Top Affordable Fitness Trackers for 2025: Stay Active on a Budget

Embarking on a health journey or seeking deeper insights into your workouts? A fitness tracker is an excellent tool to gamify your exercise routine and provide valuable data to enhance your fitness goals. The good news is that many of these wearables, often resembling smartwatches, are budget-friendly. Whether you're interested in feature-packed devices that can compete with the best smartwatches or simpler models that focus on essentials like step counting and heart rate monitoring, there's a wide range of affordable fitness trackers suitable 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

0Smartwatches and fitness trackers don't have to break the bank, and the Fitbit Inspire 3 is a prime example. With a price tag under $100, it offers a vibrant AMOLED display and a durable, sleek band that's comfortable enough to wear while sleeping. Its impressive 10-day battery life ensures you can keep it on without frequent charging, though using the always-on display mode will reduce this duration. Navigation is user-friendly, thanks to touch technology and two haptic buttons.

The Fitbit Inspire 3 excels in fitness tracking with features like 24/7 heart rate monitoring, step counting, blood oxygen level measurement, and movement reminders. It also includes automatic exercise tracking, ideal for those who often forget to start their workout sessions, and sleep monitoring to help you understand your sleep quality better. While it offers basic smartwatch functions such as phone notifications and a 'find my phone' feature via Bluetooth, it does not support music storage or contactless payments.

2. Xiaomi Smart Band 9

Best Ultra Cheap Fitness Tracker

### Xiaomi Smart Band 9

0For less than $50, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 delivers an affordable yet feature-rich fitness tracking experience, boasting a 1.62-inch AMOLED display and an outstanding 21-day battery life. It covers basic tracking functions and supports over 150 sports modes, making it a strong contender against even more expensive models like Fitbit.

This band includes essential health features such as a pedometer, heart rate monitor, blood oxygen saturation, and sleep monitoring. Its extensive range of fitness modes covers activities from running and HIIT to kickboxing and swimming, providing detailed insights into your workouts, though with less precision than premium smartwatches with GPS. The Xiaomi Smart Band 9's latest model enhances screen brightness to 1,200 nits for visibility in direct sunlight and offers responsive touch controls for accessing fitness data and limited smartwatch features like call and message notifications, and music playback control. However, users might experience some challenges with phone pairing.

3. Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro

Best Budget Fitness Tracker with GPS

### Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro

0The Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro builds on its predecessor by adding built-in GPS, enabling you to track your workouts accurately, along with continuous heart rate and SPO2 monitoring, sleep and stress tracking, and a variety of sports modes. Priced under $100, it features a larger 1.74-inch AMOLED display that echoes the style of the Apple Watch.

In addition to its core health monitoring capabilities, the Smart Band 9 Pro supports over 150 sports modes, though some provide only basic metrics like heart rate and time. It offers limited smartwatch features such as music playback and notification display when connected to your phone, but lacks NFC support for payments. Despite these limitations, the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 Pro offers a stylish design, a bright and responsive screen, an intuitive user interface, and impressive battery life.

4. Amazfit Band 7

Best Budget Fitness Tracker With Health Monitoring

### Amazfit Band 7

0The Amazfit Band 7 is a budget-friendly option at just $50, yet it's packed with features including a long-lasting battery, comprehensive health monitoring, and sleep tracking. It features a large 1.47-inch always-on AMOLED display, ensuring easy readability while maintaining a slim and comfortable design. Battery life extends up to 18 days with typical use and 28 days in battery-saver mode.

With over 120 sports modes and automatic recognition of four, the Amazfit Band 7 is versatile for various activities, including swimming, thanks to its 50m water resistance. Health monitoring encompasses heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and stress, while sleep tracking provides insights into your nightly rest. The band also integrates with 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 2nd generation Apple Watch SE offers a budget-friendly entry into the Apple Watch ecosystem, powered by the same S8 SiP chipset as the Apple Watch Series 8 for robust performance. It includes an optical heart rate sensor and built-in GPS, ensuring you stay on track during hikes and other activities. The watch automatically detects various workouts, including swimming, and supports additional fitness apps from the App Store with its 32GB of 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 features safety enhancements like crash detection, which can automatically call emergency services if needed. Despite its advanced features, the Apple Watch SE maintains a slim profile and offers impressive battery life for an Apple Watch.

6. Garmin Venu 3

Best Budget Fitness Tracker for Workouts

### Garmin Venu 3

0The Garmin Venu 3 is a top choice for those serious about their workouts, offering advanced features like GPS, heart rate monitoring, and animated workout guidance. It also supports phone notifications and contactless payments. Priced higher than other budget options, it's still a worthwhile investment for dedicated fitness enthusiasts.

The Venu 3 tracks a wide range of exercises, including swimming, cycling, and golf, with over 30 preloaded sports apps. Its highly accurate sensors, including GPS, heart rate, ECG, blood oxygen, and temperature, provide detailed insights into your performance. The standout Body Battery feature offers data on your body's energy levels based on activity, stress, and sleep. With a bright AMOLED touchscreen and up to 14 days of battery life, the Garmin Venu 3 is a comprehensive fitness and smartwatch solution, though its app selection is more limited compared to Apple and Google smartwatches.

What to Look for in a Budget Fitness Tracker

When choosing a fitness tracker, consider more than just step counting and sleep tracking. The overall experience includes hardware quality, comfort, software capabilities, and the accuracy of the tracking features you're interested in.

As prices increase, so do the features, such as heart rate monitoring, GPS, and OLED displays. However, many basic trackers offer valuable 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 basic tracking like steps, heart rate, and time, an ultra-cheap option like the Xiaomi Smart Band 9 is sufficient. These models often come with color displays and long battery life, along with additional features like various sports modes, sleep tracking, blood oxygen sensors, and phone notifications.

If you're into running, biking, or hiking, consider spending a bit more for GPS support. For those seeking comprehensive functionality beyond fitness tracking, a smartwatch offers a larger screen, built-in storage, access to more apps, and the ability to handle calls, texts, and other notifications.

For active runners or gym-goers, pairing your fitness tracker with a great pair of earbuds can enhance your overall fitness experience.