Since 2008, Fitbit has worked around the clock to make sure you have the best fitness tracker on your wrist when you need it the most.
But let’s be honest.
Many of the brand’s activity trackers and watches are somewhat expensive. Of course, they may not be as pricier as Garmin Vivosmart or Apple Watch Series 4. But what if you need a cheaper alternative anyway?
Good in making and marketing models that promise to give you the value for your money, Fitbit hasn’t actually shied away from designing cheap fitness trackers.
In fact, there are a number of activity and fitness watches in its product line that cost as low as under$100. Which is to say that if you’re on a budget, or you’re just looking for an inexpensive device, Fitbit has some good options for you.
In this review, we’ve included all the best cheap Fitbit watches that we know so far. If you’re interested in a Fitbit for kids, you’ll find the Ace and Ace 2 useful. If you need an affordable Fitbit that men can wear, you will love the Blaze model that we’ve included here. And if you’re in search for a Fitbit for the female audience, then you will love the Alta HR for sure.
Now that we’ve given you a summary of the cheap Fitbits, let’s take a step further and look at each option in more detail.
Best Cheap Fitbit Reviews
1. Fitbit Ace Activity Tracker for Kids
Ace is Fitbit’s first ever fitness tracker for kids. And while the Ace 2 easily replaces it, it’s still the best alternative to the likes of Garmin Vivofit Jr 2 and LeapFrog LeapBand.
Ace borrows the exact same design of the Alta HR so much you can actually mistake it for one. Yet at its very core, it’s a kids’ focused activity tracker that monitors your child’s steps, active minutes, calories burned, and sleep quality.
The Reminder to Move feature, which motivates your child to log some steps after 60 minutes of inactivity, helps to cultivate a workout routine in your child. Once they turn this routine into a habit, they become more active without you having to push them into physical fitness.
This model includes built-in celebratory messages and badges, which are good for inspiring your kids to keep working out and meet their fitness goals.
While kids can take Fitbit Ace to the shower, thanks to the IPX7 showerproof rating, the device isn’t waterproof so they can’t use it for swimming.
The performance of this fitness watch is downright up to scratch, but Fitbit fails to get the size of Ace’s band right. While it fits some kids straight out of the box, it’s not quite promising for some. You just might have to buy a replaceable band if you can’t get the default one to fit on your child’s wrist.
On battery life, Ace promises a runtime of 5 days on a single charge, which is quite decent for the price point. It’s best to charge the battery on the fourth night – or when the battery is at least at 5% charge.
With Ace, you retain all the fitness stats even if your kids don’t understand what they’re. And you can use these metrics to help them personalize their health and fitness routine.
- The Reminder to Move feature motivates your child to stay active throughout the day
- Kids get achievement badges and celebratory messages after hitting their activity goals
- You can sync the tracker with the iOS or Android app to see and analyze your child’s health and fitness stats
- Includes a built-in sleep monitor to help you determine if your child gets enough sleep every night
- The original band is too small to fit some kids
- It’s not waterproof, it doesn’t feature a built-in GPS system, and it doesn’t have a heart rate monitor
- Some kids may find it difficult to use at first
2. Fitbit Ace 2
The Fitbit Ace 2 became popular since its introduction, mostly because it’s an improvement of the Ace. The enhancement includes a unique design, a more vibrant screen, and it comes at a price lower than the original. While its body features a plastic design, your child should still find Ace 2 easy to wear and take off.
Fitbit strips the Alta-like look from this upgrade and gives it an appearance of its own. They’ve even tweaked the charging system, making it better than that of the original Ace. Plus, they’ve added a number of watch faces, which appeal to the young audience.
Your child will love the display because it’s touch sensitive and very responsive. Unlike the original Ace’s screen that requires tapping, kids just have to navigate this fitness tracker by swiping.
Moving away from the colorful band and the vibrant screen, Ace 2 sports a 5 ATM water resistance rating, making it one of the waterproof Fitbit devices in the market. For kids that love to swim, this tracker makes one such a special gift.
Even the age range of this one has dropped, with Fitbit now allowing kids as young as 6 years old to use it for activity tracking.
When it comes to fitness tracking, Ace can monitor steps, movements, active minutes, and sleep patterns. Your kids won’t get a heart rate monitor from this model. And it doesn’t have a built-in GPS either.
You can use Ace 2 to set goals for your child. You can even set alerts so you get notifications when your child meets those goals. What’s more, you can set silently vibrating alarms to wake up your kids on time for school.
- Has a decent battery life, kids get 5 days runtime on a single charge from Fitbit Ace 2
- A good, basic kids’ fitness tracker, promise accurate results and gives just that
- Cheaper than the original Ace
- 5 ATM waterproof rating, safe enough to take to the pool
- Kids account can be a pain in the ass to setup for this band
- The plastic design makes the device feel rather cheap
- No heart rate monitor, not built-in GPS
3. Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity and Sleep Wristband
Flex is a very simple wristband, one of the entry-level models that Fitbit has ever built. For starters, this is one of the most inexpensive fitness trackers from a premium brand, and it’s a decent choice for men and women.
It’s important to note that Flex isn’t nearly as customizable. And you aren’t getting a waterproof gizmo for the price. But it’s still a decent device, good for tracking different activities and monitoring sleep levels.
Some people find the Flex rather unattractive. But since the rubbery wristband is comfortable and the device itself lightweight, appearance shouldn’t be a deal breaker. At the end of the day, performance is what we care about the most.
On activity and fitness, Fitbit Flex is just a basic device that tracks steps. It doesn’t have a built-in altimeter so you can’t count the number of stairs climbed. Its accelerometer shows the frequency of movement at night during sleep tracking, letting you know the times you were awake in the night.
What’s more, Flex has a silently vibrating alarm clock, which, once set via the mobile app, can be useful in getting you up early so you can get to work in time.
Simple in design and performance, you simply shouldn’t expect Fitbit Flex to be as robust as Alta HR or Charge 3. Even then, it’s quite consistent at giving you an idea about your activity levels.
- Inexpensive, comfortable, and lightweight
- Shower and splash proof
- Good at tracking steps and monitoring sleep
- Good battery life, you get a runtime of 5 days on a single charge
- Fitbit Flex is not a waterproof activity tracker
- Only good for older users
4. Fitbit Alta Fitness Tracker
The Alta is one of the most inexpensive Fitbit fitness trackers in the market. Buy this if you need a device that can track every movement you make, your moments of rest, and daily weight. Plus, it even allows you to set fitness goals and work towards achieving them.
While it looks exactly like the company’s original Fitbit Ace, the Alta is an advanced device on its own. And at the very least, it’s a high quality activity device for the price.
To begin with, Alta has a Smart Track sensor, which automatically detects the type of fitness activity that you do and then logs it on your behalf. As such, you don’t necessarily have to bother using your phone’s app to schedule workouts. However, Smart Track doesn’t recognize activities immediately. Kids must first be active for at least 15 minutes for the feature to work.
Fitbit Alta also includes an automatic sleep tracker, which gives older kids and senior citizens the ability to use the app to see detailed sleep stats. From the app, they can see when you started to sleep, how many hours you were up at night, and how well you slept.
- Cool design, quite a well thought out design, much like the Ace
- Decent battery life, kids can use it for 7 days on a single charge
- Super effective in monitoring activities and exercises
- Accurate step tracker, you can easily see the number of every step they take
- Includes Smart Track, which automatically detects and records a type of a workout
- The screen isn’t robust and responsive enough
- It doesn’t have a heart rate monitor
- Doesn’t include a GPS system for route tracking and mapping
- Fitbit Alta isn’t waterproof, hence not suitable for swimming
5. Fitbit Blaze Smart Fitness Watch
Introduce yourself to health and fitness tracking with the Fitbit Blaze and you can be sure you’ll definitely love it.
The Blaze may as well have Fitbit’s attempt to build a smartwatch. Yet at its very foundation, it’s more of an activity tracker and a rather disappointing smartwatch.
If you decide to choose this one, however, you mainly want to focus on the fitness tracking as the main goal of buying the device in the first place.
With Fitbit Blaze, it’s easy to track active minutes, floors climbed, distance covered, calories burned, and total steps.
Blaze’s built-in multisport tracker can automatically detect exercise like biking, cross training, gym sessions, and cardio. So if you’re seriously into fitness, then this is the most ideal activity tracker to get.
Unlike Fitbit Flex, the Blaze has a heart rate monitor, which in addition to monitoring your pulse rate also displays their heart rate zone, which goes a long way in helping you determine the intensity of their exercises.
What’s more?
This cheap Fitbit even includes a built-in GPS system, which is quite handy in route tracking when biking, running, and walking. For you, this also means the ability to see stats like duration and pace on the watch’s display.
- Has a decent battery life on a single charge even on continuous use, provided the GPS and notification features are off
- Vibrant and colorful display, so clear and easy to read
- Includes a heart rate monitor and is good in sleep and step tracking
- Older kids can use it to control music if they own smartphones
- Only good for older kids, mostly teenage boys and girls
- Ugly design with a rather cheap band
- May feel bulky for some people
- Poor battery life on GPS mode and when notification feature is on
- The smart workout tracker isn’t nearly as robust and is slow sometimes
Final Words on Cheap Fitbit
As you can see, even Fitbit, the world’s leading fitness tracker dealer, has high-quality yet affordable fitness and activity trackers that you can buy and use if you’re on a tight budget. Choose an option that you believe will best work for you.
