Fitbit wearables may not be nearly as popular as they used to be, but they are still worth investing in — especially now when their prices are getting slashed ahead of the Black Friday sale. But which model should you choose? It is hard to decide which is the best Fitbit as It depends on what you intend to use it for.
Fitbit offers a range of products from fitness trackers to smartwatches, all of which are stylish and durable but what you select will depend on your personal preferences and your health and fitness goals. Saying that, Live Science have tried and tested some of the best Fitbits available to buy from the simple Fitbit Inspire 3 to the smartwatch Fitbit Sense 2 with its array of in-depth tracking features. We have looked into their price, design, battery life, features and accuracy as well as ease of use and comfort. Scroll down to the How we test section to read more about our testing protocol.
But if you are not a Fitbit fan, check out our general guide to the best fitness trackers. Whether you are considering one of the best Garmin watches to keep track of your outdoor adventures or one of the best running watches to rack up the miles with, we have a fitness tracker for you.
The quick list
Best overall
Light, comfortable to wear, and packed to the brim with tracking features, the Charge 5 takes the well-deserved top spot.
Best on a budget
This colorful Fitbit boasts a sleek, unobtrusive design, crisp display and accurate tracking features — and it costs less than $100.
Best Apple Watch alternative
This thoughtfully designed Fitbit matches the functionality of an Apple Watch, but it outperforms it with longer battery life and a more wallet-friendly price tag.
Best all-rounder
The Versa 4 combines long battery life with accurate tracking features and smartwatch functionality, making it an excellent all-rounder.
The smallest Fitbit
Compact, unobtrusive and beautifully designed, the Fitbit Luxe is a perfect choice for the fashion-conscious. It is, however, very small.
The best Fitbits we recommend in 2024: Fully tested by our expert team with real-world experience
Why you can trust Live Science Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best ones for you. Find out more about how we test.
The best Fitbit overall
✅ You want in-depth health tracking features: It can track your stress levels, sleep, heart rhythm and more.
✅ You need something discreet: This fitness tracker features a light and compact design.
✅ You want good battery life: It can last a week on a single charge.
❌ You need a big display: You may struggle with operating its small and fiddly screen.
❌ You want to store music: No media playback available.
🔎 Fitbit Charge 5: This thoughtfully designed fitness tracker won our seal of approval with its long battery life, bright display and a plethora of health tracking features. However, it lacks some of the features typical of pricier Fitbit models. ★★★★
The Fitbit Charge 5 is our all-time favorite ― for many reasons.
To start with, this fitness tracker is exceptionally well designed for its price point. The Charge 5 looks like a modern version of the classic Fitbit design. It is compact and comfortable to wear, and it feels like the Swiss Army Knife of fitness trackers when it comes to features. This neat fitness tracker even includes an ECG monitor for measuring heart rhythm and an EDA sensor for detecting elevated stress levels.
All of that is in a slimline design that offers a gorgeous display, although the column-based user interface may take some adjustment for new users.
Still, if you are looking to track a run, a hike or a bike ride, this is the best Fitbit overall because it comes with built-in GPS. During our Fitbit Charge 5 review, we wore it alongside an Apple Watch for our workouts, and found that both clocked in at roughly the same distance, bar a few meters one way or the other. This is pretty great considering the Fitbit is much smaller and lighter than Apple’s offering.
The Fitbit Charge 5 is also easy to set up and use, comes with 5ATM water resistance rating, and its battery can last more than a week on a single charge. For such a small, discreet-looking device, the Charge 5 punches way above its weight.
Cherry on top? The Fitbit Charge 5 is often heavily discounted on Amazon and other major online retailers. It also includes six months of Fitbit Premium.
- Read our full Fitbit Charge 5 review
Best budget Fitbit
✅ You do not need advanced fitness tracking features: It measures basic stats, such as steps and calories burned.
✅ You need something discreet: This fitness tracker is exceptionally light and compact.
✅ You want good battery life: It can last 10 days on a single charge.
❌ You need a big display: You may struggle with operating its small and fiddly screen.
❌ You want an outdoor watch: It has no GPS or on-watch maps.
🔎 Fitbit Inspire 3: The best of Fitbit's features at an affordable price — this colorful fitness tracker boasts excellent tracking performance, user-friendly design and up to 10 days of battery life. However, it lacks the frills of more premium models. ★★★★
Looking for your first fitness tracker? You may have found it with the Fitbit Inspire 3. This small, unobtrusive tracker is ideal for monitoring basic stats, such as heart rate, steps and calories burned, and getting you started on your fitness journey. It also includes excellent sleep tracking and comes with a year of Fitbit Premium. Not to mention, the Inspire 3 is very affordable — its retail price stands at $99.95, and it often gets discounted to approximately $60.
The display is small but the Inspire 3 has seen an upgrade from its predecessor and now boasts a full-color OLED glass screen. The 10-day battery life means you will not need to charge it often, either.
Mind you, if you are looking to shave time off your running route you will want to take your phone with you since there is no GPS tracking. During our Fitbit Inspire 3 review, we wore it alongside our Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar on a 50-minute run, and we found that their total distance readings came unnervingly close — within 100 meters of each other.
However, we discovered an issue during our second workout: the Inspire 3 did not connect to the phone's GPS, so instead it had to rely on its motion sensors to judge distance and pace. This time the stats were way off the Garmin.
Still, the Inspire 3 punches way above its affordable price point, making it an excellent budget option.
- Read our full Fitbit Inspire 3 review
Best smartwatch
✅ You want in-depth tracking features: It features more sensors than any other Fitbit.
✅ You need something stylish: This smartwatch is one of the best looking models out there.
✅ You want an easy-to-use display: It comes with a larger, brighter display than most other Fitbits.
❌ You are on a budget: It costs nearly $250.
❌ You want to store music: No media playback available.
🔎 Fitbit Sense 2: A great alternative to the Apple Watch, this sleek fitness tracker comes with smart features and more sensors than any other Fitbit — but it is also one of the most expensive models. ★★★
If you are trying to draw comparisons between Fitbit vs Apple watch, this is the model that comes close to Apple's premium wearable.
It has a big, beautiful display, a slimline design and battery life that will make an Apple Watch weep – up to six days of use (with sleep tracking) on a single charge. However, there is a caveat. During our Fitbit Sense 2 review, we found that the "always on" display mode drains the battery life significantly.
Moreover, the Sense 2 comes with six months of Fitbit Premium to help users embrace activity and rest in equal measure, and offers options like a stress tracker that measures your stress levels through the sweat of your palm. Heart rate readings during exercise were quite flaky for our tester, though.
There’s no third-party App Store alternative as you would find with the similarly priced Apple Watch, which is a shame – especially since for the price we would have liked to have used the onboard storage for a Spotify playlist or a podcast so we can leave our phone at home.
Still, it is a solid watch for those who want everyday exercise tracking and do not mind missing the sort of smart apps on offer in an Apple Watch.
- Read our full Fitbit Sense 2 review
Best all-rounder
✅ You want basic health tracking features: It measures basic stats, such as steps and calories burned.
✅ You want an easy-to-use display: It comes with a larger screen than most other Fitbits.
❌ You need an outdoor watch: Its GPS falls below expectations, and it has no altimeter, either.
❌ You want to store music: No media playback available.
🔎 Fitbit Versa 4: Beautifully designed and packed with smart features, this neat fitness tracker strikes a great balance between affordability and functionality. However, it will not pull its weight as an outdoor watch. ★★★½
In many ways, the Fitbit Versa 4 is a cut-down version of the Fitbit Sense 2, with an almost identical design but losing the Sense 2's EDA stress sensor and the ECG heart health tech. However, for everyday fitness tracking, we think the Versa 4 is every bit as good. If you do want to track stress, you can do so through other data-collection methods, such as a brief questionnaire or by analyzing heart rate.
The Versa 4 has an excellent display, comfortable feel, and impressive battery life, however there is no music playback. The watch also has 40 activity modes — a very conspicuous increase over the 20 of the Versa 3.
During our Fitbit Versa 4 review, we were impressed by its tracking performance. Maximum and average heart rate figures were closely aligned with those of the more premium Garmin Fenix 7 and Apple Watch Series 8 when we wore two wearables on a single workout. GPS caused a few headaches, however, as we found the Versa 4 took some time to triangulate. Daily step counts were much more reasonable though.
Plus, the Fitbit Versa 4 comes with six months of Fitbit Premium.
- Read our full Versa 4 review here
The smallest Fitbit
✅ You want something discreet: It is exceptionally light and compact.
✅ You want accurate health tracking features: You can count on Fitbit sensors here.
❌ You want an outdoor watch: No GPS or altimeter.
❌ You want in-depth workout tracking features: It only measures six activities.
🔎 Fitbit Luxe: Small, thin and beautifully designed, this premium Fitbit model looks more like a piece of jewelry than a fitness watch, but its health tracking features are hard to match. ★★★★½
The Fitbit Luxe is a more premium counterpart to the Inspire and is possibly the most fashion-conscious tracker in the range.
It is small and thin, so much so it is easy to forget it is on your wrist. It offers six days of battery and while the smaller display will take some getting used to, it is bright enough to be legible in sunlight.
You will also find the excellent sleep, heart rate, distance, and calorie tracking you have come to expect from Fitbit, though it is wrapped up in a slender, more jewelry-like design.
There is no GPS, so you will want to take a phone with you if you are planning to track workout routes while out. Step tracking is accurate enough, however. During our Fitbit Luxe review, we compared it to an Apple Watch Series 7. The flagship Apple wearable costs more than twice the Fitbit Luxe’s price tag, and yet the two offered comparable results.
The Fitbit Luxe comes with six months of Fitbit Premium, too.
- Read our full Fitbit Luxe review
Our expert consultants
Nathan Kennedy is a certified personal trainer and online fitness coach with years of professional experience. He is also a former bodybuilder with a keen interest in sports nutrition. Nathan is also a representative for sports nutrition brand Bio-Synergy. We spoke to him about the potential health benefits of using fitness trackers.
FAQs
Can the best Fitbit help you to lose weight?
Fitness trackers like Fitibit can help people incorporate more physical activity into their routine, and therefore they are a convenient tool for achieving weight loss, Nathan Kennedy, qualified personal trainer and representative for sports nutrition specialists Bio-Synergy, told Live Science. "And the easier it is to be consistent with exercise, the more likely people are to achieve their health and fitness goals,” he said. "Fitness trackers not only encourage exercise and weight loss, but may also help lower blood pressure and cholesterol in people with Type 2 diabetes and other health conditions," Kennedy noted.
A publication by Harvard Medical School indicates that fitness trackers can help overweight or obese people to reduce their weight and body mass index over time, based on a review of 31 studies, involving more than 2,200 people. Participants were required to wear a fitness tracker then set and meet goals with it for step counting or daily activity. Compared to control groups not using a fitness tracker, those using commercially available brands like the Fitbit lost an average 6 pounds and two BMI points over 12 weeks.
"Accountability is much higher when using a fitness tracker as you get the sense personal motivation or if you’re in a group challenge with your friends," added Kennedy.
How we tested these Fitbit watches
How we test the best Fitbits
Our reviewers. All of the Fitbit watches in this guide have been tried and tested by our expert reviewers: experienced fitness professionals, semi-professional athletes and self-proclaimed exercise fanatics, all passionate about sharing their vast knowledge of fitness trackers. Over the years, we have tried and tested countless models with the iconic Fitbit logo. We know firsthand which of these fitness trackers should land on your wrist and which are better given a miss. You can trust the verdicts at Live Science.
We know that what suits one person's lifestyle may not work for another, which is why we try to look at fitness trackers through an objective lens. This means we test all Fitbit watches to the exact same standard, using the same processes and procedures. After wearing each model for at least a week, we rank it across the following categories:
Design. We look at the Fitbit's durability, appearance and overall functionality. We assess whether it is intuitive to use, comfortable to wear and good-looking on the wrist, and we make note of any design-related issues and wear-and-tear damage experienced throughout our testing process. In short, we want to know who this Fitbit was made for.
Display. This is where we focus on the key part of a Fitbit watch — its display. We look at the size, durability and specifications of the screen, and check whether it remains bright and easy to read in all kinds of circumstances (for example, in direct sunlight or at night). We also make note of the touchscreen's responsiveness, deducting points for any lags we may have experienced during testing.
Features. We want to know every single setting of the Fitbit in question. For example, what health tracking features does it have? How many sports and activities can it track? Can it pass for a smartwatch? Can it store music or connect to third-party apps? Also, can it guide you on your journey to health, and if so, is that personalized advice any useful?
Performance. We put all Fitbits through their paces to get a good understanding of their tracking performance, battery life and connectivity with third-party devices. We wear them day and night and when performing different workouts, regularly switching between different modes and energy-use settings. Finally, we assess the accuracy of a Fitbit's heart rate sensor using a validated chest-strap heart rate monitor (such as the Polar H9), or we compare its readings to measurements obtained with a more high-end fitness tracker.
Value for money. Finally, we give our verdict on the key issue: if this Fitbit worth your hard-earned money?
After testing, we use these categories to calculate a final score out of five, and decide whether the Fitbit in question deserves a spot in our roundup of the best Fitbit watches of all time.
