5 Best Fitness Trackers Experts Recommend in 2025

“If you’re an everyday, at-home athlete, I think the Venu 3S is one of the best on the market for good, well-rounded measurements,” Lindsey Bomgren, NASM-CPT, a personal trainer and the founder of online fitness studio Nourish Move Love, tells SELF. She uses one herself: “[It] has a nine- to 10-day battery life, so I can go on a trip and not have to pack my charger,” she says.

SELF’s director of fitness and food, Christa Sgobba, wore this watch for over a month, only taking it off to charge it. She tested it during outdoor and treadmill runs, strength training sessions, indoor cycling classes, and a yoga flow.

“The Venu 3 is definitely pricey, but it also provides a solid bang for its buck. I can’t think of anything it’s missing that’d tempt me to look for an upgrade in a couple of years—so it’s the kind of fitness tracker that’ll keep you in the know for the long haul.”

Screen: Touchscreen | Battery life: Up to 10 days | Water resistance: Up to 50 meters | Subscription cost: None

If you’re looking for your first fitness tracker—or you aren’t interested in a bunch of extra bells and whistles—Felbin says the Inspire 3 can’t be beat.

Felbin has worn her Inspire 3 for a few years, usually at night to track her sleep. She says it also comes in handy for days when she’s out and about running errands or getting her daily steps in.

“I love that it’s small and low-profile, but still tracks a ton of data. The Fitbit app is easy to use and allows me to check my steps, heart rate, sleep, and more at a glance.”

Screen: Touchscreen | Battery life: Up to 10 days | Water resistance: Up to 50 meters | Subscription cost: Optional premium subscription (free for the first six months, then $80/year)

“I’d consider it a great supplemental choice for someone who has big, objective fitness goals,” Sgobba says. “It’d also be a great overall wellness tracker for folks who don’t need real-time workout data in front of them.” She adds that “folks who are just dipping their toes into the fitness world may be better served by a more entry level option.”

Sgobba started testing Whoop 4.0 while training for a half marathon—then, Whoop 5.0 hit the shelves. She appreciated that her data in the Whoop app carried over when she switched trackers, making the process seamless. She wore the 5.0 constantly for five weeks (that includes workouts, nights, and weekends).

“I’m convinced that it’s a recovery device rather than a workout device. It’s a tracker that seeks to help you reach your ultimate fitness potential not by pushing you to hit certain paces or strength PRs during your workouts, but by building holistic understanding of your body outside of them so you can learn when you need to take your foot off the gas—or when it’s time to floor it. By keeping your body in top form, you’re then able to give your all to those fitness pursuits.”

Screen: None; app only | Battery life: Up to 14 days | Water resistance: Up to 10 meters | Subscription cost: Membership required ($199/year)

If you want to learn more about your sleep patterns, but you don’t love the idea of having a tracker on your wrist at all times, check out the Oura Ring 4. “Oura is pricey though, and let’s not forget with its subscription fee, it’s not a one-and-done expense,” Sgobba says. “So if your budget only has room for one device, I think Oura is probably going to be a better fit for someone more interested in overall health and wellness versus someone who trains for a specific modality or has goals to get faster, go longer, lift heavier, or another performance-related goal.”

Multiple SELF staffers love their Oura Rings. Sgobba wore hers 4 for 10 weeks while she slept, worked, ran, walked, biked, and even showered. Commerce writer Jessica Kasparian has been wearing hers daily for over 6 months.

“I enjoyed my experience testing the Oura Ring 4 for a few reasons—mainly, the robust health data that it spewed up on my app each and every morning (and throughout the day in real time too). It really does give deep insights into the inner workings of your body, and it’s cool to see how that objective data matches up with what’s actually going on in your life and what you’re subjectively feeling.”

“So far, I have a love-hate relationship with my Oura ring. Love: when it tells me I’ve hit my activity goal for the day. Hate: when it lowers my sleep score for going to bed too late. But really, I’m impressed by how much it’s picked up on. It could tell when I was super stressed on a travel day, and it even let me know that I was showing ‘minor signs’ of strain on a day I was feeling under the weather.”

Screen: None; app only | Battery life: Up to 8 days | Water resistance: Up to 100 meters | Subscription cost: Membership required to access most features (free for the first month, then $70/year)

If your workouts often take you outdoors, it could be worth investing in the Apple Watch Ultra 2. A highly dust- and water-resistant case and super bright screen help protect the tech inside, even when the weather (or your plans) change suddenly. Runners will also appreciate that it can automatically detect when you’re at a track and provide accurate pace and distance stats. And hikers will enjoy downloading offline maps and saving custom trail routes right to your wrist.

Amy Eisinger, MA, CPT, a personal trainer and former SELF editor, tested the Apple Watch Ultra for about a week. She wore it for working out, commuting, sleeping, and every activity in between. Prior to testing the Ultra, she was already very familiar with Apple Watches—she’d owned the Series 4, 6, and 7.

“I love that I’m able to track my workouts, sleep, health, texts, music, and everything else, all from a single device. This will easily be my new go-to for long runs, quick workouts, and every other part of my active (and slightly sleepless) life.”

Screen: Touchscreen | Battery life: Up to 72 hours | Water resistance: Up to 100 meters | Subscription cost: Optional Apple Fitness+ membership (free for the first month, then $80/year)

How often you need to charge a tracker might seem like a minor detail, but it can mean the difference between a wearable you actually use and one you don’t bother with. Lisa Gualtieri, PhD, a digital health professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and founder of Recycle Health (an organization that collects fitness trackers to donate), tells SELF that a short battery life is one of the biggest reasons why people stop using their fitness watch—so make sure yours fits your lifestyle. Does it need more juice every night, or just once in a while? And how long does it take to fully charge?

Yes, activity trackers can be very expensive—and more advanced features typically mean a bigger investment. But there are also budget-friendly options that cost less than a pair of running shoes. Most brands offer a range of models from entry-level to high-end, Bomgren says. When you’re figuring out how much you want to spend, just remember to calculate the cost of the device itself, plus any monthly subscriptions required to use it.

Not all wearables track the same data points, so consider which metrics are most important to you. For instance, if you’re a swimmer, you might want a watch that can count every stroke. Or if sleep is your biggest concern, consider a fitness tracker like the Whoop or Oura Ring that will dive deep into those nighttime stats.

You can also find watches that let you stream music, give turn-by-turn navigation, or automatically alert a loved one if you fall. “There are so many different options these days, depending on what you care about,” Amanda Nurse, a Boston-based running coach, tells SELF.

While some people only wear a fitness tracker during workouts, most today are designed to stay on your hand or wrist 24/7. So, look for something light and sleek that you can set and forget. Consider whether a smaller watch case or a fabric vs. a silicone band might be more comfortable on your wrist, or if you’d prefer a smart ring instead.

While no tracker is perfect, yours should provide info that’s precise enough to give you useful insights. “It’s widely known that the data wearables track isn’t always 100% accurate, but where these devices really shine is when we consider data over the long-haul,” Thompson says. It’s those trends over time that can help you measure your progress and notice when you deviate from your baseline.

Cardiac surgeon Basel Ramlawi, MD, adds that, while many trackers have fairly accurate heart rate sensors that can deliver some solid stats to you and your provider, they’re not super sophisticated and shouldn’t be relied on for diagnostics without additional tests by your doctor.