Fitbit Inspire 3 Review 2025: Our Favorite Budget Fitbit

For the last six months, I’ve been living with health-focused wearables — testing the best fitness trackers, best smartwatches, and best smart rings head-to-head to see which brands, models, and categories are actually worth it. And in a sea of bulky watches, complicated app interfaces, and so much buzzing interrupting my day, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is an uncomplicated, lightweight return to the basics of what’s important when being your healthiest self.

After weeks of testing during work, sleep, workouts, and travel, I’ve found the Fitbit Inspire 3 nails the fundamentals without any of the fuss: it’s light, low-profile, and comfortable to wear and will tell you if you’re moving enough, getting your heart rate up enough, and sleeping well, all with reliable accuracy. I ultimately named it the top budget option in my guide to the best Fitbits. For $100, there are definitely some trade-offs worth knowing before you buy. But if you’re looking to improve the foundational daily habits that build a healthier, more fit you, this might be just the fitness tracker for you.

What I like most

It’s light, low profile, and comfortable

The first thing I noticed after two minutes of wearing the Inspire 3 — let alone two weeks — is how unobtrusive it is. After wearing more traditional-sized Garmins, Fitbits, and other fitness trackers every day for testing over the last six months, the bangle-sized Inspire 3 was truly a breath of fresh air. It’s by far the most comfortable fitness tracker I’ve tested — its sheer size and minimal weight let it vanish on the wrist. Whether typing away on a computer, working up a sweat on morning walks, pulling on long sleeves for dinner, or sleeping, the light weight and size of this watch made the tracker fade into the background of my day.

It auto-tracks activity like a pro

Across the three different Fitbits I tested side by side, the Inspire 3 was the most consistent at detecting walks and bike rides, both long and short. While all the devices are supposed to auto-detect most types of activity (walking, running, outdoor biking, elliptical, rowing, spinning, and other aerobic workouts) after 15 continuous minutes, I found that the Charge 6 and Versa 4 were way more likely to miss quick outings, just lumping them into step totals or calories burned rather than recording them as a marked moment of movement in your day.

I appreciated that the Inspire 3 flagged the small bursts of activity as true movement, so that when I looked back at my day, I could see that I hadn’t just hit my steps, but actually moved my body regularly enough to be proud.

It monitors your sleep — and wakes you with blissful care

Thanks to the small size and silky silicone band, this tracker is very comfortable to wear while you sleep. Because the button is flush with your wrist, it also doesn’t have the issue of the green sensor lights blinding you when you roll over in the night like some other watches do.

Fitbit has the standard sleep tracking of most wearables these days: The free app will tell you basic sleep data like time asleep, sleep quality, and sleep stages; a Premium membership will deliver more details on your data, like a monthly sleep score and a full content library of guided programs and mindfulness sessions.

One feature I really appreciate about the Inspire 3 is the gentle alarms. You can set a daily alarm on the watch itself to wake you up with a soft buzz and vibration; I found this to be nicely quiet (bonus if you get up at a different time than your partner, like I do), but also just strong enough to wake me without a jolt to the nervous system. You can dismiss or snooze the alarm right on your wrist. The Inspire 3 also has a Smart Wake feature that uses Fitbit’s sleep-tracking capabilities to wake you up when your sleep is lightest within a 30-minute window you set.

The screen is small — but clean and legible

Yes, the screen is small (that’s the cost for the major pro of being unobtrusive). But Fitbit has done a solid job at optimizing what you see. During a workout, it fills the whole screen with one key metric (e.g., heart rate, pace, time elapsed), and you can swipe through to see one of the other metrics instead. It’s not ideal for people who are, say, training for a race and will want a multi-metric dashboard at a glance. But for anyone who just wants to make sure they’re staying above a certain heart rate threshold on their daily walk or to know how much time has elapsed on their tennis match, it’s plenty functional.

Mid-activity aside, in daily use I found the menus to be intuitive, and navigating notifications or the small display didn’t feel too frustrating in short bursts. The trade-off is acceptable at this price point, too.

It has a big battery life for a small device

Fitbit claims up to 10 days of battery life and my tests showed that to be pretty accurate — even with frequent workouts, auto-detection on, and notifications coming in, I didn’t have to charge the device for well over a week. This felt refreshing compared to many short-life fitness trackers on the market.

It simplifies moving enough and often

Two features that stood out during testing Fitbits: the Reminder to Move vibrates your device and prompts you to get up and walk around if you haven’t gotten at least 250 steps in this hour. Most every wearable comes with a version of this, but I think Fitbit’s take on it — with messages like “Only 58 more to go in this hour!” — is a nice reminder that it’s not just about getting all your steps, but about getting up and stretching your legs regularly throughout the day.

Additionally, Fitbit tracks Active Zone Minutes, or any time your heart rate is at Zone 2 or above — where you start to burn fat or score cardio conditioning. While many watches will give you a summary at the end of the day of how much time you’ve spent in a color-coded heart zone chart, the Active Zone Minutes streamlines this information into, essentially, just a gold star that your heart rate spiked enough to have an effect on cardio fitness and burning fat.

Note: Both these aren’t specific to the Inspire 3 — they’re prominent across Fitbit’s whole lineup.

Where it falls short

The small display can be frustrating for notifications

Because of the skinny, narrow rectangle screen, you won’t be able to easily read any texts or emails beyond the sender and the first few words. You have the ability to scroll and read the whole thing, but the size and shape of the display make it very difficult to read more than a few words at a time. If you want to be able to read your incoming email at a glance in the middle of a meeting, this watch isn’t going to cut it.

That said, many people just want to know if that buzz that came through across the room is someone they need to respond to immediately or if it’s an unimportant notification that can be taken care of later. The screen is just useful enough to convey the basic info of who just texted or who’s calling.

Heart rate is a bit laggy for high-intensity workouts

Overall, the heart rate sensor on all Fitbits is accurate and reliable enough for most people and workouts. The one exception is during high-intensity workouts. During rapid interval changes, I noticed occasional lag in heart rate reading updates. That’s not surprising for optical sensors at this price point, but worth knowing ahead of purchase.

Colors are limited

Because smartwatches and fitness trackers are meant to be worn 24/7, it’s important that the color and aesthetic match your style. While the minimal size is great for blending into (or underneath) any outfit, it only comes in three color options — two of which are bright — which may not work for everyone. You can change out the band, however. (Check out our guide to the best Inspire 3 bands.)

The app is pretty basic and can be slow to sync

While the Fitbit app is generally user-friendly, it feels a bit underpowered compared to competitors like Garmin or Oura when it comes to bigger-picture insights and deeper analysis. For instance, you get a sleep score, heart rate data, and readiness score, but there’s little granularity beyond that unless you pay for Fitbit Premium at $10/month or $80/year.

Even with Premium, the insights are pretty high-level; it doesn’t get into health-optimization advice or have an AI advisor to answer questions like some of its competitor brands. The design prioritizes simplicity, which does make it great for beginners. But that also means you can’t dive into your health metrics as deeply as needed to know what changes would serve you best. Even after weeks of regular use, I found myself wanting more: What action should I take when my Daily Readiness score is low? How does this week’s sleep compare to last month’s? That kind of context is hard to come by here.

Generally, I think this makes Fitbit better at reporting your recent output rather than helping you get healthier or more fit over time.

Software and features are limited

At this price point, you’re giving up a lot of the nice-to-have features of bigger and more expensive fitness trackers. There’s no onboard GPS, which means if you go for a walk without your phone, you won’t get accurate distance or route maps. You won’t be able to control phone apps on your wrist, have music control, take phone calls, or make NFC payments. Some of these omissions are fair at this price tier, but just know it’s pretty barebones for a wearable these days.

What are your alternatives?

If you want a basic watch but are training for a race, you’ll probably be happier with the Garmin Forerunner 265. If you’re looking for more actionable insights into your health, we recommend the Oura Ring 4. And if you want more smartwatch features, check out the Fitbit Versa 4 or the Garmin Vivoactive 6.

The bottom line

The Fitbit Inspire 3 is one of — if not the — best affordable fitness trackers for anyone starting their health or fitness journey, or anyone who wants a no-fuss way to stay a little more active.

At $100, you’re giving up fancy features. You’re not going to be able to control your phone from your wrist or respond to — heck, even simply read — incoming texts on-wrist.

What you can do is confirm you’re getting enough steps in a day, ensure your walks are hitting a target heart rate zone for fat burn, and understand where your sleep quality may be falling short. The Inspire 3 is incredibly lightweight and comfortable, refreshingly uncomplicated, and delivers the core metrics that set the foundation of your health — steps, heart rate, regular movement, and sleep — all without bombarding you with too much data or requiring you to learn a whole new tech ecosystem.

If you’re looking for a little help simply moving a bit more, sleeping a bit better, and feeling a bit healthier — and don’t want to break the bank to do so — the Fitbit Inspire 3 is exactly the fitness wearable you need.