If you want to give fitness tracking a try (but without a wearable), start by using a mobile app that counts your steps. This method requires little to no investment and could be of interest if you're a beginner. Our top recommendation for people just getting started with exercise is Map My Fitness. It has hundreds of activities you can track, from vacuuming to rock climbing.

If you run or bicycle, we recommend tracking your runs or rides with an app before going whole-hog and splurging on a tracker. Why? With some trackers, you still need to carry your phone to get accurate pacing, distance, and mapping, so you'll want to know before you make a purchase if you're OK with carrying your phone, or if you'd prefer a tracker with built-in GPS so you don't have to. A few apps we recommend are Runkeeper (for running), Cyclemeter (for bicycling), and Strava (for both running and cycling).

Fitness trackers can range from 25 to $400$ or more. Some less expensive trackers lack a display, so you can't see how many steps you've taken unless you look at your smartphone. More expensive trackers usually include built-in optical heart rate monitors and GPS, and often, these features are tailored toward athletes and exercise enthusiasts. Don't get suckered into buying an expensive tracker if your primary activity is walking. If you walk and don't do much else, there are great options in the $25 to $99 range. If you work out a lot and want ample fitness-tracking options, we recommend spending at least $99, as that's the price point where you'll start to see the features that are useful to very active users.

With most fitness trackers, you pay one lump sum for the device, then get all or most of its accompanying software features for free. The Whoop Strap 3.0 has a different pricing model. Whoop offers its basic black wristband for free with the purchase of a membership, which gives you access to its app. Whoop justifies its ongoing membership fees through regular app updates, offering timely features like COVID-19 tracking. Amazon has taken a similar approach with its Halo wristband. The company charges $99.99 for the tracker itself, and $3.99 per month (after a six-month trial) to use most of its features.

One important question to ask yourself before choosing a fitness tracker is the type of form factor you want. Most these days are worn on the wrist, though you can get clip-ons, and fitness-tracking rings. Bracelets and watches are hard to lose. Clip-ons can fall off or get thrown into the wash. That said, bracelets and watches can get in the way when typing on a computer or sleeping, for example. If you're bothered by having something on your wrist, you're probably better off with a clip-on, although this style isn't nearly as popular as it used to be.

The Oura Ring, meanwhile, brings health tracking to your fingers. The Oura's ability to track workouts is pretty basic compared with a wrist-worn model, but it offers comprehensive sleep tracking and is more comfortable to wear to bed than a watch or wristband, making it an intriguing alternative. There are also trackers for children, like the Fitbit Ace 2. And don't forget about Fido. That's right, there are even trackers out there specifically for pets.

Optical heart rate monitors are the ones built into the device itself. Some very good fitness trackers don't have a heart rate monitor but can pair with a chest strap. Most every device from Garmin and Polar supports a chest strap (like the excellent Polar H10), and you can usually bundle one in when purchasing a tracker for an extra $40 or $50.

Finally, if you're interested in knowing your resting heart rate, you don't need to buy a tracker with an optical heart rate monitor to find it. Many smartphone apps let you take your heart rate in about 15 seconds using the phone's camera. Check your pulse once or twice a day, and you're good to go.

Many fitness trackers record your sleep. When they do, they generally watch for movement using a three-axis accelerometer to a more sensitive degree than they do during the day. Most devices offer graphs in their companion app showing the duration of your light, deep, and REM sleep. Some also track your overnight respiration (the number of breaths you take per minute), a feature Apple plans to add to its wearables this fall as part of watch OS 8.

There are also dedicated sleep trackers out there that attach to your mattress, but we haven't found them to offer an appreciable advantage over wrist-based trackers. And wearable trackers can do a lot more than simply track your rest. But if you don't like the idea of wearing something on your wrist to bed and need a new mattress, you can always spring for the Sleep Number 360 Smart Bed. The second-generation Nest Hub is another option; it uses a motion sensor to track your sleep and respiration.

A fitness tracker's app matters. Whether on your phone or on the web, the app is absolutely vital because it is where you make sense of the information the tracker collects. Fitbit has one of the best apps and websites we've tested. It lets you record all kinds of data, such as your weight, menstrual cycles, calories and water consumed, and stress level.

If you want total body analysis, look for a system that incorporates a smart bathroom scale. The Fitbit Aria 2 sends your weight directly to your account, so you can't cheat the system by entering a lower number. The QardioBase 2 is another top smart scale, especially for pregnant women.

Most fitness trackers have some smartwatch functionality, and most smartwatches have fitness features, too. The Fitbit Versa 3 comes close to blending both worlds, but at the moment it still lags far behind the Apple Watch in terms of third-party app support.

The Apple Watch Series 6 places more of an emphasis on health and fitness tracking than any other smartwatch we've seen. It can calculate your blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) level on demand in 15 seconds and even has an FDA-approved electrocardiogram (ECG) function that generates a PDF of your heart rhythm you can share with your doctor. But as its name implies, it's first and foremost a smartwatch