With the sheer number of fitness trackers available on the market, it can be hard to know which one is right for you.
I've spent months comparing some of the top models, from the viral Oura Ring to Apple Watches and Garmins. Of the brands out there, Fitbit has long been a favorite for those looking for basic, accurate trackers at more affordable prices (I previously shared that the brand's Fitbit Inspire 3 is a top overall choice). Whoop is a newer brand favored by fitness lovers and even some star athletes.
I tried both the Fitbit Inspire 3 and Whoop 5.0 to see how they compare — and determine which one is best for you.
How I tested
I wore both the Fitbit Inspire 3 and Whoop 5.0 off and on for over two weeks, wearing them for a range of activities, including runs and strength training, as well as sleep. I had previously worn the Fitbit Inspire 3 for over a month and the Whoop 4.0 for more than a year, so I drew on some of my previous experiences with the devices as well.
Best for the health-obsessed:
I had previously worn the Whoop 4.0 for over a year while training for a marathon and loved the in-depth health insights it had provided, so I was excited to hear that the company was releasing a new model (and that they were going to send me one to try).
The new device is slightly smaller in size and has a longer battery life than the last one (the brand says that it can last more than 14 days), along with some additional features. The battery life is really one of the best features of the device. I've found that it can last over two weeks. And you don't even have to take it off to charge: When you select the Peak or Life membership options, you'll get a wireless charging block that you can charge separately and then slide on the device as you're wearing it, so you never miss a second of data.
The Whoop does require that you sign up for a membership plan. At the same time that it announced its newest device, the brand revealed that it was expanding its membership options to offer customers three different tiers. The One option ($199 per year) gives you all the basics, including activity monitoring, strain, sleep and recovery scores and more. The Peak membership ($239 per year) offers all of that, plus the wireless charging, Healthspan and health and stress monitoring features. The Life option ($359 per year) includes the above, as well as on-demand AFib detection, a heart screener and blood pressure insights. You can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time. The brand also offers a one-month free trial, for anyone who wants to test out the device before committing.
Even with the most basic membership option, you're able to track a variety of activities and metrics, allowing you to get a really good picture of your overall health. Each day, you'll get a sleep, strain and recovery score, to show you how recovered you are from the day before and allow you to make decisions for what your day should look like.
The sensor does a good job of automatically registering when you are doing things like walking or running, but for workouts where the movements are less clear, like strength training or Pilates, you sometimes have to manually input exactly which activity you were doing after.
For each activity you do, you'll get an estimated strain score that tells you how taxing the activity was on your body (the score can range from 0 to 21). For example, an easy, slow 4-mile run gave me a strain score of 13.1, while a 15-mile training run at my marathon goal pace gave me a score of 20.4. For strength training, you can add the weights and number of reps that you did and it will calculate the muscular load for that activity. These all factor into your strain score for the day, which includes everything from workouts to general daily movement, as well as stress and anxiety.
There's a lot of info available in the app and for those who are not used to delving deep into their health data, it can seem overwhelming at times. To make it easier, there's a built-in coach that will take all of that information (and factor in things like weather and favored activities), condense it and give you suggestions for what your activities should look like for the day, as well as insights on how to improve your sleep and recovery, ideal bedtime and more.
Each day, when you open the app, you'll be prompted to fill out the journal for the day before. You can choose which behaviors are featured here, and they include things like meditation, caffeine consumption, acupuncture, therapy sessions, certain supplements, whether or not you drank alcohol and more. Not only can you use it as a log to keep track of your behaviors, but after a consistent period of journaling, it will tell you how these things affect your health. For example (to no one's surprise), when I consume alcohol, I have a consistently lower sleep score.
Whoop also recently introduced a Healthspan feature, which is available with the Peak and Life memberships, that gives you two key metrics to help you further understand your long-term health: Whoop Age (a measure of your physiological age, this can be different that your actual age) and Pace of Aging (which is impacted by your daily lifestyle choices and can range from -1x to 3). These are calculated using nine metrics measured by the device, across sleep, strain and fitness and factors in things like sleep consistency, daily steps, time spent in heart rate zones one to three and four to five and more. It's great for anyone who is looking to see how their lifestyle affects their health and longevity outlook overall. (I also find that features like these help me get competitive with myself, engaging in more healthy behaviors to see how low I can get.)
While I love how the screen-free design helps prevent distractions and looks more discreet than other trackers, I often find myself missing the screen and being able to check on my stats as I'm exercising. This is especially the case when I run, because for many of my marathon training runs, I'm supposed to be running at specific speeds at different times and while I can generally sense how fast I'm running from how I feel, I still find myself wearing a tracker with a screen so I can monitor my exact pace.
Also, because the band is made from a soft material, unlike other trackers, it can sometimes take a while to dry after a particularly sweaty workout or a dip in the pool.
Best affordable tracker:
I previously named the Fitbit Inspire 3 the best overall fitness tracker after comparing it to the Garmin Forerunner 55 and Apple Watch SE. It delivers just about everything you could want from a tracker at an affordable price.
Just like the Whoop, you'll also get scores from the device each morning, though the device offers two: a readiness score and a stress management score, both of which range from 1 to 100. The readiness score is based on your resting heart rate, sleep and heart-rate variability. Again, it helps signal how ready you are to take on the day's activities and helps you get a better idea of how you should plan your workouts for the day or whether you should take a day off. I find that this score tends to be more generous than Whoop's and is often higher (and not as affected by things like alcohol or lack of sleep), even though its calculations for things like resting heart rate, respiratory rate and heart-rate variability tend to be pretty equal.
The stress management score is based on your heart rate, sleep and activity level data. The app allows you to manually track things like water consumption, activities, food and more, and with time, you can track how these behaviors affect both your stress management and readiness scores.
To help manage stress and boost fitness, there are also short meditation and workout videos available on the app (many of which are from Peloton). While you can access some for free, for many of them, you'll need to purchase Fitbit Premium. It is normally $10 a month, but you get six months free when you buy the device.
While many trackers take up serious real estate on your wrist, I really appreciate that this one is lightweight and small. It's also pretty simple to use. Instead of being overcomplicated with endless buttons and information, it allows you to scroll through your data, start and stop workouts and even read messages on the touch screen. But for more in-depth information, you can head to the app. One thing I will note is that the screen doesn't always register your touch, especially when your hands are cold or sweaty.
The battery is designed to last up to 10 days, but I find that with regular use and activity, I typically can go closer to seven or eight days before needing to charge.
On the app, you get access to a lot of helpful health information. Along with your daily steps, calories burned, sleep info and more, you can log your meals and weight, if that's something that you're hoping to keep track of. While the Whoop can connect with the Apple Health app for iPhone users, if you prefer to monitor your data there, the Fitbit doesn't directly connect to it.
Like the other device, the Fitbit can also automatically sense workouts and does a pretty good job of monitoring them, even when you forget to start one manually on the screen. However, when compared to the Whoop, I found that it sometimes gave me a more generous estimate for calories burned.
Best overall: Fitbit Inspire 3
If you're looking for a tracker that gives you the basic data for an affordable price, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is for you. With small exceptions, I found the data to be relatively accurate (especially when it comes to sleep tracking) and the interface to be easy to navigate. While it has some of the frills of newer devices, like daily scores and additional videos in the app, it may lack some of the additional insights for those who want a deeper look at their wellness overall.
For those people, the Whoop is an excellent choice. It provides a large amount of data for everything from sleep to workouts and stress, and has features that will help you determine how to build your days around the data. It also allows you to get an in-depth look at your health overall, with features like Healthspan and stress monitoring and can help you understand just how much certain behaviors can impact your health.
Frequently asked questions
Fitbits are generally not eligible for purchase with a Flexible Spending Account or Health Savings Account unless you have a specific doctor recommendation.
According to Whoop, its memberships and battery packs are both FSA and HSA eligible.
If you have a Whoop 4.0, you can upgrade to the 5.0 device for free if you extend your membership by 12 or 24 months. If you don't want to extend, you can upgrade by paying a fee of $49.
The Fitbit Inspire 3 comes with a charging cord that can be plugged into any USB port. The device typically takes up to two hours to fully charge.
Why trust Shop TODAY?
The Shop TODAY editors and writers search the internet to find the best products out there. We interview expert sources and use our own personal experiences with the product and brand to make shopping easier for our readers.
Emma Stessman is a writer for Shop TODAY. She has over a decade of experience in digital media — with nearly half of that time being focused on the health and wellness space. She has interviewed countless experts for her coverage around sneaker trends, skin health and wellness trends. At Shop TODAY she covers a range of topics, from fitness products to expert-approved beauty trends. She has previously compared Hoka vs. Brooks sneakers, the Oura Ring and Apple Watch SE and more.
