The best cheap fitness trackers for 2024 | TechRadar

Keep fit on a budget with the best cheap fitness trackers

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The best cheap fitness trackers give you an easy and affordable way to keep tabs on your workouts, walks, and general health metrics if you're on a budget. Many of the best fitness trackers you can buy today are advanced devices but are also expensive, aimed more at experienced exercisers or people with specific training goals. If you want a simpler option to track your couch-to-5K program or to make sure you hit your daily 10k steps, then one of the best cheap fitness trackers is a great choice.

Although you won't find the advanced tech or high-end features of more expensive devices in this best cheap fitness trackers guide, we've tested a range of trackers and smartwatches over the years and each option in this list has been selected for a reason.

Some are, surprisingly, packed with insightful metrics, others are incredibly comfortable, some boast a brilliant battery and most are easy to use for complete beginners. Some are older models, but still great pieces of tech well worth picking up for a song.

The data you can track on your fitness tracker is different depending on which device you're using. Many offer always-on heart rate tracking, and some have built-in GPS, which makes them a perfect running companion. However, if you’re serious about running, take a look at our best running watches picks instead.

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Best overall

The best cheap fitness tracker overall

The fitness tracker that has it all: accurate sensors and plenty of them, a big display, and data feedback in abundance. Xiaomi don't have the longest history of making fitness trackers but they've certainly created something special here.

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Best for running

The best cheap fitness tracker for running

Tracking runs is easy with on-board GPS and a map display showing where you've traveled. You'll also get an EDA (electrodermal activity) sensor for measuring stress responses, sleep tracking, and heart rate monitoring for comprehensive fitness tracking.

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Best cheap display

The best cheap fitness tracker for the screen

With a big 1.47-inch AMOLED screen and a thin body less than 1cm thick, the Huawei Band 7 looks and feels great. Step tracking, sleep tracking, and SpO2 monitoring give you the tools to keep on top of your health.

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Best for beginners

The best cheap fitness tracker for beginners

Measure steps, heart rate, heart rate variability, and stress with this excellent fitness tracker. Guided breathing exercises guide you through releasing stress while sleep tracking helps you get a better night's sleep.

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Best cheap Garmin

The best cheap fitness tracker from Garmin

A lightweight, lean fitness tracker that is all about the data. It might not look as good as other options but it has a whole host of great insights to track your health across a wide variety of metrics.

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Our expert review:

All of the fitness trackers in this buying guide are budget-friendly but the Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro sets itself apart as being one of the best across the board. We love the fact that you can get it for around $90 / £60 / AU$95, making it an ideal option for hobbyists and those wanting to buy their very first tracker.

The inclusion of on-board GPS tracking means you can go out for a run or cycle without needing to take your phone with you. We would expect to see other cheap fitness trackers follow suit so as not to be left behind the competition.

Heart rate and oxygen saturation accuracy are up there with the best thanks to Xiaomi's “next-generation data algorithms.” The array of sensors provides all the data users need to improve their fitness over time.

We would like to have seen some better smartwatch features including payments and music downloads but their absence is more than made up for with fitness tracking features and excellent battery life.

Read our full Xiaomi Smart Band 8 Pro review

Our expert review:

The Fitbit Charge 5 is a fantastic choice for runners thanks to its built-in GPS, bright AMOLED screen, and data-centric philosophy. The lightweight and slimline design makes this a tracker that blends into the background for all the right reasons.

The Charge 5's heart rate monitoring is also extremely good, especially when your workouts go to the next level. We also love the stress-measuring app, which helps users identify when life is getting difficult to handle.

One of the advanced features of the Charge 5 is ECG monitoring which can detect signs of heart arrhythmia that should be investigated by a doctor. Note that you'll need a Fitbit premium subscription to access this feature but with six-month free trials available, you could easily give it a go to see if it works for you.

But this isn't just a fitness tracker. The Charge 5 also makes an excellent smartwatch. Live notifications, call alerts, and contactless payments mean your watch can replace many of the functions your phone currently fulfills. We would like to have seen music playback functionality but it's a small downside to an otherwise excellent tracker.

Read our full Fitbit Charge 5 review

Our expert review:

Thanks to Huawei's problems in the States, it's tough for folks over there to get hold of the Huawei Band 7, which is a shame: it's an undeniably impressive fitness tracker at an impressively low price.

With step tracking we found it to be just as accurate as an Apple Watch. It features a nice big 1.47-inch AMOLED screen, and a thin body less than 1cm thick, it's a slender piece of kit, but still packs lots of great fitness tools. TruSleep 2.0 tracks sleep states and offers a more detailed breakdown of phases of sleep, comparing favorably to Apple -although at the time we tested, Apple's updated sleep functions hadn't launched.

It's even got SpO2 sensors and training metrics to aid blood pressure management. It's a really good (and crucially very cheap) fitness tool if you can get your hands on one. Heartily recommended.

Read our full Huawei Band 7 review

Our expert review:

The Fitbit Inspire 3 has replaced its predecessor, the Inspire 2, as the best cheap fitness tracker for beginners you can buy today. Although there are other activity bands with more modest price tags, the Inspire 3 offers the most bang for your buck. Not surprisingly, it's also one of the best Fitbits overall, with a lot of the same Fitbit features like the Daily Readiness Score and Active Zone Minutes on the premium models.

The Inspire 3 measures steps and heart rate throughout the day, and the Fitbit Inspire 3 also tracks heart rate variability and stress, how long you spend in different heart rate zones during workouts, and your breathing rate. It can guide you through breathing exercises, score your cardio fitness level, and track your sleep stages each night.

The Fitbit Inspire 3 doesn't have its own built-in GPS chip, but it can piggyback on your phone's GPS to accurately track and map runs, walks, and bike rides as long as they aren't too far apart. You can check these out later in the Fitbit app and even sync them to other apps like Strava.

Like other Fitbit devices, this cheap fitness tracker comes with a free one-year subscription to Fitbit Premium, which gives you access to instructor-led workouts, meditation sessions, and nutrition plans. It's not as good as the one-year Inspire 2 subscription, but the new features are probably just enough to justify getting the updated model.

Read our full Fitbit Inspire 3 review

Our expert review:

There are several things to consider when choosing a fitness tracker, but it gets trickier when you're trying to find a cheap one. That's because you're working with a smaller budget, which means you can't exactly go for the best money can buy. Luckily, quite a few affordable fitness trackers will see you through most of your health, fitness, and wellness needs.

Be sure to consider what type of activity you enjoy most. For example, if you're into cycling or running, you should get a cheap fitness tracker with a built-in GPS module. If you just want a device to log your workouts and track your sleep, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is your best bet. It doesn't have GPS, but it can monitor your energy levels with its Daily Readiness Score, and use Active Zone Minutes to tot up how much activity, both active and passive, you're doing each week.

That's necessary to track your route and speed accurately. If you're training for an arduous multi-day hike up a mountain or a marathon, you might be better off with a proper fitness watch, or a tracker with GPS like the Fitbit Charge 4. If you frequently find yourself too tired to exercise, the Vivosmart 4's Body Battery metric can monitor your recovery and tell you the best time to work out.

Make sure you have a list of stats you require, especially for everyday use, and pick the best cheap fitness tracker that offers them. You might have to sacrifice some, but not too many, since many of these trackers are feature-filled. Battery life is also something to consider, as are display, resolution, and design.

Testing cheap fitness trackers mainly involves using them in our day-to-day for a week or more. That's the best and most efficient way of seeing how much data they gather, how accurate they are, how well they perform, and how comfortable they are on our wrists.

Naturally, we put them through different fitness and wellness activities, from different workouts to things like breathing exercises and sleep. That way, we can test aspects like the heart rate monitor's accuracy and responsiveness, GPS accuracy, and build or ruggedness. We'll also measure the heart rate and exercise metrics against a control smartwatch during physical exercise.

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Matt is TechRadar's expert on all things fitness, wellness and wearable tech. A former staffer at Men's Health, he holds a Master's Degree in journalism from Cardiff and has written for brands like Runner's World, Women's Health, Men's Fitness, LiveScience and Fit&Well on everything fitness tech, exercise, nutrition and mental wellbeing.

Matt's a keen runner, ex-kickboxer, not averse to the odd yoga flow, and insists everyone should stretch every morning. When he’s not training or writing about health and fitness, he can be found reading doorstop-thick fantasy books with lots of fictional maps in them.

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