The Best Fitness Trackers & Smart Watches for Women (2021)

best fitness trackers for women

Are you looking to optimize your fitness efforts so you can see better results? You need a fitness tracker.

Fitness trackers are essential for numerous reasons. They provide valuable real-time information and insights to the person wearing them, making it simpler to take an active role in your health.

How do you find the best fitness tracker for women?

In this guide, we reviewed and ranked the best fitness trackers and smart watches available today based on price, performance, dependability, features, ease of use, and a variety of other factors.

 

What is the Best Fitness Tracker for Women?

Here are our top picks for the best fitness trackers and smart watches for women:

 

Best Overall Fitness Tracker for Women

Fitbit Charge 4

fitbit charge 4

The Fitbit Charge 4 is an incredible fitness tracker for women.

It features a battery that lasts up to seven days, built-in GPS, 24/7 heart rate monitoring, tons of data and insights (especially for Premium members), and a few trendy colors. It’s also swimproof, so you can take it in the water with you.

Work on stress management with the built-in stress score each day. Track all kinds of health metrics like oxygen levels, sleep, skin temperature, and much more.

The Charge 4 also isn’t too bulky — you can even wear one comfortably under boxing gloves if you’re into boxing workouts.

The Fitbit Charge 4 is an excellent fitness tracker for women.

Key Features:

  • 24/7 activity and heart rate tracking
  • Sleep tracking with detailed analytics and insights
  • Oxygen saturation monitoring
  • Skin temperature variance tracking
  • Heart rate variability analytics
  • Breathing rate tracking
  • Overall health and fitness score
  • Waterproof
  • Connectivity with numerous other apps

Click here to try the Fitbit Charge 4.

 

Most Stylish Fitness Tracker for Women

Fossil Gen 4 Venture 

fossil venture gen 4

This beautiful watch hardly looks like a fitness tracker at all! Instead, its glamourous design is incredibly eye-catching and won’t ruin your cute outfit.

Available in gold, rose gold, and silver stainless steel finishes, this watch has the perfect combination of style and features, including GPS tracking, heart rate monitoring, step tracking, and more.

Key Features:

  • Heart rate tracking
  • Activity tracking using Google Fit
  • Swimproof design
  • Built-in GPS to track distance and routes
  • Notification display
  • Google Pay functionality
  • Compatible with many different apps

Click here to shop the Fossil Gen 4 Venture.

 

Best For Underwater Activity

Garmin Swim 2

garmin swim 2

Like to swim, surf, or take part in other water activities for exercise? This fitness tracker is very high-tech and perfect for any swimmer.

The Garmin Swim 2 offers modes for both pool or open water swimming. The watch can get wet and keep working just fine.

This fitness tracker also has GPS and numerous other features.

The Garmin Swim 2 measures your pace, stroke count, along with monitoring your heart rate.

Key Features:

  • Wrist-based heart rate
  • Compatible with Android and iOS
  • 42 mm case
  • 7-day battery life
  • Tracks running and cycling
  • Lightweight
  • Run/cycle and various other cardio modes
  • Advanced features for staying on pace and logging drills
  • Designed for water
  • All-day stress tracking
  • Suitable for 24/7 wear
  • Monitors heart rate underwater

Click here to shop the Garmin Swim 2.

 

Best For Cardio

Apple Watch Series 6

apple watch series 6

The Apple Watch Series 6 features a  comfortable sport band, stylish look, and all the features you’re looking for in a fitness tracker. This is a great fitness watch for cardio/HIIT workouts, like Insanity (check out our guide to other great online workouts for women).

Its display never sleeps, and time or stats can be retrieved by simply looking at the face.

In addition, this smart watch features an ECG app, generating an accurate single-led electrocardiogram. It also provides in-depth health insights that can help doctors in their assessments.

Furthermore, this fitness tracker can identify healthy habits you have and help you remain motivated to complete them. You can measure all types of workouts and activities, and it’s also swimproof.

Key Features:

  • Blood oxygen tracking
  • Display always ON
  • Heart health sensors
  • Can perform ECG test
  • Access to Fitness+ for additional insights
  • Easy family set up
  • Swimproof
  • S6 processor
  • Emergency SOS

Click here to shop the Apple Watch Series 6.

 

Best For Weightlifting

Garmin Forerunner 935

garmin forerunner 935

Many fitness trackers aren’t ideal for weightlifting and are geared more toward cardio workouts. However, with its leading, advanced technology, the Garmin Forerunner 935 fitness tracker is an excellent choice for weightlifting.

If you’re doing a program like StrongLifts 5×5 or Strong Curves, this is the fitness tracker for you.

It measures heart rate, activity, and performance. This fitness tracker is very light on the wrist and provides training feedback to help you on your weightlifting journey.

In addition, it comes with a chest strap to provide even more accurate results so you can be confident the data you’re getting is correct, allowing you to make more informed decisions regarding your health and fitness.

Key Features:

  • Ultra-lightweight
  • Provides elevation change data
  • In-depth, accurate fitness stats
  • Tracks running dynamics
  • Monitors training and recovery
  • Analyzes performance
  • Exceptional battery life
  • Compatible with advanced work-outs
  • Tracks women’s health

Click here to shop the Garmin Forerunner 935.

 

Best Data Insights

The Whoop Strap 3.0

whoop 3.0

This fitness tracker is sleek, modern, and very high-tech. If you’re a data junkie, this is the fitness tracker you want.

You’ll get a ton of activity, sleep, and recovery metrics, so you can better understand what you need to do in order to reach your fitness goals. The Whoop 3.0 also offers useful guidance and recommendations for daily activity and sleep, and gives ongoing performance assessments over time.

Its customized band allows for a highly active lifestyle along with the most comfort. Wear it like a watch, or use the bicep band and wear it on your upper arm if that’s better suited to your needs.

The Whoop Strap 3.0 is lightweight and waterproof, making it perfect for performing daily tasks like washing the dishes.

It calibrates to your baseline “normal” and gives real-life recommendations to improve your health.

Now, what makes the Whoop Strap even more unique than the other fitness trackers for women on this list is you don’t actually buy the watch outright in a typical retail way.

Instead, you sign up for a monthly subscription to the Whoop platform, and they send you the watch for “free” with your subscription. Prices for the subscription vary from about $18-$30 a month depending on how long you commit.

Key Features:

  • Detailed activity, sleep, and recovery metrics
  • Generates weekly and monthly assessments
  • 5-day battery life
  • Pro-knit band for optimal comfort
  • Strain coach
  • Lightweight
  • Waterproof

Click here to shop the Whoop Strap 3.0.

 

Best For Location Tracking

Garmin Forerunner 945

garmin forerunner 945

This fitness tracker received a complete upgrade in technology from its original 935 version, making it the perfect smart watch for runners and triathletes.

The Garmin Forerunner 945 gives detailed health insights and offers in-depth training analysis.

While this fitness tracker has a sports-focused approach, it also provides detailed information surrounding activity levels.

The Garmin Forerunner 945 processes all of the health insights and gives a score out of 100 to measure your energy level as well.

This watch is especially good for runners and cyclists — as well as triathletes — because it has access to multiple global navigation satellite systems, meaning it can track your location/distances in even the most challenging environments.

Key Features:

  • Compatible with Android and iOS
  • 36-hour battery life
  • Pulse OX Sensor
  • Full-color maps
  • Advanced GPS tracking that works in the most challenging environments
  • Garmin Pay feature
  • Comfortable and durable band
  • Training plans with coaching
  • Wrist-based heart rate
  • Measures running data like cadence, stride, length, ground, and more
  • Daily work-out suggestions
  • Recovery time measurer

Click here to shop the Garmin Forerunner 945.

 

Best For Moms

Fitbit Versa 3

fitbit versa 3

Moms are superhuman and require a fitness tracker that can live up to their standards and fit their unique needs. The Fitbit Versa 3 does exactly that and more.

The face of the watch is entirely customizable, even having additional screens available for download. Reflect your favorite colors, cities, vibe, etc. There are also interchangeable bands. In short, you can really personalize this fitness watch to fit your specific needs.

But the Versa 3 is more than just style — there’s plenty of substance in this fitness tracker for women.

The Fitbit Versa is waterproof, has a long-lasting battery life, and offers a ton of health and fitness data, like heart rate tracking, oxygen saturation, menstrual health tracking, 20+ activities to track, and more.

Key Features:

  • GPS
  • 6-day battery life
  • 24/7 heart rate monitoring
  • Fast charging
  • Connects to smartphone
  • Oxygen saturation monitoring
  • Always-on display
  • Swim proof
  • Fitbit Pay
  • All-day activity tracking

Click here to shop the Fitbit Versa 3.

 

Best For Working From Home

Samsung Galaxy Watch 4

samsung galaxy watch 4

If you’re working from home, then you’re likely spending a lot of time sitting. The beautiful Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 will motivate and inspire you to take care of your health even while you’re working.

It features automatic workout-tracking, access to group challenges to motivate you to move and push yourself, heart and lung endurance tracking, and professional coaching sessions through the Samsung Health app.

This fitness tracker will have you excited to get up and practice movement throughout the day.

Plus, it’s quite stylish! The Galaxy Watch 4 is sleek, lightweight, and beautiful, making it the perfect fashion accessory to brighten up your wardrobe.

Key Features:

  • Lightweight design
  • Access to a wealth of fitness and wellness data
  • Measures body composition
  • Group challenges
  • Daily activity and fitness tracking
  • Holistic sleep analysis
  • Comfort-fit band
  • Modern design
  • Huge app library
  • Music compatible

Click here to shop the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4.

 

Best Budget Fitness Tracker

Yamay Smart Watch

yamay smart watch

Want a great fitness tracker without spending a fortune?

The Yamay Smart Watch is affordable (around $40!) and still gives you plenty of valuable information for monitoring your health.

This fitness watch accurately tracks steps, distance, and heart rate. Furthermore, this fitness tracker analyzes sleep quality and sleep patterns and has an amazing app that features guided breathing techniques and more.

Finally, the Yamay Smart Watch delivers message alerts as well as is comfortable and stylish.

Key Features:

  • Battery life 7-10 days
  • Waterproof
  • Compatible with most smartphones
  • Female health tracker
  • Lightweight
  • Automatically tracks all steps

Click here to shop the Yamay Smart Watch.

 

Best For Mood Tracking

Amazon Halo Band

amazon halo band

This wearable tracker is designed to better your sleep, movement, and feelings. Its unique design is meant to support and help better mental health and overall wellness.

The Halo Band is essentially Amazon’s answer to the Whoop Strap. It features a monthly membership-based service that can help you stay active and recover better, and there’s a lot of great data you can access with this tracker.

The Halo tracks steps, heart rate, and sleep. With the Halo app and this fitness tracker, you can get deep insights surrounding your health and wellness. Knowing this information can help identify triggers or manage stress better.

It also has a unique “tone analysis” feature that monitors your tone of voice to help improve your social and emotional health. However, this feature isn’t always that accurate, and it drains battery life quickly.

Key Features:

  • Step tracking
  • Tracks sleep and heart rate
  • Swim proof
  • Movement accessor
  • Measures and tracks body fat
  • Advanced fitness tracking
  • Tracks sedentary time

Click here to shop the Amazon Halo watch.

 

Most Unique

Oura Ring

oura ring

This different-looking fitness tracker is still nonetheless a fitness tracker worth talking about.

Forget wearing a watch — this is a ring you wear on your finger. That means you may find it less obrtrusive.

The Oura Ring uses sensor technology and an app to give you detailed health information. It measures directly from the arteries in the finger.

According to the company, receiving health insights from the finger is far more accurate than the wrist, so your data should be much higher quality than you’d get from a standard fitness tracker worn on the wrist.

During the day, the Oura ring measures steps, activity, calories, and naps. In addition, it measures your respiratory rate, nighttime movement, quality of sleep, body temperature, and more during the night.

The Oura Ring categorizes health insights into three different categories. These are readiness, sleep, and activity. Using daily information, the Oura Ring can help identify positive habits so that you can continue them.

Key Features:

  • Advanced sensor technology
  • Easy-to-use app delivering accurate health information
  • Activity levels
  • Calories
  • Steps
  • Naps
  • Respiratory rate
  • Body temperature
  • Sleep quality and pattern
  • Connects to Google Fit or Apple Health

Click here to shop the Oura Ring.

 

What are Fitness Trackers?

fitness tracker is a device worn on the body (usually on the wrist, but some may be worn on the bicep, chest, or even finger) that detects various metrics (steps taken, heart rate, sleep patterns, etc.) related to your health.

Fitness trackers can have massive benefits with proper use. They deliver actual, live, accurate health stats and often motivate and inspire the wearer to start moving. Offering motivation, coaching, training, and more, fitness trackers have come a long way and provide beneficial and helpful information.

Of course, there are tons of fitness trackers for women, and finding the right one can be tricky.

The best fitness tracker for women is the one that offers the health data you desire, meets your style preferences, fits your budget, and is easy to use.

Let’s face it, fitness can be a grey area.

Everyone has opinions surrounding what the “best” thing to do is.

A fitness tracker gives everyone access to their health indicators and can cut out much of the guesswork of getting healthier.

Wearing a fitness tracking device can be an empowering feat for many women. It’s a highly beneficial tool for maintaining good health, achieving good health, or simply being a more active person.

Real-time information right in front of you can both motivate and inspire you to get moving. Fitness trackers encourage self-monitoring and accountability. It raises awareness surrounding activity levels and inspires women to get up and move.

 

What to Look for When Choosing a Fitness Tracker

There are a few things to look for when choosing the best fitness tracker for women.

Some of these are:

  • Ensure the fitness tracker offers useful data. You expect accurate data, representing a precise number of steps, the area covered, and calories burned. The best fitness trackers for women have a heart rate monitor in them. This can show calories burned in a day and give a target heart rate zone to maintain intensity.
  • Smartphone integration and ease of use matter. This feature is available on a select few, but basically, it makes the fitness watch for women usable in place of your phone. This makes it easier when you’re, say, going for a run. With this feature, you’re able to leave your phone at home and get running hands-free.
  • Movement reminders keep you motivated. A fitness tracker can deliver gentle movement reminders telling you it’s time to get up and stretch. This can be impactful for your physical health, along with mental health.

The combination of all of these features makes a great fitness tracker for women. Knowing this information can create a massive change and increase your activity levels and help you take personal responsibility and take an active part in your health.

However, with hundreds of fitness trackers available, it is not easy to narrow down the perfect one for what you’re looking for. Hopefully, our guide has helped make it a little easier to navigate your options so you can find the product that best fits your needs.

To recap, we believe the Fitbit Charge 4 is the best fitness tracker for most women, but there are plenty of other great choices as well, depending on your specific needs and preferences.