The Best Fitness Trackers to Buy in 2025

You honestly can’t go wrong with anything in Garmin’s Forerunner line. Personally I love the Forerunner 265 and enjoyed testing its upgrade the Forerunner 570. But if you want the best watch in this line, that’s going to be the top-of-the-line Forerunner 970.

Besides everything the other Forerunners have, the 970 has on-screen maps instead of just breadcrumb navigation. It also has an LED flashlight built in—not a flashlight app to turn the screen white, but an actual light that shines forward from your wrist.

As with any Forerunner, the heart rate and location tracking are excellent, and it’s got a strength training mode that can time your rests and count your reps. The analytics in the Garmin Connect app are arguably more useful than anything the other major brands have to offer.

The Series 11 is the newest version of Apple’s iconic watch, recently replacing the Series 10 that was our pick for the best Apple Watch for most people. The Series 11 adds 5G support and a more scratch-resistant screen, but is otherwise similar. (If you manage to find a Series 10 at a good price, that’s a great pick too.) All Apple Watches work smoothly with your iPhone, letting you control music that’s playing on your phone and even make calls and send texts directly from your wrist. If you love that slick Apple experience, this is exactly what you’re looking for, and the Series 11 is the sweet spot in the current lineup.

If you use an Android phone and want a maximally compatible smartwatch, first ask yourself if you’re using a Pixel or a Samsung phone. Each has a matching watch: The Samsung Galaxy Watch will play best with the Samsung ecosystem, so go with that one if you have a Samsung phone.

For everybody else, consider the Pixel Watch 3. It has two screen sizes, a bright display, and can run a variety of Android apps. It works smoothly with the Fitbit app, and our tests found that its location and heart rate tracking, while not perfect, are impressively close to what you get on a nice Garmin.

Fitbit used to own the fitness tracker space, but things have been going differently for the last few years as Google seems to be focusing its smartwatch efforts into the Pixel 3. The Charge line is still going strong, though, so if you enjoy the Fitbit ecosystem but don’t want to spring for a Pixel (or charge a watch every day), the Charge 6 is a solid pick.

You can read more about the Charge 6 in our rundown of its best features, or our hands-on review.

If you’re migrating from the Fitbit Sense or Versa lines, this is a nice soft landing place for you. While Google is urging those customers to get a Pixel Watch, most Fitbit users themselves seem to be heading for the Garmin product lines.

The Vivoactive line is Garmin’s most underrated. It does most of what the more expensive Forerunners can do, in a lightweight and easy-to-use package. The Vivoactive 6 is the newest in that line, and I really liked it when I reviewed it. The older Vivoactive 5 is very similar, and a great buy if you want to save a few bucks.

It pains me to have to award the best not-a-watch title to the Whoop band, when I myself am a dedicated Oura ring user, but the Oura just cannot fill the job description of a fitness tracker. The Oura ring isn’t great at tracking exercise, and you’ll need to take it off when lifting weights. By contrast, the Whoop can be worn off-wrist with a bicep band or in a variety of specially designed clothing items (including underwear). The bicep band keeps the device off your wrist and is comfortable enough you’ll quickly forget you’re wearing it.

The Whoop device measures your activity throughout the day, without showing you anything on a screen. (We have a breakdown here of the pros and cons of a Whoop versus a smartwatch.) You can open up the Whoop app on your phone, though, and see how things are going—or even start a workout and monitor how it’s going from your phone. Keep the device on at night, and it will measure your sleep. Whoop’s strength is in balancing your exercise and sleep, and it can give you advice on how much sleep to get based on your “strain” (exercise and stress) and vice versa.

The other important thing to know about Whoop is that it’s subscription-based. And I don’t mean that you can pay extra for a premium tier, but literally to use the Whoop at all you’ll need to pay $30/month (or go for a package, like the $239 annual membership). Technically, the device itself is free.

You know I love a Garmin, but they seem to be getting more expensive every year. If you want an affordable running watch, I’d suggest looking at Coros—and, for the entry level, specifically the Pace 3.

The Pace 3 is lightweight and simple in appearance, with a reflective MIP screen. That’s an older tech that still has some serious advantages, including the ability to have an always “on” screen without draining your battery. The Pace 3’s internals are just as advanced as almost anything from Garmin, giving you advanced running metrics and highly accurate GPS and heart rate readings.