The best fitness trackers for kids

Get your little ones excited about fitness and develop healthy habits for life.

fitness trackers for kids

by Angelica Daujotas |
Updated on

Today’s fitness trackers can pretty much do it all! From monitoring sleep to providing exciting challenges and activities to start your day. There’s now a fitness tracker for everyone, no matter your age.

From trusted brands like Fitbit to leading kids’ development brands like Vtech, kids’ fitness trackers are encouraging the development of healthy habits, all while still being fun!

Engaging kids in their step count and sleeping patterns are great way of setting your children up for life with a routine and an active and healthy lifestyle. Fitness trackers, for both kids and adults, are a great way of bringing the whole family together, getting everyone involved and building habits as a family - with a little fun competition thrown in there, too!

What can a kids' fitness tracker do?

Every fitness tracker is different depending on the brand and model, but they will most likely share a few of the same properties, here are a few notable features:

• Monitor movement – step count and activity levels.

• Challenges – many kids' sports watches have daily challenges and activities to get involved in to prompt them to get up and move.

• Sleep – most, if not all, allow you to track sleep patterns, ensuring they’re getting enough rest.

• Heart rate – monitor your child's real-time heart rate.

• Watch – fitness trackers are also a watch; a great two-in-one - they can set alarms for school or time their runs.

Deck your entire family out with a smart fitness tracker and watch everyone compete to get the highest step count. Check out our selection of the best fitness trackers for kids and watch your children develop healthy habits for life!

The best fitness trackers for kids

All of these fitness trackers for kids have been hand-selected by What's The Best shopping experts. Our team has spent hours investigating and researching, so you can choose the best one. Plus, we'd never recommend a product we don't believe in. Find out why you should trust us.

Best overall fitness tracker for kids (Editor's pick)

Fitbit Ace 2 Activity Tracker for Kids

Rrp: $102.00

Price: $69.95
Alternative retailers
Walmart$97.94View offer

Description

The Fitbit Ace 2 is a brightly coloured tracker for your young ones, with fun fonts on the display with characters to appeal to their fun side. It lasts up to five days on a charge, is water-resistant up to 50m and tracks that they're getting enough rest, as well as enough moments of activity.

Review: "I am a fan of Fitbit products and have used them for years. My son is very active and has tried cheap active watches, but they have never recorded even half of his steps. We bought him this for his 9th birthday and he loves it. You can change the watch face, my son currently has a rocket that flies up in the air as he does more steps. My son now times everything as well with the countdown feature. I've also found him randomly walking around the house to get more steps than me!! Which has actually motivated me more!! It is very child-friendly, and I would recommend it as great value for money."

Best fitness tracker for very active kids

Description

The BIGGERFIVE kids’ fitness tracker is designed for active kids, with 14 different sports modes, ranging from walking to football and dance. It allows you to get a clear insight into your kids’ daily exercise. We love the option to create a family account for everyone’s BIGGERFIVE fitness trackers, where you can synchronise and check everyone’s health data – nothing like a bit of healthy competition!

Review: "My youngest son has wanted a fitness tracker for a while now, as he was jealous that his big brother had one, but we could never find one that goes small enough for his wrists, but this one fits great! He loves wearing it and wears it at home and to school every day. It was easy to set up and the app is great. Now when we go for a run, he can get involved with tracking it too! I find that it really encourages him to get about and stay fit, as he and his brother always have competitions on who can do the most steps! The display is really clear and easy for him to read and it isn't over complicated like some smartwatches."

Best fitness tracker smart watch for young kids (6-9y)

Description

An amazing smartwatch for kids from Vodafone with calls and chat, on top of activity tracking, weather info and so much more! With a built-in SIM card, this watch is a great option for independent kids, so you can stay in touch over long distances.

We love: This is a smartwatch as it can quite literally do it all. As well as being a great fitness tracker, it has so many brilliant features like live location, quick call and personalisation. All of this can be managed in parental controls for your child’s safety and security.

Best fitness tracker for younger kids (4+)

Description

Perfect for your kid’s first smartwatch, this VTech watch is a top pick for introducing your little one to the world of tech. With many incorporated educational features and, of course, fitness tracking, which allows for active play challenges and step tracking, it’s an ideal multi-functional watch for young kids.

Review: "Perfect item, exactly as described and cheaper than buying on the high street. Our eldest daughter has the V1 so we bought this V2 for our youngest and it's perfect. Different enough so that they know who's is who's, but not too different that they argue about who has the best one! Quality is great and my daughter loves it."

Best motivating fitness tracker for kids

Garmin vivofit jr. 3
Price: $89.99
Alternative retailers
Walmart$122.86View offer

Description

Boasting thousands of five-star reviews, the Garmin Vivofit Jr. 3 fitness tracker is durable, swim-friendly and has up to one year of battery life, sounds amazing right? If you want something that motivates your kids to achieve their fitness goals, then this is it. With minute goals and adventures to unlock, they’ll be more active than ever before.

Review: "My son absolutely loves this!! He is soon to be 8 and it's perfect for him. He loves counting his steps and loves it, even more, when he reaches his daily goal as he gets fireworks appear on the screen!"

Best fitness tracker for older kids (10y +)

Description

The ultimate workout partner, the Apple watch can pretty much do it all, making it perfect for older kids to use. With the ability to take calls and reply to texts, as well as sync music, it’s a versatile smartwatch older kids would benefit most from. With amazing fitness tracking features all viewable on your iPhone fitness app and on the watch itself, its swim-proof design allows for the tracking of workouts like swimming, cycling and walking, plus many more.

Review: "I've used this watch for a week so far. I really didn't think I needed the additional features in the Apple Watch 6, and I am really happy with my decision, the Apple Watch SE has everything I need and more.
"Great for exercise - it tracks heart rate, steps etc. The watch pushes you with reminders to exercise if you're not meeting your goals - you can turn this off if you want but I find it very motivating. I love that I can control my music using my watch when I am running and can keep my phone safely away in my running belt."

Angelica Daujotas is a Commercial Content Writer at Bauer Media, where she reviews products for sites like What's The Best, Yours, Mother&Baby and Closer.

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