You’ll have simply set new health targets for your self however you’re uncertain the way to go about reaching them. Trendy wearables have made it fairly straightforward to maintain monitor of issues like your day by day step depend, coronary heart charge, sleep levels and extra, so that you spend much less time monitoring that knowledge your self and extra time specializing in different wholesome habits you’ll be able to implement. Fortunately, you don’t should ship a whole lot to get a wearable that may do this stuff for you.
Finances health trackers have come a great distance in the previous couple of years, with many now together with linked GPS monitoring for these out of doors runs, real-time coronary heart charge monitoring to maintain you in the best zone throughout exercises and extra. Plus, most work with each iPhone and Android gadgets so you’ll be able to select the best one for you and your funds with out worrying about compatibility. From easy step counters to extra superior working watches, reasonably priced health trackers provide a lot to assist your journey towards higher well being with out breaking the financial institution. These are our prime picks.
Greatest low-cost health trackers for 2025
Monitoring sort: Coronary heart charge, sleep, stress, blood oxygen, ladies’s well being | Supported Working System: Android 6.0 and above, iOS 12.0 and above | Reminiscence: 100GB | Display measurement: 1.62” | Waterproof: 5ATM water-resistant | GPS: No | Battery life: 16 days
The Xiaomi Sensible Band 8 stood out on many fronts — it not solely has the simplest interface to navigate when recording exercises, it additionally has probably the most comfy band to sleep in. This gadget has just about the whole lot you’ll count on on a health tracker, and it comes at a value that’s onerous to beat. The 1.62-inch, 192 x 490 pill-shaped AMOLED show is full colour and shines fairly vibrant each indoors and out. Though it would not have a bodily navigation button, you’ll be able to transfer by way of the UI by swiping up and down, or left and proper.
The Sensible Band 8 is kind of comfy, however what actually made it safe the highest slot is how detailed its exercise stories had been. Not like a few of the different trackers we examined, the Sensible Band 8 doesn’t require you to obtain any workouts from its companion app. That means, you will get proper into monitoring workouts as area of interest as snowboarding. When a exercise is full, you get all the data you’d need in your wrist – from coronary heart charge readings to tempo and velocity, to energy burned and extra. It might sound primary, however a few of the different trackers we examined solely report step depend and distance traveled after a stroll. The period of time spent in every coronary heart charge zone will seem in your abstract, from mild, intensive, cardio to anaerobic.
Xiaomi’s tracker additionally has a novel “Pebble” mode, which lets you clip on the tracker to shoelaces utilizing a particular case to assemble working and biking knowledge. Utilizing Pebble mode, you will get a greater breakdown of the way you carried out throughout a dash -– specifically stats like flight ratio and floor contact time, together with basic details about your working type.
The tracker was straightforward to go to sleep with due to how light-weight and comfy it’s. The do-not-disturb characteristic is simple to activate from the watch face and I did not have any points with the display waking me up at evening. The sleep insights after sporting it in a single day impressed me with their element. Proper on my wrist, I used to be capable of find out how lengthy I slept and in addition obtained an in depth sleep graph that confirmed me after I was in mild and deep sleep. This was all free, on my wrist and it was additional damaged down for me within the Mi app. I additionally was capable of collect data on my common HR throughout sleep and my respiration patterns.
Additionally, importantly, Xiamo’s spectacular battery claims checked out – the Sensible Band 8 solely wants half-hour on a charger earlier than being fueled up for about two weeks of use. I by no means nervous about not with the ability to monitor my exercise or sleep.
- Straightforward to navigate interface
- Full colour show
- Comfy design that helps Pebble mode
- Good health monitoring and sleep monitoring
- Lengthy battery life
- No bodily navigation button
Amazfit
Monitoring sort: Coronary heart charge, sleep, stress, blood oxygen, ladies’s well being | Supported Working System: Android 7.0 and above, iOS 12.0 and above | Reminiscence: 2.3GB | Display measurement: 1.47” | Waterproof: 5ATM water-resistant | GPS: No | Battery life: 18 days
The Amazfit Band 7, just like the Xiaomi Band 8, has the entire exercises you’ll be able to monitor pre-loaded in your wrist. It additionally has a novel interface that permits you to set a customized objective, like burning 500 energy, earlier than beginning a exercise. Plus, it incorporates a beneficiant 18 days of battery life (or extra when you allow battery-saver mode).
The Amazfit band has a particular scoring system known as PAI, which stands for “Personal Activity Intelligence.” This metric is derived out of your coronary heart charge throughout all actions (even ones that do not contain tracked exercises) and provides you a numeric rating from 1 to 100. You wish to get your rating as near 100 as potential, by way of exercises and relaxation, to maintain your total coronary heart well being robust. Just like the Xiaomi Sensible Band 8, the Amazfit Band 7 offers a person a breakdown of their total coronary heart charge zone exercise on the watch face.
The watch additionally has a novel “one tap measure” that offers you insights into your coronary heart charge, blood oxygen ranges and even a stress rating based mostly in your coronary heart charge variability.
There are some downsides to the Band 7, although, specifically that it’s significantly slower than the Xiaomi Sensible Band 8 in relation to beginning and ending train periods. It additionally doesn’t have a bodily navigation button, making it typically onerous to exit a web page. That may have been one thing I may have ignored if the watch’s show had been a bit on par with the Xiaomi Band 8’s. Regardless of having an AMOLED colour show, the Band 7’s display was typically onerous to view even indoors.
It does get brownie factors for being a bit extra comfy to sleep in than a few of the others we examined, nevertheless it nonetheless takes some getting used to. In the event you do sleep with the Band 7 for per week although, you will get an in-depth sleep evaluation about your susceptibility for circumstances like sleep apnea. The caveat is that it is advisable pay a premium for this extra detailed sleep report. Via the Zepp app (previously Amazfit) you’ll be able to pay $10 month-to-month or $50 yearly for a premium subscription, which additionally consists of meditation content material and an AI sleep coach.
- Helps customized objective setting per exercise
- Good exercise and sleep monitoring
- Comfy design
- Gradual efficiency
- No bodily navigation button
Fitbit
Monitoring sort: Coronary heart charge, sleep, stress, blood oxygen, ladies’s well being | Supported Working System: Android 10.0 and above, iOS 15.0 and above | Reminiscence: 6.4GB | Display measurement: 0.7” | Waterproof: 5ATM water-resistant | GPS: No | Battery life: 10 days
I anticipated extra out of the Fitbit Encourage 3 as a result of, nicely, it’s Fitbit. Additionally, contemplating it is the costliest tracker on the checklist, you’ll assume you’ll get extra. The tracker does serve its objective -– it will probably report your exercises. Nevertheless, solely 6 sorts of actions may be tracked at a time. So as to add extra area of interest workouts like a weight-lifting routine, it is advisable open the Fitbit app and swap one train widget for an additional. It does give a rudimentary breakdown of your energy burned, coronary heart charge, and the entire stuff you would usually wish to get in a efficiency report. Compared to the Fitbit Cost 6, the Fitbit Encourage 3 doesn’t boast a built-in GPS, so you need to take your telephone with you to precisely report tempo or distance.
One factor I do recognize concerning the Fitbit Encourage 3 is its Energetic Zone Minute breakdown after a exercise is tracked. This can be a characteristic distinctive to Fitbit that calculates how onerous your exercises had been and the way a lot fats you burned within the course of. The app does job of breaking down different well being metrics throughout train and may inform you how a lot restoration you want earlier than your subsequent exercise. It is good to have that data, however the truth that it is advisable pull out your telephone to get deeper insights is usually a nuisance.
The Encourage 3 additionally doesn’t will let you straight log menstrual cycle knowledge on it, whereas the Xiaomi Band 8 and Amazfit Band 7 do. The battery life on this tracker is on par with what the corporate says, although. It fees to full in below 45 minutes and dies after about 10 days of use. So in between monitoring exercises and gathering sleep knowledge, I didn’t have to fret a lot about lacking an evening of sleep monitoring to cost it in a single day. The Fitbit Encourage 3 is comfy to sleep with, possibly even barely extra comfy than the Amazfit Band 7, however the truth that its sleep teaching is just obtainable for premium Fitbit subscribers does take away from the enchantment.
- Helps Energetic Zone Minutes monitoring
- Good battery life
- Comfy design
- Can’t manually add menstrual cycle knowledge straight from the band
- A number of knowledge hidden behind Fitbit Premium paywall
What to search for in an affordable health tracker
The entire greatest health trackers ought to have at the least three options: a program to trace exercises or motion of some type, the choice to watch and accumulate sleep levels knowledge and the power to do issues like coronary heart charge monitoring and blood oxygen degree monitoring (although, the readings may not be tremendous correct). Don’t set your sights too excessive and count on metrics like blood strain monitoring; for that, you’d have to spend money on a dearer wearable like a Samsung Galaxy Watch, which can set you again over $400.
Health options
An affordable exercise tracker may be nice for somebody seeking to hold tabs on small, achievable targets like 10,000 steps earlier than sunset or half-hour of a HIIT exercise to get your coronary heart charge peaking. An skilled long-distance runner seeking to prepare for a triathlon would possibly go for a dearer gadget that may measure cadence or floor contact time, and may monitor extra customizable exercises, provide completely different sports activities modes or give deeper insights into efficiency knowledge.
On the very least, a funds exercise tracker ought to be capable to provide health monitoring options past strolling and working — in any other case, it might simply be a pedometer. The variety of actions a tool will acknowledge varies. Some will get funky with it and take into account skateboarding a exercise, whereas others received’t be capable to monitor a leaping jack.
At this value, you’ll be able to count on a tool to measure a mixture of cardio, machine exercises and energy coaching. With every, you would possibly get a numerical or visible breakdown of coronary heart charge exercise, total tempo, and energy burned per session. Though some low-cost trackers can provide a extremely good overview of coronary heart charge zone exercise throughout a exercise, a extra technically superior gadget would possibly be capable to go a step additional and clarify what your outcomes imply and coach you on the way to hold your coronary heart charge in a selected bracket with the intention to burn extra fats per exercise. I discovered that the extra budget-friendly the gadget, the extra seemingly it’s {that a} tracker will fall brief in relation to good counseling or providing predictive insights past a given exercise. If a funds tracker does occur to supply some semblance of a training program, you’ll be able to count on it to take a seat behind a paywall.
Exercise monitoring and planning your restoration is simply as important to any health journey. A sub-$100 gadget ought to be capable to inform you how lengthy you’ve slept and supply a breakdown of deep, mild and REM sleep levels. It is not a assure that you’re going to get a sleep “score” or insights on the way to get higher relaxation — that knowledge is often discovered on dearer wearables. Additionally, as a result of these trackers aren’t designed for bedtime particularly — be conscious of consolation. The bands and watch face on a funds health tracker might not be ultimate for getting some good shut-eye.
Connectivity and practicality
Not all exercise trackers, budget-friendly or not, are designed to seamlessly combine with a smartphone. The trackers examined for this roundup can’t straight make calls or ship texts to contacts on a paired iPhone or Android smartphone. They’ll, nonetheless, show and dismiss incoming calls and notifications through a Bluetooth connection. You may neglect about checking your electronic mail or paying for a espresso out of your wrist utilizing these extra reasonably priced gadgets.
Most inexpensive health trackers additionally will not embody built-in GPS monitoring. As a substitute, they often rely upon a paired smartphone to assemble location knowledge. The downside of utilizing a health tracker with out GPS is that it may not present as exact for monitoring distance or tempo. You can also’t use a funds tracker to get turn-by-turn instructions throughout a stroll or whereas working errands. For the extra outdoorsy shoppers, having GPS may very well be a key security characteristic if you need this type of performance at your fingertips.
Design
You additionally would possibly discover that an affordable health tracker is more durable to navigate than a extra superior smartwatch. Whether or not or not it’s a display measurement situation or just not having a sensible sufficient interface, do not count on each characteristic to be one which you can have interaction with straight in your wrist. Oftentimes, you have to to drag out your smartphone to log data or entry extra in-depth well being knowledge.
The standard and construct of shows and bands will even differ on this class. Don’t count on the very best decision OLED shows or the fanciest supplies within the bands. However you’ll be able to count on some degree of sweat and water resistance.
Different low-cost health trackers we examined
Wyze Watch 47c
I did not have excessive expectations of the Wyze Watch 47c, however I used to be shocked at how little this tracker can do. The 47c can solely monitor walks and runs. It has a devoted widget, a small brand of a person working, and once you faucet it, it begins measuring your tempo, coronary heart charge, energy burned and mileage. It doesn’t auto-detect or auto-pause exercises and it would not differentiate between a run and stroll. Most significantly, this gadget can’t monitor some other workouts. It’s mainly a glorified pedometer.
The 47c was additionally my least favourite to sleep with, primarily as a result of the sq. watch face is so massive and heavy. Even when I did handle to sleep by way of the evening with it on, it solely gave me a primary sleep report.
Garmin vivofit 4
The Garmin vivofit 4 has a tiny show that’s not a touchscreen and all navigation occurs by way of one button. The watch face is unimaginable to learn outdoor and the train widget can also be very finicky. To begin monitoring a run, you need to maintain down the principle button and flip by way of some pages till you get to a transferring particular person icon. As soon as there, you need to press the underside proper nook of the bar and maintain down and when you press for too lengthy or within the improper spot, it’ll swap to a different web page, like a stopwatch. It’s extremely irritating.
When you begin a run although, it is going to begin monitoring your steps, your distance — and that is just about it. It doesn’t auto-detect or auto-pause exercises. It would not provide you with a warning of any mileage or calorie milestones.
