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The best fitness trackers can help you understand everything from your daily activity and sleep patterns to your heart health, recovery and training load, all without necessarily spending smartwatch money. Today's fitness trackers come in all shapes and sizes too, from traditional fitness bands and GPS-equipped sports watches to smart rings and screenless trackers designed to disappear into the background.
With Amazon Prime Day just around the corner, it will soon be a good time to shop for a fitness tracker. Many of the models in this guide are regularly discounted during major sales events, making it possible to pick up a premium tracker for much less than its usual price.
Our team has been testing fitness trackers, smartwatches and wearable technology for more than a decade, putting devices from Garmin, Apple, Fitbit, Samsung, Amazfit and many more through real-world testing. We assess everything from tracking accuracy, battery life and comfort to app quality, training features and value for money. Every device in this guide has been worn, tested and reviewed by our experts, and we only recommend products we'd genuinely use ourselves.
Whether you're looking to count steps, improve your sleep, train for your first 5K or simply gain a better understanding of your overall health, these are the best fitness trackers we've tested.
June 15, 2026
Added the Google Fitbit Air to our 'best Fitbit fitness tracker' category.
April 22, 2026
Added the Garmin Vivoactive 6 to our 'best Garmin fitness tracker' category.
Best fitness trackers: Specs comparison table
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Component | Apple Watch SE 3 | Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 | Google Fitbit Air | Samsung Galaxy Ring | Amazfit Helio Strap | Garmin Vivoactive 6 |
Price | From $249 / £219 / AU$399 | $59 / £49 / AU$139 | $99.99 / £84.99 / AU$199 | $399 / £399 / AU$750 | $99.99 / £99.00 / $179.00AU | $299.99 / £279.99 / AU$549 |
Dimensions | 40 x 34 x 10.7mm (40mm), 44 x 38 x 10.7mm (44mm) | 42.9 x 28.8 x 9.9 (mm) | 34.9 x 17.0 x 8.3 (mm) | Ring sizes 5-13 | 33.97 x 24.3 x 10.59 (mm) | 42.2 X 42.2 X 10.9 (mm) |
Display | Always-On Retina LTPO display | 1.6-inch 256 x 402px AMOLED display | None | None | None | 1.2-inch AMOLED, 390 × 390 px |
GPS? | Yes | No | Yes | None | Yes | Yes (built-in multi-GNSS) |
Battery life | 18 hours, fast charging | 13 days | 7 days | Up to 7 days (10 days with Galaxy Watch) | 10 days | 11 days |
The best fitness trackers of 2026
The best Apple Watch for most people
The Apple Watch SE 3 is the best Apple Watch for most people. While the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is the overall best from a technical standpoint, we believe most people browsing this guide are unlikely to want to spend $799 / £799 / AU$1,399 on a premium adventure watch.
The SE 3 is Apple's cheapest up-to-date offering, and unlike most of the entries on this list, it's a true smartwatch. That means it pairs seamlessly with your iPhone to deliver a more complete communications experience with watchOS 26, not just stripped-down notifications.
It's not cheap compared to some of the fitness bands on this list, but it's a powerful fitness tool with a smorgasbord of excellent third-party apps, such as AllTrails and Smartgym. Its own native Workout app is great, especially for running and cycling, and provides a ton of contextual features when paired with Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones. It also can aid in the diagnosis of health conditions like Sleep Apnoea and hypertension.
In our Apple Watch SE 3 review we wrote "it matches the Series 11 and Ultra 3 in speed and smoothness, offers solid battery life, and feels like a compact yet uncompromised Apple Watch".
Read our full Apple Watch SE 3 review
The best budget fitness tracker
The Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is a very aggressively-priced fitness tracker with a big screen, lots of battery and generally good fitness tracking features. It's a good buy if you're looking for a fitness tracking solution on a budget for gyms, fitness classes and light running.
For a very reasonable price, you get a 1.6-inch 256 x 402px AMOLED display. There's no GPS, but you do get up to 13 days on a single charge. It's fast, accurate and our cheap wearable of choice for 2026.
It's a by-the-numbers fitness tracker, and while the lack of GPS might be a turn-off for some, there are plenty of fitness modes to track a range of different workouts, and it interfaces with the same excellent Samsung Health ecosystem as the Samsung Galaxy Ring below.
It might not be the all-singing, all-dancing experience of the Apple Watch SE 3, but you won't find more bang for your buck anywhere else.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Fit 3 review
The best Fitbit
The Google Fitbit Air feels like a return to Fitbit’s roots: a simple, screenless fitness tracker focused on health, sleep and everyday activity rather than trying to double as a smartwatch. It’s an excellent choice if you want a discreet, comfortable tracker for general wellness, gym sessions and sleep monitoring without the distractions of a screen.
For a relatively low price, you get a lightweight 12g design that’s comfortable enough to wear around the clock, paired with heart-rate and sleep tracking that held up impressively well against the Apple Watch Ultra 3 during our fitness editor Matt Evans’ testing. Battery life is also great, lasting more than a week on a single charge, with fast charging when you do need to top it up.
Like many Fitbit devices, the experience is closely tied to the app, and this is where things get more mixed. The redesigned Google Health app can feel cluttered and confusing to navigate. However, the optional AI Health Coach is actually pretty useful if you’re happy to lean into chatbot-style guidance for workouts, recovery and food logging.
There’s no built-in GPS, which means runners are better served elsewhere, and some of the more advanced features sit behind a subscription. Still, if your focus is sleep, recovery and everyday health tracking, the Fitbit Air is an easy recommendation.
Read our full Google Fitbit Air review
The best smart ring
The Samsung Galaxy Ring is just edging out Oura in the race for best smart ring, and by extension perhaps the best fitness tracker for sleep. The smallest fitness tracking form factor, smart rings are comfortable to sleep in and offer accurate measurement beyond your wrist, with heart rate, skin temperature and blood oxygen sensing allowing the ring to monitor sleep stages.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring offers sleep insights powered by AI too: not only giving you a Sleep score and Energy score each morning, but assigning you a "sleep animal" or chronotype, with each one offering a different set of actionable advice.
Outside of sleep, Samsung estimates steps, and automatically logs walks and runs. It doesn't log workouts outside of these two profiles, and the ring's form factor gets in the way during gym workouts. But it's a great discreet set-and-forget tracker.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Ring review
5. The best Whoop alternative
For a long time, Whoop's screenless fabric circle design was unique, but in the last year, screenless fitness bands have been having a bit of a moment. We reviewed the top-flight Whoop MG and deemed it great, but far too expensive.
Since then, we've seen rivals from Luna, Polar, Speediance and others begin to pop out of the woodwork, but it's the Amazfit Helio Strap that's won first place as the budget Whoop alternative to opt for.
With 10 days of battery life, comprehensive fitness metrics and reliable heart rate tracking (we tested it against a chest strap and a Garmin watch) the Amazfit Helio Strap is great, especially at its modest $99.99 / £99.00 / $179.00AU price tag.
Read our full Amazfit Helio Strap review
The best Garmin fitness tracker
The Garmin Vivoactive 6 is a lightweight AMOLED fitness watch that excels on comfort and long battery life. Oh, and it comes without the eye-watering price tags of its more advanced stablemates in the Garmin lineup.
Our testing confirmed that the Vivoactive 6 is slim enough for comfortable all-day wear and sleep tracking, and it typically lasts over a week on a single charge. It works well as an alternative to an Apple Watch for people who care more about battery and training features than advanced smart functions like voice control, apps, or on-wrist calling.
It still includes Garmin’s more advanced tools such as PacePro for pacing, route and course tracking, automatic activity detection, and a smart wake alarm that aims to wake you during lighter stages of sleep. It also uses Garmin Connect, Garmin’s companion app, for useful health and training insights.
There are a few minor quibbles worth flagging with the Vivoactive 6. It uses an older heart rate sensor, it comes in one size only and it doesn’t include dual-band GPS. The watch’s tracking is reliable for most workouts, but not as precise as Garmin’s higher-end running watches, which you can learn more about in our guide to the best Garmin watches.
Read our full Garmin Vivoactive 6 review
How to choose the best fitness tracker
When choosing a fitness tracker, start by thinking about how you exercise. If you're mainly interested in tracking daily activity, sleep and general wellness (such as recovery, stress, heart health and overall activity levels), a simple fitness band or screenless tracker may be all you need. However, if you run, cycle or spend a lot of time training outdoors, it's worth looking for a device with built-in GPS so it can accurately track your routes and pace without relying on your phone.
Next, consider how much data you actually want. Some trackers focus on simple metrics like steps, heart rate and sleep, while others provide detailed training analysis, recovery insights and personalised coaching. More information isn't always better, so think about whether you'll use those extra metrics before paying for them.
Comfort matters too. A fitness tracker proves the most useful when you wear it consistently, so it's worth considering how it will fit into your everyday life. If you already wear a traditional watch, a smart ring such as the Samsung Galaxy Ring or a screenless tracker like the Google Fitbit Air or Amazfit Helio Strap can be a good alternative, offering health and activity tracking without adding another watch-sized device to your wrist.
Finally, think about the display. Devices with bright AMOLED screens are generally easier to read at a glance and outdoors in bright sunlight, while simpler fitness bands often prioritise battery life over display quality. If you plan to check your stats regularly throughout the day, a larger, sharper screen may be worth the extra cost.
What is a fitness tracker?
A fitness tracker is a device, typically a wristband, that monitors statistics such as your heart rate, the number of steps you take each day, and how long you spend working out. You might think of Fitbit bands as the quintessential tracker, but Apple Watches and other devices, such as smart rings, are fitness trackers too.
Most fitness trackers have several dedicated modes for recording different forms of exercise, and some also have GPS for tracking your location during runs, walks and bike rides. Most fitness trackers also monitor how long you spend sleeping, and in each sleep stage.
All this data is sent to an app on your smartphone, where you can track changes over time. Most apps give you virtual 'awards' for achieving particular goals, such as taking 10,000 steps per day or going to bed on time.
Why do you need a fitness tracker?
It can be tough to break old habits and develop new ones, and a fitness tracker can help give you the encouragement you need. Tracking the number of steps you take each day and aiming for a particular target might be simple, but it can push you to make simple changes (like getting off the bus a stop earlier, or walking short distances rather than driving), which can add up to make a significant difference over time.
Which fitness trackers are most accurate?
Most modern fitness trackers do an excellent job in tracking heart rate, stress and sleep accurately. Fitness trackers have optical heart rate sensors that can keep up with quick changes in heart rate.
Some have GPS to better track running, walking and cycling workouts outdoors. This is generally an estimation, but if you run, walk or cycle frequently and want to closely track those workouts, it's best to choose a tracker with GPS as it can monitor your routes, distance travelled, and speed.
Check our full reviews for more information: we test fitness trackers against each other and industry gold standards, such as the Apple Watch Ultra 3 or Polar H10 heart rate monitor, to determine whether there are significant differences in GPS and heart rate readings.
What makes a good fitness tracker?
A good fitness tracker is one that you'll wear every day and will help you build up a complete picture of your health. With that knowledge, you can start to make small tweaks that will help you sleep better, lower your resting heart rate, improve your fitness, and generally feel better.
How we test the best fitness trackers
Battery
During testing we extensively study the battery life of all these devices. Simply wearing them for a few days isn't enough, so we always make sure to run them down completely to get a true feel for how long battery lasts in a given fitness tracker. Obviously your mileage may vary, but we always use them the way most regular people would to give a fair assessment.
Health tracking and accuracy
All of our reviewers have extensive experience with fitness and health tracking tech, so we know what to look for when it comes to calorie tracking, heart rates, and sleep. We even test these devices alongside existing tech to look for disparity and erratic results.
Workouts
Obviously, we undertake extensive fitness tracking to test the best fitness trackers, conducting a variety of workouts including running and cycling. All of our reviewers engage in a variety of different sports, together they bring years of experience and a huge variety of disciplines to the table.
