Whether you’ve purchased one of the best Fitbits to help you reach your goals, or you just unboxed the new Fitbit Charge 5 as a holiday gift, you’ve probably heard about the Fitbit Premium membership, and wondered whether it’s worth subscribing. For a monthly fee, Fitbit Premium gives you access to guided workouts and meditations, as well as advanced sleep and health tracking.
In 2021, Fitbit added new features to their Premium membership, which now includes partnerships with trainers like Les Mills and Yoga with Adriene, as well as the new Daily Readiness Score. The Daily Readiness Score looks at the quality of your sleep, how hard you worked out the day before, and your heart rate variability (HRV) to assess how ready you are to push yourself that day. Each morning you get a ‘score’ and suggested workouts to help you reach your goal.
But how much does Fitbit Premium cost, and who is it best for? Here, I’ll walk you through all the classes and features, as well as the free trials on offer, to help you decide whether or not it’s worth paying for.
How much does Fitbit Premium cost?
Fitbit Premium costs $9.99/£7.99 per month, or $80/£79.99 if you sign up for a year’s membership. The good news is that Fitbit offers a three-month free trial of their Premium membership, so you have 90 days to decide whether or not the features on offer are worth paying for.
If you do sign up for the 90-day trial, it’s worth noting that you will be asked for payment details, and you’ll need to remember to cancel before the 90-days is up, otherwise you’ll start to pay the monthly membership fee.
What’s more, if you have recently bought, or been gifted, one of the best Fitbits, it’s likely that your new tracker will come with a longer Fitbit Premium trial membership. The Fitbit Charge 5, for example, comes with a six-month free trial, which allows you to use features like the electrocardiogram sensor (ECG) on the tracker. The newly released Fitbit Inspire 3, Fitbit Sense 2, and Fitbit Versa 4 also all come with a six-month Premium membership.
In order to use Fitbit Premium, you’ll need to download the Fitbit app, which is free on iOS and Android. However, if you already own a Fitbit tracker, you’ll probably already have this on your phone.
What is included in Fitbit Premium?
Fitbit Premium is designed to help you reach your fitness goals, and get further insight into your health with more advanced tracking. Here’s everything you get as a subscriber:
Workouts
This is one of the key features of Fitbit Premium. Similar to other workout subscription services like Apple Fitness Plus, or Peloton, Fitbit Premium members get access to a library of on-demand workouts that they can take whenever they want. There are guided audio and video classes on offer, and you can filter by time and intensity. There are classes from some popular trainers, like Les Mills, barre3, and Daily Burn, and over 200 workouts to choose from. You’ll also be able to sign up for workout plans, to help you stay motivated.
Mindfulness and meditation
Over the past 18-months, we’ve all learned that fitness is as much about looking after our mental health as it is our physical health. Like other platforms, Fitbit Premium members gain access to over 200 mindfulness sessions, and Fitbit has partnered with apps like Calm, giving subscribers access to sleep stories to help them drift off better, as well as meditation classes with Deepak Chopra. I personally used Calm during the midst of the pandemic, and often reach for the short meditations on days where the world seems a little overwhelming.
Recipes
Whether you’re trying to lose weight, or just eat more mindfully in 2022, Fitbit Premium members gain access to a range of healthy recipes. You can filter by diabetes-friendly, gluten-free, heart-healthy, low calorie, quick and more, as well as see suggestions for healthy breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks.
Challenges
If you need extra encouragement to keep yourself accountable, Fitbit Premium has a number of fun health challenges to help you stay engaged. These include a Get Fit Bingo, as well as Adventure Races, where you can virtually race against friends.
Advanced sleep tracking
While free Fitbit members can track their time spent asleep, Fitbit Premium offers subscribers further insight into their sleep, as well as giving a sleep score. The overall nightly sleep score is based on your heart rate, the time you spend awake or restless, and your sleep stages during the night. There are also guided programs to help you improve your sleep, and get into a better bedtime routine.
Daily Readiness Score
A newer feature for Fitbit Premium members is the Daily Readiness Score, which looks at the quality of your sleep, how hard you worked out the day before, and your heart rate variability (HRV) to assess how ready you are to push yourself that day. It helps subscribers workout more intuitively, and know when to push, and when to recover. Read my full Daily Readiness Score review here.
Wellness Reports
A wellness report gives you an easy-to-read overview of all of your data after 30 days of wearing your Fitbit. It includes information about your heart health, how well you’ve been sleeping, and how active you’ve been. These reports are an easy way to keep an eye on your progress, but can also be handy to share with your doctor if you have any health questions or concerns.
Is Fitbit Premium worth it?
If you’re a beginner looking for workout inspiration, or you’re looking for lots of different ways to stay motivated, it’s a pretty affordable option. Sure, you can find lots of free workouts on YouTube, and healthy recipe ideas on Instagram, but if having everything in one place makes it easier for you to stick to your health plan, Fitbit Premium is worth the $10.
But the Fitbit Premium membership is only worth it if you plan on using it. If you already subscribe to a fitness app for your workouts, and you’re not too bothered about really drilling down into your sleep or health data, then it’s probably $10 a month you could save.
One of the great things about Fitbit Premium is the 90-day free trial. 90 days is enough time to get into a new, healthy routine, and if you find another app that helps you stay motivated on mornings when you really don’t want to get out of bed, you’ll know what you want to spend your money on (we’ve rounded up the best workout apps on the market here).
One big change to the Fitbit Premium subscription in 2023 is that you will no longer need a subscription to see your historic data. One big reason to subscribe has always been if you wanted to see more than seven days of your heart rate, skin temperature, resting heart rate, or breathing rate data. There's still a 90-day limit to how far back you can see your historical activity for those metrics, however. If this was one of your only reasons to subscribe, you can save $10 a month!
If you can’t afford $10 a month in your budget, you’ll still get a lot from your tracker, and the free app lets you track your activity, weight, sleep, and nutrition at a glance.
