Fitbitvs
Garmin Connect
Garmin Connect: Sports-focused fitness tracker with advanced running and training metrics
Fitbit
Health and fitness tracking for everyone
As of 30 August 2026, Fitbit has a free plan and paid plans start at $9.99/month. Fitbit provides wearable fitness trackers and smartwatches along with a comprehensive app for tracking steps, heart rate, sleep, stress, and workouts. Softwr lists it under Sports. Fitbit is made by Fitbit LLC (Google), launched in 2007, available on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS.
Overview
What Fitbit does
Fitbit provides wearable fitness trackers and smartwatches along with a comprehensive app for tracking steps, heart rate, sleep, stress, and workouts. The platform offers personalized insights, guided breathing sessions, menstrual health tracking, and premium workout content.
What people use it for
- Workout tracking
- Nutrition management
- Health monitoring
- Fitness coaching
- Wellness improvement
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Fitbit.
- Sleep tracking relies on accelerometer data and heart rate variability, which may inaccurately reflect actual sleep patterns
- International users must consent to data transfer to US with different privacy protections
- Devices require regular charging and consistent wearing for reliable data collection
- History of data breaches including 61 million exposed fitness records from third-party service
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Fitbit
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- FitbitvsApple Fitness+
Apple Fitness+: Apple's integrated fitness tracking with Apple Watch and Apple TV workouts
- FitbitvsWHOOP
WHOOP: Wearable band providing detailed recovery, strain, and sleep metrics
Capabilities
Features
24/7 activity tracking
Heart rate monitoring
Sleep analysis
Stress management
Active Zone Minutes
Google Fit
Integration with Google Fit
MyFitnessPal
Integration with MyFitnessPal
Strava
Integration with Strava
Weight Watchers
Integration with Weight Watchers
Ios support
Available on ios
Android support
Available on android
Web support
Available on web
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Does Fitbit require a paid subscription?
No. Basic Fitbit app usage is free. Fitbit Premium costs $9.99/month or $99.99/year for advanced features like personalized coaching and detailed health analytics.
SourceWhat data does Fitbit collect and how is it used?
Fitbit tracks activity, heart rate, sleep, and calories burned. Google committed not to use Fitbit health data for advertising for 10 years following the 2021 acquisition, with EU regulatory approval.
SourceDoes Fitbit work offline?
Fitbit devices track activity locally on the wearable, but syncing data to the app requires internet connectivity. Real-time analytics are cloud-based.
SourceWhat platforms does Fitbit support?
Fitbit works with iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. Smartwatches integrate with Wear OS, watchOS, and proprietary Fitbit OS.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Fitbit
- Company
- Fitbit LLC (Google)
- Based in
- San Francisco, CA
- Founders
- James Park, Eric Friedman
Timeline
Fitbit over time
- Acquisition2021-01-14$2.1bn
Google completes $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit
Source - Acquisition2019-11-01$2.1bn
Google announces acquisition of Fitbit for $2.1 billion at $7.35/share
Source - Launch2015-06-18$732m
Fitbit IPO on NYSE at $20/share, raises $732 million
Source - Launch2009-01-01
Fitbit launches first wearable fitness tracker, ships 5,000 units and receives 20,000 pre-orders
Source - Founded2007-03-26
Fitbit founded as Healthy Metrics Research by James Park and Eric Friedman
Source
Keep looking
Where to go from Fitbit
- Fitbit alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Fitbit pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Fitbit badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Sports softwareThe full category
- Best Sports softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Sports software for
Compare Fitbit with
- Garmin Connect
- WHOOP
- Catapult
- ClassPass
- Peloton
- Strava
- MyFitnessPal
- Wodify
- STATSports
- ClubReady
- Zen Planner
- Kitman Labs
- Nacsport
- Spiideo
- Veo
- Wodify
- STATSports
- Kitman Labs
Other Sports software
Wearable athlete tracking and video analysis for professional teams, with indoor sport needing separate hardware
Pricing on request12 researched notesGPS and inertial wearables that produce athlete physical load data, with the consent obligations that implies
Pricing on request11 researched notesAthlete management platform holding medical, injury and load data from other systems in one record
Pricing on request11 researched notesWindows video tagging software that works on footage you already have, sold in tiers
Pricing on request11 researched notesPermanently installed multi-camera capture for venues, with automated production and analysis on top
Pricing on request11 researched notesA camera you buy that films the whole pitch, with software that crops a virtual camera to follow play
Pricing on request11 researched notesGPS and inertial wearables that produce athlete physical load data, with the consent obligations that implies
Pricing on request11 researched notesAthlete management platform holding medical, injury and load data from other systems in one record
Pricing on request11 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Fitbit, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Fitbit
Fitbit alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Fitbit pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Fitbit
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Fitbit badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Sports software alternatives
Video analysis priced for volunteer-run clubs, with players tagging and commenting rather than just watching
Per team per year
Registration and governance platform mandated by several United States national governing bodies
quoteA camera you buy that films the whole pitch, with software that crops a virtual camera to follow play
quoteWearable athlete tracking and video analysis for professional teams, with indoor sport needing separate hardware
quotePermanently installed multi-camera capture for venues, with automated production and analysis on top
quote
Team scheduling and communication for volunteer-run sport, with a separate quoted product for clubs and leagues
Per team per month
Video analysis and performance platform spanning school teams, elite analysts and automated capture hardware
quote