Fitbit
Ranked 5 of 5 fitness trackers by recommenders
People recommend Fitbit trackers as cheap, simple reminders to move, work out and track steps and sleep. Critics often report syncing failures, bugs and a need for frequent charging.
People recommend Fitbit trackers as cheap, simple reminders to move, work out and track steps and sleep. Critics often report syncing failures, bugs and a need for frequent charging.
31 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 24
- approval share
- 23%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Reminds you to work out and move
“I pretty much wear one (cheap Fitbit) as a gentile constant reminder to do my workouts”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “Giving up on smart rings” “it's helped me drive my step count back up towards where I want it to be”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “I put my whole life into a single database”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Syncing and account integration problems
“it used to be that Withings sends data straight to Fitbit but these days seems gone”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “Google broke syncing for Fitbit scales” “Given my Fitbit's inability to play nice with my pixel phone”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “TPUs vs. GPUs and why Google is positioned to win AI race in the long term” “my Fitbit no longer works with my Google workspace account”
Comment from 12 May 2026 in “Googlebook: Designed for Gemini Intelligence – Coming Fall 2026 – Googlebook” Bugs, bricking and unreliable features
“The Fitbit is great until it bricks itself.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Apple's slow AI pace becomes a strength as market grows weary of spending” “Playing Spotify offline during a run never worked reliably with any of these”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?” “it's so buggy he left it sit on the shelf most of the time”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Apple's slow AI pace becomes a strength as market grows weary of spending” Privacy and data leak concerns
“FitBit or whatever leaking some US military info because of all the soldiers tracking themselves”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “Tesla ending Models S and X production” “they got banned all over govt services because of it”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app” Inaccurate step and calorie estimates
“it told her she needed 10,000 steps a day when she was doing 1,500”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: I built fitness app for my mum” “Fitbit using heartrate to approximately guess calories used”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “France's aircraft carrier located in real time by Le Monde through fitness app”
Other fitness trackers people recommend
The four most recommended other fitness trackers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pebble Index 01 smart ring | 82 | 103 | 44% | 9 | — | — |
| Oura Ring | 36 | 28 | 56% | 11 | 1.5 yrs7 owners | — |
| Whoop band | 10 | 9 | 53% | 5 | — | — |
| Fitbit Air | 8 | 0 | 100% | 2 | 3 mo4 owners | — |
| FitbitThis page | 7 | 24 | 23% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
31 of the 32 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the app started becoming less intuitive and readable”
“I pretty much wear one (cheap Fitbit) as a gentile constant reminder to do my workouts”
“stupid gadgets like early fitbit bands without displays”
“it only does them at night!!”
“I can't imagine why google would skip such a critical feature in Health Tracking.”
“One thing I miss that's not on my Fitbit is an hourly warning.”
“it's way too expensive for all I'm using it for”
“what's really cool are Tap to pay and Find my phone”
“I had a hard time with having to charge it regularly”
“they do the basics of fitness and sleep”
“I though fitbit's (now google) auto start/end was annoying”
“That sounds like it's Fitbit's fault to me”
“it really becomes redundant at that point”
“it used to be that Withings sends data straight to Fitbit but these days seems gone”
“my Fitbit no longer works with my Google workspace account”
“No worrying about the charge state every few days. No syncing with apps etc.”
“they got banned all over govt services because of it”
“Fitbit using heartrate to approximately guess calories used”
“it told her she needed 10,000 steps a day when she was doing 1,500”
“it's helped me drive my step count back up towards where I want it to be”
“The "solution" is to completely disable all parental controls on their Google accounts.”
“basically what FitBit was if it had a better battery and didn't suck”
“FitBit or whatever leaking some US military info because of all the soldiers tracking themselves”
“Metrics can still be gathered without annoying the user.”
“Playing Spotify offline during a run never worked reliably with any of these”
“The Fitbit is great until it bricks itself.”
“After the third failed just outside warranty”
“it's so buggy he left it sit on the shelf most of the time”
“My friend's Fitbit works way better than my Apple watch.”
“the hatchet job they performed on apps like Fitbit after acquiring them”
“Given my Fitbit's inability to play nice with my pixel phone”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.