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Fitbit has become synonymous with fitness trackers since the original launched in 2007. The company’s gear helped accelerate the trend of tech that helps motivate you to make healthier choices, instead of keeping you inside and glued to a screen. It took other companies years to catch up, but there are a lot of Fitbit alternatives that are worth your attention.
Some compete with Fitbit at its own game, doubling down on health and fitness tracking, while others have an entirely different set of “smart” features to keep you motivated on your way to the next goal.
Tracking your health and fitness has never been more important, and these Fitbit alternatives can give you information to help you break bad habits and adopt good ones. These fitness trackers will not do the work for you, though, and it’s still your responsibility to come up with a game plan to move toward a healthier lifestyle.
What Are the Best Fitbit Alternatives?
There are many factors to consider when choosing the best Fitbit alternative for you; below are the most important ones, which we considered while we were researching this list.
Health Features: The point of wearing a fitness tracker is to monitor activities that impact your health, so we made sure that all our picks can track how many calories you’ve burned, how far you’ve walked, your heart rate, and how well you’ve slept. It’s important to note that these fitness trackers will give you data, but aren’t designed as medical devices. You can take this information to your doctor if something seems wrong, but shouldn’t consider them the only way to determine your overall health.
Battery Life: You never want your fitness band to run out of juice while you’re working out because it won’t record your progress. We’ve selected Fitbit alternatives that can last for at least one day before needing to be charged, and some can last a lot longer. The actual battery life you get will depend on how frequently you exercise, and settings like screen brightness.
Durability: Your Fitbit alternative is going to be exposed to sweat, rain, sand, dirt, and general wear and tear, which is why durability is the most important feature to consider. A gadget’s resistance to dust and water is typically measured on the IP (Ingress Protection) scale, but some fitness trackers use the ATM (atmosphere) measurement instead. All of our fitness tracker recommendations are designed to handle water.
Smart Features: Fitness trackers have traditionally been used for one purpose — keeping track of your health — but the Fitbit alternatives in our guide also have smart features. Some can handle basic tasks, like displaying your text messages, while others give you hands-free access to smart assistants. These extras are nice, but you primarily wear a Fitbit alternative to keep track of your health.
1. Garmin Vivosmart 4
BEST OVERALL
Amazon
Garmin’s Vivosmart 4 has earned the number one spot in our guide because its advanced sensors can give you a clearer picture of your overall health.
The best example is its sleep tracker, which can track three levels of sleep (light, deep, and REM) in addition to your movement. When you wake up, the Vivosmart app (iOS and Android) will show you how long you spent in each state on a bar graph, so you can understand that the quality of your sleep is as important as the quantity.
It also has a built-in Pulse Oximeter, which can measure how effectively oxygen is being pumped from your heart and lungs to other parts of your body, and how well its being absorbed into your blood. A poor reading can be an indication of Flu-like conditions, but you shouldn’t consider this feature to be a pain-free portable Covid tester.
Garmin says this fitness tracker can use the information collected by this fitness band to gauge how stressed out your body is, and let you know whether it’s a good time to exercise, or take a rest day. If it senses you’re stressed, it’ll send you a notification to relax, and ask if you’d like to do a minute of breathing exercises to cool down.
The Vivosmart 4 is a sophisticated fitness tracker, but it also performs very well on the tech side. Garmin says you can get up to 7 days of use on a single charge (again, your mileage may vary), and that the Vivosmart is waterproof enough to be used for swimming.
You can set it up to display all of the notifications from your phone onto its screen, but you won’t be able to interact with any of them. You can turn notifications off if you find them distracting while working out, but it’s convenient to check alerts by glancing at your wrist instead of picking up your phone.
Garmin’s Vivosmart 4 is a durable, high performance fitness tracker with basic smart features. If you’re looking for a true competitor to a Fitbit, this is the one we recommend.
2. Lintelek Fitness Tracker
BEST ENTRY LEVEL
Amazon
Lintelek’s Fitness Tracker covers all of the basics, and is a good Fitbit alternative if you’d like to test out whether or not a device like this would work for you.
It can track all of your basic stats, including sleep and heart rate, and has 14 different “sports modes,” which allow you to choose the activity you’re doing to get a more accurate count of your calories burned. Lintelek says its fitness band can track different levels of sleep, and that its heart rate sensor can differentiate whether you’re asleep or not.
Lintelek’s says you should be able to get 5-7 days of “standby” time on a single charge, but using it to track your exercise will eat battery life a lot more quickly. The company also says its IP67 waterproof, which means it can be fully submerged under 3.3ft of water for up to 30 minutes.
This is definitely the best value out of any Fitbit alternative in our guide, and it’ll give you a sense of whether you’ll actually use a fitness tracker or not.
3. Apple Watch Series 6
BEST SMARTWATCH
B&H
The Apple Watch Series 6 is Apple’s most fitness-forward wearable yet, and it’s a great Fitbit alternative if you’re looking for a smart watch.
Its exclusive health feature is the inclusion of a Pulse Oximeter, which can take a reading in 15 seconds, and will automatically record your blood oxygen level throughout the day. The watch also has an advanced heart rate sensor, which can take ECG (Electro Cardiograms) to detect conditions like Afib (atrial fibrillation).
The Apple Watch Series 6 will automatically alert you if these numbers seem off. Apple just released an official sleep tracking app, but it’s available on previous generations of the Apple Watch.
The Apple Watch’s health feature are built around the Activity app, which keeps track of how many calories you’ve burned, how many minutes you’ve exercised, and whether you’ve stood up for at least one minute per hour. You’ll see an animation once you’ve completed your goals. The watch is smart enough that it can detect what type of exercise you’re doing, and how long you’ve been doing it, to give you an accurate reading.
This is by far the smartest Fitbit alternative we’re recommending, but it comes with a couple of drawbacks. First, Apple says its battery will only last about 18 hours, so you’ll need to charge it every night. Second, it requires you to set it up using an iPhone, so if you’re on Android, you’re out of luck. iPhone owners will be able to use the watch to send texts and initiate phone calls in addition to viewing notifications on the device.
Apple doesn’t give the Apple Watch Series 6 an official IP rating, but does say you can use it while swimming. I’ve used an Apple Watch in pools, the ocean, and the shower without damaging it.
If you want a Fitbit alternative that can do a lot more than just track your fitness, the Apple Watch Series 6 is the best choice, just be sure you’ve got an iPhone to set it up.
4. Whoop Strap
BEST TRACKING FEATURES
Facebook / WHOOP
The WHOOP Strap is the only Fitbit alternative that’s specifically tied to its own workout service. The strap is available for free if you sign up for a membership to WHOOP, a comprehensive workout program that uses the band to plot out an exact exercise regimen based on how active you’ve been, your heart rate, and sleep.
You’ll see these metrics in WHOOP’s app (iOS and Android), where it will display hyper detailed information about the condition of your body. You’ll see how well you’re currently doing, and where WHOOP thinks you should go. This band’s biggest metric is efficiency, so the idea is that you won’t just exercise more, you’ll get more out of each workout. The idea is to push you further and further at the right pace, so you’re always making progress.
The WHOOP Strap is free, but requires a membership to the company’s service, which starts at $18 per month (billed annually at $324). A monthly membership starts at $30 per month with a six month commitment, if you’d like to give the service a try before going all in.
Using the WHOOP Strap will offer you an extremely thorough overview of your health, and it’s a good choice if you’d like as much information about your body as possible.
From Rolling Stone US
