The Best Fitness Trackers for 2026

The affordable Fitbit Air is the best fitness tracker for those who don't want a distracting screen. It's unobtrusive enough to stay out of the way at the gym or while sleeping, and stylish enough to fit in with a more elegant outfit. It proved highly accurate when measuring heart rate and sleep in my testing. The Google Health app shows most of your data for free, and offers access to workout classes and a responsive AI-based coach with a premium membership. The Air can buzz if you want it to act as a morning alarm, but you can otherwise forget about it for about a week between battery charges while it monitors your health in the background.

Those wanting less screen time: Other Fitbit models on this list use the same sensors and Google Health app, but the Fitbit Air is the only one without a screen. Go with the Fitbit Air if you want a device to track your health without having an extra dashboard to compulsively check.

Fitness beginners: The Air won't break the bank, so it's an excellent pick for those picking up a fitness tracker for the first time. The premium Google Health Coach learns your goals and schedule, and takes the guesswork out of building a fitness plan. You might not need this guidance if you're already in shape, but if you need help getting moving, the Health Coach is the best AI for the task right now.

Android and iOS users: The Air works with both smartphone platforms via the Google Health app.

The Fitbit Charge has long been among the most value-rich fitness trackers, and the sixth-generation model extends that legacy. It offers 40 sports profiles (up from 20 in the previous generation) and a feature that lets you send your heart rate via Bluetooth to gym equipment. In addition, the Charge 6 has a color touch screen, a 5ATM water-resistance rating, multi-day battery life, a built-in GPS, sensors to monitor key overnight health metrics like skin temperature and SpO2, and support for on-demand ECG heart health and EDA stress readings. Though it's primarily for fitness and health tracking, the Charge 6 features several Google lifestyle apps, including Google Maps, Google Wallet (which replaces Fitbit Pay), and YouTube Music. Its companion app clearly displays your data and can be customized to highlight metrics related to your goal.

Anyone interested in improving their health: With tons of tools for monitoring your activity and health, key lifestyle features, and a fantastic companion app, the Charge 6 is the best standalone fitness tracker for most people.

Android and iOS users: Fitbit's latest tracker is compatible with most phones running at least Android 11.0 or iOS 16.4 via the Google Health app (formerly the Fitbit app).

The Apple Watch Series 11 offers a broad suite of built-in fitness, health, and safety tools, along with the best selection of third-party apps (such as AllTrails, Nike Run Club, Peloton, and Strava) of any smartwatch. This generation features a harder screen for improved scratch resistance, in case you accidentally knock into it while lifting weights. It also includes 5G connectivity for streaming music while away from your phone, as well as hypertension notifications to help you catch signs of high blood pressure early.

Its Activity, Exercise, and Stand rings can help motivate you to get moving, and its companion Fitness+ workout streaming service ($9.99 per month or $79.99 per year after a three-month trial) offers a variety of studio-style classes with excellent music and instruction for the home or gym. It goes beyond the basics with a multisport tracking option for triathletes and advanced running metrics, including real-time power, stride length, ground contact time, and vertical oscillation.

On the health front, it accurately tracks your activity, body temperature fluctuations, fertility windows, heart rate, menstrual cycle, overnight respiration, sleep patterns, and more. The thin design feels comfortable as you move, and the display is visible for quick glances at your stats even when your wrist is down. It also features water depth and temperature sensors, making it ideal for swimming. The watchOS 26 software includes a Workout Buddy to keep you motivated with encouraging words and stats as you exercise.

The Series 11 can even alert you if it detects a high or low heart rate, irregular heart rhythm, and loud sounds that can damage your hearing. It also supports Emergency SOS and international emergency calling, as well as automatic calls for help if it detects a hard fall.

iPhone users: The Apple Watch Series 11 is ideal for iPhone users seeking a capable fitness tracker with excellent connectivity features. It requires an iPhone 11 or later with iOS 26, so it's not an option if you use Android.

Runners, swimmers, and cyclists: It's a particularly excellent choice for runners, swimmers, and cyclists. Its wrist-based running power measurements help you gauge your effort in real-time, a WR50 rating makes it safe for shallow-water activities like swimming in a pool or the ocean, and automatic bike ride detection ensures you never lose credit for an outdoor cycle workout.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 has the most wellness features of any smartwatch we've tested. Its Galaxy AI can build a guided running program for you or coach you to sleep better. When you wear the watch to bed and place a compatible smartphone on your nightstand, the two can work together to detect snoring and even record it. The watch also tracks your sleep duration and stages (awake, light, deep, and REM), as well as overnight SpO2.

For fitness tracking, the Galaxy Watch 8 supports more than 100 workouts (from walking and running to archery and flying disc) and can automatically detect certain activities. It also gives you access to many third-party fitness, health, and sports apps via the Play Store, including C25K, Cardiogram, Golf GPS Rangefinder, Komoot, MyFitnessPal, Seven Minute Workout, and Strava. It can even measure your body composition, similar to a smart scale. You can even use the watch to measure your blood pressure, but I wasn't too impressed with this feature when I tested it.

Android users: With cutting-edge fitness and health-tracking tools plus useful connectivity features, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is the best Android-compatible smartwatch I've tested. Like the rest of Samsung’s current smartwatch lineup, the Galaxy Watch 8 works with Android phones (running Android 12 or newer with at least 1.5GB of RAM), but some features, like snore detection, are only available when paired with a Samsung handset.

AI enthusiasts: The Galaxy Watch 8 comes with Samsung's AI wellness coach, which can help you train for a marathon and get a restful night’s sleep, building on the wearable's already extensive repertoire of activity, exercise, sleep, and stress-tracking capabilities. Moreover, Google’s AI Gemini comes built-in for voice-controlled convenience.

With long battery life, a color AMOLED touch screen, and all the basic activity and sleep features you need, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is one of the best fitness trackers you can get for less than $100. Unlike the pricier, jewelry-inspired Fitbit Luxe, its design screams basic, but we appreciate its bright screen that can stay on all day. The tracker's simple interface and well-designed companion app make it easy to monitor key fitness and health metrics, including your steps, heart rate, calories burned, sleep, overnight SpO2, and more.

Newbies: The Fitbit Inspire 3 is a top choice for fitness beginners just starting on a path to better health, as well as for those on a budget. It lacks a built-in GPS, so it must connect to your phone to accurately track your pace and distance during outdoor walks, runs, hikes, and bike rides.

Android and iOS users: The Inspire 3 works with both major smartphone platforms via the Google Health app.

Designed specifically for women, the Garmin Lily 2 stands out for its classic, jewelry-like design. It features a beautiful, patterned face, an aluminum bezel and case, and a 14mm quick-release band that's much slimmer than most smartwatch straps, so you can wear it alongside other bracelets. More than just attractive, the Lily 2 can track health stats such as your calories burned, energy level, heart rate, respiration, sleep, SpO2, steps, stress, and workouts. It also offers smartwatch features such as phone notifications, music playback controls, and useful calendar and weather widgets. It's water-resistant to 164 feet and can last up to five days on a charge. 

Fashionable women: If you want a fitness tracker that seamlessly transitions from workout classes to fancy dinners, the Garmin Lily 2 is a top choice. This aesthetically pleasing wellness wearable is much more comfortable for small wrists than a bulky sports watch.

Newbies: The Lily 2 offers activity profiles for all the basics, from dance fitness to pool swimming to yoga. It reliably tracks your calories burned, heart rate, sleep, steps taken, SpO2, and more to help you stay motivated and lead a healthy lifestyle. Just keep in mind it lacks an integrated GPS, so you have to carry your phone to record your distance, pace, stride length, and running route during outdoor workouts. Moreover, it doesn't sync to gym equipment, so if you want to track your real-time pulse on your Peloton screen, you'll need a separate heart rate monitor.

Android and iOS users: The Lily 2 works with both major smartphone platforms via the Garmin Connect app.

In the crowded fitness tracker market, Garmin's Venu Sq 2 stands out for its practicality. It's the least expensive of the excellent Garmin Venu 2 lineup, with a squarish design that improves text legibility and a battery that lasted for up to nine days in testing. It doesn't track the number of floors you climb and lacks animated workout graphics, but otherwise offers all the excellent health and fitness features of the round Venu 2 for $150 less, including an integrated GPS, support for on-demand SpO2 readings, and Garmin Pay.

On-the-go fitness enthusiasts: If you're looking for a fitness-focused smartwatch with long battery life, the Garmin Venu Sq 2 is worth checking out. You can easily go a week or more without having to charge it.

Android and iOS users: The Venu Sq 2 works with both major smartphone platforms via the Garmin Connect app.

The Oura Ring 5 is a stylish and comfortable smart ring that discreetly measures your activity, sleep, and stress from its position on your finger. With tiny, accurate sensors, it tracks blood oxygen, heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and more. It can track 40 different types of exercises, movement throughout the day, sleep duration and stages, and stress levels. New to this generation, the Oura Ring 5 tracks overnight blood pressure patterns and long-term sleep trends. It's also a step ahead of the pack in women's health with cycle insights, fertile window estimates, and pregnancy insights. The ring's polished companion app charts metrics like cardiovascular age, sleep regularity, and more over time, making it easy to spot trends. The Oura app makes it easy to interpret your data, providing holistic readiness, sleep, and activity scores, while offering detailed, personalized recommendations to improve your well-being.

Comfort seekers: Thanks to its thin, unobtrusive design, the Oura Ring 5 is a more comfortable alternative to wrist-based trackers. With over 10 days of battery life and an excellent companion app (available on Android and iOS), it's the best finger-based fitness tracker we've tested.

Style mavens: If you want a fitness tracker that doesn't look like one, the Oura Ring 5 is a top pick. It comes in a range of colors, including black, silver, and gold, to suit different tastes.

Those looking to stress less and sleep better: The Oura Ring 5 offers many useful health insights and recommendations, making it a top choice if you need help reducing stress and improving your sleep. The Oura Ring 5 supports basic exercise tracking, but it's not as detailed as many wrist-based options. For holistic health monitoring, however, the Oura Ring 5 is tough to beat.

Women: Cycle insights, fertile window estimates, and pregnancy tracking make this finger-based tracker a top choice for women. You can even pair it with the Natural Cycles birth control app to track your daily fertility status via your body temperature.

The Samsung Galaxy Fit3 tracks heart rate during exercise as accurately as devices that cost several times more. You can use it to track 100 different types of workouts. While it doesn't have built-in GPS or track advanced running form metrics like ground contact time and stride length, those are understandable omissions given its budget-friendly price. It captures cadence, distance, duration, speed, and other metrics accurately as well, and when you're not working out, it tracks daily activity, sleep, and stress.

Newbies: Affordably priced and accurate for workout tracking, the Samsung Galaxy Fit3 is the best entry-level fitness tracker for Android phone owners in pursuit of health data.

Samsung phone users: The Galaxy Fit3 is compatible with any Android handset running Android 10 or later with at least 1.5GB of memory, but it works best with Samsung phones. When paired with a handset of the same brand, the devices can work together to monitor your snoring overnight.

The Watch SE 3 is Apple's smallest and least expensive smartwatch. Except for a few health sensors (blood oxygen, ECG, water depth, and water temperature), it offers the same connectivity, fitness, and safety features as the Series 11 for $150 less. The SE 3 even features the same processor as the Series 11, offering comparable performance, and improves on its predecessor with an always-on display, gesture controls, wrist temperature sensing, and new watchOS 26 features, including the AI-powered Workout Buddy and holistic Sleep Score. It also outlasted the Series 11 on our battery test.

Budget shoppers: The Apple Watch SE 3 is an excellent choice for its target audience of first-time smartwatch users, budget shoppers, children, teens, and older adults. Thanks to its always-on display, it offers a very similar experience to the Series 11 for a significantly lower price.

Children and older relatives: The SE 3 is compatible with Apple's Family Setup feature, which allows you to set up and manage an Apple Watch for a family member who doesn't have an iPhone. Keep in mind that like other Apple Watch models, it does not work with Android handsets.

The Garmin Vivoactive 5 strikes the right balance between a capable smartwatch and a detailed fitness tracker. It offers notifications, mobile payments, and apps, along with accurate exercise, sleep, and stress tracking. The Vivoactive 5 considers all three of those health metrics when calculating your Body Battery energy level approximation. Recent smartwatches from Google and Samsung offer a similar holistic health score, but Garmin's is unique in that it updates dynamically throughout the day. It's the only Garmin on this list with onboard music storage, so you can download songs and playlists to the watch and listen without your phone.

Garmin loyalists: The Vivoactive 5 is the choice for you if you want the detailed fitness tracking and long battery life Garmin is known for, combined with capable smarts. It works with both Android and iOS phones via the Garmin Connect app.

Music-loving wellness buffs: You can download .mp3 files right to the Vivoactive 5, then play music through the watch on Bluetooth headphones even without your phone in tow. With that plus integrated GPS and nap detection, the Vivoactive 5 offers more versatility than the more affordable trackers on this list, for a still-reasonable price.

The Polar Pacer Pro running watch helps you level up your training with a number of tools and features designed to safely maximize your workouts, including running power measurements, ascent and descent tracking, sleep and recovery stats, personalized recommendations, and more. The wrist-based power meter lets you seamlessly monitor your real-time output, a useful metric for sprints, short intervals, and hilly terrain. It’s also comfortable to wear 24/7 and lasts up to a week on battery power.

Race trainees: If you want to run faster or have another goal in mind, such as achieving a six-minute mile or completing a 5K in less than 30 minutes, the Polar Pacer Pro is a worthy training companion. It works with both Android and iOS phones via the Polar Flow app, or you can set it up on your computer via the Polar FlowSync data transfer software tool.

Running enthusiasts: With excellent GPS performance, wrist-based running power measurements, and Hill Splitter ascent and descent tracking, the Polar Pacer Pro is ideal for advanced runners. We also appreciate its Komoot turn-by-turn route guidance for outdoor training.

The Fitbit Ace 3 is a fun fitness band for younger kids that keeps tabs on activity and sleep without a monthly subscription fee. It focuses on basics such as step counts and rest, but it doesn't offer location or GPS tracking. The Ace 3 is safe for swimming and offers about eight days of battery life per charge.

Kids ages 6 to 12: If you're interested in ensuring your child is getting adequate activity during the day and enough sleep at night, the Fitbit Ace 3 does that reliably and affordably.

Android and iOS users: The Ace 3 works with both major smartphone platforms via the Google Health app (formerly the Fitbit app). Keep in mind that a Google account is required to use the Google Health app. To set up this tracker, you'll need to create a Google family group and add a child account.