The best fitness trackers with heart rate monitors to stop top of your health

For a fantastic fitness tracker at great value, we have to recommend the Fitbit Charge 5. Packed with plenty of features including built-in GPS, 20 exercise modes and automatic activity tracking, it’s a sleek option ideal for fitness fanatics and those looking after their health. Monitoring heart rate 24/7, it’ll let you know your heart rate zones during activity and workouts, and it’ll detect if your heart rate is above or below the threshold. It’s even got electrical sensors on the side for ECG and EDA scan functions so you can keep track of your heart health and monitor stress levels.

Our review: "If you are conscious about your health and monitoring your heart rate, without question the Charge 5 is worth it. Personal preference on style and design, also factors in with the Charge 5 more aesthetically pleasing on the eye, with its sleek rounded edges, a gold, silver, or black metallic trim and the snug infinity watch strap, not forgetting the OLED colour display are huge bonuses when investing in a fitness tracker."

Read our full Fitbit Charge 5 review to learn more about this tracker.

In a more compact design compared to the Fitbit Charge, the Inspire 3 is still a great choice boasting many of the same features. It's water-resistant up to 50m and the battery can last up to a whopping 10 days before it needs to be popped on charge. This Fitbit offers all-day activity tracking, heart-rate monitoring, sleep tracking and calorie burn, as well as reminders to move and automatic exercise recognition. It has heart rate tracking features compared to the Fitbit Charge, but it’s a great entry level Fitbit if you’re just looking for general monitoring throughout the day.

Customer review: "I absolutely love this Fitbit, it’s great for swimming and gym workouts. It helps to motivate me to walk more and it’s a great watch. The charge lasts over a week and it’s not heavy. I also love the sleep tracking which was a nice surprise. I would highly recommend this to anyone who doesn’t want an overly complicated fitness tracker."

The Garmin Venu Sq GPS Smartwatch will help you track everything while giving you more options to personalise to your taste. With up to six days battery life (and up to 14 hours in GPS mode), you can monitor everything from your workouts to your health on the tough, liquid crystal touchscreen. This watch comes with 20 preloaded sports apps and with Garmin Coach, you’ll receive adaptive training plans to meet your goals. You can completely personalise the display to suit your style/needs, and along with health tracking – including heart rate, hydration, stress and sleep – it can also detect incidents during select activities.

Customer review: “I have had the watch for about 4 weeks and am extremely happy with it and also the help I received from Garmin support when I was not getting notifications of phone calls. Basically setting up was easy and everything bar phone notifications worked well. Help was on hand and the matter resolved by very helpful Garmin Support. The battery, so far, has been far better than previous watches I have tried with a comfortable 7 day plus.”

One of the more premium smartwatches on our list but for good reason. This ‘fitness tracker’ is an all in one, boasting all the smart features, including Apple Pay, powerful fitness tracking and advanced health features which is where this product shines. The Apple Watch Series 9 can provide insight into your overall wellbeing; you can monitor heart rate and receive notifications if you have irregular heart rhythm, monitor your blood oxygen levels, take an ECG anytime and track your sleep stages. We also love that it has Fall Detection and Crash Detection so you are connected to emergency services in the event of an accident.

Customer review: “I decided it was time for an upgrade from my very faithful series 4 to the mighty series 9 & like so many reviews that I have read, it certainly is noticeably faster. As with every Apple product, you truly get what you pay for; ease of use, bright display, fast speeds & a fab fitness tool (as well as a stylish looking watch).

“This watch is a must have if you’re looking to put your health (and now well-being) first. The sheer amount of workouts you can now do on here and that it’s able to track is amazing! You can now log your mental health on the watch too which I I think is a lovely new feature alongside it’s multitude of stately features such as; fall & crash detection. I also now love that it’s a carbon neutral product, so no more guilt in how this is been created and how it’s impacting the environment.”

At the complete opposite end of the price-spectrum, we have the Popglory Smart Watch for less than £25 RRP. And while the lower price-tag may put some off, the 30,000 Amazon reviews would say otherwise! Just like other fitness trackers on our list, this watch has a multitude of sports modes and allows you to track everyday activity, such as steps, calories, and minutes active. It has 24/7 health monitoring, providing sleep, heart rate, blood pressure and blood oxygen readings (though it does advise that these are just for reference). Regardless, if you’re looking for a cheap and cheerful option, this is it.

Customer review: “Have had this, clever little watch for a month now, bought to replace a Blackview watch which simply ceased working. I, honestly, did not expect a lot from this item as the price was so low but by jings am I surprised. The functions are amazing and unbelievably quite accurate, the selection of face settings is almost limitless, I get text messages and weather updates, I can control the music through my "buds" when out walking, it has a multitude of training settings (if you are young and fit enough), the battery life is really pretty good, (about 10 days with the functions running) it is comfortable to wear 24 hours a day if you so choose - and - it tells the time. In fact the only thing I don't really like about it is the name!! and I can live with that.”

Another Fitbit and this time, it’s the Fitbit Versa 4. We love the Fitbit Versa for its design, boasting many of the features in the Fitbit Charge 5 but with a larger display that makes it look more akin to the Apple Watch Series 9. Made for fitness and beyond, it has built-in GPS alongside more with 40+ exercise modes in the Fitbit app. You can sync it to your phone to get notifications for calls, texts and calendar events so you can seamlessly go from running to running your day. And not forgetting the 24/7 heart rate monitoring which will alert you to high and low measurements.

Our review: "As someone who dabbles with fitness on a weekly basis, I personally find that the Fitbit Versa 4 more than meets my requirements for a smartwatch. I like how it looks, that the battery life is decent and that it's easy to use with some nifty features thrown in."

Discover more in our full Fitbit Versa 4 review.

As our final pick from Garmin, the Forerunner 265 is another excellent choice for those with fitness goals as this watch gives you a full picture of your health. With the longest battery life on our list (13 days!) it’s seriously impressive considering the features included. It has 30+ activity profiles included, smart notifications, and it provides a morning report with an overview of your sleep, recovery and your heart rate variability (HRV) status. And like the Garmin Venu, it’ll detect incidents during select activities and provide assistance, giving you peace of mind on your fitness ventures.

Customer review: “My first impression is that the screen is fantastically bright. It's a huge step up from my old Forerunner 245, which was starting to get hard to read when on runs. No such problems with the 265 - everything is legible at a glance. The amount of information available at the push of a button is unbelievable. I used to dig through using the Connect app, but now everything I need is right at my fingertips.”