is a senior reporter focusing on wearables, health tech, and more with 13 years of experience. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.
Fitness trackers have come a long way from the simple bands that tracked steps and little else. Modern trackers can monitor everything from your heart health to how well you’ve recovered from a hard bout of training. Even flagship smartwatches, which used to be lackluster trackers, have become pretty adept workout companions. Whatever your fitness goals are, there’s probably a fitness tracker that can help you achieve them.
Compared to some other gadgets, wearables are incredibly personal, which means there are a few extra considerations you’ll have to take into account before reaching for your wallet. It makes it hard to say that any one fitness tracker is the best for everyone. Thankfully, the best thing about fitness trackers in 2025 is that there’s enough variety to fit into every kind of lifestyle.
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What we’re looking for How we test fitness trackers Collapse Fitness trackers are meant to help you keep track of your health and activity. We do a mix of benchmark testing and experiential, real-life testing. That means snoozing with them, taking them out on GPS activities like runs and hikes, working up a sweat in several workouts, and comparing how they do against long-term control devices for heart rate, sleep, and GPS accuracy. Some factors we consider in our rankings are durability, performance, accuracy versus consistency in metrics, and of course, battery life. Audience Collapse Who is this fitness tracker for? The ideal fitness tracker for hardcore athletes will look different than the best one for casual users looking to get a few more steps in. Battery life Collapse A fitness tracker should be able to go at least two to three days between charges. If it’s a flagship smartwatch, it should at least offer quick charging. Form factor Collapse Is it a band or a smartwatch? Is it comfortable to wear 24/7? Metrics Collapse What metrics does this device track? We prioritize active minutes over steps and calorie burn, but health metrics like resting heart rate, VO2 Max, and sleep quality are plusses. Consistency Collapse Accuracy is nice, but it’s more important for measuring progress that your device delivers consistent results for heart rate, distance tracking, and steps. Platform Collapse Certain trackers are limited to specific phone ecosystems — others will work regardless of what your phone is. We prioritize the latter wherever possible.
Best fitness tracker overall
Size: 43mm w/ 20mm straps / Weight: 29.5g for standard, 31.7g for premium / Battery life: Up to 10 days / Display type: OLED touchscreen / GPS: Five GNSS systems / Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi / Water resistance: 5ATM / Music storage: N/A
Hear us out: the Amazfit Active 2 is the new all-rounder on the block. Smartwatches are definitely getting more high-tech, but the Active 2 keeps the spirit of a humble fitness tracker — a good price, all the basic health features with a holistic tracking approach, and a comfy yet stylish design. At $99.99 for the standard version, and $129.99 for the premium version with a leather band, you get an incredible amount of bang for your buck.
The hardware and design are surprisingly chic for the price. The standard version has a stainless steel case and tempered glass screen, while the premium version bumps you up to sapphire crystal and gets you an extra leather strap. The screen itself is nice and bright at 2,000 nits and you get an estimated 10 days of regular use on a single charge. (In testing, I got closer to eight to nine days as a power-user.) European users also get NFC payments.
I almost never get compliments on budget trackers. I got several while wearing the Active 2. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
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