The 11 Best Fitness Trackers of 2023, Tested and Reviewed

Best Overall

Garmin Vivomove Sport

4.9

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  4.9/5
• Comfort
  4.8/5
• Ease of Use
  4.7/5
• Accuracy
  5/5
• Value
  5/5

The best fitness trackers provide accurate data to help users make informed decisions about their lifestyles and meet their health and fitness goals. Garmin’s Vivomove Sport Watch is our top overall pick for its accuracy, comfort, ease of use, and so much more. Whether it was step count, calories burned, or time spent sleeping, we found the metrics to be spot on. 

But the smart device doesn’t stop there. It tracks other in-depth statistics—like blood oxygen saturation, stress levels, menstrual cycles, and more—to provide a holistic view of your overall health and fitness. It also alerts you with reminders to relax, detects incidents during select activities, counts reps during gym sessions, and has running-, cycling-, and swimming-specific features. You can receive call, text, and calendar notifications directly on the watch, too. But note that you can only respond to texts if you have an Android phone.  

When we began testing, we found this watch easy to set up and pair to the Garmin Connect App, where you can view all of your data and daily insights. We appreciated the app’s clear display of metrics that are easy to understand. Other notable features include the 5-day battery life and water resistance rating of 5 ATM (meaning you can wear the device up to 164 feet underwater). But it’s worth noting that other picks on our list, like the Oura Ring Gen 3 and Garmin Instinct 2, can hold a charge for longer and have a higher ATM rating.  

If you’re looking for a well-rounded view of your health and fitness through a fitness tracker that’s intuitive, comfortable, and accurate—all at a competitive price—we recommend Garmin’s Vivomove Sport Hybrid Smartwatch. 

Price at time of publication: $180 

^{Key Specs: 
Battery Life: Up to 5 days | Water Resistance: 5 ATM (up to 164 feet underwater) | GPS: No}

Best for Running

COROS Pace 2 GPS Sports Watch

4.9

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  4.7/5
• Comfort
  5/5
• Ease of Use
  4.8/5
• Accuracy
  4.9/5
• Value
  5/5

Coros’ Pace 2 GPS Sport Watch is one of the best running watches because it tracks your location, distance, pace, time, stride length, and more. We found that it was accurate, regardless of the type of run we completed during testing. It’s known for being one of the lightest GPS watches available, and we can agree that the device is featherweight and barely noticeable. 

If you supplement your runs with strength training, Coros’ Pace 2 offers over 200 pre-programmed exercises for the upper body, lower body, core work, and more. It also provides a post-workout muscle heatmap, so you can see which muscle groups you worked the hardest in a daily, weekly, or monthly view. Other helpful metrics include heart rate, sleep, and body temperature. 

The device also provides you with phone notifications and caller ID and connects to third-party apps like Strava, Apple Health, and more. And just like our best overall pick, Coros’ Pace 2 has a water resistance rating of 5 ATM, so it’s safe to wear for laps on the track and in the pool. But while our best overall pick only has a battery life of up to five days, this watch can last up to 20 days on a single charge. 

Throughout testing, we relied on many of the watch's ample tracking capabilities—like steps, heart rate, calories burned, time, elevation, best mile, average pace, heart rate, stride length, and GPS. These helped us to set, track, and beat our running PRs. But the watch also had some settings—like floors climbed, triathlon tracking, and open water swimming—that we didn’t get much use out of. 

We recommend this pick for runners, strength trainers, and fitness enthusiasts. But for those more interested in wellness, you’ll benefit from a product like Garmin’s Vivomove Sport Hybrid Smartwatch because of its in-depth health metrics. 

Price at time of publication: $199 

^{Key Specs: 
Battery Life: Up to 20 days | Water Resistance: 5 ATM (up to 164 feet underwater) | GPS: Yes}

Best Low-Profile

Fitbit Inspire 3

4.5

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  4.4/5
• Comfort
  5/5
• Ease of Use
  5/5
• Accuracy
  4.2/5
• Value
  5/5

For beginners or those looking for a budget-friendly, low-profile fitness tracker, we recommend Fitbit’s Inspire 3 for its ease of use, comfort, and overall value. It tracks distance, calories burned, heart rate, and other helpful statistics. But we found the step counter to be slightly sensitive, logging steps during other activities like making the bed. 

Menstrual health tracking is a common feature in many of the best fitness trackers, and the Inspire 3 lets you log periods, record symptoms, estimate ovulation, and evaluate cycle patterns in the Fitbit app. In the app, you can also view helpful wellness metrics like sleep and stress management scores, as well as participate in guided breathing sessions and workouts. But it’s important to note that after the free 1-year Fitbit Premium Membership, you’ll have to pay around $10 per month to get access to most key features, such as a daily Readiness score, a Stress Management score, and access to Fitbit's workouts on the app—which provide value to the data and metrics. 

While testing the Fitbit Inspire 3, we received irregular heart rate alerts and reminders to move, as well as call, text, and app notifications. The notifications came as a near-silent vibration that was enough to make us notice without disrupting our day. But when a slew of texts came through during the night, the soft vibration did wake us up once or twice. While a middle-of-the-night alert isn’t ideal, we do love the vibrating alarm that woke us up during our most optimal sleep stage—it helped us feel more refreshed throughout the day. 

Price at time of publication: $99

^{Key Specs: 
Battery Life: Up to 10 days | Water Resistance: 5 ATM (up to 164 feet underwater) | GPS: No}

Best for Training

Polar Vantage V2 Smartwatch

4.4

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  5/5
• Comfort
  4.8/5
• Ease of Use
  4.9/5
• Accuracy
  4.8/5
• Value
  3.6/5

Featuring performance and recovery tests, Polar’s Vantage V2 Smartwatch offers a unique way to track your training progress. Performance tests allow you to track performance through heart rate, speed, and power metrics. We found these insights helpful to understand whether or not we should exert more energy during any given activity. For example, if our heart rate was not super high during a workout, we would know to ramp things up. And the leg recovery test prompts you through three guided countermovement jumps to estimate your leg muscle recovery status.

Throughout testing, we used this watch to track heart rate, steps, and calories burned. It provided accurate metrics during runs, strength training, and other activities. We also love how the device alerts you if you're training too much or not enough. It also provides more than just numbers—it tells you which energy sources (carbs, proteins, or fats) were consumed during each workout, but according to our nutrition editor, this information is not going to be that accurate coming from a smartwatch.   

This wearable also provides a daily sleep score to help determine how ready you are for the day. We really liked the sleep tracking feature to give us a better picture of how much time we spent in each stage of our sleep cycle each night, which provided us with a better understanding of our restfulness each day.  And we love that it’s waterproof up to 328 feet—double the ATM of our top overall pick. But if you’re not an athlete or training on a daily basis, we think you can save money and spend it on a more well-rounded tracker, like Garmin’s Vivomove Sport Hybrid Smartwatch.

Price at time of publication: $490 

^{Key Specs:
Battery Life: Up to 100 hours | Water Resistance: 10 ATM (up to 328 feet underwater) | GPS: Yes}

Most Stylish

Garmin Lily

4.6

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  4/5
• Comfort
  4.5/5
• Ease of Use
  5/5
• Accuracy
  5/5
• Value
  4.5/5

If style and functionality are important to you, we recommend Garmin’s Lily Watch. It’s sleek, comes in a variety of colors, and provides accurate metrics to help you reach your goals. This smartwatch, like many other products on our list, measures steps, sleep, stress, and energy levels. We used it to set, track, and reach fitness goals. And we appreciate the pre-programmed workouts that encouraged us to change up our workout routines and try something new. 

The Lily also provides text, email, call, and calendar alerts from your phone to your wrist in real-time. But note that you can only respond to texts on the watch if you have an Android phone.  

What sets this wearable apart—besides its stylish design—is the morning report feature that provides a summary of the weather outside, your energy level, step goals, menstrual cycle stage, and the first calendar event for each day. We also enjoyed the built-in apps for yoga, cardio, walking, and mindful breathing—which have become a regular part of our routine. And just like our best overall pick, you can download the Garmin Connect App to view all of your health data and insights at a glance—which we found intuitive and easy to digest. 

We appreciate that Garmin’s Lily Watch is easy to use, comfortable, and accurate in tracking your blood oxygen saturation, hydration, and more. It has a battery life of up to five days and a water resistance rating of 5ATM, just like the Vivomove Sport. At an average price compared to other fitness trackers on our list, we think this one’s a great choice for anyone who's looking to gain insight into their health, track progress, and reach goals (while looking stylish at the same time). 

Price at time of publication: $200 

^{Key Specs:
Battery Life: Up to 5 days | Water Resistance: 5 ATM (up to 164 feet underwater)  | GPS: No}

Best Battery Life

Withings ScanWatch Hybrid Smartwatch & Activity Tracker

4.4

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  4.5/5
• Comfort
  4.2/5
• Ease of Use
  4.7/5
• Accuracy
  4.4/5
• Value
  4/5

Withings’ Scanwatch reaches a full charge in one night or less and stays charged for up to 30 days, making it our top pick for the best battery life. After the first day of wear, the battery was down to 18% because the device wasn’t fully charged upon arrival. But after just one overnight charge, the Scanwatch is charged for the full 30 days. 

It’s an easy-to-use, sleek, and reliable fitness tracker that boasts advanced health-tracking capabilities. We especially love the reminders to stand up, which anyone who works at a desk all day can benefit from—we definitely did! Throughout testing, we received notifications to “unwind,” “take 100 steps,” and “go on a lunch walk.” You can also set the watch to wake you up at the most optimal time of your sleep cycle each morning—we found this feature easy to set up in the app. But the alarm is so gentle that, for deep sleepers, we recommend setting a louder backup alarm. 

This wearable (like many others on our list) accurately tracks distance, heart rate, blood oxygen level, menstrual cycles, sleep, and more. We love that for each metric, you can find an explanation of what it is and why it's important on the compatible Withings Health Mate App. But during testing, we did find that the step counter was sensitive, counting other movements as steps, like Fitbit’s Inspire 3 Fitness Tracker. 

A water resistance rating of 5 ATM means that you can wear this tracker for laps in the pool or ocean up to 164 feet deep. We recognize that this isn’t our most budget-friendly pick, but for its high-quality design, impressive metric tracking, and long-lasting battery life, we think it’s worth the investment. 

Price at time of publication: $300 

^{Key Specs: 
Battery Life: Up to 30 days | Water Resistance: 5 ATM (up to 164 feet underwater) | GPS: Yes}

Best GPS Tracking

Fitbit Charge 5

4.7

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  4.1/5
• Comfort
  5/5
• Ease of Use
  4.6/5
• Accuracy
  3.7/5
• Value
  4.7/5

Fitbit’s Charge 5, the brand’s most advanced wearable, is a heavy-duty version of the Inspire 3. It allows you to run, hike, and ride phone-free, thanks to its built-in GPS that tracks distance and pace in real-time. After a run, we could see our pace and heart rate zones at different points throughout our route laid out on a visual map in the Fitbit app, which was a really unique feature and one that would be helpful if you’re training for a marathon or just really like to see visualizations of your metrics. 

We wore this wearable for various types of activities throughout testing, like CrossFit and strength training sessions. We found that most metrics were precise but noticed that the watch slightly overestimated the amount of calories burned when it came to activities that weren’t running or walking. 

The device is so lightweight (0.06 pounds) and comfortable that we barely noticed it was on during testing. But this Fitbit doesn’t just stop at tracking fitness-related metrics. You can also view your sleep, stress, and readiness scores on the app to develop a better understanding of how to tackle each day. 

Just like the Inspire 3, Fitbit’s Charge 5 can wake you up with a soft vibration at the most optimal point in your sleep cycle, as well as deliver call, text, app, and calendar notifications from your phone. We also like that you can log your mood each day in the app. But it’s important to note that after the free six-month Fitbit Premium Membership trial, you’ll have to pay around $10 per month to access most of the valuable tracking metrics.

Price at time of publication: $149

^{Key Specs: 
Battery Life: Up to 7 days | Water Resistance: 5 ATM (up to 164 feet underwater) | GPS: Yes}

Best Investment

Apple Watch Ultra

4.6

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  3.9/5
• Comfort
  3.8/5
• Ease of Use
  4.7/5
• Accuracy
  4.7/5
• Value
  4.4/5

We had high expectations for this pick, as the Apple Watch Ultra is one of the most well-known fitness trackers on the market. And after one month of rigorous testing, we can confidently recommend this product to fitness fanatics looking to invest in a top-quality tech wearable. But for the more casual user, we’d recommend Garmin’s Vivomove or Lily, as the Ultra might be too bulky and advanced. It’s one of the heaviest devices on our list (0.14 pounds), and we found it uncomfortable to sleep in and cumbersome for daily wear.   

We love that the device is fully loaded, featuring a GPS antenna, safety siren, compass, dual speakers, three microphones, and a side button that allows you to make emergency calls in seconds. We also found that it has spot-on tracking capabilities: Monitor your heart rate variability, running form, track detection, underwater depth gauge, body temperature, blood oxygen saturation, sleep cycles, and more. If you’re already a part of Apple’s ecosystem, it’ll easily and seamlessly pair with your other devices. We’re able to receive iPhone notifications like texts, calendar reminders, and even news notifications, all right on our wrists. 

It’s the most advanced product that we tested—touting unique measurements like depth gauge and water temperature sensors; the most safety out of any product that we tested; the highest level functionality with Apple products; and so much more. So if you’re invested in your health and fitness, it might be worth investing in this product. Despite all of the bells and whistles, we appreciate that the metrics and scores are easily digestible in the Apple Health App and Apple Fitness+ App. And we also love that you can customize the band and face of your watch to match your personal style. 

Price at time of publication: $799 

^{Key Specs:
Battery Life: Up to 60 hours | Water Resistance: 10 ATM (up to 328 feet underwater) | GPS: Yes}

Best for Sleep

Oura Ring Gen3

4.2

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  4.9/5
• Comfort
  4.8/5
• Ease of Use
  3.6/5
• Accuracy
  3.8/5
• Value
  3.2/5

If tracking your sleep, readiness, and menstrual cycle is your top priority, the Oura Ring Gen 3 might be for you. This lightweight, stylish wearable uses tiny sensors to transmit helpful health data from your finger to your phone in a matter of seconds. It uses factors like total sleep time, efficiency, restfulness, and time spent in each sleep cycle to provide daily sleep and readiness scores in the Oura App, although you’ll need to pay $5.99 per month for a membership. 

The ring also provides a daily activity score that’s created using your inactivity time, training frequency, and more. While we loved this tracker for sleep, we found that its activity tracking was limited and inaccurate. During testing, the ring correctly recorded walking as an activity but provided the wrong time, distance, and calories. And when we did other workouts, like Pilates or yoga, it didn’t record any activity at all. 

The Oura Ring Gen 3 is an investment but one worth making if you’re interested in in-depth sleep and menstrual cycle tracking. We love that it connects to Natural Cycles, an app that helps you cycle-sync your workouts by tracking each phase of your menstrual cycle. But if fitness tracking is your main goal, we recommend Fitbit’s Charge 5 or Polar’s Vantage V2 Smartwatch.

Price at time of publication: $299-$349 

^{Key Specs:
Battery Life: Up to 7 days | Water Resistance: 10 ATM (up to 328 feet underwater) | GPS: No}

Best Budget

Amazfit Band 7

4.1

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Our Ratings

• Ease of Setup
  3.4/5
• Comfort
  3.7/5
• Ease of Use
  4.3/5
• Accuracy
  4.4/5
• Value
  4.5/5

The Amazfit Band 7 is one of the best budget fitness trackers on the market because it’s affordable but still provides helpful health data. We especially love this band for its accurate sleep, stress, and fitness tracking. It is important to note that, unlike Garmin’s Vivomove Sport, you have to press a button on the Amazfit in order for it to record a workout, but it’s quick and easy to do. 

Despite its featherweight feel and streamlined look, the Amazfit has rather impressive features: alerts for abnormal heart rate, blood oxygen level, and stress, over 120 sport modes, an 18-day battery life, and more. We also love that you can set it to track your menstrual cycle and view your statistics from the easy-to-navigate Zepp App. 

What this band doesn't have (that others like the Apple Watch Ultra or Polar’s Vantage V2 Smartwatch do) is additional in-depth health metrics, GPS capabilities, and recovery tracking. But if you want a high-quality tracker at a budget-friendly price, this pick is for you. 

Price at time of publication: $50 

^{Key Specs:
Battery Life: Up to 18 days | Water Resistance: 5 ATM (up to 164 feet underwater) | GPS: No}