10 Best Fitness Trackers for 2021

There has been a lot of Fitbit’s over the years, so you may find it hard to decipher one from the other, and the lower cost of the older models could prove persuasive.

But Charge 4 is our top pick for one simple reason – it has everything. Charge 3 lacked the GPS feature which allows you to track your runs so you can leave your phone at home. You also get Fitbit Pay, in case you want to bob into the shop and reward yourself with a pizza for all your hard work.

If you do take your phone, you can control the music from Spotify (but only Spotify) from your wrist, so you can keep the mobile safe. A new feature called Active Zone Minutes also alerts you to which heart rate zone you’re in so you can see if you’re working hard enough to reach your goals.

You can wear it as you sleep too, so it will track how long you spend in light and deep sleep, and this allows you to understand your sleep patterns before working towards getting a better nights rest.

Smartphone app alerts will again ensure you can keep your phone tucked away and safe, and if you have an Android, you can send quick messages back, too. There is no colourful screen, but the icons are clear and easy to see.

One of the priciest smart fitness trackers on the market from a brand which prides itself on high tech and tracking. But if you fancy splashing out, you won’t be disappointed.

First of all, it looks like a watch. Not a smart electrical watch, but a proper watch with hands and an analogue reading. Old school. It is also constructed to U.S. military standard 810 for thermal, shock and water resistance, so you can’t get a tougher option if you’re quite an active sort.

Another thing which will help is the ability of the watch to charge on solar power. It has built-in GPS and can track your health all day if worn, too. In terms of activities, it will track running, biking, swimming, strength and more thanks to the built-in 3-axis compass and barometric altimeter.

It monitors just how your body uses energy too, for closer checks on heart rate, stress, sleep and Pulse Ox. it will notify you of any messages your phone gets, including from Facebook, and we also love the weather widget, which can be set to alert if there is a change in pressure and there is a storm brewing.

Expanding the battery is simple too with a bit of tweaking. Alter the settings and sensors, or use the Battery Saver Watch Mode, which will provide up to 56 days usage or unlimited days with the solar feature activated. This by far makes it the best for battery life.

Is it a surprise that the best waterproof fitness watch for swimming is one with ‘Swim’ in the title? Probably not. But still, claims can be made without being backed up. Luckily, Garmin has hit the nail on the head here.

Pretty much all Garmin watches can track swimming of course, but the detail they go into isn’t top-notch compared to if you went for a run. The Swim 2 will track lengths, distance, pace, stroke count and SWOLF, which other water-safe watches can miss.

It will also detect stroke type, offer pace alerts, and swim speed insights. Heart rate when in water is also monitored, which can be missing on some of the ‘do-it-all’ models. Be it a pool or open water, this watch is also lightweight and virtually undetectable.

There is no touchscreen, so you’re back to buttons but this isn’t surprising given that you may have to use it in the water. It can also track running and cycling, as well as general cardio covering anything else workout based, and you get step counting and sleep monitoring. But it is in the water where it really shines with accuracy.

How does it differ from other Garmin watches which are safe in the water? There isn’t a huge difference apart from that it doesn’t look as ‘modern’, but the level of detail it tells you about being in the water is unbeatable in comparison.

This is a really great watch if heartbeat and other extras are a concern.

The Fitbit ECG (Electrocardiogram) App can trace any irregularities, and even share the information with your doctor. There is an On-Wrist Skin Temperature Sensor, and a stress receptor too.

The premium design is another bonus, with AMOLED display, laser-bonded Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and innovative biosensor core all adding to the user experience. It even has built-in Amazon Alexa, so you can ask it questions, set alarms and bedtime reminders, and control smart home devices.

The bonus of an AMOLED display is that anything black won’t sap battery power, so it should last for around one week.

Moving away from the Fitbits, this Garmin is one of the best products they have put out.

It is feature-packed, with a lot of the extras you would expect nowadays – sleep tracking, activity tracking, heart rate, floors climbed and total active minutes. But we love how it also allows you to set goals and see these side-by-side with your current activity levels. You’ve done 12,500 steps out of your 15,000 goal? Best get moving.

These goals will adjust if it finds you aren’t hitting them. So if you’re only getting around 10,000 steps every day, it will lower them so you have that feeling of success which is important for future motivation.

Exercise mode starts straight away when it senses that you are starting to get a bit more active, which is a plus compared to the others which require you to start it up manually. This does mean that you can get bombarded with notifications, though. Exercise mode is activated when you’re walking around the shopping centre but stops when going up an escalator, to then restart again for instance.

You do get something which looks a bit less ‘fitness watch-y’ though, thanks to the thinner less bulky design which is more akin to a plain bracelet. And the extras are unlike any other watch – stress display offers easy to follow meditation advice, and you can sync it to your phone for weather and message notifications.

The mobile app also deserves a shout out. Called ‘Connect’, you can search for a sport or location and instantly find clubs to join from within the app, and you can also join up with friends who have Garmins too, to challenge and compete with each other. It packs all of the info into bar charts and data, which can be overwhelming, but fab for knowing everything.

The Inspire 2 has a lot of the features which you would expect from a modern fitness tracker right now, without being overly complicated, and with a more wallet-friendly price tag.

It automatically identifies workouts like walks, running and bike rides, which is great if your exercise regime is varied, and all of the information is stored in the app. Your heart rate is tracked, along with fat burn, cardio and peak HR zones, so you can adjust everything to get the best results.

Sleep stages are also monitored, with light, deep and REM sleep times recorded. When you are exercising, you can set targets for the session, and be notified when you hit them. If you have a compatible smartphone, you can also receive call, text, calendar and smartphone app notifications.

It is one of the better value Fitbits when you weight up technology and age, cheaper than the Charge 4 but not lacking much in terms. There is no GPS, but this will be fine for most. The smaller screen also means you have to use the mobile screen for some features, like setting an alarm.

A mid-range pick when it comes to the price tag. It has all of the technology you’d expect from a brand such as this and it is Samsung’s budget model.

First up, it will tell the difference between walking, running, dynamic, elliptical and rowing, catering your results to match. The free Samsung Health app will track and record your progress, and 5ATM even allows you to swim with it on.

Pair it up with your phone and receive notifications without having to get your mobile out, and even control your music. An overall score is given for your sleep quality, and it measures various factors so you can pick out any problems and rectify them. It’ll even manage stress levels, so you can practice breathing exercises when necessary.

There are 70 different downloadable watch faces so you can personalise your tracker. But it is a Samsung, so when we say that there are some features which don’t work with iOS, don’t act too surprised.

There is also no GPS, but you can take on the spot stress measurements, and it is from a trusted brand.

Go too budget and you get a pretty pointless, unreliable fitness tracker.

So this watch, from a brand who prides itself on being cheaper than its closest rivals, is the perfect middle ground. Eight activities are supported, including indoor or outdoor running, rowing and swimming, and it will also help you improve your swimming stroke with info on calories, the number of turns and average SWOLF.

As for the additional features, there is a camera shutter for taking selfies which are then sent to your phone. It also has a Phone Finder, which can trigger the mobile’s ringer even if it is on silent mode. Bluetooth is needed, but it could be great if you’re in a rush to leave the house.

The sleep tracker can tell when you sleep, and when you wake, but if you have a disturbed night then it can struggle to pick up the issues. As a plus, the heart rate monitoring seems sensitive, even when compared to some which retail for twice the price.

We say it can hold the battery for up to 12 days in the specs. Unfortunately, this is only 7 hours if the GPS is on. But this is still enough for a marathon if this is your aim. And the GPS is really good to make up for it.

This is a versatile everyday smart fitness watch which will give you all of the core information.

The one-button design is easy to get to grips with, and it will track your activity throughout the day to give you a perfect picture of what you have been up to.

You can pick a few colours, from silver or white to bright blue, and you can customise from millions of watch faces too. View and reply to notifications, and track your sleep by wearing it to bed.

Because it is the Lite version, it misses a few things such as the on-screen workouts, music storage and Fitbit Pay that you can get on the full Versa. But it is that bit cheaper if you think you can do without.

This fitness tracker has got a lot of buzz. It is under £30, which could save you almost £100 versus the top-end models, yet it usually always makes Top 10 lists like ours. Why?

Well, simply put – it is just as good as the rest, where you could argue you’re also paying for the name. It is water-resistant up to 50m, has a sleep monitor, heart rate monitor, and you can also track calories.

The nice long battery life of two weeks is also outstanding, and there is a SpO2 Blood Oxygen sensor to monitor blood oxygen levels during and after exercise, to check that enough is flowing to muscles.

It uses Huawei technology, such as TruSleep and TruSeen 3.0 heart rate monitoring. The latter precisely identifies 6 common sleep disorders and offers more than 200 customised suggestions to improve sleep quality, too.

All sounds too good to be true given the price and that it doesn’t lack much, right? Well, from our experience of other Honor products such as phones, the quality of things like the camera did dip after a while. Then, with big brands such as Fitbit, their trackers have been tried and tested for years whereas Honor is a bit less known.

There is also a lack of compatibility with some of the most modern phones which run Android 10 and above, or Samsungs. You need the Huawei Mobile Services app and some are concerned about the security levels.

Still, it has been described as the fitness tech product of a generation and is hugely popular as a budget option, so if you’re not bothered about the speculation about companies listening in to what you have had for your dinner, the positive reviews should clinch it.