Subscription-free fitness trackers to avoid costly trap
Updated
It seems like everyone is sporting a fitness tracker these days – whether it’s a watch, ring, or heart rate monitor, the gadgets are increasingly popular. But what’s not popular is the added cost to keep the tracker tracking your stats.
Subscriptions can be annoying at the best of times, so these are our top fitness trackers that don't require one. Supplied
Fitness trackers with subscriptions, like Oura and Whoop, lock advanced analytics, such as recovery scores, sleep staging, and tailored coaching behind a monthly or annual fee often starting at $200 a year once you’ve purchased the device.
Different people have different needs, but if you’re looking to invest in a piece of tech that can help level up your fitness goals without the costly subscription, we’ve rounded up the trackers that offer all data upfront, no subscription required.
Google Fitbit Air
Subscription-free fitness trackers JB HiFi
The Google Fitbit Air is the newest on the market, launching in Australia on May 27. Whoop-like in design, it is a screenless, lightweight health tracker designed for unobtrusive daily wear. It’s for those who want a fitness tracker to seamlessly integrate into their lives and sit subtly on their wrist.
Battery life: Up to 7 days.
Features: It monitors heart rate 24/7, heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, skin temperature variations, and irregular heart rhythm alerts. It automatically detects workouts and walks, tracks sleep stages, and pairs with the Google Health app to provide detailed wellness insights.
Design: The band is featherlight and screen-free with a core removable ‘pebble’. Three different styles are available: one made from recycled materials, another from waterproof silicone, and the third is a more refined style.
Apple Watch Series 11 42mm
Subscription-free fitness trackers JB Hi-Fi
The Apple Watch Series 11 is a refined, health-focused smartwatch that bring new and groundbreaking features like hypertension and sleep apnoea notifications to the lineup.
Battery life: Up to 24hrs with normal use.
Features: It will track your sleep score, overnight health metrics, advanced workout metrics like pace, heart rate zones, training load and offers the Workout Buddy feature.
Design: The face features a durable glass display that’s two times more scratch-resistant than Series 10. It has a water resistance rating of 50 metres and is IP6X dust-resistant.
Apple Watch Ultra 3 49mm
Subscription-free fitness trackers JB Hi-Fi
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is Apple’s most rugged smartwatch, built for adventurers, athletes, and water sports enthusiasts.
Battery life: Up to 42 hours of normal use and up to 72 hours in low-power mode.
Features: It can detect a hard fall or severe car crash, automatically helping to connect you with emergency services and notify your emergency contacts. You can take and make calls, stream music, and podcasts all without your iPhone, while tracking the important health metrics like heart rate zones and running power. It also features a precision dual-frequency GPS, custom workouts and Workout Buddy.
Design: A large and advanced screen emits more light, making it even brighter and easier to read. You can also use the display as a torch. It has a tough titanium case and a strong sapphire crystal display, plus it’s water-resistant up to 100 metres.
Garmin Vivoactive 6
Subscription-free fitness trackers The Iconic
The Garmin Vivoactive 6 bridges the gap between a dedicated fitness tracker and an everyday health monitor. It is an affordable, lightweight, comprehensive, and easy-to-use smartwatch.
Battery life: Up to 11 days.
Features: Body battery energy monitoring to deliver personal insights on how sleep, naps, daily activities and high stress specifically impact your energy. You can track your wrist-based heart rate, HRV status and menstrual cycle stats. It also features sleep coach and 80 preloaded GPS and indoor sports apps.
Design: The face is a 42mm bright AMOLED touchscreen display.
Garmin Venu 3S
Subscription-free fitness trackers The Iconic
The Garmin Venu 3S is a sleeker, more stylish option in Garmin’s catalogue, designed for health, fitness, and wellness needs.
Battery life: Up to 10 days in smartwatch mode and up to 21 hours in GPS mode.
Features: You’ll receive a morning report giving an overview of your sleep, recovery and HRV status. It will track recovery time, heart rate, fitness age, stress, menstrual cycle and pregnancy. It also has over 30 built-in sports apps.
Design: A compact fitness watch designed for smaller wrists, with a bright 1.2″ AMOLED touchscreen display.
Garmin Forerunner 965
Subscription-free fitness trackers The Iconic
The Garmin Forerunner 965 has been designed with runners, triathletes, and multi-sport enthusiasts in mind. It offers extensive, highly detailed insights into your training, helping you to level up as an athlete.
Battery life: Up to 23 days in smartwatch mode and up to 31 hours in GPS mode.
Features: It combines sleep, recovery, heart rate variability, and training load to let you know if you are ready to push hard or need a rest. It also features tailored insights like wrist-based running power, real-time stamina, and daily suggested workouts. For adventurers, there’s built-in, full-colour maps, route planning with Trendline and ClimbPro ascent planner.
Design: Titanium bezel with a bright, 1.4-inch AMOLED touchscreen display.
Ultrahuman Ring Air
Subscription-free fitness trackers JB Hi-Fi
The Ultrahuman Ring Air is an advanced piece of tech for something that is so small and lightweight. It provides all-round holistic health insight for users that prefer a discrete, screen-free experience.
Battery life: Up to 6 days.
Features: It measures sleep, heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and body temperature, circadian rhythm alignment, caffeine sensitivity windows, stress rhythm and menstrual cycle tracking.
Design: At just 2.4 grams, this titanium smart ring is the lightest wearable on the market, and 11 times lighter than typical smartwatches.
Samsung Galaxy Fit3
Subscription-free fitness trackers JB Hi-Fi
This is the perfect smartwatch for someone who is budget-conscious, but also looking to gain insight into health and fitness metrics.
Battery life: Up to 13 days.
Features: It tracks over 100 workouts and daily activities, including sleep, and lets you play music, check calls and send texts right from your wrist
Design: This watch has a more subtle interface, with a 1.6-inch AMOLED colour touchscreen. With aluminium casing, it weighs just 18.5 grams.
Samsung Galaxy Ring
Subscription-free fitness trackers JB Hi-Fi
For Android users, the Samsung Galaxy Ring is the perfect companion to help track wellness, sleep, and more, without the bulk of a traditional smartwatch.
Battery life: Up to 7 days.
Features: It delivers a daily Energy Score based on sleep, heart rate, movement, workouts, and skin temperature, then delivers personalised lifestyle and health tips.
Design: Made with a scratch-resistant, lightweight titanium frame and an IP68 and 10-ATM water-resistance rating.
Fitbit Charge 6 Fitness Tracker
Subscription-free fitness trackers JB Hi-Fi
This option from Fitbit is ideal for active individuals who seek a simple, yet comprehensive health assistant. It’s ideal for the everyday users.
Battery life: Up to 7 days.
Features: Enhanced heart rate tracking, over 40 exercise modes, built-in GPS, gym equipment pairing, stress management, blood oxygen and temperature, advanced sleep tracking, and more.
Design: This watch is slim, water-resistant up to 50 metres, with a vibrant, colour AMOLED touchscreen.
Timex iConnect Active
Subscription-free fitness trackers The Iconic
This smartwatch is super affordable, and offers the basic functions of a wearable, integrating fitness tracking with smartphone notifications. Perfect for those who value simplicity.
Battery life: Up to 10 days of standby/usage on a single charge.
Features: It tracks daily steps, distance, calories burned, heart rate, sleep and includes a dedicated Sports Mode. You can receive incoming calls, texts, and social media notifications.
Design: Lightweight in design with an IP68 water-resistant (can go underwater for up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes).
Coros Pace 3
Subscription-free fitness trackers Amazon
The Coros Pace 3 is an excellent multi-sport smartwatch that is very budget-friendly. It is built for runners, hikers, triathletes, and more serious athletes, but it is widely considered one of the best affordable options on the market.
Battery life: Up to 38 hours in full GPS mode and 24 days for regular daily use.
Features: With a next-gen heart rate monitor, altitude monitoring, checkpoint marking, Deviation Alert, 4GB internal memory, optimised profiles for outdoor sports like trail runs, swimming, and snow sports. There is also free access to the Coros Training Hub – offering structured training plans by elite coaches and athletes.
Design: A slim profile featuring a 1.2-inch always-on transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) colour touchscreen.
