The Best Fitbits of 2021

Easy to use, comfortable to wear, and jam-packed with health-tracking features, the Fitbit Charge 5 is our favorite fitness tracker. It’s small enough to satisfy those who prefer the size of a fitness tracker over a smartwatch, but has a screen large enough to comfortably swipe through your stats on the device. With the Charge 5, you get a plethora of fitness tracking features like 24/7 heart rate monitoring, summarized sleep data, exercise statistics, and stress tracking all at your fingertips, which makes it a great pick for those who prefer looking at their information on their wrist instead of opening up an app.

The Charge 5 is slightly smaller than its predecessor and our former top pick, Charge 4 (it’s 10% thinner, according to Fitbit), and is comfortable to wear both while lounging and exercising. Its screen is twice as bright as the Charge 4’s and has an “always on” display option, which makes it easy to read when you’re outside in the sun. It’s easy to scroll through and responsive to touch, even in the middle of a sweaty workout.

The built-in GPS is easy to use, thanks to the tracker’s exercise shortcuts. To record a walking, running, or cycling workout, swipe on the home screen to the exercise tab, select which activity you want to complete, and tap the start button. If you have your phone with you, the GPS takes only seconds to connect, and we didn’t experience any connectivity issues during the testing process. If you don’t have your phone, the GPS takes longer to connect—about 15 to 20 seconds. However, you don't need to wait around for the GPS before taking off. We found the Charge 5 to accurately estimate where an activity began and adjust the distance traveled.

While exercising, you can view information such as your average pace, distance traveled, calories burned, and more on your tracker. You can also keep tabs on your heart rate throughout your workout by turning on the heart rate zone alerts. I used these notifications during a HIIT cycling class and found they helped me push myself into the next heart rate zone during intense periods and gauge when my heart rate finally settled during recovery periods. That said, wrist heart rate will never be as accurate as the heart rate recorded from a chest strap, so if you must track your pulse for medical reasons, it’s best not to rely on the Charge 5.

In the Fitbit app, you can later view your route as well as your heart rate and pace on the map so you can see where they increased and decreased along your run, walk, or bike ride. For example, stretches of your route where your heart rate was in a lower zone are marked in yellow, but sections where your heart rate increased are marked in orange and red accordingly.

We found Fitbit’s sleep tracking to be accurate and it comes with some extra bells and whistles users might find interesting. Aside from monitoring the sleep stages (awake, light, deep, and REM), the Charge 5 keeps tabs on your heart rate, restlessness, and estimated oxygen variation (the changes in your blood oxygen saturation). Though this isn’t a diagnostic tool, frequent spikes in oxygen variation could indicate breathing disturbances during your sleep you may want to talk to a doctor about.

The Charge 5 also has electrodermal activity (EDA) sensors that can help you track your stress levels. These EDA sensors measure electrical changes in your skin that can indicate how stressed you are. To use the EDA scanner, you swipe over to the EDA tab and start a session, in which you will hold the sensors (which are on the sides of the screen) between your fingers for three minutes. This helps inform your Fitbit of your stress level, which gets rated on a scale from one to 100, and you can log in the app how you are feeling afterwards.

Though all the features of the Charge 5 are helpful to have—or at the very least, interesting to view—the abundance of data can make using the tracker feel overwhelming at times. Unfortunately, Fitbit doesn’t let you customize all the pre-loaded tabs and features, so you can’t get rid of the ones you don’t regularly use. This lack of customization can make the device more difficult to use than it needs to be, and be frustrating for those who aren’t used to having so many data points available on their tracker.

Still, the Charge 5 impressed us with its ability to track so many different aspects of health. So for those looking for a fitness tracker that keeps tabs on exercise, stress, and sleep, check out the Charge 5.

The Fitbit Versa 3 is not the most advanced smartwatch out there (that mantle falls to Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Active 2. Nor does it offer the most advanced health and fitness features (Apple Watch and Fitbit’s own Sense has it beat there). But for most people who want detailed, actionable activity tracking and who want handy smartwatch features in one reasonably priced package, we recommend you consider the Versa 3 over the others.

The Versa 3 is an upgraded version of the Versa 2, which we reviewed positively on its own merits when it first launched. Versa 3 bests its predecessor—and many competitors—all the way around.

For activity tracking, Versa 3 has all the great fitness and sleep features of our favorite tracker Charge 5, including built-in GPS for recording outdoor walks, runs, and bike rides. It also has an updated heart rate sensor (the first time in years Fitbit has improved this, also for the Sense watch), which supposedly is more accurate. (Wrist-based heart rate monitoring should never be taken as gospel, but the numbers it recorded seemed fine for general workout-exertion guidance. Either way, Fitbit’s three-zone heart rate scale leaves a lot to be desired. Versa 3 has a blood-oxygen sensor (like several other devices) and a skin-temperature sensor (less common), which it uses to inform sleep tracking. (Your skin temp naturally fluctuates overnight.)

Unfortunately, the advanced analysis in Fitbit’s “Health Metrics Dashboard” is kept behind a paywall in its Premium app. While six months of Premium access is currently included with the purchase of a new Versa 3, you have to pay $9.99 per month to keep it up—frankly, we don’t love Fitbit’s decision to make users spend more money for details about their health, tracked by the device they already paid for. (Sense has even more, er, sensors—and more data behind the paywall—which are among the reasons we recommend Versa 3 above it. Read more about Sense below.)

Still, what you get for free with Versa 3 is more than adequate to help inform changes and improve habits for better fitness and/or sleep quality. For example, you get the average temperature of your skin while you sleep (in relation to your average waking temp), but you can’t see a chart of how your temp fluctuated, or receive insights into why this matters, without the app upgrade. Premium users also get access to workout programs, guided meditations, and more, which could be worth the additional cost for you, independent of that “advanced” health data.

Something that may be worth an additional cost is upgrading the band. The one it comes with it is stiff, hot, and tough to close, but you can buy a much more comfortable woven fabric strap for $40.

Smartwatch-wise, Versa 3 has bothbuilt-in Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice controls and audible responses, and the ability to answer phone calls over Bluetooth. (Android users also get voice-to-text replies, which is a nice bonus.) Versa 3, like many other smartwatches, also stores and plays music via Bluetooth to your own wireless headphones. Fitbit has “Fitbit Pay”, its version of Apple Pay) and an ever-expanding catalog of smartwatch apps, including Spotify, Strava, Starbucks … and that’s just ones that start with S. It’s not as expansive as what you’d get with Apple and watches built on Android, but plenty if you’re looking to dip your toes in using your watch in place of your phone.

The bottom line: If you want a smartwatch-featured, well-equipped activity tracker, Versa 3 offers a great option that’s not too pricey. If you must have a top-of-the-line smartwatch that also provides solid fitness tracking, Apple and Samsung are your better bets.