Whoop makes excellent recovery trackers, but Polar is much more flexible in terms of its product line and features. You’ve come to the right place if you’re wondering exactly what these two are.
Tracking training sessions and escaping the sedentary lifestyle we’ve created for ourselves is now much simpler thanks to cutting-edge trackers like Polar and Whoop. Of course, getting started requires motivation, but having one of these trackers is like having a 24/7 fitness partner.
In any case, we’ll be making a brief but thorough comparison between them. So let’s investigate that!
What fitness trackers are the best?
The most crucial factors when selecting the best fitness tracker for you are:
- Health Features: Since wearing a fitness tracker is meant to monitor activities that have an impact on your health, we made sure that all of our picks include some fundamental health features. They can all monitor your heart rate, sleep, distance traveled, and calories burned.
- Battery life: You wouldn’t want to go for a long run only to discover that your fitness tracker died and failed to record your results. The fitness trackers we’ve chosen have a minimum battery life of one day, but some last up to a week. Your fitness tracker’s battery life will greatly depend on how you use it (e.g., frequently recording long runs or turning up the screen brightness).
- Durability is the most crucial feature to think about because your fitness tracker will be exposed to everything from sweat and rain to sand and dirt. Some fitness trackers use the ATM (atmosphere) measurement in place of the more common IP (ingress protection) scale, which is used to measure an electronic’s resistance to water and dust. All of our suggested fitness trackers are water-resistant.
- Smart Features: Fitness trackers have historically only been used for one thing: keeping track of your health. However, the ones in our guide also have smart features. These features, such as the ability to use a smart assistant to help you with your workouts or the ability to view your text messages, are meant to support its main purpose.
Features and Function
Whoop
Whoop has outstanding recovery trackers that are well known. They provide a few basic Whoop bands, and each new version—the Whoop 4.0, for instance—is improved.
Whoop bands are a great way to monitor your sleep patterns, heart rate variability, and calorie burn. However, a lot of other features that we typically look for in fitness trackers are missing from Whoop Bands.
First off, the inability of your Whoop band to track steps can be a major turnoff for many users. Additionally, it is unable to keep track of pace or distance.
Furthermore, whoop bands are completely dependent on cardiovascular strain, making them useless for strength training or low-intensity workouts. Fair enough; Whoop’s functionality is pretty constrained.
Moving on, however, to what it can actually do, there are some positives. The Bandsp bands are made to monitor heart rate, activity level, and sleep cycle. It keeps tabs on your heart rate while you rest and tracks your recovery.
A successful history of heart rate variability and recovery can significantly influence how you live. Based on the data that you have tracked, you can design a healthy routine. Furthermore, Whoop gives you the option to contact fitness coaches for individualized advice.
Polar
Polar, in contrast, produces a wide range of distinctive brands. Some of them, like the Polar H10, are merely straightforward heart rate monitors, while others are GPS sports watches and fitness trackers. In contrast to Whoop, which has relatively basic products, Polar is more versatile.
Polar makes fitness trackers that can monitor your heart rate, steps, activity, sleep cycle, and calories burned. The Polar Vantage V offers pace, distance, and oxygen tracking as well. Polar provides all of them in its various product lines, in contrast to the Whoop Band, which is missing some fundamental features.
If you’re unsure whether you’re training too little or too much, Polar fitness trackers can help. By doing so, you can avoid overtraining-related injuries or get motivated to hold more frequent training sessions.
Additional Features
Polar bands, however, are much more than that. In order to keep you connected at all times, they even provide push notifications for messages, calls, etc., which I really appreciate. not to mention the Polar Pacer’s crucial music controls, which are also a GPS running watch. You also get reminders for inactivity.
Polar steals the show because there aren’t as many options with any of the Whoop bands, obviously. Whoop is still a good option for those who don’t need flexible functionality, though.
Pricing
The price of any product is undoubtedly what interests us the most, over and above its features and functions. In regards to that, I learned that whoop bands are free, and I’m confident that this attracts a lot of attention to them.
But that is unquestionably a clever marketing ploy. Although the bands are free, you must pay all year long to access your Whoop band’s features. Whoop memberships are expensive, especially considering the kind of restricted functionality they provide.
The monthly starting rate for a Whoop subscription is $30. With annual or biannual deals, you can also get a small cost advantage. However, I believe that these prices are a little excessive for such a basic recovery tracker.
Polar’s product line is quite diverse, which accounts for the fact that prices vary as well. Polar’s prices range from $60 for more affordable devices like the H9 Heart Rate Monitor to $499 for high-end trackers like the Polar Vantage V2.
The functionality of these products varies greatly. We can’t really complain because the devices with premium features cost more money. Additionally, these trackers are one-time purchases only, in contrast to Whoop, which requires a monthly subscription for life.
In terms of pricing, Polar essentially outperforms Whoop. They offer flexible pricing based on the functionality of each device, as opposed to Whoop, which charges monthly subscription fees for only the most basic features.
Accuracy
There is a lot of discussion about the Whoop Bands’ accuracy; in particular, the wrist straps are infamous for providing erroneous data tracking and monitoring. I’m glad that with Polar, things are very different.
Polar makes trackers that are incredibly accurate and precise, giving the same results whether they are worn on the wrist or the chest (which is preferred for HRV monitoring). Whoop, however, does not function the same way when worn in different body locations.
Now, it’s not just me who has doubts about Whoop’s performance; many others have had similar experiences.
As a result, I believe that both you and I have grown to dislike Whoop. We cannot, however, ignore the fact that Whoop’s bicep and chest straps do produce accurate results. What a Whoop user had to say about it is as follows:
While Whoop isn’t quite as successful as Polar in terms of accurate monitoring, you can still get reliable results with the bicep straps.
Battery Life
Both Polar and Whoop are equally impressive in terms of battery life. Fitness trackers from Polar and Whoop both have a respectable battery life.
An average 40–48-hour function on a single charge is quite amazing considering the varied functionality of the majority of Polar trackers. Before you start stressing about the upcoming charge, you can easily spend two days in peace.
Similar to the new Whoop bands, Polar’s battery life is somewhat surpassed by Whoop’s ability to operate for 5 to 7 days on a single charge. But keep in mind that Polar offers a full-featured fitness tracker, whereas Whoop has very limited features.
Return Policy
The Whoop Band is free, so you are usually free to keep it even if you aren’t going to use it. However, you have 30 days to cancel your subscription and receive a refund if you’re unhappy with the service.
Polar, on the other hand, also provides a 30-day return period. To start the return process, all you have to do is get in touch with their customer support.
The fact that Polar offers a 2-year warranty on its products is another feature I really liked. Therefore, if you discover a flaw or damage to your device after 30 days, their warranty policy will cover it.
Customer Support
Whoop offers personalized recommendations and advice from fitness coaches as part of their monthly subscription fees, which is a great service on their part. In addition, you can get in touch with Whoop by phone or email if you have any questions or issues.
Polar provides a similar level of customer-friendly service. You can get in touch with them by phone or email to discuss your concerns. Here is how to reach Polar.
Final Thoughts
After what we’ve just experienced, I believe making a decision is not too difficult. Polar is the place to go if you’re looking for fitness trackers with all-in-one functionality and flexible functionality. However, Whoop can also be a good option if all you need are the fundamentals. However, Polar is unquestionably the overall winner.
