The Best Fitness Trackers to Help You Meet Your Goals

Garmin is a name synonymous with running, so it’s no surprise how much the runners on our team loved the Forerunner 245. It’s a smartwatch that is optimized for the sport: heart rate tracking, VO2 max metrics, and GPS-enabled. The app includes measurements for your training load, suggested recovery time and can even tell you if you are peaking or if you are overtraining.

Our experience with the Forerunner 245 running watch lived up to the hype. When you aren’t using the GPS, the battery can last up to a week. However, odds are you’ll enable GPS often, which drains the battery quickly. This fitness watch also syncs with music apps like Spotify and Pandora. 

If you aren’t a runner, this watch may not be for you. It does have apps that support other daily activities, such as cycling and swimming. Additionally, it has basic sleep tracking functions, but not as advanced as other bands like the Fitbit series offer. 

“Simplicity” perfectly encapsulates the Fitbit Inspire 2, which is the best tracker for beginners. Its sleek design, light-up touchscreen and easy-to-navigate app make it perfect for anyone new to using these devices. In addition to the fitness features of the Inspire 2, we were able to seamlessly connect to smartphone notifications. 

Fitbit offers a few cool perks, like Active Zone Minutes, which help you target optimal workout ranges. If you upgrade to Fitbit Premium – which you get free for your first year upon your purchase of the Inspire 2 – you get additional sleep tracking and customization benefits. 

The difference between the Inspire 2 and the Inspire HR used to be that the 2 didn’t track your heart rate. Not anymore! The Inspire 2 (and companion app) now offer continuous heart rate monitoring as well as food logging, women’s health monitoring and real-time exercise feedback. This device does not have built-in GPS, but it can connect to your phone’s GPS. 

Garmin’s vivosmart 4 has a sleek design and highly accurate wrist-based heart rate monitoring. We found it did a great job tracking numerous cardio and other sports: running, swimming, yoga, strength training and even more off-the-beaten-path sports like hang gliding and BMX. 

This watch is right up there with the Fitbit bands when it comes to tracking features. It does the basics, like step count, calories burned and sleep tracking. It also monitors your stress levels, has a barometric altimeter and tracks your blood oxygen saturation with its Pulse Ox2 sensor. We were able to pair it with Android and iOS to get alerts for emails and texts. 

At just under $130, this fitness tracker tests high for value. It’s an attractive band that comes in multiple colors. The touchscreen is very basic, so logging into the app for easy data tracking is a must. Also, the charger is not a universal one; Garmin has a proprietary charger, so make sure you don’t lose it!

Already known for making some of the best smartwatches, Apple has now given us an exceptional fitness tracker plus watch with the Apple Smart Watch Series 6. It very easily connects with iPhones and other iOS devices. You don’t need to bring your phone with you, however, because you can text, make calls and respond to emails right from your wrist.

The Series 6 is fully stocked: GPS and cellular modes, an ECG app to monitor your heartbeat, tracking for your blood oxygen levels and sleep tracking. It is water resistant to 50 meters, so you can wear it in the pool or shower. Additionally, it comes with the things you didn’t know you needed, like a handwashing app to make sure you scrub those paws for at least 20 seconds.

The price tag may be the biggest sticker shock. The GPS-only model of the Series 6 comes in at just under $400, and the cellular-enabled watch is an additional $100. The device connects to Apple Music, but that is an additional subscription, as is Apple Fitness+. For all its features, the watch will have to be charged regularly, as it lasts just about 18 hours.

For the most basic of fitness goals, the Xiaomi Mi Band 4 makes good sense. It is the best budget tracker we found, costing around $40 on Amazon. The simple display shows the calories you burn, steps you take, how long you sleep and distance you travel. The uncomplicated nature of what the band does is part of why the battery lasts as long as 20 days on a single charge. 

Xiaomi advertises that the Mi Band 4 offers continuous heart rate monitoring. In our testing, we found it to be hit or miss. The resting heart rate is usually accurate, but putting the band through a high intensity interval workout led to a lot of variation. Also, without GPS, the distance measurement may not be exact. However, you can pair your phone or smart device to the Mi Band to use GPS.

The Mi Band does have six different workout modes, including treadmill running, outdoor running, pool swimming and walking. It is compatible with both Android and iOS devices and sends you alerts for texts, calls and emails.

Women have specific health and wellness factors that should be factored into exercise. We love the Fitbit Versa 3 because it takes into account the menstrual cycle.

The Versa 3 syncs with the Fitbit app so you can track your period, log symptoms and find patterns in your cycle. This information is incredibly useful to determine how your cycle affects your everyday activities.  

There are a lot of other perks to love about the Versa 3: It has Amazon Alexa built-in, tracks your sleep, syncs with apps like Spotify and Strava, and it has more than 15 workout options.

As a smartwatch, it can connect to your smartphone to read and respond to texts and emails. We particularly like Fitbit’s guided breathing app to sneak a few moments of calm into our day.

The Versa 3 is under $200. It comes with built-in GPS. The battery lasts up to six days on a full charge, but if you use features like GPS, the battery drains quickly.

While many exercise trackers claim to be able to effectively measure activity in more than one sport, the Coros Apex is actually designed to do so. This is the best multisport tracker because it is equipped for pool and open water swimming, has an altimeter to measure climbs, is loaded with more than 200 exercises, and has a compass.

The price on the Apex may initially seem steep at just under $300, but that price point actually makes it one of the more affordable GPS-enabled trackers. It’s easy to see why: It is an excellent companion for indoor and outdoor fitness. It has built-in breadcrumb trails and can perform for up to 100 hours while using GPS. 

We did find that the screen is a little more difficult to see in some indoor situations and you aren’t able to change the display brightness. Also, with options for a face between 42 and 46mm, this is a larger device that may feel a little bulky on smaller wrists. It is lightweight, at just under 2 oz. 

If you’re serious about your recovery, then the Whoop Strap 3.0 is a great find. It is the best sleep tracker because of how in-depth the technology gets so you can maximize your rest. To assess your sleep quality, the Whoop analyzes your heart rate variation as well as the strain your workout put on you and how well you are recovering (or not recovering).

It determines how  much you slept and how much time you spent in each sleep stage. A “sleep coach” even tells you how many hours of sleep you need each night. 

While other bands will ping you to get up and move, the Whoop will actually tell you when it’s time to take a break because your body needs it. If your heart rate variation or recovery is declining, Whoop will signal that it’s time for a rest day.

The Whoop price is actually a monthly subscription of $30, and you are required to make an initial six-month commitment. The band comes free when you sign up. There is no face on the band; to get your data, you have to log into the app (which is easy to do on your smartphone).