Best fitness tracker 2018: the top 10 activity bands on the planet

Fitness trackers are a great way to monitor your activity and health with little to no effort. Most of the best and newest devices on the market keep tabs on your workouts, heart rate, stress and everything in-between with pinpoint accuracy.

Think of them as an electronic finger on the pulse, constantly measuring your vitals, quality of sleep and step count.

The current fitness band market is filled with fantastic devices, most of which can do a pretty good job at the basics of tracking. But frankly, we're only interested in the best, and you should be too.

We won't be looking at all the techiest wristwear here - check out our best smartwatch guide for that, which includes the Apple Watch 4, TicWatch Pro and Samsung Galaxy Watch. You also won't find the Fitbit Ionic or Fitbit Versa here either, which despite the brand name are both smartwatches and are priced accordingly.

Instead, this guide will show you the best of the best activity trackers that money can buy. We'll show you how each ranks in terms of stand-out features, specs, price, design, the quality of the software you'll be using on your phone and much more.

On a budget? Here are the best cheap fitness trackers
Looking for a Fitbit? Check out our best Fitbit 2018 ranking
Want to take the plunge? Read the best waterproof fitness tracker guide
Plus here are seven of the best fitness tracker tips to get you started

Although it may be a few years old, the Moov Now is still officially our favorite fitness band in the world right now. It's cheap, offers everything you'll want in an everyday tracker and there's a phenomenal six month long battery life.

The Moov Now isn't just designed for step tracking though - it comes with boxing and rep-based training, as well as a swimming mode on top of run coaching and sleep monitoring features. That's a lot to get stuck in with.

You won't get GPS or some of the more complex fitness tracking features that others on this list offer, but if you're looking for a great everyday tracker that doesn't cost a lot of money the Moov Now will suit you perfectly.

Read the full Moov Now review

What's next? The Moov Now was first released back in 2015, so the device is due a refresh. That said, we haven't heard any rumors of a new device coming from Moov.

More refined than the Fitbit Charge 2, the Charge 3 is Fitbit's newest device and has a more lightweight design that looks better on your wrist. It's also one of our favorite Fitbit products money can buy right now.

The display is bigger and clearer than a lot of other fitness trackers on this list, but it's still a black and white screen.

There's no onboard GPS, like some other trackers on this list have, but it's waterproof and offers a full fitness suite including a heart rate tracker. You can track GPS by pairing your phone with the tracker too.

You have to spend a bit extra on this than other fitness trackers you can buy in this same list, but if you enjoy the whole Fitbit app and experience and would also like access to notifications and Fitbit's fantastic sleep tracking, you'll want to opt for this as it's one of the company's best trackers ever.

Read our Fitbit Charge 3 review

Our highest ranked Garmin product in the best fitness tracker list is also one of the most accomplished in its range of health bands.

This device isn't made for serious athletes like a variety of other products from the Garmin brand, but instead this is for those who want to be able to track the odd bit of exercise and have an attractive band to do it.

The screen is bigger on this version than other Garmin products, and it has a battery that should last you around a week depending on how much exercise you'll be doing.

There's also an innovative feature called body battery that helps you learn when exactly is the best time to exercise depending on how much energy you have. This is great for those who are just as interested in their recovery and general wellbeing as they are clocking up the miles.

Read the full Garmin Vivosmart 4 review

In third place is the Huawei Band 2 Pro. a sleek little fitness tracker that manages to pack a decent amount of features into its diminutive frame, and for an impressively small amount of money.

The Band 2 Pro has heart rate monitoring, VO2 max, GPS, step and sleep tracking and a seriously impressive battery life. The slim screen means that this tracker will work just as well with running gear as it will with a business suit, although the slim screen isn’t going to be as easy to read as some of the competition.

If you’re looking for a device that’s going to give you totally precise metrics, this isn’t it. But if you want an affordable entry-level device for your first foray into the world of fitness tracking, this is a great place to start.

Read our Huawei Band 2 Pro review

What's next? The company has now announced the Huawei Band 3 Pro, but we've yet to be able to review it properly. We hope to have one to test in the next few months.

The Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro hasn't made hefty changes to the company's wearable line since the Gear Fit 2, but there are a few improvements to an already great tracker that sits it in second place.

The Gear Fit 2 Pro has a gorgeous design that looks fantastic on your wrist and as it's sporting a big, beautiful AMOLED display you'll be able to see all of your stats nice and clearly.

It also comes with GPS built-in so you can leave your phone at home while you go for a run as well as a top-notch heart rate sensor that should give you one of the most accurate readings possible from a wrist based tracker. Plus it will track your swimming too.

Read the full Samsung Gear Fit 2 Pro review

What's next? We don't know exactly when we'll see the Gear Fit 3, but we expect Samsung to launch a new tracker before the end of 2018 with new fitness tech built in.

Sitting in the exact same spot as the Honor Band 3 did before it, the Band 4 from Honor is a great budget pick if you're looking to save money on your fitness tracker.

This is much cheaper than a lot of the other bands on this list, and while it may not come with GPS or solid notifications it does offer good tracking for a casual runner as well as a beautiful color OLED display.

It's a small screen you'll have to work with here, but the point of the Honor Band 4 is to pack the essentials into a small package and keep the cost as low as possible. It's not for everyone, but you may find it the best fitness tracker for you.

Read our full Honor Band 4 review

It's not as stylish as most of the Fitbit products, but there's a reason the Garmin Vivosport appears in this list before products from the latter company.

This is cheaper than most Fitbit products and it comes with GPS built-in too. We found the Vivosport offers a solid seven days battery life from a single charge, even when using the GPS features.

Although it's waterproof, it wont' track your swimming easily but the Vivosport excels for other kinds of workouts and is great for tracking your jogging and cycling. Plus we found the heart rate tracker to be accurate too.

Read our full Garmin Vivosport review

The TomTom Spark 3 is our fourth favorite fitness watch and offers a lot of great features for your wrist, including music without your phone.

You can upload music directly to the TomTom Spark 3, so you won't need to take your phone out with your Bluetooth headphones while on a run.

Plus on top of that, the Spark 3 offers up GPS tracking, a heart rate monitor and route navigation, making this the perfect wrist companion to wear while running around areas you don't really know and discovering new places.

Read the full TomTom Spark 3 review

What's next? The company behind the Spark 3 doesn't seem to be pushing ahead with new trackers right now, so we can speculate there won't be a TomTom Spark 4 anytime soon.

This may look more like a smartwatch than any of the other devices on this list, but as it runs its own software and has a very big focus on fitness we've decided to include it in our list of the best fitness trackers.

The Amazfit Bip design has been influenced by the Apple Watch (there's no denying that) and it comes packed with tons of features including GPS, an accurate heart rate tracker, multi-sport tracking, sleep tracking and VO2 Max features too.

If you're looking for a more watch-like design than everything else on this list, the Bip will be up your street. It's lightweight too and other highlights include the always-on display and strong battery life that should last around a month depending on your usage.

If this all sounds good, you'd be hard pressed to go wrong with the Amazfit Bip. It's worth noting the fitness tracker isn't available in all markets at the moment though and you may struggle to find the Bip where you live.

Read the full Amazfit Bip review

The Garmin Vivofit 4 is one of the best fitness trackers the company has ever created, and that now means it sits in this prestigious list alongside some other fantastic tracking products.

We particularly like the super-long battery life of the Vivofit 4, which means you won't need to recharge your device for a whole year. That means you can wear it all day, then all night for sleep tracking and not have to worry about recharging it.

You'll miss out on phone notifications by buying this tracker, but you do get the benefit of an always-on color display, accurate fitness tracking features - just note these are more limited than some other trackers on this list - as well as access to an in-depth app to break down your stats on your smartphone.

Read the full Garmin Vivofit 4 review