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Garmin vs Fitbit: 5 Must-Know Facts
- More than 100 million activity trackers have been sold in 2022 so far.
- Experts predict global activity tracker sales to exceed 250 million annually by 2025.
- Apple Watch, Garmin and Fitbit’s competitor, has an overall market share of 30.1% in the activity tracker market.
- As of 2022, more than $17 billion in activity trackers have been sold.
- As of 2021, there are more than 110 million registered Fitbit users.
Wearable technology is all the rage right now. From the Apple Watch to VR headsets, consumers continue to flock to the most cutting-edge tech. Obviously, this includes activity trackers. There are countless brands in competition with each other in this industry.
However, two brand names seem to come up far more than all the others. Namely, Garmin and Fitbit. But how do they stack up against one another? In a showdown between Garmin vs Fitbit, which activity tracker brand comes out on top? It’s a closer call than you might think. Both brands have their own set of pros and cons.
Likewise, each one has its own advantages over the other. To come up with an answer, we’ll need to place the two side-by-side. We’ll shine a light on what makes each brand unique, where each activity tracker could benefit from some improvements, and where Garmin vs Fitbit might have some overlap. Finally, we’ll have a better idea about how the two compare and which brand is ultimately the best. Let’s begin.
Garmin vs Fitbit: Side-by-Side Comparison
| Garmin | Fitbit | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1989 | 2007 |
| Founders | Gary Burrell Min Kao | James Park Eric Friedman |
| Key People | Cliff Pemble (President & CEO) Doug Boessen (CFO) | James Park (CEO) Eric Friedman (CTO) |
| Headquarters | Olathe, Kansas | San Francisco, California |
| Revenue | $4.98 billion (2021) | $1.21 billion (2021) |
| Products | GPS, activity trackers | Activity trackers |
Garmin vs Fitbit: What’s the Difference?
When comparing and contrasting Garmin vs Fitbit, it’s important to highlight the key differences between the two activity trackers. For these brands, it comes down to three key things: the brand’s product offerings, the quality of the tracker’s tech, and the number of features the activity tracker can offer. Let’s take a look below.
Brand Offerings
Despite their shared space in the activity tracker market, Garmin and Fitbit are two completely separate brands. Since its inception in the late 1980s, Garmin has been primarily known as a GPS brand. From deep sea diving equipment to hiking tools and in-flight navigation technology, Garmin’s GPS offerings far exceed the number of their activity trackers.
Fitbit, on the other hand, has always been known as an activity tracker brand. The only time they ever strayed from this was during the Covid-19 pandemic when respirators were in high demand. Consequently, Fitbit designed and manufactured its own respirators to help with the demand. Apart from this, Fitbit was, is, and always will be an activity tracker brand above all. It’s undoubtedly their top priority.
Technology
- Features always on customizable color display and 1 plus year battery life; no charging necessary. Safe for swimming and showering
- Tracks steps, distance and calories burned, monitors sleep and provides a personalized daily step goal (heart rate monitoring not available on this product)
- Periodically syncs to Garmin Connect, where you can save, plan and share your activities, get involved in social challenges and more
- Garmin Move IQ feature automatically detects activity and classifies activity type on Garmin Connect. Smartphone compatibility is iphone and android
- Width is 0.75 inch and thickness is 0.37 inch. Circumference for large is 5.83 to 8.46 inch and Circumference for regular is 4.80 to 7.40 inch. Display size is 0.43 x 0.43 in inches and Display...
Garmin is an extremely high-end brand, and the technology contained within its activity trackers proves this. From tracking your run to pinpointing your workouts and everything in between, Garmin’s activity tracker tech is just as remarkable as the GPS products they’re known for. In a showdown between Garmin vs Fitbit, Garmin makes the more advanced, more accurate activity tracker.
Fitbit’s technology is nevertheless exceptional. However, there’s no arguing that it comes second to Garmin’s. After all, Fitbit helped pave the way for the activity tracker boom. It also has the internal tech to actively compete against its closest rivals in the market. Alas, Garmin edges ahead of Fitbit in this specific regard simply because of the quality of its GPS tech. Fitbit might not be as accurate or as advanced as Garmin, but its activity trackers are still worthy of note.
Features
Garmin’s activity trackers have extensive and comprehensive mapping tech to help you with your workouts. Regardless if you want to track your run or navigate yourself back home without your phone, Garmin’s GPS tech makes all their activity tracker’s features that much more impressive.
And yet, Fitbit does have one key advantage. Its activity trackers also double as health monitors. This is something Garmin activity trackers cannot claim. From heart monitors to stress indicators, Fitbit watches have more impressive, more advanced features than Garmin activity trackers.
History of Garmin
Before Garmin ever entered the wearable tech industry, it was best known for its GPS technology. Gary Burrell and Min Kao founded the company in October 1989. Consequently, the two electrical engineers developed a GPS unit they dubbed ProNav. They named their newly founded company Garmin, which is a portmanteau of their first names.
Their first customer? None other than the United States Army. Unsurprisingly, the young company was soon bringing in more than $100 million annually. After only a decade, they were bringing in close to a quarter of a billion dollars a year.
Acquisitions
By 2000, Garmin had over three million cumulative sales across 50 different GPS products. From handheld devices and car navigation to hunting and fishing tools, Garmin had effectively dominated the GPS industry the world over. With that, they began making acquisitions. They purchased a GPS/NAV/COMM unit manufacturer in 2003, a satellite navigation company in 2011, and, in a move that would prove incredibly lucrative, a personal monitoring technology company named Dynastream Innovations.
Dynastream
This Dynastream purchase effectively allowed Garmin to enter the activity tracker industry. Equipped with Dynastream’s low-power, low-cost foot pods and heart rate monitors, they could now begin to make the activity trackers they’re known for today. The Vivofit and Vivosmart are two of their most popular all-around models.
Interestingly, the Forerunner series is preferred by runners. Conversely, the Fenix series is ideal for more rugged sports and activities. And the Vivomove is designed to combine the best of an activity tracker with the look and feel of a watch.
The Rise of Fitbit
- Optimize your workouts with a Daily Readiness Score that reveals if you’re ready to exercise or should focus on recover (requires Fitbit Premium membership. Premium content recommendations are not available in all locales and may be in English only)
- Earn active zone minutes as you progress toward your weekly 150 minutes of heart-pumping activity and use 20+ exercise modes to track goals like distance, calories burned and more
- Track all-day activity: your steps, distance, hourly activity and calories burned
- Use 24/7 heart rate to track resting heart rate better measure calorie burn
- Enjoy 10 days of battery life for daily progress without constant charging varies with use and other factors
Contrarily, Fitbit has only ever been in the activity tracker market. They were founded in 2007 under the short-lived name Healthy Metrics Research, Inc. After seeing the potential for success that their technology possessed, they soon changed to the much more catchy name Fitbit.
Their first product arrived in 2009 under the name Fitbit Tracker. It earned them both the Innovation Honoree award and the “Best in Health & Wellness” award at that year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Clearly, Fitbit really had something special on its hands.
Growth
In the following years, it was onward and upward for Fitbit. Subsequently, things really took off for the company once they began integrating their tech with smartphones. This, it seems, is the point where Fitbit went from good to great. Now offering both a website and a mobile app for their fitness trackers, Fitbit was able to tap into the growing popularity of activity monitoring.
The company did so by combining it with the social aspect of tracking friends’ activity through the app. Plus, by giving wearers the ability to log meals, workouts, weight loss journeys, and personal goals, they were able to make a great thing even better.
Today, Fitbit’s product line includes smartwatches, fitness trackers, wearable payment technology, and more. With Google’s parent company Alphabet acquiring the company in January of 2021, there’s little doubt that Fitbit’s product line will continue to change and adapt to the times. While some are obviously concerned about Google owning and having access to so much raw user data, others see its ownership as a way for Fitbit to embrace and implement even more advanced, cutting-edge tech into its vast line of products.
Garmin vs Fitbit: Pros and Cons
| Pros of Garmin | Cons of Garmin |
|---|---|
| Tracking technology is second-to-none | Less health monitoring features than Fitbit |
| Always on display | Marginally more expensive |
| Makes good use of its other brands (such as GLONASS and ANT) | Garmin’s top priority is GPS tech, not fitness |
| Not all models boast Bluetooth connectivity |
| Pros of Fitbit | Cons of Fitbit |
|---|---|
| Many affordable models for all price ranges | Tracking features pale in comparison to Garmin |
| The social aspect serves as a great motivator | Some models can be quite bulky |
| Superior health monitoring | Must be connected to a phone or computer |
| Subtle, sleek, and comfortable design | New Google ownership raises questions |
Garmin vs Fitbit: Which Is Better?
As you can see, there’s plenty to love about both Garmin and Fitbit. Both have exceptional, state-of-the-art activity monitoring. The two brands are equally high-end in this regard. Additionally, both brands come in at around the same price (albeit Garmin is slightly higher in price than Fitbit). Not to mention, both Garmin and Fitbit have plenty of features that make their respective activity monitors worth purchasing. Ultimately, which activity tracker deserves to come out on top?
It’s a close call. Nevertheless, Fitbit wins. Not only does it have superior health monitoring, it also has slightly more affordable pricing. While Garmin’s GPS tracking is second to none, it’s not enough to make up for its lack of Bluetooth connectivity and comparable health monitoring features. Garmin makes excellent activity trackers, but Fitbit makes a slightly superior product.
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