Top Budget Fitness Trackers for 2025: Stay Active Affordably

Embarking on a health journey or seeking to enhance your workout experience? A fitness tracker can transform exercise into an engaging game while providing valuable insights into your physical activities. Fortunately, these wearable devices, often resembling smartwatches, are available at various price points, making them accessible to a broad audience. Whether you're interested in advanced features that rival the best smartwatches or prefer sticking to essentials like step counting and heart rate monitoring, there's a budget-friendly fitness tracker suited for every wrist size.

TL;DR – The Best Budget Fitness Trackers:

Our Top Pick### Fitbit Inspire 3

0See it at Amazon### Xiaomi Smart Band 9

0See it at Amazon### Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro

0See it at Amazon### Amazfit Band 7

0See it at Amazon### Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen)

0See it at Amazon### Garmin Venu 3

0See it at AmazonContributions by Kevin Lee

1. Fitbit Inspire 3

Best Budget Fitness Tracker

Our Top Pick### Fitbit Inspire 3

0You don't need to break the bank to get a quality fitness tracker, and the Fitbit Inspire 3 is a prime example of this. Priced under $100, it boasts a vibrant AMOLED display and a durable, sleek band that's comfortable enough to wear during sleep. With an impressive 10-day battery life, you'll rarely need to take it off, though this duration decreases with the always-on display mode. Navigation is straightforward thanks to touch technology and two haptic buttons.

The Fitbit Inspire 3 excels in fitness tracking with features such as 24/7 heart rate monitoring, step counting, blood oxygen level measurement, and movement reminders. It also offers automatic exercise tracking, which is particularly useful if you often forget to start your workout sessions, and sleep monitoring to analyze your sleep quality. Additionally, it provides basic smartwatch functionalities like phone notifications and a 'find my phone' feature, although it does not support music storage or contactless payments.

2. Xiaomi Smart Band 9

Best Ultra Cheap Fitness Tracker

### Xiaomi Smart Band 9

0For those on a tight budget, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is an excellent choice at under $50. Despite its low cost, it's packed with essential features including a 1.62-inch AMOLED display and an impressive 21-day battery life. It covers the basics like step counting, heart rate monitoring, blood oxygen levels, and sleep tracking, and goes beyond with over 150 sports modes ranging from running to swimming.

While the accuracy of its tracking might not match that of more expensive devices like the Apple Watch, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 still offers valuable insights into your workouts. The latest model enhances battery life and screen brightness, reaching up to 1,200 nits for easy viewing in sunlight. The band's touch-responsive display allows for quick access to fitness metrics and limited smartwatch features such as call and message notifications, and music playback control, though phone pairing can be a bit tricky.

3. Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro

Best Budget Fitness Tracker with GPS

### Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro

0If you're looking for a step up from the standard model, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro offers a built-in GPS for tracking your outdoor activities, alongside continuous heart rate and SPO2 monitoring, sleep and stress tracking, and over 150 sports modes. Priced under $100, it features a larger 1.74-inch AMOLED display that resembles the Apple Watch.

The Smart Band 9 Pro maintains the impressive 21-day battery life and offers a user-friendly interface. While it includes some smartwatch features like music playback and notification display, it lacks NFC support and the ability to respond to notifications. Nevertheless, its combination of stylish design, bright screen, and comprehensive fitness tracking makes it a compelling choice.

4. Amazfit Band 7

Best Budget Fitness Tracker With Health Monitoring

### Amazfit Band 7

0The Amazfit Band 7 offers a lot for its $50 price tag, including a large 1.47-inch always-on AMOLED display and a battery life that lasts up to 18 days with typical use, extending to 28 days in battery-saver mode. Its slim and comfortable design makes it ideal for daily wear.

This band supports over 120 sports modes with automatic smart recognition for four of them and is water-resistant up to 50 meters, perfect for swimming. Health monitoring includes heart rate, blood oxygen levels, stress, and detailed sleep tracking. Additionally, it integrates Amazon Alexa and offers other smartwatch features like on-watch notifications.

5. Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen)

Best Budget Apple Watch

### Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen)

0The Apple Watch SE (2nd Gen) offers robust features at a more affordable price point, running on the same S8 SiP chipset as the Apple Watch Series 8. With an optical heart rate sensor and built-in GPS, it's perfect for outdoor activities like hiking. It automatically detects various workouts and supports additional fitness apps from the App Store with its 32GB storage.

As a full-fledged smartwatch, the Apple Watch SE allows you to answer calls, respond to messages, make contactless payments, and stream music directly from your wrist. It also includes safety features like crash detection, which can automatically call emergency services. Despite its slim design and impressive battery life for an Apple Watch, it does have fewer sensors compared to other models in the Apple Watch lineup.

6. Garmin Venu 3

Best Budget Fitness Tracker for Workouts

### Garmin Venu 3

0For those committed to serious fitness tracking, the Garmin Venu 3 is a worthwhile investment despite being the priciest among our budget picks. It offers detailed tracking for over 30 sports, including swimming, cycling, and golf, with highly accurate GPS and heart rate monitoring.

The Venu 3's standout feature is its Body Battery, which provides insights into your energy levels based on activity, stress, and sleep. It also includes animated workouts for activities like pilates and HIIT. With a bright AMOLED touchscreen and up to 14 days of battery life, this smartwatch also supports phone notifications and contactless payments, although its app selection is more limited compared to other smartwatches.

What to Look for in a Budget Fitness Tracker

When choosing a fitness tracker, consider not just the basic features like step and sleep tracking, but also the overall hardware quality, comfort, software capabilities, and the accuracy of the tracking features. As prices increase, so do the features, including heart rate monitoring, GPS, and OLED displays. However, even basic trackers can offer a wealth of health data at a lower cost.

What kind of fitness tracker do I need?

Your choice of fitness tracker depends on your intended use. For simple tracking of steps, heart rate, and time, an ultra-cheap option like the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is sufficient. These budget options often include color displays and long battery life, along with various sports modes, sleep tracking, and phone notifications.

If you engage in activities like running, biking, or hiking, consider investing a bit more for a model with GPS support. For those needing more comprehensive features beyond fitness tracking, a smartwatch like the Apple Watch SE or Garmin Venu 3 is ideal, offering larger screens, more apps, and the ability to manage calls and texts.

For active runners or gym-goers, complementing your fitness tracker with a quality pair of earbuds can enhance your workout experience significantly.