I tested the most popular options—rings, wristbands, headbands, and on-mattress sensors—to figure out which ones are actually worth wearing to bed and sifting through the data when you wake up. HRV is the varying time between heartbeats, and the milliseconds of difference between heartbeats can help you understand how stressed or well-rested you are. After the first three weeks of sleeping with your compatible Garmin smartwatch, it will provide a baseline status. Your HRV status on your Garmin watch can be balanced, unbalanced (above or below your baseline), low or poor. If your HRV is below your baseline, that may indicate a lack of sleep, stress, illness or overtraining — though an above baseline reading may indicate overtraining as well.
That said, the battery life is less than a lot of the other trackers on this list at 18 hours. The data can be stored in the earbuds for a week before requiring a sync with the app. My colleague Bethany Allard tested the Soundcore Sleep A20 earbuds and reported they offered more accurate data than other trackers she’d used in the past. In addition to the length of sleep cycles, the earbuds also track how many times you unimeal reviews toss and turn for even more detailed data. We were impressed by the Amazfit Band 7, a slim, buttonless wrist tracker that boasts an 18-day battery life with typical usage.
Best for Android
In terms of activity tracking, our tester found the ScanWatch https://www.healthline.com/health/hydration-top-iphone-android-apps-drinking-water 2 was limited, with no GPS tracking and only seven modes of activities available on the watch at one time. While these can be swapped out on the app, it adds an additional step. Plus, Oura gives you the option to choose a band color so it can fit your preferred look. If you’re only using it at the gym to count your steps and your heart rate, a simpler, less expensive fitness tracker will suit you fine.
Best fitness app for science-backed gains
Earning the title of Best Overall is the Garmin Vivomove Sport, a hybrid smartwatch that combines the look of a premium analog watch with the tech specs of a fitness tracker. The Garmin Vivomove Sport tracks heart rate, calories, steps, and blood oxygen levels, and it can also track menstrual cycles, hydration intake, and stress based on your own inputs. The lightweight silicone sport band was comfortable to wear yet looked fashionable enough for the office or evenings out.
The app is clean and easy to navigate, breaking down trends in clear charts. The SE doesn’t have an always-on display, and it has a mere 18 hours of projected battery life, falling far below that of most designated fitness trackers. In a test, we found that the battery had dropped to 9% after 18 hours of use, so if you’re traveling overnight, be sure to bring a charger.
However, it is important to understand their limitations and not treat them as medical devices. If you’re on a budget but like the idea of a watch that tracks your health, fitness and sleep, the Fitbit Versa 4 is an affordable option that looks good and performs well. The watch works in conjunction with the Fitbit app, which is one of the simplest there is. It provides an overall sleep score and weekly, monthly and yearly comparisons for free. But with a premium membership, at £7.99 a month, you’ll get a more detailed breakdown of your stats, including a sleep profile describing your habits to help you recognise and change them. We would have liked clearer instructions on what you can do to make improvements, though.
Best smart ring for sleep
In testing, the sensor works by using blue, yellow, and infrared LEDs to pick up the carotenoid levels in your skin. Carotenoids are an antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables their color. The sensor could be fooled by pressing any colorful objects — a piece of broccoli, blackberry (which exploded), marker-colored finger, and Cheeze-It — against it. I did find its Running Coach feature, which creates a training regimen based on your performance after a 12-minute run, to be helpful.
Whoop 4.0
Smart features are limited, though an onboard mic and speaker let you take calls from the wrist, something I wasn’t expecting. There’s also an AI-powered voice assistant that’s useful for opening apps on the watch, but not much else. There’s also support for NFC payments, something often lacking in wallet-friendly wearables.
The 10 Best Fitness Trackers On the Market in 2025
The re-addition of a side button and support for a small but useful selection of Google apps have made what was already a great fitness tracker even better, in our eyes. That said, Fitbit locks some metrics behind its monthly Fitbit Premium paywall, unlike other options from Garmin. The Amazfit Active 2 is a budget-friendly fitness-focused smartwatch with over 160 workout tracking modes, onboard GPS, support for offline maps and solid sleep and wellness monitoring tools. I’ve been testing the best fitness trackers for years, and in 2025, Fitbit—now owned by Google—remains one of the top brands to choose with the Fitbit Charge 6 being my overall choice. However, the original fitness tracker company is far from being your only option.
Watch Series 11
In our opinion, the Garmin Venu 3, Redmi Watch 5, Ultrahuman Ring AIR and the Withings ScanWatch Horizon are all great options for those looking to avoid paying extra subscription costs. “If you use a sleep tracker and your sleep worsens or you become overly focused on trying to achieve perfect sleep, perhaps the sleep tracker is not a healthy solution for you,” Dzierzewski said. We particularly liked the lack of a touchscreen as this makes it good for those who are less tech-savvy or less interested in smartwatches and gadgets but would still like to track their sleep. The watch works by simply twisting the crown to access fitness stats on the top small screen. From this data, you are given a score out of 100 based on your overall sleep time, sleep depth, regularity of your bedtime and the number of interruptions you may experience during the night. This score is a simple way to understand what your sleep quality is like.
- All models are built to military-grade standards and feature up to 10ATM of water resistance.
- I have tested each one, and some also come recommended by experts in the health and fitness space.
- Which device is right for you depends on how you want to track your sleep (on your body or in your room) and what data you want to collect (sleep, fitness, stress levels and so on).
- On the smaller model, I regularly hit around four days of usage with the always-on display enabled.
- HRV and resting heart rate provide insight into your nervous system recovery.
- A fully charged battery can last up to 6 days before a recharge is needed.
Whoop 5.0
.jpg){kind=tracking}
If you’re a swimmer or diver, for example, you need to find a fitness tracker that is resistant to certain depth. A basic rating on trackers meant for water folks would be 5ATM/50M, which means the band is resistant to pressure equivalent to 50 meters underwater. This is generally okay for most swimmers, but people involved in more intense water sports may need a higher rating. If you get a fitness tracker, you’re also getting the app the device uses to give you the information you want. If you’re looking at another tracker, find out what app it uses and look at customer reviews.
The band-style tracker is compact, lightweight, and comfortable enough to wear all night, which is essential for bedtime tracking. Yet, despite its small form factor, it also packs in a well-rounded user experience for all-day wear. Alongside standout sleep features, the Charge 6 supports over 20 exercise modes, offers stress tracking via EDA scans, and integrates smoothly with Google’s growing suite of apps, all on a bright, colorful AMOLED display. We also asked testers to fill out a daily sleep journal with how they were feeling and their sleep and wake times to see if the companion app’s findings seemed accurate. It supports more than 20 exercise modes, tracks heart rate 24/7, and includes continuous SpO2 monitoring. It doesn’t have built-in GPS, so you’ll need to carry your phone for mapping workouts, but otherwise, it covers the fitness basics well.
Cold vs Heat: The Ultimate guide for Workout Recovery
It was also incredibly intuitive to use, so even if you’re new to fitness and sleep tracking, you will be able to get your head around its layout in no time. Because of this, we’ve included suitable smartwatches, ring-style trackers and trackers without screens in this guide, as not one size fits all. Screens may be important for the best fitness trackers, but for monitoring sleep, screens are not necessary. Although, we’ve included some with screens for those looking to also track their workouts. If you’re not interested in tracking a slew of metrics and are most interested in monitoring your heart rate and intensity level throughout your workouts, the Polar Verity might just be the right fitness tracker for you. This simple device (about the size of a coin) can be slid into the provided armband or goggle clip to wear as you exercise.
Best fitness trackers in 2025: These are the 6 fitness trackers I recommend after testing dozens
It makes it hard to say that any one fitness tracker is the best for everyone. Thankfully, the best thing about fitness trackers in 2025 is that there’s enough variety to fit into every kind of lifestyle. We did like the Wind Down feature, which turns off notifications and locks your phone before your chosen bedtime—for people who enjoy a little too much screen time before bed, this function could be especially helpful.
The Whoop app nudges you, in the form of a pop-up, to fill out a daily journal before accessing your scores. The Oura Ring 4 has improved, recessed sensors that make the ring more comfortable. Oura’s new “smart sensing” algorithm also makes sure the ring’s sensors are optimized and working to find the best signal through your finger’s unique physiology. It pulls data from the sensor with the best window into your health, rather than burning several LEDs at once. The Whoop 4.0 is a good option if you want to track both your sleep and your daily activity.
If you’re happy to strap a gadget to your wrist, great—that’s the easiest way to wear a Whoop. It will look like a watch, except with no screen (the fabric band covers the spot where the screen would be). If you don’t want a wristband, the Whoop device can also be strapped to your arm, between your deltoid and bicep (they call it a “bicep band”). This was my favorite way to wear it, since it doesn’t interfere with wrist wraps while I’m lifting.
You can also manually adjust the heat and cool settings yourself using dual-sided controls, giving couples a personalized feel on each side of the bed. As an added benefit, use its built-in speaker to lull yourself to sleep before bed with relaxing sounds. Come morning, you can also try its silent alarm system, which initiates gentle vibrations (on your side of the bed), according to your scheduled wake-up time. While we think this is the best subscription sleep tracker, if you aren’t keen to pay a monthly fee you may prefer the Garmin Venu 3 in this guide, as the Sleep Coach is included as standard. Easily digestible sleep data that is perfect for those new to sleep tracking. Just remember that your sleep tracker’s findings are not the end-all, be-all.
