Best Budget Fitness Tracker for 2023 [Our Reviews and Comparisons]

best budget fitness tracker

Fitness trackers have become very popular now. For some, it is a status symbol and for some, it is an activity tracker. Whatever the purpose may be, this wearable device is very useful. It has several benefits that can make your life more convenient.

Fitness trackers essentially function as self-trackers. Depending on the tracker it lets you watch and record your heart rate, daily burned calories, and step counts. This motivates you to do regular exercise and follow a healthy diet.

There are countless fitness trackers in the market and all of them boast great features. Some of these high-end fitness trackers end up costing a bomb. However, there are budget-friendly options to consider that offer similar features.

See Related Topic: Best Running Watches For 2020 [Our Reviews and Comparisons]

Here is a list of 12 best budget fitness trackers that can save you money plus have a wealth of useful features.

PRODUCTFEATURESLATEST PRICE
1. Amazfit Bip
  • Inexpensive
  • 30-day battery life
  • Stylish
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2. Xiaomi Mi Band 3
  • Reasonably priced
  • Sports mode
  • Waterproof
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3. Withings Move
  • Multisport tracking
  • Long-lasting battery life
  • Message beeps are replaced with simple vibrations
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4. Garmin Vivofit 4
  • Water-resistant
  • Long battery life
  • Tracks workout sessions
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5. Samsung Galaxy Fit E 2019
  • User friendly for beginners
  • Accurate tracking of heart rate, activity, sleep
  • 7-day battery life
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6. Huawei Band 3 Pro
  • AMOLED touchscreen display
  • Swim tracking
  • Heart rate monitor
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7. Fitbit Inspire
  • Notifications
  • 5-day battery life on one charge
  • The screen displays clear text and is illuminated
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8. Wyze Band
  • Affordable
  • Bright display
  • Long battery life
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9. Fitbit Inspire HR
  • Affordable
  • Lightweight design
  • Accurate sleep-tracking
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10. Wahoo TICKR FIT
  • Real-time heart rate data tracking
  • No need for chest strap
  • Bluetooth connectivity
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11. GScosche Rhythm +
  • Accurate heart rate monitor
  • Reasonably priced
  • Supports both ANT+ and Bluetooth devices
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12. Honor Band 5
  • Excellent fitness tracker
  • Swim tracking
  • Music controls
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Our Best Budget Fitness Tracker Reviews and Comparisons

1. Amazfit Bip

Product Highlights

Huami’s Amazfit Bip is a budget-friendly smartwatch with an attractive design. This fitness tracker attracts users with its long-lasting battery life. The battery can last a couple of weeks even after constant use. The Amazfit Bip is a favorite among fitness enthusiasts as it can last an entire workout session without powering off.

Features

The Bip functions on its proprietary operating system along with the Mi Fit companion app. Mi Fit syncs with the watch taking control of tracking and record keeping. The app can even link you to the Apple Health app.

Amazfit Bip is a great smartwatch for fitness tracking if you require only basic metrics. It can also track other fitness functions such as sleep cycles, heart rate, weight, BMI, and exercise performed.

What We Like About the Amazfit Bip

It has a long-lasting battery life and sports a stylish design.

What We Don’t Like About the Amazfit Bip

The user interface of this device can be improved.

PROS

  • Inexpensive
  • 30-day battery life
  • Stylish

CONS

  • Interface not user friendly
  • Cannot respond to notifications

2. Xiaomi Mi Band 3

Product Highlights

The Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is an affordable fitness tracker with basic fitness tracking features. It has water resistance technology and can be a great companion during your swimming sessions. This is an efficient fitness tracker for those who want to monitor their workout regime and improve their lifestyle.

Features

The Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is a lightweight device that can handle notifications and phone calls. The tracker provides accurate activity tracking and uses GPS data from your paired phone for better distance tracking.

This fitness tracker is a real-time sports data activity tracker and has an adjustable sports mode. The battery life can last for a couple of weeks so you can go on long runs with it. It does not detect the mode of physical activity that you are doing, however, it will count the steps you have taken. Records your exercise or take a heart rate measurement.

The battery life can last for over 10 days with constant use and tracking which is not bad at the price at which it is offered. However, when the watch is on exercise mode the battery level was noted to drain much faster.

What We Like About the Xiaomi Mi Band 3

Water-resistant technology lets you wear it while surfing, swimming, and even running during rains.

What We Don’t Like About the Xiaomi Mi Band 3

This fitness tracker cannot detect the mode of physical activity

PROS

  • Reasonably priced
  • Sports mode
  • Waterproof
  • Slimline design

CONS

  • Cannot edit the steps count
  • No GPS
  • Poor screen visibility in daylight
  • No connected apps

3. Withings Move

Product Highlights

Withings introduced the Move and Move ECG, its two new releases at CES 2019. While the Move ECG is equipped with an electrocardiogram as the name suggests, the Move is an attractive watch that can track your steps, record activities like indoor cycling on the Health Mate app. It connects to GPS to map your distance, pace, and elevation. You can also set your morning alarm and it will wake you up with a simple vibration.

Features

The Withings Move is a fitness tracker that looks like a standard watch. It sports traditional watch hands and a round display just like other similar watches. There is a subdial in the display which keeps track of all your everyday activity.

This is a very basic activity tracker. The watch features connected GPS, multisport activity, sleep tracking, and water resistance up to 50m enough for a casual swim. Since there are no advanced features this battery can last months without being charged.

The Withings Move promises to last 18 months after full charging. People who are casual athletes and those who want a basic fitness tracker to monitor their workout sessions will not be disappointed by the performance of this device.

What We Like About the Withings Move

You can customize the Withings Move with different color schemes to suit your personal style.

What We Don’t Like About the Withings Move

It lacks smartphone notifications, so you can’t respond to text messages. The sleep tracker and connected GPS locations are inaccurate.

PROS

  • Multisport tracking
  • Long-lasting battery life
  • Message beeps are replaced with simple vibrations
  • Affordable
  • Attractive

CONS

  • No heart rate monitor
  • No advanced features
  • The plastic face scratches easily

4. Garmin Vivofit 4

Product Highlights

Garmin Vivofit 4 is a compact fitness tracker with a wealth of features. Sporting an always-on customizable color display the tracker boasts battery life for over a year, so you don’t have to remember to charge it.

Features

A pool friendly activity tracker, the Garmin Vivofit 4 features the integrated Move IQ system. This technology helps automatic activity detection supported by Garmin Connect. Moreover, syncing to the app requires two long presses on the Vivofit’s button.

Each activity type is classified once it’s been synced. The fitness device can track steps, sleep, distance, and calories burned. It will also provide a personalized daily step count goal, keeping you motivated to get a regular workout. It can run a screen and track workout sessions without charging for one year long, so you never have to remember to charge.

Once you open the app there is a detailed breakdown of your activity on the dashboard. Your most recent workout sessions will be highlighted on the top. If you swipe down it will show your stats from the previous day, letting you judge your progress. It also gives you a breakdown of the last seven days of your daily averages.

What We Like About the Garmin Vivofit 4

It has a long battery life of over a year.

What We Don’t Like About the Garmin Vivofit 4

There is no heart rate monitor. Also, the running metrics aren’t accurate.

PROS

  • Water-resistant
  • Long battery life
  • Tracks workout sessions
  • Displays a breakdown of metrics

CONS

  • No heart rate monitor
  • Small screen

5. Samsung Galaxy Fit E 2019

Product Highlights

Samsung’s Galaxy Fit E 2019 is an appealing tracker ] for beginners. It is a lightweight device accompanying a bright and beautiful screen. It weighs just 23g and won’t bother you during your workout session.

Features

Featuring a simple monochrome touchscreen display, this tracker is super slim and serves as an excellent companion for all your workout sessions. Included is an auto workout tracking for walking, running, and dynamic workout.

A heart rate sensor for biometric data. This tracker is water-resistant enough for a casual swim. The battery can last for 6 to 7 days. For strong battery life, the company has sacrificed the support of the Tizen operating system found on the company’s other devices.

What We Like About the Samsung’s Galaxy Fit e

It is waterproof and possesses a bright screen.

What We Don’t Like About the Samsung’s Galaxy Fit e

There is no connected GPS.

PROS

  • User friendly for beginners
  • Accurate tracking of heart rate, activity, sleep
  • 7-day battery life
  • Slim design

CONS

  • No connected GPS
  • Limited watch faces

6. Huawei Band 3 Pro

Product Highlights

Huawei Band 3 Pro is another water-resistant fitness tracker. Like its predecessor Huawei Band 2 Pro, it is a budget-friendly activity tracker that is priced well under $100 and packs a bunch of features. This classic flat-edged thick band is lightweight and easy to wear all day and night in comfort.

Features

Fitted with a color 0.95-inch rectangle AMOLED display, the screen is bright all the time improving visibility. The battery lasts roughly four to five days after a full charging session.

Accurately tracks step and sleep quality as well as basic activity tracking. It also accompanies advanced heart-rate monitoring and GPS. These features are truly punching above its weight for the watch at its price point.

While you are on a jog, the map shows you a map with pinpoints where each kilometer ends, with the approximate duration. There are extra tabs to show a breakdown of pace per kilometer, and charts to show your heart-rate zones, pace, and cadence.

What We Like About the Huawei Band 3 Pro

There are four watch faces, including a screen for viewing live heart rate, launching activities before beginning a workout session, a sleep tracking screen that displays the time you went to sleep the previous night, and a screen that displays your daily goals/steps.

What We Don’t Like About the Huawei Band 3 Pro

The refresh rate of the screen is quite low. Plus, it takes time to connect to the GPS before an activity starts.

PROS

  • AMOLED touchscreen display
  • Swim tracking
  • Heart rate monitor
  • Good battery life

CONS

  • GPS is slow
  • Slow refresh rate

7. Fitbit Inspire

Product Highlights

Fitbit Inspire is a stylish fitness device that offers great comfort and performance. Cheaper than its little brother Inspire HR, it is a basic activity tracker that is a popular choice among shoppers. It offers heart-rate monitoring and step-counting and features a comfortable and compact design.

Features

The OLED display is curved showing crisp text and ample brightness making it easy to view the screen at all times.
The Inspire is a lightweight tracker featuring a swim-proof design. It provides notification support and Fitbit’s SmartTrack feature for automatic workout recognition. It also has a female health tracking app. Activity tracking includes step count, calories burned, distance traveled, and active minutes. Sleep tracker records time awake, asleep, and restless.

Inspire also offers smartphone notifications, reminders to move, timers, and alarms. As soon as a notification arrives, like WhatsApp or Twitter, it will be displayed on the screen via the app. This allows you to toggle notifications on or off for each respective app.

Read Related Article: Fitbit Inspire HR vs Fitbit Charge 3: Which One is Best?

What We Like About Garmin Venu

The tracker features great battery performance. It can run up to five days with full charging.

What We Don’t Like About the Fitbit Inspire

It lacks the swim tracking feature.

PROS

  • Automatic exercise recognition
  • Notifications
  • 5-day battery life on one charge
  • The screen displays clear text and is illuminated

CONS

  • No swim tracking

8. Wyze Band

Product Highlights

Wyze is a company prominent for its budget-friendly smart home devices. The Wyze Band is a fitness tracker that functions well with the company’s smart home devices. Alexa is built-in and is a capable fitness tracker.

Features

The Wyze Band features an OLED display. The dark UI blends the display into the bezel surrounding the screen. There is a virtual back button that’s built into the bezel. It is a small white line below the screen. This is easily reachable and hence easier to press than the side button on the tracker.

This activity tracker has two primary functions: tracking fitness and controlling smart devices. Tracking fitness includes tracking steps, distance, heart rate, and sleep. If you want detailed tracking you can download the Wyze App.

The latter function is performed via built-in Alexa. Alexa is accessible by long-pressing the virtual button until you feel a second vibration. While Alexa on Wyze Band is not as reliable as Siri on the iPhone, it is capable enough to do basic tasks.

What We Like About the Wyze Band

The battery lasts a minimum of 10 days on a single charge.

What We Don’t Like About the Wyze Band

he screen of the tracker is not responsive enough. It is supposed to turn on the screen automatically when you raise your wrist, however, this does not always work. Sometimes you have to jerk your wrist for the tracker to turn on.

PROS

  • Affordable
  • Bright display
  • Long battery life

CONS

  • Alexa connectivity issues
  • Screens are small, the text is cramped and notifications can be tough to read

9. Fitbit Inspire HR

Product Highlights

If you want a small screen tracker that doesn’t feel too bothersome on your wrist, then try the Fitbit Inspire HR. The company has packed heart-based activity tracking, workout detection, and powerful sleep monitoring in this activity tracker.

Equipped with an OLED touchscreen it is brighter than the Inspire and more vivid. You can swipe up and down to cycle through exercise modes and metrics. Fitbit has also made it easier to access quick settings such as battery information and turning notifications on or off by holding the button on the side.

Features

The Inspire HR serves as a great companion for your workout sessions. It automatically records a handful of workouts which is useful when you forget to record your calorie burn. This helps you to keep track of your exercise regime on a daily basis. This information gets stored on the Fitbit app.

You can also set goal-based exercises on the band before workouts and see your cardio fitness level. The heart rate sensor is another attraction of the tracker. The heart rate sensor is why the HR edition is costlier than Inspire.

What We Like About the Fitbit Inspire HR

It sports a stylish design with an accurate tracking feature.

What We Don’t Like About the Fitbit Inspire HR

Even though the company promises five days of battery, the battery lasts three days when regularly using workout and sleep trackers.

PROS

  • Affordable
  • Lightweight design
  • Accurate sleep-tracking

CONS

  • Small display
  • Weak battery life
  • Large bezel

10. Wahoo TICKR FIT

Product Highlights

The Wahoo Tickr Fit is mainly used as an optical heart-rate monitor. It provides real-time heart rate and calorie-burn data. The device is equipped with Bluetooth and ANT+ technology, therefore you can pair it with your, smartphone, smartwatch, and most fitness apps.

Features

TThe heart rate sensor on the device is accurate and can replace a chest strap often worn to measure heart rate. Plus, this eliminates the trouble of wearing an uncomfortable chest wrap during a workout session.

The Tickr Fit is branded with an IPX7 “full splashdown” waterproof rating of up to 5 feet. Sweat all over it, drown it in a bucket of water, or tale a swim, the tracker will stand strong.

What We Like About the Wahoo Tickr Fit

It integrates with Bluetooth and features GPS that connects to tablets, phones, bikes, watches, and other devices.

What We Don’t Like About the Wahoo Tickr Fit

The tracker slips off and is not comfortable to wear.

PROS

  • Real-time heart rate data tracking
  • No need for chest strap
  • Bluetooth connectivity
  • Waterproof up to 5 feet

CONS

  • Not comfortable to wear
  • Tracker slips off

11. GScosche Rhythm +

Product Highlights

This armband collects your heart rate data and works with ANT+ and Bluetooth devices. It is a reliable and reasonably priced option, however, it is only a heart rate monitor and not an activity tracker to count steps and daily exercise.

Features

The Scosche Rhythm+ heart rate monitor is made up of two parts; the heart rate sensors are located on the back of the device and on the strap to provide accurate heart rate readings for all cycling and running activities.
The Rhythm+ is waterproof and sweatproof which means it can be worn on racing and training days.

What We Like About the Scosche Rhythm+

It is an accurate heart rate monitor compared to other fitness trackers.

What We Don’t Like About the Scosche Rhythm+

There is not step count or sleep tracking.

PROS

  • Accurate heart rate monitor
  • Reasonably priced
  • Supports both ANT+ and Bluetooth devices
  • Waterproof and sweatproof

CONS

  • Limited to function as a heart rate monitor.
  • Band gets dusty easily

12. Honor Band 5

Product Highlights

The Honor Band 5 is an all in one fitness tracker monitoring sleep, heart rate, and exercise. It is water-resistant up to 50m. The tracker features an AMOLED display with a simple, easy-to-use UI. Band 5 also has a feature that notifies you to move if you have been inactive for some time.

Features

The Honor Band 5 displays a 0.95-inch AMOLED touchscreen accompanying a resolution of 120×240 pixels. Maintains visibility outdoors offering five different levels of brightness.

Swipe to navigate within the UI. Tap the screen to make a selection, and swipe right to go back. There is a capacitive home button below the display.

The Honor Band 5 also has multiple watch faces to choose from to displays different information. Tapping on a face will display the device’s connection status and battery level, and the current weather.

What We Like About the Honor Band 5

The Honor Band 5 will let you track runs, both indoors and outdoors, and is further equipped with swim tracking. There are also music controls and SpO2 tracking to help monitor your blood oxygen levels.

What We Don’t Like About the Honor Band 5

There is no native GPS functionality.

PROS

  • Excellent fitness tracker
  • Swim tracking
  • Music controls

CONS

  • No GPS functionality

Final Verdict

There are numerous fitness trackers in the market that are budget-friendly. From our list above, we recommend the Honor Band 5 as the best budget fitness tracker. This tracker doesn’t compromise on any features, including a heart rate sensor. The Honor Band 5 tracks 10 different types of activities with a battery that lasts up to 14 days on a full charge.

Buyer’s Guide

Here are a few important things to consider while buying a fitness tracker.

    1. Heart Rate Monitor

Monitoring your heart rate can help you get a better idea of how many calories you are burning in a day. This helps especially during a workout because it can notify you when you are in your target heart rate zone so you can maintain the intensity of the exercise.

    1. GPS

If you are into running or cycling distances, then a GPS tracker on your fitness tracker will be useful. With GPS some devices can map your routes and provide stats like your distance traveled and pace, ideal for runners and cyclists.

    1. Swim Tracking

for the professional or enthusiast, a swim tracking feature can be a boon. These devices are waterproof and a companion for any water sport activities. These fitness trackers give the number of laps completed and lengths of laps stats.

    1. Exercise Recognition

Fitness trackers should be accurately monitoring workouts. Being equipped with activity sensors, they can detect modes of exercises such as running, cycling, and walking or doing aerobic exercises versus sports. The tracker automatically detects and logs workout without needing to manually enter the metrics on the app.

    1. Smartphone Integration

Fitness trackers can be synced with smartphones allowing trackers to display notifications for calls or texts. Some trackers will display and allow you to respond to text messages or make calls. Many of these can also access your music.

Buy a fitness tracker based on your needs. For an athlete invest in one with good running metrics. To check on your regular exercise, a basic activity tracker will do just fine.
If you want a tracker with improved functionality and a great design, then consider buying a smartwatch.

We hope our list of the best budget fitness tracker has helped you choose one that meets all your needs and most importantly your budget too.

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