The best fitness trackers for monitoring your heart rate

Pump up the cardio and strength training.
By Joseph Green , Genevieve Scarano , and Matt Ford  on 
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Overview

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Best For Everyday Use

Fitbit Inspire 3

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Best For Fitness

Garmin Vívoactive 5

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Best For Runners

Polar Pacer Pro

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Best For Tight Budgets

Amazfit Bip 5

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Best For Android

Samsung Galaxy Watch7

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Table of Contents

Fitness trackers, or general wearable devices, have become part and parcel of everyday life. Chances are you've got one or you're thinking of getting one for the first time. Either way, it's always a good time to shop around and see what fitness trackers are available — not to mention smart watches that are packed with health and fitness features, such as the Apple Watch.

The great thing about fitness trackers is the fact they promote healthy routines and positive lifestyle change, helping with exercise, sleep, vitals, and mindset.

Yes, fitness trackers can do an awful lot for you. The difficult part is choosing one. We all have different lifestyles and fitness goals, which means there's no catch-all solution when it comes to fitness trackers. But don't worry, we've searched the internet and scanned the reviews to pull together a selection of the very best fitness tracker options. First up, here's a quick guide.

Can fitness trackers monitor your heart rate?

Absolutely. In fact, one of the big reasons to get a fitness tracker is how they help with heart health. Most fitness trackers will monitor your heart rate as a basic feature, while more advanced trackers can pick up on irregularities, give you on-demand ECG reports, and alert you to changing heart rate zones as you work out.

How do you choose a fitness tracker?

Before you start shopping for a fitness tracker, there are few things to you might want to consider: 

  • Design Wearables are meant to make our lives easier, yet some can be super clunky and uncomfortable. Invest in a fitness tracker that’s not an eyesore and fits nicely on your wrist. You don’t want to cut off your circulation or have it slip off while you’re on the move. Look for models that come in different colours too, so you can have one that goes with your activewear, casual, and work outfits. 

  • Physical activity — What are your daily workout needs? Consider how a fitness tracker can benefit your exercise regimen. If you engage in activities like pilates, yoga, or walking, opt for a basic fitness tracker for heart rate monitoring and sleep data. On the other hand, if high-intensity workouts, including running and swimming, are more of your thing, choose a fitness tracker that can give you vital reads and remember your mileage. 

  • Power — Most fitness trackers run on batteries or need to be charged regularly. Check the power life of a tracker first before buying it. If it doesn’t last long, skip it and opt for another model. You don’t want to have a tracker that can’t keep up with your physical activity needs. 

  • Smartphone compatibility — Your smartphone is probably one of your most important tech devices, so it might be helpful to find a fitness tracker that connects with it. If that’s the case, you can receive call and text notifications when you’re commuting, exercising, or moving around the house. This is a major plus if you're prone to miss phone calls from coworkers, family members, and friends. Plus, some trackers come with smartphone apps, so you can store all your data in one convenient place. 

  • Wellness features — A fitness tracker might already monitor heart rate, but what are its other wellness features? Some trackers give you stats on your sleep patterns, daily movement, and distance after workouts. Even though fitness trackers are not meant to cure or prevent any diseases, they can give valuable insights on your physical and mental state. 

What is the best fitness tracker for monitoring heart rate?

Finding the right fitness tracker can be challenging with so many options. You might be an avid athlete or more of an occasional gym rat, but regardless of what your activities are, there is a fitness tracker out there for your health needs.

We've checked out everything on offer from top brands like Fitbit, Garmin, and Apple, and lined up a selection of your best options. It's worth taking some time to properly consider these models, because there is something for everyone and every budget.

These are the best heart rate fitness trackers in 2024.

The Apple Watch is a consistent game-changer. Just when other smartwatches are trying to keep up with the current gen model, boom, Apple drops the brand-new version. The Apple Watch Series 10 is the brand's biggest, best looking watch yet, with the watch face size now 30% from previous editions. And with 2,000 nits, it’s seriously eye-catching stuff.

What really counts is what underneath the hood. In terms of health and fitness, the Apple Watch Series 10 is well stacked. It measures everything you need for a solid overview, including heart rate, blood oxygen, and sleep cycles. In fact, the Series 10 can detect a condition called sleep apnoea.

In terms of heart rate tracking it can tell you if you're heart rate is high, low, or irregular, and you can take an ECG at any time. It also has Apple's new Vitals app, which estimates overnight health metrics — heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, and sleep duration — and tells you if anything's outside of your typical range.

For actual fitness, the Workout app offers support for a wide range of activities and it can tell when you switch between different types of workouts. There are smartwatches out there with better batteries, but otherwise the Apple Watch Series 10 is the best of the best.

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The Fitbit Inspire 3 is arguably the best heart rate monitor for everyday, casual use. That's partly down to its impressive battery life of up to 10 days. Talk about low maintenance — you can slip it on your wrist and let it do its thing without worrying about constant recharging.

It monitors your heart rate 24/7, with features to monitor (and increase) calories burned, optimise your workouts, and find personalised health trends that will give you an extra push towards smashing those fitness goals.

It doesn't offer the same range of advanced features as something like the Apple Watch. But you likely wouldn't expect it to for this relatively low price. And you still get plenty of value for your money.

The Inspire 3 tracker comes with a free six-month Fitbit Premium trial, which includes step-by-step fitness and nutrition programmes, personalised insights, sleep tools, and much more. It does mean ongoing costs once the trial is up, but having a mini coach on your wrist will do wonders for health and fitness.

The screen is small and there’s no built-in GPS, which some users would expect as standard on fitness trackers and smartwatches. But there’s no doubt that it's a great little device. It's easy to use and the app is very intuitive.

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The Garmin Vívoactive 5 fitness tracker offers a hugely impressive range of both everyday and specialist features for keeping track of your every move — not to mention tracking progress and performance, and offering detailed feedback and coaching.

It records all the ways you move with more than 30 preloaded GPS and indoor activity apps, including running, swimming, cycling, weight, strength training, and more. If you are a swimmer, it actually continues to track your heart rate underwater. In other words, it has you covered — no matter which kind of fitness or sports activity you prefer. There are also options for wheelchair users.

And if you like to have your music on hand (well, on the wrist) without having to faff about with your phone, the Garmin Vívoactive 4 has onboard music storage. Just download playlists from Spotify, Amazon, or other platforms.

It’s not all about relentless activity, though. The Garmin Vívoactive 5 has excellent features for tracking rest and energy levels. It measures your sleep cycles and actually coaches you on getting better sleep. You also get “body battery” monitoring, which gives insights on your rest, stress levels, workouts, and reports on how ready for the day you are.

If heart rate monitoring is key for you, this tracker also measures heart rate variability while you sleep, which helps gives an overall picture of your health.

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If keeping track of your heart rate while you're on the track is important, check out the Polar Pacer Pro, one of the best fitness trackers for runners. And it tracks a lot more than just heart rate, with metrics for your blood oxygen, energy levels, sleep cycles, cardio, muscle, speed, time, distance, and elevation.

The Polar Pacer Pro measures running power by monitoring how much energy is needed for every part of your run. That helps you assess energy-needed and apply the necessary power to smash those goals. Another great feature for runners is a highly accurate GPS, which keeps tabs of your runs and routes with an excellent level of detail.

One quirk is the lack of touchscreen. It seems strange in this day and age that a fitness tracker of this calibre doesn't have a touchscreen. We've become so used to touchscreens as the standard. With the Polar Pacer Pro, you navigate the interface and features with physical buttons on the side of the watch. There's nothing wrong with it per say, though it might be a dealbreaker.

It's worth noting that while the Polar Pacer Pro is geared towards runners, it has more than 150 possible sports modes — including walking, cycling, swimming, indoor fitness, hiking, and yoga — which it tracks and analyses to boost performance. The tracker only stores 20 at a time, however.

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Amazfit Bip 5 fitness tracker

Amazfit Bip 5

Best For Tight Budgets

The Amazfit Bip 5 offers absolutely loads of advanced features and costs considerably less than other models in this list. Much, much less in some cases. So, what’s the catch? Well, there’s no doubt it’s a budget option. It's going to feel cheaper on the wrist than Apple or Garmin, but there isn't much else to complain about.

Indeed, the Amazfit Bip 5 is a seriously impressive little device, with an even better battery life than more expensive trackers and smart watches. Ten days of battery is great value at this price.

This tracker keeps tabs on all sorts of metrics, including your heart rate, oxygen levels, steps taken, sleeping patterns, distance travelled, and calories burned.

Other features include customisable watch faces, with 70+ designs to choose from, plus built-in Alexa. Ask questions, set alarms, check the weather, get news, and more. Another nice feature allows you to see three key metrics — heart rate, blood oxygen, and stress levels — with just a tap of the screen.

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It stands to reason that the Samsung Galaxy Watch7 will best suit Android devotees. Samsung makes some of the best Android-powered tech around. And, much like the Apple Watch, it's more of a smartwatch than fitness tracker. But the Samsung Galaxy Watch7 is packing a head-turning array of health and fitness metrics.

It helps you start every day on the front foot by giving you an energy score. This new feature draws from all the key metrics — such as sleep, workouts, and calories burned — to tell you how your energy is faring day-to-day. The watch can also give tips on how to improve your energy levels.

In terms of your heart, it uses a PPG sensor to measure heart rate and heart rhythm. It also sends heart rate notifications and alerts you to your heart rate zone during workouts. It has a body temperature sensor, while also using bioelectric impedance analysis to measure your skeletal muscle mass, body fat percentage, body mass index, and more. That's not to mention daily blood pressure checks and thorough sleep analysis.

If you're looking to track activities, the Galaxy Watch7 has 90-plus sports and workouts. A custom workout feature also lets you to build your own routine.

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Photo of Joseph Green
Joseph Green
Global Shopping Editor

Joseph Green is the Global Shopping Editor for Mashable. He covers VPNs, headphones, fitness gear, dating sites, streaming services, and shopping events like Black Friday and Prime Day.

Joseph is also Executive Editor of Mashable's sister site, AskMen.

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Matt Ford

Matt Ford is a freelance contributor to Mashable.


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