If it seems like everyone you know is wearing a fitness tracker, your assumptions are not anecdotal. According to a 2023 National Institutes of Health study, 1 in 3 Americans use a wearable device to monitor their health and fitness. I began using fitness trackers in 2015, around the time the Surgeon General recommended that everyone walk more. Since then, my fitness journey has evolved and, along the way, I’ve used several different trackers, each with its own set of pluses and minuses. The following are my impressions of three popular fitness trackers, with rankings from experts and a caution about the downsides of having access to so much health data.
At first blush, my current fitness tracker, the Garmin fenix 8 AMOLED Smartwatch, may feel targeted toward elite athletes training for a race or other big fitness objective. The performance stats it tracks—from VO2 max and critical swim speed to running lactate threshold and hill score—along with its ability to create training plans and race-day strategies, make this powerhouse tracker an obvious choice for the serious athlete. But it’s also an excellent choice for people, like me, who regularly recreate outdoors. Alongside all the modern fitness tracker metrics—from training readiness to sleep score—I love the maps function, which allows online and offline trail and street navigation, and includes trail descriptions with difficulty, length and elevation gain. Its LiveTrack function allows my family to track my location while I’m out on the trail. The fenix also has a super long battery life and is bomb-proof durable.
I wear mine daily and have not scratched it through rock climbing, mountain biking and plenty of yard work. The only downside is that it’s a big and relatively heavy watch. And it’s pricey: Garmin fenix 8 AMOLED Smartwatch retails for $1099 at Scheels.
Like many, my first fitness tracker was a Fitbit, which at the time, was good for tracking steps, checking text messages, telling time… and that’s about it. The latest Fitbits, the Versa 4 and Inspire 3, have evolved to include all the standard fitness tracker features—step logging, sleep rating, dozens of activities, heart rate, SpO2, etc. Overall, the main difference between the two is that the Versa 4 is a full-fledged smart watch, which drills down deeper within each of those features, whereas the Inspire 3 is a more basic fitness tracker. Both have received high rankings from reviewers (The New York Times’ product recommendation service, Wirecutter, named the Inspire 3 as its top pick of fitness trackers in September 2025) for accuracy and wearability. Both are slim and light, though the Versa features an AMOLED screen that’s about twice as large as the Inspire 3. And the Versa 4 has built-in GPS, while the Inspire requires a connection to a phone to use GPS. Both are great all-around fitness trackers, with the Versa 4 offering more fitness metrics and that bigger, easier-to-use screen. As such, the Inspire 3 will set you back about $100, while the Versa 4 is $200. The future, however, is a little uncertain for all Fitbit products. Google purchased Fitbit in 2021 and, since then, seems to be phasing out Fitbit trackers in favor of its Pixel Watch 4 (starting at $350). Released in October 2025, it quickly earned a best smart watch for Android users rating from The Verge.
The Oura ring was a pioneer in sleep tracking, making the connection between rest and optimizing training performance. And it’s the only fitness tracker with sleep tracking accuracy backed up by a scientific study, published in March 2024 in Sleep Medicine. My husband owns an Oura, which I have used intermittently, mostly to track my sleep. When I have worn it during the day, I like how the Oura automatically detects more than 40 different activities, versus requiring a manual start for activities beyond walking or running, as is the case with many other trackers, including my Garmin. I also like how, with no screen, users are required to consciously check their health and fitness data versus having immediate, real-time access via a smartwatch. Downsides of the Oura are that it’s a ring that tends to get in the way when doing any activity that involves your hands, like lifting weights, doing push-ups and pull-ups or rock climbing. Its ceramic finish is also easily scratched, $499.
Something else to consider when using a fitness tracker is the potential psychological impacts. A study using AI to analyze social media posts about the use of fitness trackers and apps, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology in October 2025, found that people expressed frustration and demotivation when using fitness trackers and apps when they didn’t measure up to the algorithm-created benchmarks like calorie consumption, fitness intensity and sleep. This news rang true for me regarding my sleep scores. I found that several less-than-good sleep readings in a row caused the opposite result of why I was tracking my sleep in the first place: lying in bed worrying about not getting enough sleep. So, I stopped wearing my Garmin at night and have slept (mostly) soundly ever since. What’s next in the thriving fitness tracker market may be rooted in the recommendations made by the British researchers: fitness trackers and apps should shift to a more user-centered tracking format, based on psychological theory, prioritizing well-being and intrinsic motivation over rigid, quantitative goals.
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