wished the display was slightly brighter or that it had an altimeter, but in most respects, the Charge 6 remains well above the rest of the fitness tracker fray in quality. 

Best premium option

The Garmin Vivosmart 5 takes a different, more traditional approach than the Fitbit Charge 6. It doesn't have built-in GPS like a full-blown Garmin smartwatch, or the full health sensor suite and stylish AMOLED of the Charge 6, but it has the essentials: It keeps track of your steps, sleep, stress levels, calories burned, floors climbed, various exercises, and heart rate, and blood oxygen levels. You'll still have access to smartphone notifications on your wrist; if you're an Android user, you can respond with preset quick replies.

The biggest reason to choose the Vivosmart 5 is that you get Garmin software for literally hundreds less than its typical watches, and at about half the weight. In our Vivosmart 5 review, we praised the Body Battery monitor as one of the most interesting and useful ways to track how much energy you have left throughout the day, in order to guide your fitness plans. You can also track your Intensity Minutes, see your Fitness Age, and detect an incident if you fall and hurt yourself during an activity. 

You'll need to keep your phone on hand, and accept the tiny monochrome display in exchange for how light it is. But you can appreciate its detailed health tracking data without a monthly fee. It costs on par or above most Fitbits, but you'll save money in the long run without the need to rely on Fitbit Premium. 

Best budget option

When it comes to cheap fitness trackers with quality and value well above their price points, we immediately think of Xiaomi. The Xiaomi Band 8 isn't especially different from 2022's Band 7, with the same 1.62-inch AMOLED display, health sensors, and general software; but it made key upgrades to keep it fresh, from 40 new sports modes to a new "Pebble Mode" that turns the Band 8 into a running form tester you clip to your shoelaces.

The Xiaomi Band 8 also lets you follow a custom workout with a target heart rate or pace, plus a revamp of Xiaomi's PAI metric called "Vitality Score" that tells you whether you're moving or working out enough to get healthier or stay healthy, based on your age and other factors. 

In terms of hardware, Xiaomi now promises 16 days of battery life instead of 14. With continuous HR, blood oxygen, and stress monitoring, you'll cut that time significantly, but it'll still last as long (or longer than) the other picks on this list. Plus, the AMOLED display now hits 600 nits of brightness and has Gorilla Glass 3 protection. 

We gave the Xiaomi Band 8 the runner-up spot in our Android Central Best of 2023 awards, praising its upgraded band options and the same reliable health tracking that Xiaomi has offered for years. 

We considered replacing the newer Xiaomi Band 8 Pro, launched in early 2024 with a 1.74-inch AMOLED display and built-in GNSS tracking. But its enlarged display makes it more of a cheap fitness watch than a tracker, so it doesn't really fit on our "best fitness trackers" list.

Best value Fitbit

If the Fitbit Charge 6 is a bit rich and heavy for your blood, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is the affordable alternative you need. It loses perks like built-in GPS and the ECG/EDA sensors, with a smaller display that our Inspire 3 reviewer found too small to read notifications on. But it's still a comfortable, affordable medium for tracking workouts and getting thorough Fitbit Premium reports on your health.

Despite how "minuscule" the display is, the bright, colorful AMOLED is "as crisp as possible," showing your health and fitness data with great clarity. And perhaps thanks to the small display, the Inspire 3 is extremely long-lived at 10 days per charge, matching the Inspire 2 despite the older tracker's monochrome OLED display.

With Fitbit Premium, you'll receive a daily readiness score based on how hard you worked out the previous day, your stress levels during the day, how well you slept, and other data to help you see how hard to push yourself in training. Unlike the bulkier Fitbit trackers and watches, the Inspire 3 is so understated that you'll barely notice it's there. Sometimes, being "forgettable" is a good thing!

As a side note, if you want something compact like the Inspire 3, but also with a greater focus on style, look into the Fitbit Luxe, a stylish option with a stainless steel case and luxury bands that sat on our list of the best fitness trackers for a couple years. It has mostly the same software despite being older, though it misses out on some tricks and has half the battery life (5 days). 

Best starter

The Amazfit Band 7 is remarkably similar to our favorite budget tracker, the Xiaomi Mi Band 7, from its reliance on the PAI health assessment system to its weeks-long battery life. Its display is slightly smaller and lower-resolution, though still much larger than the Vivosmart 5 or Inspire 3. But it has one major upgrade on the Mi Band: support for an Amazon Alexa assistant, so you can quickly ask it questions or perform any action that the Alexa app supports. 

After our Amazfit Band 7 review, we found the tracker more than lived up to our expectations of what a $50 tracker can achieve. It can continuously track heart rate and stress or take a spot check of both plus blood oxygen at any time. And it takes this data, along with your workout data, to generate a Personal Activity Intelligence (PAI) score that tells you how hard you're working out — and how hard you should work out to maintain or improve your health. 

Like most trackers, it only has connected GPS that relies on your Zepp app, but it does at least connect near-instantaneously, and the lack of built-in GPS helps the watch last a long time even with continuous tracking and the always-on display active. It has all the essentials you need to succeed and a simple, comfortable design. 

We do wish that Amazfit would release a newer model, as the Band 7 is on the older side at this point. But as a cheap fitness band option, it's still relevant today.

Best watch-style tracker

Choosing the best fitness trackers, we focused specifically on affordable and petite fitness bands, as we have a whole separate list for the best fitness smartwatches. But since some people will prefer a smartwatch's size and the advanced features it enables, we're including one pick that our reviewer called a "Goldilocks smartwatch" next to tiny trackers and bulky watches: the Garmin Venu Sq 2. 

For just $100 more than the Garmin Vivosmart 5, you get built-in GPS, Garmin Pay, more sports modes, an extra 4 days of battery life, and the ability to download and follow workouts on your wrist. That includes Garmin Coach workouts designed to help you hit a PR time based on your current VO2 Max and fitness level. Plus, of course, you get a 1.4-inch AMOLED with full-color screens and enough room for proper watch faces and readable notifications. 

Still, even at $250, it's pricey compared to the little trackers on this wrist. It's also heavier, though just 7g heavier than the Fitbit Charge 6. That's why we've decided to include it here: it'll feel like less of a visual downgrade compared to fitness bands, without the bulk of typical Garmin watches. 

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How to choose

You'll be happy to know there's no shortage of options when choosing a fitness tracker. One of the most reputable names, as you may know, is Fitbit. Among the best Fitbit devices, the Charge 6 and Inspire 3 easily earned their places on this list, and you could make a case for the Fitbit Ace 3 if you're specifically shopping for your kid.

You have the Charge 6 for a high-end fitness tracker, a basic Inspire 3 tracker ideal for beginners, something in-between with a particularly stylish design (aka the Fitbit Luxe), and higher-end squircle watches like the Versa 4 and Sense 2 if you don't care as much about weight and size. Fitbit has it all.

At the same time, Fitbit isn't the only name out there. Xiaomi and Amazfit dominate for cheap quality hardware and useful health software without a subscription. Garmin has fantastic fitness tools paired with reliable health and sleep data. And you can always progress to affordable fitness watches if you need more robust tools than what you can squeeze into a tracker. 

What are the best fitness trackers?

When it comes right down to it, the Fitbit Charge 6 takes the top spot on our list for various reasons. 

For starters, the number of features you receive is simply unmatched. You'll have a whole week of battery life, NFC support for contactless payments, built-in GPS so you can leave your phone behind on a workout, heart-rate monitoring, convenient music controls, sleep tracking, and much more. At night, it measures skin temperature, passive heart rhythm, heart rate variance, blood oxygen, and breathing rate; then, it tells you what to make of that data. 

Otherwise, if you're looking for the best fitness tracker for your needs, you may find yourself stuck in one of those infamous internet black holes. How do you know which activity tracker has the features you want at a price you can afford — and won't feel like you've strapped a brick to your wrist?

If you're starting your search, here are a few tips to help you decide which fitness tracker is best for you:

1. Start with price

Depending on which features you want, your new fitness tracker could be surprisingly affordable, or it could end up setting you back quite a bit. 

Of course, you should still be cautious about buying anything that's dirt cheap. Unfortunately, most cheap fitness trackers are just that: Cheap. Even less costly models by well-known brands like Fitbit won't come with a full display, so you'll need to swap to the app to get all the details on your latest workout.

If price is your first concern, look to Xiaomi or Amazfit, and be leery of Fitbit since it will make you pay more down the line thanks to Premium. 

2. Decide on features

Narrow down your search by deciding which features you need. These days, most trackers have a heart rate monitor and blood oxygen monitoring. But the Charge 5 has more specific sensors for stress and irregular heart rate spot checks, and others can measure these metrics through continuous tracking. You may or may not need this based on whether you care more about health or fitness tracking.

All trackers have sleep tracking, but if you want a tracker that takes that information to create a Body Battery or Daily Readiness Score, you'll want a Fitbit or Garmin tracker. They're able to deliver more useful data about your energy based on heart rate, sleep, and stress.

Most fitness trackers rely on Connected GPS to keep a lightweight, long-lasting design. If you're someone that wants to leave their phone behind during workouts, you really will want the Charge 5 or 4. And these trackers are also the only ones on our list with NFC tap-to-pay support.

Almost no fitness trackers support voice assistants because a mic takes up room and reduces battery life. So if that matters to you, the Amazfit Band 7 has that unique Alexa access to tempt you, though it doesn't have a speaker to vocalize responses. You'll want to upgrade to a fitness smartwatch instead if you want a complete experience or Google Assistant access.

Another thing to note about the wristbands is the strap style. Is it a traditional watch-style strap with a buckle? Or does it simply "button" together? The button style sometimes feels less secure, especially if we're tackling three-point rows and deadlifts at the gym.

Luckily, most fitness trackers come with band replacements. This lets you upgrade the material, color, and fit if you like. We're all about having choices.

3. Consider style

Are you content with a fitness tracker that looks like a fitness tracker? Or do you prefer something that looks like a traditional watch?

Activity trackers come in all shapes and sizes, so you can go as simple or fancy, modern or traditional, as you like.

If you're not ready for a full-blown smartwatch, but you still want something on the stylish side, the Fitbit Charge 5 or Luxe may be calling your name. On the other hand, if you're looking for something simple, the Fitbit Inspire 3 and Luxe are slim and uncomplicated.

4. Don't forget about the apps

Our favorite fitness tracker app is Fitbit, hands down. It's user-friendly and offers a full range of features. It even has menstrual cycle tracking, which we've never seen on any other fitness tracker apps.

The Fitbit app integrates well with many popular third-party apps for a more robust tracking system that meets your needs. Here are some of our favorites:

Top 5 health and wellness apps:

1. MyFitnessPal
2. Calm
3. C25K
4. Headspace
5. Strava

Each fitness tracker works slightly differently, but some sensors and technology are relatively common across them all, like altimeters, accelerometers, and optical sensors. Unfortunately, many of them are only found in fitness smartwatches, not trackers. Here's some of the technology you may stumble upon if you break into your fitness watch.

1. 3-axis accelerometer — This measures your movements in every direction and helps track those steps.
2. Gyroscope — This gets a read on your orientation and rotation as you move. Now it's time for some split squats.
3. Altimeter — Whether you're tracking your hike up the mountain or climbing stairs on your work break, this keeps track of your altitude.
4. Optical sensors — These shine light into your capillaries to measure how quickly or slowly your blood is pumping to give you an idea of your current heart rate.
5. Actigraphy — Ever wondered how activity trackers monitor your sleep? Actigraphy identifies your sleep patterns by tracking your activity and rest cycles, then gives you an idea of how much you tossed and turned last night.
6. GPS — The GPS receiver collects data from different satellites to calculate your position as a set of coordinates. This lets you track your terrain and distance after a trail run or day on the slopes.

Of course, not all fitness trackers are created equal when it comes to their sensors' accuracy. For the most part, actigraphy isn't as accurate as measuring your sleep cycle in a lab, and optical sensors aren't as precise as bioimpedance sensors when it comes to monitoring your heart rate.

Now that you've found your fitness tracker match, you're one step closer to running laps around your goals. #YouCanDoIt