Is Fitbit Premium worth the annual subscription?

Best answer: Fitbit Premium is a paid subscription with guided programs, detailed health insights, advanced sleep tracking, and dynamic workouts for a more feature-rich Fitbit app. For people who want to get the most out of their Fitbit tracker and can afford the monthly or yearly fee, it's definitely worth a look. But some people can make do with the basic Fitbit app.

Fitbit Premium: Quick summary of features

The big draw to Fitbit Premium is the Guided Programs

There are many different aspects to Fitbit Premium, but we think most people will be drawn to the collection of Guided Programs.

Guided Programs can be found on the Discover page of the Fitbit app, and you'll find ones that aim to help you with a variety of things, including being more active, learning healthy habits, getting more sleep, eating less sugar, and more. The length of the programs depends on the topic, and after joining one, it'll be present on the main Today page of the app.

All of the programs can be customized, too. For the Kick Your Salt Habit program, for example, you can choose whether you want to focus on cutting out salt at home or when eating out. Similarly, the Run Training program can be customized based on your reason for starting running, what days/time you want to run, and whether you'll be running indoors or outdoors.

Where the Fitbit app on its own has you focusing on hitting things like step counts, active minutes, and calories burned every day with no real variance, Guided Programs aim to mix up your physical activity with set goals and targets for you to reach. There are currently 17 Guided Programs available.

There are step-by-step workouts & meditation sessions

If you don't feel like committing to a multi-week program, Fitbit Premium gives you access to a wealth of guided workout sessions that last from under 10 minutes up to over an hour. There are a few different categories of workouts to follow, including:

• Favorites
• Abs & Core
• Cardio
• Full Body
• Lower Body
• Upper Body

And for more specifics, these are the workout video sub-categories currently available as of 2022:

• Free At-Home Workouts
• Will Smith: StrongWill
• Audio Workouts
• Easier Go-Tos
• Abs and Core
• Dance Cardio and Kickboxing
• Yoga and Stretching
• No Equipment Needed
• Workouts with Weights
• Earn Active Zone Minutes
• Under 15 Minutes
• New Fitbit Workouts

The collection of available workouts is quite large, and when you tap on one, you'll see how long it lasts, how many calories you'll burn, and what muscles the exercise targets. You can watch all of the guided workout videos directly in the Fitbit app, with the workouts provided by Fitbit itself, or through a partner app like POPSUGAR.

If you often find yourself going to the gym without any idea of what you should be doing to get the most out of your time and body, these workouts can be a great place to get some inspiration. The Daily Readiness Score also helps you determine the best time to exercise, advising when your body is in peak form to get the most out of a workout. You might, for example, find that an early morning workout is best for you instead of after lunch. That particular feature will be available to Premium members on most Fitbits released since 2020.

For those days when you'd rather work on your mental health, Fitbit Premium also has a Mindfulness section where you can access various guided meditation sessions. There are meditations for sleep, uncertainty, energy, stress, body positivity, and much more. You can also access Deepak Chopra's Mindful Method guided sessions, including short sessions on easing stress with emotional awareness or resetting a bad mood.

There's now also content from Calm, including up to 30 sessions for sleep, meditation, and relaxation. Available in seven languages based on your app settings, if you own a Fitbit Charge 5 or Sense, you can also pair a session with an on-wrist EDA Scan app session. This will help you see how a mindfulness session impacts your heart rate and EDA responses to stimuli.

Premium also gives you more detailed insights into your health

Rounding out the Guided Programs and workouts, Fitbit Premium also gives subscribers access to more detailed insights into their overall health.

Part of this is offered through Fitbit Premium Insights. Every Fitbit user gets insights into the Fitbit app to help them improve their health, but the ones provided to Premium subscribers are much more personalized. You'll see these Fitbit Premium Insights at the top of the Today page, along with a like and dislike button so you can indicate whether or not you found the information helpful.

Fitbit Premium members can also access a full Wellness Report, offering deep insight into your overall health. The report shows data and visualizations of your health trends over the last 30 days, and then you can get a digital copy or print the report so you can share it with your doctor for more meaningful checkups.

Fitbit also added Snore & Noise Detect for Premium users of the Sense and Versa 3, so you can determine if you snore or if there are other noises in the room while you sleep that might impact your slumber. The feature uses the built-in microphone on the compatible smartwatch to analyze noises in the room, whether it's your own snoring, that of your partner, or even a dog barking.

Finally, Fitbit Sense owners specifically can get "sleeping skin temperature variation with a minute-by-minute breakdown," but can only see the results through Premium.

You can even get one-on-one coaching

The ultimate Premium tier is called Fitbit Premium + Health Coaching. This includes all of the same benefits of Fitbit Premium in addition to one-on-one guidance/support from a real health coach.

There are a few key benefits that come with having a health coach, including:

• A custom action plan created by your coach, just for you
• An experienced coach to provide accountability and guide you through ups and downs
• Unlimited, direct messaging with your coach
• Personalized guidance, informed by your Fitbit data
• Support around your specific goals

Fitbit Premium + Health Coaching costs $45 per month; however, Health Coaching is currently "closed to new enrollments," and we're uncertain when (or if) they'll reopen to new members.

Multiple ways to pay (and get free trials)

Lastly, let's talk about everyone's favorite subject — price.

You can pay for Fitbit Premium in two ways: $9.99/month or $79.99/year. The monthly rate is easier to swallow in the short term, but paying for the annual plan will save you $40 every year, or 30%, in the long haul.

No matter which option you pick, you can try Fitbit Premium for seven days for free before having to pay a dime. Speaking of free trials, you can get an even longer one when purchasing a new Fitbit product, though the length of the trial varies:

• One year: Fitbit Inspire 2
• Six months: Fitbit Inspire 3, Fitbit Sense/ Sense 2, Fitbit Charge 5, Fitbit Luxe, Fitbit Versa 4
• Three months: Fitbit Versa 3

You must either be a new or returning customer to take advantage of these memberships, and you must usually redeem the credit within 2 months after buying the watch.

Should you get Fitbit Premium?

As you can see, you get a lot of stuff with Fitbit Premium. As for whether or not you should subscribe, that all comes down to your goals for your health.

People that just want to keep track of their steps and active minutes throughout the day can likely skip Premium and just keep on using the regular Fitbit app since all of its core features are still free.

However, if you're serious about losing weight, building better habits, and/or want to get as much insight into your body as you can, Fitbit Premium is absolutely worth checking out. If the seven-day trial isn't enough time to make up your mind, buy a month for $10, see how you like it, and then upgrade to the $80/year plan if you're getting enough value out of the service. 

Or if you're in the market for a new Fitbit anyway, buy one of the new Fitbit devices and enjoy the $60 value of a six-month free trial before you decide whether or not to continue. The Fitbit Charge 5 is the best fitness tracker you can buy right now, while the new Fitbit Versa 4 will certainly take the Versa 3's spot as one of the best Android smartwatches available.