How to Find the Best Fitness Tracker

Common sense told us that complicated, feature-loaded fitness trackers wouldn’t be the best option for everyone. The more sensors and tracking capabilities you cram into a device the size of a wristwatch, the more it’s going to cost you. Not everyone needs to track their position by satellite, either. That’s why we started our search for the best fitness tracker by categorizing our initial list of 87 contenders (every device we could find currently for sale in the US) based on a few key capabilities.

We looked at three different types of fitness tracker.

• Basic fitness trackers can count the approximate number of steps you take and calculate the distance you’ve traveled using that data. They’re best for those who want to log primarily distance-based workouts like walking and running. These are typically the only devices you can find under $100.
• Heart rate monitoring trackers do everything a basic fitness tracker can, but they also have sensors that can monitor changes in your heart rate. These are typically marketed to people looking to log the calories they’ve burned throughout the day. Since the sensors are fairly inaccurate, however, we don’t actually recommend relying on them outside of monitoring approximate long-range trends.
• Heart rate monitoring trackers with GPS can do all of the above, plus communicate with satellites to triangulate your position anywhere on the globe (provided you’re not inside). This makes them a smart option for cyclists, trail runners, or anyone else looking to log distances outside.