The Fitbit app gives you access to free tools under one umbrella with the option to upgrade to premium membership.
Fitbit premium goes for $9.99 per month. You get access to a 90-day free trial, a period for testing and determining whether the premium subscription would be worth your money.
As a premium user, you get access to advanced features, including guided programs, sleep tools, workouts, health coaching, daily readiness score, advanced insights, and more.
What I love about Fitbit premium is that Google Fitbit has optimized it for simplicity, ease of engagement and self-motivation. So it might be worth trying out if you haven’t started using it already.
What is Fitbit Premium?
Fitbit Premium is a membership service that uses data collected from a Fitbit fitness tracker or smartwatch to provide you with personalized guidance and coaching.
I’ve used Fitbit premium for over 6 months to find more motivation for my day-to-day workout. And in my experience, the premium membership is a game changer for anyone who’s serious about setting and working on his or her fitness and wellness goals.
How Much Does Fitbit Premium Cost?
Fitbit premium costs $9.99 per month. Or you can pay $79.99 for an annual subscription and save up to $39.89. You access and pay for the premium membership through the in-app purchases.
You can combine Fitbit Premium with Health Coaching if you intend to exercise more. However, Health Coaching costs an additional $45 per month and it’s available only in the United States of America.
What Does Fitbit Premium Offer?
For me, being a premium member means an opportunity to get the most out of advanced features not available to free accounts.
There’s access to daily readiness score, guided programs, advanced sleep tools, workouts library, health metric dashboard, advanced insights, recipes, health coaching, and meditation exercises. You even get a detailed wellness report every month.
1. Readiness Score
Fitbit’s readiness score is a feature similar to Garmin Body Battery. It uses your activity, sleep score, and heart rate variability to help you determine whether you’re ready for another workout session.
Your aim should be to have a higher Fitbit readiness score because it signifies that you’ve rested well and are ready to indulge in a high intensity workout. However, your focus should be on getting more rest if Fitbit gives you a lower score.
The recommendation for the number of Active Zone Minutes to hit and the most appropriate workout to take part in depends on the readiness score Fitbit gives you.
Additionally, you’re able to determine trends in your workout and level of tiredness in the last seven days based on the readiness score that Fitbit gives you for an entire week.
2. Guided Programs
There are 15+ systematic guided programs in Fitbit premium. The programs help you sleep better, move more, breathe the right way, and eat well.
Each guided program has a reminder, which is quite handy in ensuring you become more accountable.
3. Sleep Tools
With Fitbit Premium, you will understand your sleep behavior using the sleep score breakdown, which is available for view and analysis when you get out of bed.
The guided sleep programs are suitable for anyone who struggles to get to sleep. And sleep optimization gives you access to educational programs and actionable tools you can use to enhance the quality of your sleep.
While free accounts get access to the sleep score feature, an in-depth breakdown of time asleep, sleep patterns, and sleeping heart rate is available only to Fitbit premium users.
4. Workouts
Premium users have access to dynamic workouts from Fitbit and form workout platforms such as Daily Burn and Barre3.
You get access to over 200 audio and videos workouts, including yoga, HITT, core crush, push up prep, get moving, and beginner bodyweight. Additionally, you get access to over 100 mindful session as part of the workouts.
5. Health Metric Dashboard
The health metrics dashboard is available to free and premium members but with a twist on what both membership levels access.
Free users have access to sleep, wellness, activities, nutrition, and weight information. Fitbit premium users get access to advanced health features, including heart rate, SpO2, body and skin temperature (with breakdowns), breathing rate, and heart rate variability.
You have the option to access your fitness and wellness metric directly on the smartwatch or fitness tracker. Or youcan use Fitbit dashboard on your smartphone.
6. Advanced Insights
You get access to in-depth insights on your average activities, as well as on any specific health and fitness activity.
Additionally, advanced insights give you ways to improve your active minutes, sleep, heart rate, overall wellness, and steps. The wellness report, which is available only to premium members, makes it easy for you to determine whether you have an underlying health condition.
If you use a smartwatch such as Fitbit Sense, you’ll get access to advanced stress management tool, which breaks down your stress management score in the simplest form.
You get a general insight into your nutrition, sleep, and workouts if you’re on the free plan, which isn’t bad especially if you’re just getting started with using a Fitbit.
7. Recipe
You can use Fitbit with MyFitnessPal to access a database of over 14 million healthy food choices without spending a dollar on Fitbit premium. However, the recipe library in Fitbit is a good option if you don’t want to jump from one health and fitness app to another.
Recipe in Fitbit premium focuses on helping you make healthy and nutritious meals, including pesto, peanut butter, rice cauliflower, charred shrimp, and broccoli.
I love the idea of healthy recipes because it helps me cultivate the right eating habits, without which it’s impossible to make serious progress in terms of health and fitness.
8. Health Coaching
While Health Coaching is part of Fitbit premium, the company charges separately for the service. Health Coaching costs $54.99 per month, which you pay on top of the $9.99 monthly subscription.
Formerly Fitbit Coach, the Health Coaching program connects you with qualified health and fitness instructors who specialize in helping people meet their fitness goals.
With Health Coaching, you take advantage of the opportunity to receive expert answers, chat with professional coaches in real-time, and have one-on-one sessions with experts.
9. Meditation Exercises
Calm and Breethe are two of the best Fitbit apps that bring quality mediation exercises to the Fitbit premium platform. Calm and Breethe give you access to meditation for sleep and stress, relaxing sounds, mindful meals, sleep stores, mindful minutes, and more.
The meditation exercises offered by these mindfulness apps are 20 to 45 minutes long, so there’s something for everyone.
10. Wellness Report
Fitbit premium gives you access to a comprehensive wellness report, as long as you wear your Fitbit every day and night for 30 days. Fitbit recommends wearing the device for this period so there can be enough data to generate a detailed wellness report for you.
The wellness report provides a comprehensive insight into your activity levels, heart health, sleep, and weight. And while this information isn’t for diagnosis purposes, you can share it with your doctor from whom you can get professional medical guidance.
Fitbit Premium vs Free: What’s the Difference?
The table below is a summary of the difference between Fitbit premium and freemium:
| Fitbit Premium | Free Plan | |
| Cost | $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year | $0 |
| Metrics | Sleep, heart rate, active minutes, nutrition, and water intake | Overview of their weight, sleep, heart rate, and nutrition |
| Stress Management | Included | Not available |
| Health Coaching | Access to certified health and wellness coaches | Not available in the free plan |
Is Fitbit Premium Worth the Subscription?
Whether Fitbit premium is worth the subscription depends on your preference.
As much as the $9.99 monthly or $79.99 annual subscription fee give you access to features such as guided programs, sleep tools, health coaching, and dynamic workouts, it’s not worth being a premium member if you won’t use the service exhaustively.
Do I Need Fitbit Premium to Track Sleep?
No, you don’t need Fitbit premium to track sleep on Fitbit if all you need access to is sleep schedule, sleep duration, and sleep quality. You’ll need to upgrade to premium only if you need in-depth insight into your sleep.
The table below is a summary of sleep features in Fitbit premium, as well as what you get in the free version:
| Fitbit Premium | Free Fitbit | |
| Sleep Duration | Included | Included |
| Sleep Analysis | Included | Not available |
| Restoration | Included | Not available |
| Heart Rate & Restlessness Analysis | Included | Not available |
| Sleep Quality | Included | Included |
| Sleep Stage Analysis | Included | Not available |
| Sleep Schedule | Included | Included |
Is Fitbit Premium Required for ECG?
If you’re a user with a Fitbit that can read ECG, you will need to have a premium subscription to get access advanced ECG readings.
Smartwatches and Activity Trackers like Fitbit Sense, Fitbit Charge 5, Fitbit Inspire, Fitbit Versa 3, Fitbit Luxe and Fitbit Versa 2 have the ECG sensor.
Can I Stop My Fitbit Premium Subscription?
Yes, you can cancel Fitbit premium if you no longer want access to advanced features in the Fitbit app.
It doesn’t matter if you were on the 90-day free trial or you just want to end the monthly or annual charges for the service because you no longer find premium worth it, you can cancel access to advanced features and revert to a free Fitbit account instead.
Keep in mind that how you stop the membership depends on where you signed up for the service.
