Quick Verdict
If you want the closest thing to a Fitbit Air without Google's subscription attached, buy the Garmin CIRQA. It is a screen-free band like the Air, it costs $199.99 against the Air's $99.99, and Garmin's own announcement says no subscription is required. Over two years that reverses the price order: the Air plus Google Health Premium lands near $275, while the CIRQA stays at $199.99. WHOOP is the pick if recovery coaching is the whole reason you are shopping, and the Oura Ring 5 is the pick if you would rather wear nothing on your wrist.
The catch is that the Air is genuinely good at the job it does, and this only becomes a subscription question rather than a hardware question if you intend to keep paying. If you will use Google Health Premium, the Air at $99.99 is hard to beat and nothing below undercuts it. If you will cancel after the three free months, you are buying a tracker whose coaching layer you have switched off, and that is the case where a CIRQA or a no-subscription ring earns its higher sticker price.
Fitbit Air Competitors, Compared
Every price below comes from the company's own page, or from a source named in the row where the company blocked us. WHOOP's membership and pricing pages both refused our request this week, so its numbers come from Android Authority's Fitbit Air alternatives roundup rather than from WHOOP, and we left its battery figure out rather than guess at it.
| Device | Hardware price | Subscription | Battery, as claimed | Two years, all in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fitbit Air | $99.99, or $129.99 Special Edition | Google Health Premium from $9.99 a month, three months included | Up to a week | About $275 on the annual plan |
| Garmin CIRQA | $199.99 | None | Up to 10 days | $199.99 |
| WHOOP | Included in the membership | $199 to $359 a year | Not quoted; WHOOP blocked our request | $398 to $718 |
| Oura Ring 5 | $399 black or silver, $499 other finishes | $5.99 a month or $69.99 a year, first month free | 6 to 9 days | About $539 |
| Beacon (our app) | No hardware | Beacon Premium $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year | Runs on your phone | About $240 on the annual plan |
The two-year column is arithmetic on the prices in the same row, not a deal we found. For the Air it assumes you keep Google Health Premium after the three months that come with the band, at roughly $100 a year: $99.99 of hardware plus about $175 of subscription. Google's own announcement prices Premium at $9.99 a month or $99 a year, while Android Authority's breakdown of the rename lists the annual plan at $99.99, up from the $79.99 Fitbit Premium used to charge. Either figure makes the same point: the subscription outgrows the band inside the first year.
The Closest Competitor: Garmin CIRQA
CIRQA is the other mainstream screen-free band from a major brand, which makes it the most direct answer to the Fitbit Air competitors question. Garmin's announcement puts it at $199.99 with up to 10 days of battery and no subscription, and lists Body Battery, training readiness, HRV status, VO2 max, sleep tracking with a stage breakdown and a sleep score, Pulse Ox, stress, skin temperature, training status, respiration and nap detection.
The catch is the one Garmin does not print on the box: the metrics that make CIRQA interesting are Garmin's own calculated scores, and calculated scores tend to stay inside the app that made them. If you plan to read your data somewhere other than Garmin Connect, check what that somewhere else actually receives before you buy. Our Garmin CIRQA versus Fitbit Air comparison goes through the two devices feature by feature.
The Recovery Competitor: WHOOP
WHOOP is the alternative people mean when they like the screenless idea but want a recovery platform rather than a tracker. Android Authority's roundup puts WHOOP plans between $199 and $359 a year with the hardware included, and that inclusion is the structural difference: you never buy a band, and you never stop paying for one.
We tried to check those tiers against WHOOP's own membership and pricing pages this week and both refused the request, so treat the range as reported rather than confirmed by WHOOP. The shape of the trade is clear enough either way. Two years of the cheapest WHOOP tier costs about twice a Garmin CIRQA, and about four times a Fitbit Air bought without a subscription. You are paying for the coaching, not the strap. Our Fitbit Air versus WHOOP comparison has the longer version.
The Ring Competitor: Oura Ring 5
If the wrist is the problem, the Oura Ring 5 is the alternative. TechCrunch's launch coverage puts it at $399 in black or silver and $499 in gold, deep rose, brushed silver or stealth, shipping from June 4, 2026, with six to nine days of battery against five to eight on the Ring 4. Oura's own product page prices the membership at $5.99 a month or $69.99 a year with the first month free, and the insights, including Sleep Score and Readiness Score, sit behind it.
The catch is the Air's catch made more expensive: the hardware is a sensor and the product is the subscription, so a ring you stop paying for is a ring that stops telling you things. Our Fitbit Air versus Oura Ring comparison covers the comfort and sleep tracking differences in detail.
If You Meant Replacement Bands
A lot of people searching for Fitbit Air alternative bands want a strap, not a different tracker. Here is the honest position. Google's own Performance Loop band sells separately at $34.99, in one size that fits wrists from 130 to 210 mm with a micro-adjustable loop, in recycled polyester and nylon with a stainless steel buckle. The retail listing states it is only compatible with the Fitbit Air, so the Air's bands are not interchangeable with ordinary watch straps.
That makes a spare band a $34.99 decision rather than a $10 one, and it is worth knowing before you buy the tracker rather than after. We have not tested any third-party band for the Air, so we are not recommending one.
If You Meant an Alternative App
The third thing people mean is an app other than Google's. The Fitbit app is not a separate app any more. Google's announcement describes it as "entering a new era and leveling up as the Google Health app", with existing Fitbit accounts upgraded automatically. So the alternative app question is really whether anything else can read your Air data at all.
On Android, yes. Google's help center says the Google Health app works with Health Connect on Android 9 or higher, and that it both reads and writes across fitness, sleep, vitals, temperature, body measurements, nutrition, cycle health and medical records, with mental wellbeing read-only and permissions granted category by category. Any Android app you give Health Connect permission to can therefore see the Air data you allow through.
On iPhone the answer is thinner, and it is worth knowing before you buy: Health Connect is Android only, so an iPhone app needs its own connection to your Google account rather than a platform hand-off. Our article on which apps still get your Fitbit data covers what the move to the Google Health API changed and how to check the apps you already use.
How to Choose
Answer one question first: will you pay a subscription? If yes, the Fitbit Air at $99.99 is the cheapest way into a coached screen-free tracker and the rest of this page is largely academic. If no, the Garmin CIRQA is the alternative that costs nothing after purchase, and over two years it comes out cheaper than the Air with Premium running.
Then decide where you want to wear it and what you want back. Wrist plus training decisions points at WHOOP. Finger plus sleep points at Oura. A full smartwatch with apps, GPS and notifications is a different category, and our Fitbit Air versus Apple Watch comparison covers that trade. If the only thing you disliked about the Air was Google's app rather than the band, the fix is a different app, not different hardware.
Where Beacon Fits
Beacon is our app, so we have kept it out of the ranking above. It is also not a Fitbit Air alternative in the hardware sense. It is one of the things you might read a tracker in instead of Google Health. Beacon has one plan, Beacon Premium, at $19.99 a month or $119.99 a year, covering food and workout logging, every health data connection, AI chat, AI-generated workouts, workout suggestions and choosing which device powers each metric.
The route the data takes matters, and there is a real limit to be upfront about: Fitbit Air data lives in Google Health and does not write to Apple Health, and Beacon has no direct Fitbit connection, so it has no route into Beacon today.
For the alternatives on this page: Oura and WHOOP have direct Beacon connections; Garmin CIRQA reaches Beacon only through Apple Health, and only what Garmin writes there. Beacon computes its own Sleep, Exercise, Diet, Focus and Mindfulness scores from the underlying data, and does not show Garmin's Body Battery or Training Readiness or Oura's Readiness and Sleep Score. WHOOP's recovery and strain data are synced, but Beacon produces no readiness or recovery score of its own. If one of those scores is the reason you are buying the device, you will still be opening that company's app to see it. The current state of every connection is on our integrations page.
FAQ
What are the Fitbit Air's main competitors?
Garmin CIRQA is the closest, as the other mainstream screen-free band: $199.99, up to 10 days of battery, and no subscription required. WHOOP competes on recovery coaching at $199 to $359 a year with the hardware included in the membership. The Oura Ring 5 competes from the finger at $399 for black or silver and $499 for other finishes, plus a membership at $5.99 a month or $69.99 a year.
Is there a Fitbit Air alternative with no subscription?
Garmin CIRQA. Garmin's announcement states that no subscription is required, and lists Body Battery, training readiness, HRV status, VO2 max, sleep with a stage breakdown and sleep score, Pulse Ox, stress and skin temperature for $199.99. You can also run the Fitbit Air itself without Google Health Premium once the three included months end, which keeps activity, sleep and heart rate tracking and drops the coaching layer.
Which is cheaper over two years, the Fitbit Air or the Garmin CIRQA?
The CIRQA, if you keep Google Health Premium. The Air is $99.99 against the CIRQA's $199.99, but Premium runs about $100 a year after the three months included with the band, which puts two years of Air ownership near $275 while the CIRQA stays at $199.99. Cancel Premium and the Air is far cheaper.
Can I use other bands with the Fitbit Air?
Only bands made for it. Google's Performance Loop band sells separately for $34.99 in one micro-adjustable size fitting wrists from 130 to 210 mm, and its retail listing states it is only compatible with the Fitbit Air, so a standard watch strap will not fit. We have not tested third-party bands, so we are not recommending any.
What app replaced the Fitbit app?
The Google Health app. Google's announcement describes the Fitbit app as leveling up as the Google Health app, with existing accounts upgraded automatically, and Fitbit Premium renamed Google Health Premium at $9.99 a month or about $99 a year, up from the $79.99 a year Fitbit Premium charged.
Is there an alternative app for Fitbit Air data?
On Android, yes. Google's help center says the Google Health app reads and writes through Health Connect on Android 9 or higher, so any app you grant Health Connect permission can see the data types you allow. On iPhone there is no equivalent platform hand-off, so an app needs its own connection to your Google account instead.