Long before the days of everyone and their mother owning a smartwatch, an Oura Ring, or a WHOOP, there was the Fitbit. It came out in 2009 and ~paved the way~ for allll of the health tech that followed. But since there’s seriously no shortage of tech gadgets in the Year of Our Lord 2024, how does the Fitbit hold up compared to everything else (particularly the Apple Watch, which has become sooo snazzy and sophisticated in recent years)?
You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers, people! For this article, I wore the Fitbit Charge 6 for two months. Prior to that, I wore my Apple Watch Series 9 daily. I used both products all day and while sleeping to test the various health and fitness features that they offered.
Ready to dive in? Breaking down all the deets to help you make sense of the Fitbit vs. Apple Watch debate in three, two…
The Fitbit Charge 6
The Apple Watch Series 9
First impressions
Now, I’ll admit it—the Fitbit is the fourth health tracker I’ve tested for Cosmo (see here, here, and here), so it takes a lot to impress me. But straight out of the box, it’s nice and sleek! The screen is small and less distracting than I expected. I have pretty petite wrists so bigger devices like the Apple Watch (especially the 46mm face, which is why I chose the 41mm) are very noticeable, but the all-black Fitbit has a narrow profile that isn’t too aesthetically devastating for a fashion-obsessed shopping editor to wear on a daily basis.
In the same vein, my first impression of my Apple Watch was “wow this is such a cool, nicely-packaged device” and also “this sporty band doesn’t match any of my outfits” so I immediately swapped it out for this chic gold chain band from Casetify, and not to brag, but I get, like, a compliment a day on it. This cheaper option is great, too!
The exact models that I tested
Sleep tracking
My Fitbit gave me a comprehensive view of my sleep, from how long I spent in each sleep stage to my resting heart rate and my temperature. The app even gives me a sleep score out of 100 to grade my quality of sleep and recovery, which is a nice feature that gives it a leg up over the Apple Watch.
Apple offers a similar graph of your sleep stages as well as heart rate and respiratory stats throughout the night. It also tracks any deviation of your wrist temperature from your usual baseline similarly to the Fitbit, with the difference being that Apple uses that data for cycle tracking (more on that below). I’d say that the two are prettyyy similar otherwise.
There were a couple nights of sleep that the Fitbit and Apple Watch both didn’t pick up on my sleep at all, and I think it’s because with certain bands, the devices are a liiiiiittle loose on my wrist. So if you find yourself between watch hole sizes, I’d recommend switching to an adjustable band like this or this!
The verdict: It’s a tie!
Fitness tracking
As much of a sleep snob as I am, I know there’s a good chance you’re looking into buying a Fitbit or an Apple Watch because you’re interested in an activity tracker. Here’s the lowdown…
No question about it—the Apple Watch is built for fitness. All you have to do is select your activity on your watch (there’s a list of everything from the stair-stepper machine to using a wheelchair) and the watch will monitor your time, heart rate, pace, and even the calories you’ve burned, if you’re into that. It has great automatic detection, too, if you’re like me and usually forget to select an activity.
The Fitbit offers similar core features to the Apple Watch—step tracking, heart rating monitoring, calories burned, etc—for a cheaper price. The screen isn’t as big and flashy, but it’ll track your indoor and outdoor runs, the duration of your workouts, and automatically pick up on activities you’re doing just as well as the Watch does. I’d feel a buzz on my wrist and notice that my Fitbit started a timer when I started a jog, played spikeball, or even when I began walking at a slightly more ~strenuous~ pace.
The verdict: It’s a tie!
Cycle tracking
If your goal is to be able to confidently say, “My last period started on [insert date]” when your OB-GYN inevitably asks you, you can record period dates on your Fitbit app and it’ll estimate how many days it’ll be until your next period. Nice and simple. It’ll also give you a general guess of where you are in your cycle as well as an approooooximate fertile window.
But if you have an irregular period, you’d need to take an ovulation test and input the results for a truly accurate reading… which is kinda annoying. The Fitbit also can’t track pregnancy—some users reported that the app declared their periods hundreds of days late when they were, in fact, just pregnant.
So if you’re seriously trying to conceive or using tracking as your sole method of avoiding pregnancy, you’ll probably want to purchase the Apple Watch, which can be paired with Natural Cycles, an FDA-approved form of non-hormonal birth control. The watch takes your temperature every day and sends the data to Natural Cycles, which monitors ovulation, menstruation, and fertility based on body temperature.
The verdict: Apple Watch wins!
Pricing
Cost is probs the biggest deciding factor between the two devices—and that’s because one is signiiiiificantly cheaper than the other. The Apple Watch Series 9 will run you somewhere between $300-$400 depending on which style you choose, whereas the Fitbit Charge 6 is only $145. That means for the price of an Apple Watch, you could literally buy a Fitbit for each wrist, lol.
Now granted, the Apple Watch is definitely very fancy with a gorgeous screen, but when it comes to functionality, I don’t know if it truly offers double what the Fitbit does to justify the twice-as-expensive price. At the end of the day, though, it really comes down to your personal budget and what’s important to you.
The verdict: Fitbit wins!
So fresh and so clean!
Pros & cons of the Apple Watch
Here are some of the things the Apple Watch totally excels at in a nutshell, plus some of the downsides to consider before you buy.
Pros
- Bands are interchangeable
- Easy to set up, pairs seamlessly with iPhones
- Offers extensive health and tech features
- Very sophisticated device
- Larger watch with customizable watch faces
- Water-resistant
- More color options
Cons
- More expensive
- Only compatible with Apple devices
- Needs to be charged daily
Pros & cons of the Fitbit
Running short on time? Here’s a quick summary of the very best features of the Fitbit as well as some reasons it might not be your perfect fit.
Pros
- Bands are interchangeable
- Compatible with both Apple and Android devices
- Offers workout classes in the Fitbit app
- Significantly cheaper
- Smaller profile on the wrist
- Water-resistant
- Great battery life and charges quickly
Cons
- Not as customizable
- Only three color options
- Offers a more pared-down range of features than the Apple Watch
So, which one is the winner?
Hate to be that person, but it depends on your preferences. Personally, I found the Fitbit to be slightly less intuitive. It has fewer gadget-y features than the Apple Watch does, so it’s a simple device compared to others on the market. This chronically-online editor finds wearing a screen on her wrist every day to be a little tedious, so I wasn’t confident that the limited number of features the Fitbit offered were enough to justify adding yet another blinky thing to my life.
But if you’re a smartwatch user looking to simplify your digital life, switching to the Fitbit Charge 6 is the perfect way to do that. It offers all of the core functionalities of an Apple Watch (run tracking, step counting, sending your notifications, monitoring your sleep, etc) while eliminating a bunch of other features you might not use anyways.
And if you’re choosing between the two options, the reality is that both devices are really solid. It just comes down to two factors: what type of phone you have (iPhone or Android) and what your budget is. The Apple Watch is shiny, highly-developed, extremely compatible with the Apple ecosystem—basically an Apple lover’s wet dream. The Fitbit is a great smartwatch that’s significantly more affordable, aesthetically sleek and minimal, compatible with any type of phone, and has stood the test of almost two decades.
Basically, you can’t go wrong with either. And if you really can’t decide, why not order both to see how they feel and keep the one you prefer?!
Why trust us?
As Cosmo’s unofficial tech expert, shopping editor Hannah Oh has spent months testing various health trackers and wearable devices like the Oura Ring, the Apple Watch, the Fitbit, and the WHOOP. She takes her sleep and wellness very seriously (eight hours each night or bust!) and spends her free time explaining to her friends and family why they should hop on the biometrics train.
Hannah is the Shopping Editor at Cosmopolitan, covering all things from chic home decor to trendy fashion finds, TikTok products that are actually worth your $$$, and the perfect gift to buy for your boyfriend’s mom. She previously wrote for Seventeen and CR Fashion Book. Follow her on Instagram for hot takes on red carpet fashion and pictures of her office outfits that nobody asked for.
