The Best Cheap Fitness Trackers that Perform Just Like Premium Wristbands

So you’re under a tight budget. And you are wondering if there is a cheap fitness tracker that can make the cut just like the high-end ones?

Or maybe you just need an inexpensive fitness tracker that can get the job done just right?

Look:

Fitness and activity trackers are now so a dime a dozen that’s hard to know which ones stand out. But we have tested different models from top and entry level brands and we know what best suits a small budget.

Whether you need an alternative to Garmin Vivoactive 3, you can’t pay more for a Fitbit Alta HR, or you can’t afford an Apple Watch Series 4, this post is for you.

In short: if you need truly cheap fitness tracker that falls into the sweet spot, you will love this guide.

Best Cheap Fitness Tracker Reviews

1. Fitbit Ace 2

Fitbit Ace 2 is one of the cheapest kids’ fitness trackers, a better model than the original Ace.

Unlike the original model, this one features a more vibrant display and a unique design that doesn’t copy from Fitbit Alta.

The best part?

This one is actually cheaper than the original Ace, so it’s a good option to get your child if you’re on a budget.

The body sports a plastic design. And while we wish it were soft rubber instead, we believe it should still be easy for your child to wear and take off. In this upgrade, the charging system is a lot better. And you’ll even notice a number of watch faces, which your child will definitely love to use from time to time.

One of the biggest improvements on the Ace 2 is on the display. First, the screen is touch sensitive and very responsive. Second, kids don’t have to tap the display anymore. They can simply navigate the watch by swiping instead.

When it comes to health and fitness, this device is good enough for monitoring steps, sleep patterns, and active minutes. We just wish it had a built-in GPS and a heart rate monitor. At least these would have extended its function. But what you get for the price is sincerely more than enough.

Kids that love to swim will love this upgrade. That’s because it features a 5 ATM water resistance, which means it’s one of the waterproof activity trackers in the Fitbit’s product series.

2. Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity Tracker

Flex Wireless Activity Tracker isn’t as robust as Charge 2, Charge 3 or Alta HR. But it’s a good deal to consider if you’re looking for a cheap device from the mighty Fitbit. One of the things we love about this activity tracker is that it’s lightweight. Moreover, it cheaper than Apple Watch Series 4 and Samsung Gear Fit, not to mention that fits well straight out of the box.

Fitbit Flex is lightweight, easy to wear, and very comfortable. As far as fitness tracking is concerned, this device covers the basics really well. You can use it to count calories burned, track steps, and get an estimate of active minutes. Also, it can measure sleep duration and quality, helping you to know if you sleep very well every night. There’s also a vibrating alarm that you can use to get up in the morning.

One area where Flex fails is on waterproofing. Fitbit made it very clear that this one isn’t suitable for swimming. And that’s something you need to take literally. It has a water-resistant rating of 1 ATM, which is the lowest value for devices that can survive sweat and a few splashes. If you need a cheap fitness tracker for swimming, choose Letscom; otherwise go for Fitbit Charge 3 or Garmin Vivosmart 4.

The bands come in different colors, so you can choose one that suits you best. Also, the tracker has a decent battery life, giving you a runtime of about 7 days before the next charge.

3. Garmin Vivofit 3 Fitness Band

The Vivofit 3 is the best fitness band in the Vivofit series.

While not as advanced as the latest Vivosmart models, it’s still one of the useful activity trackers that you can buy for cheap. You can use this band to count calories burned, track steps, and estimate distance traveled.

One of the things we don’t like about this device is the rest feature. In other words, the device clears your previous fitness data after every 24 hours, so there’s no way to keep track of your fitness progress. Keep this in mind if you choose to buy and use this budget activity tracker.

Just because Vivofit 3 clears all your data in 24 hour doesn’t mean you can’t keep a record of those metrics. You can use the Garmin connect app to do this. Simply pair the Vivofit 3 with the app and then synchronize your data. You can download the app from Google Play Store or iOS App Store for free.

Even with the data reset tendency, the Vivofit 3 is still better than Fitbit Flex 2 and Alta.

First, it has a clear display, while Fitbit Flex 2 doesn’t even have a display. Plus, it’s $40 less the price of both Flex 2 and Alta.

The pros of this device are that it can also work as a device for reading time, it has a good battery life that gives you a decent runtime, and it’s waterproof.

On the other hand, this device doesn’t feature vibration alert and you can’t set the alarm via the app.

4. Garmin Vivofit Fitness Band Under 100

Garmin designs both high-end activity trackers and the Vivofit fitness band is one of the options that you can get for cheap.

To this day, the Vivofit remains one of the most well rated device in its category. That’s because it’s one of the most effective gizmos that you can buy for the money.

You will love the Vivofit for what it’s all about in the first place. If anything, the primary goal for designing this band was to help you get off your sofa and stay on the move. And in those active moments, this device will count calories burned, monitor steps, and record your heart rate.

Anyone can buy and wear the Garmin Vivofit. If you’re in the market for just a simple tracker that you can use to check time, then this should be perfect.

If you are into serious fitness and activity tracking and you need a device that can give you accurate results, this one is for you.

One of the very best things about this band, which supplements the Move Bar, is the ability to personalize fitness goals. This can go a long way to help you create a reasonable fitness routine that you can easily stick with for a long time to come.

You will love this fitness band because it has a battery life of 365 days. It also sports a 5 ATM waterproof rating, so you can use it for swimming.

However, it doesn’t include a built-in GPS, so you won’t be able to track or map routers. Again, the display doesn’t have a backlight and sometimes data just doesn’t synchronize as easily.

5. Garmin Vivosmart HR Activity Tracker

Are you looking for a good activity tracker under $150? Or maybe you’re interested in a cheap fitness watch that can easily replace the Apple Watch Series 4 or Samsung Gear Fit? Then you should consider Garmin Vivosmart HR.

This device is bulky, but Garmin has tried its best to make it as lightweight as possible so you can wear it for an extended period. That’s not to say that it’s the most lightweight fitness tracker in the market, but it’s not that bad either.

The silicone strap feels soft and comfortable on skin and it’s very easy to adjust for a comfortable fit. It doesn’t have the best battery life like the Vivofit series. But you get at least a 5-day runtime with continuous heart rate monitoring.

Vivosmart covers the basics of fitness tracking very well. You can use it to count calories burned, track steps, distance and floors climbed. The built-in heart rate monitor is a useful feature that helps you to know how fast your heart beats during an exercise. This goes a long way to help you determine the intensity of a workout that’s good enough for you.

This budget activity tracker is also waterproof. You can take it to the pool and you don’t have to remove from your wrist when going to the shower.

The pros include a built-in GPS that you can use for location mapping, a Move Bar that alerts you to feed the device with some steps, and a waterproof design that makes it good for swimming. The drawbacks include the bulky design, a short battery life, lack of smart coaching, and lack of personalized feedback.

6. Huawei Band 2 Pro Smart Fitness Wristband

While really smart fitness trackers like Apple Watch Series 4 and Garmin Vivoactive 3 are expensive, the Huawei Band 2 Pro includes premium feature and sells at an extremely lower price.

So if you’re on a budget and you need a smart fitness wristband, then you will love this model.

At a first glance, you’re very likely to mistake this wristband for a Fitbit Alta because, on the surface, they look quite similar. But this is a slim model from Huawei and it has a number of features that you can enjoy at such a low price.

This smart wristband features a heart rate monitor, a built-in GPS, and a sleep tracker. These are exact same features you get from the expensive models like Garmin Vivofit and Fitbit Charge 3. We also like the fact that it has a decent battery life of 21 days, which is very rare in an inexpensive fitness tracker.

Huawei Band 2 Pro promises an in-depth analysis of your sleep and delivers just that. It’s so robust that it not only monitors how many hours your slept, but also uses a built-in accelerometer to detect night movements. It also shows you moments of light sleep, REM, and deep sleep.

What’s more, it can even detect and monitor your breathing quality as you sleep and give you a score on the same.

To put all these into perspective, you’ll love this smart band because it has an accurate step tracker and heart rate monitor. The deep sleep analysis is a great feature for the price. However, it doesn’t have the best battery life with the GPS mode and continuous heart rate monitoring on.

7. LeapFrog LeapBand

If you’re looking for a cheap fitness and activity tracker for kids, then LeapFrog LeapBand is one of the best options to consider.

It looks and feels like a cheap toy the first time you look at it. But the moment your kids begin to interact with it, you realize just how powerful such a gizmo is.

Unlike many fitness trackers that stresses on logging steps, counting calories, and checking heart rate, LeapFrog LeapBand is all about encouraging children to be active all the time.

To do this, LeapFrog adds up to 50 intriguing challenges, which gets your child moving from spot to spot in the house with zero force from a parent.

The device features 8 unique pets, which kids can unlock by completing different challenges. They have to take good care of every pet they unlock. And they do this by completing challenges, earning points, and using these trophy points to feed the animal of their choice.

What we love about the challenges added to the band is that they all revolve around motion. In other words, kids have to be on the move to complete a challenge. Tasks like popping like a popcorn and walking like a crab are simply so fun that kids will always look forward to using the tracker.

It’s important to understand that this device isn’t nearly as advanced in tech specs. It doesn’t include a heart rate monitor, it doesn’t have a built-in GPS system, and there’s no step or calories counter. But its purpose and at its asking price, this makes a good gift for a child.

8. Letscom Fitness Tracker

Maybe you’ve always known Fitbit to be the only brand that designs the best fitness trackers in the world. Or maybe you’ve tried Charge 2 or Alta HR and loved them so much that you didn’t think there were alternatives.

Except there is.

Letscom fitness tracker is one of the best alternative to Fitbit that does many of the things that a Fitbit can do.

For starters, this fitness tracker can estimate time spent on exercise, count total steps taken, and measure calories burned.

And when it comes to sleep, this device doesn’t just tell you how long you’ve slept. It gives you more analysis on that, enabling you to know your period of light and deep sleep as well as the time you were awake.

This inexpensive fitness tracker requires consistent arm movement to track very well. In testing, it very effective in logging steps from running and walking. But it won’t be as effective in cycling because there’s often little to no arm movement.

As good as this fitness tracker is at monitoring different aspect of your health and fitness, it isn’t a perfect device.

The heart rate monitor isn’t robust and sometimes it won’t even give you accurate results.

While the screen is touch sensitive and responsive, it’s not as easy to swipe. And in the days when it’s too stubborn to work with the mobile app, you’ll have data synch issues.

Also, it doesn’t have the ability to count stairs climbed. So if this is an important metric that you would like to track, you can either do it manually or get a different fitness tracker.

Overall, Letscom is a decent waterproof activity tracker for the price.

9. Lintelek Fitness Tracker Under 50

Lintelek is a fitness tracker under $50. But it includes some of the most advanced features you’d only expect in high-end models.

Its audience even dubs it an accurate activity tracker that gets the job done at a price that’s absolutely a steal. So if you’re seriously on a tight budget an activity tracker is a must-have, go with this.

To begin with, Lintelek can track just about any metric that it claims to. And it’s very good at that. It monitors all-day activities, from steps taken and distance covered to calories burned and active minutes.

There are also 14 sports models included. You can even use it to monitor the quality of your sleep at night, so you know if you’re getting enough or otherwise.

Like Garmin Vivofit 2 and Fitbit Charge 3, this activity tracker also includes a built-in heart rate monitor. It’s a 24/7 system that measures your pulse rate in real time whether you’re working out, still, or sleeping. This is a good feature that lets you know the condition of your heart.

Even at a price this cheap, Lintelek has a robust notification system that ensures you never miss important updates. Whether it’s a text message from work, a call from your loved ones, calendar alerts of important events, or social media updates from friends, this tracker is kind enough to let you see all of them.

Lintelek states that this device is waterproof. It’s not. The IP67 rating added to this only means that it’s water resistant. It means that while you can take it to the shower, you cannot use it for swimming. It has a 5 to 7 days battery life.

10. Polar H10 Heart Rate Sensor

Polar H10 is a cheap device with tons of premium features.

First, this isn’t a device you wear on your wrist. It’s a secure chest strap that stays in position until you take it off.

You will love this device because it’s compatible with third-party apps. Also, it has an extended battery life and it features a built-in memory.

To be clear, Polar H10 isn’t an advanced fitness tracker. It’s a 100% heart rate sensor whose job is to detect your pulse rate and report the data so you can get a better glimpse of your heartbeat. And when it comes to heart rate data accuracy, Polar H10 gets close to as precise as possible.

Now, you need to note that Polar H10 doesn’t work on its own. It doesn’t have a screen display, so you have to use the mobile app to see the data. Once paired to the app via the Polar Bluetooth H10 support, you’ll be able to see data of your heart rate in real time.

Polar has optimized this heart rate sensor for Beat and Flow apps. But you can still connect it with other third-party fitness apps if you want to. Examples of the apps that you can use this device with include Cardio Mapper, Run, and Runtastic.

Overall, this is a good device because it’s accurate, comfortable to wear, and it works well straight out of the box. Plus, it’s waterproof, so you can use it to monitor your heart rate even in the pool.

The thing we don’t like about Polar H10 is that you get charged for common features if you opt to use Beats app. And the connection to the GymLink isn’t often stable.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are quite a number of high quality fitness trackers that don’t require you to pay a lot of money. Yet they feature tons of premium features found in high-end models.

You don’t have to save for long to get an Apple Watch Series 4 or Garmin Vivofit 3 when you can actually spend less and start tracking your health and fitness today.

Except for the Garmin Vivosmart HR tracker, all the other fitness trackers on this list are available for under $100. So if you’re seriously on a tight budget, any of these recommendations should be good enough for you.