What Is The Value Of Fitbit Premium?

I’ve long been a fan of Fitbit. According to my Amazon purchase history that fandom goes back to 2016 when I bought my first Fitbit Charge. Two years later I upgraded to the Charge 2, a couple of years after that it was the Charge 4. True to form, after another couple of years I recently took advantage of the 2023 Memorial Day sale by purchasing the Charge 5. I’ve never considered myself someone that needed the latest in tech, but I certainly have a pattern with Fitbit.. That said, I did something a little unusual as 2022 rolled into 2023. Fitbit was offering 60% off Fitbit Premium, being the fan I am I decided to try it out. It’s been six months and I thought it was time to share my assessment. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on the value of Fitbit Premium.

Fitbit Premium Pricing

First off, let’s talk price. The current rate for Fitbit Premium is $79.99. With the 60% discount I paid $31.99 for a year. I signed up through my phone, and it’s one of those services where you have to go in and cancel the service or it will renew automatically. I don’t particularly care for services that do that. It seems that’s the norm these days, but I understand, accept, and am generally aware enough to the point it has yet to be a problem for me to manage.

Here’s the first nugget you the reader may really be looking for. Would I pay for Fitbit Premium again? No, I wouldn’t. Certainly not full price, and it’s not likely if I were offered the same 60% or more again. Why you ask? The bottom line is I’m still using the Fitbit app like I always have. There are some nice additional features with Fitbit Premium, most of them aren’t for me. Let’s explore why.

Features I Enjoy – Sleep Analysis

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more aware of the affect sleep has on my daily routines. If you’ve read anything I’ve written on this website, then you know I’m a simple guy. I like my routines. It brings me contentment to know the basic structure of my day, what I need to get done, and so forth. Don’t even get me started on my Microsoft calendar, it’s fundamental for me to stay on top of everything I’m responsible for.

Fitbit Premium does come with a deeper analysis of sleep. It’s not the be all end all, but I like the little bit of extra knowledge ascertained. Having an older Fitbit Charge, I do not have access to the full feature set that includes the snore and noise report. I’m morbidly curious what my new Fitbit Charge 5 is going to tell me about my snoring when it arrives. I may not want to know!

Features I Enjoy – Wellness Report

The Wellness report is pretty slick. Maybe it’s the tech exec in me and it’s ingrained in CIO’s around the world, but I dig the analytics on my health. Below is data taken from my step counts. The top graph is the previous 30 days, below that is the one year trend.

As you can see my step count ranged from 6.7k to 17k. My daily goal is set at 12k, and it’s hit or miss if I achieve that goal every day. I am happy to see the overall average is a little over the 12k goal. The Fitbit Premium Wellness Report provides analytics on resting heart rate, weight, steps, and sleep. Not worth $80 a year to me personally, but good stuff nonetheless.

Fitbit Premium Features I Could Take Or Leave

The workouts aren’t for me. I’ve been working out since middle school, and I know my way around workouts, the gym, you name it. I have a home gym, a pretty nice one in my mind. I’m a member of a more traditional style local gym my employer gives us a great discount with, and my wife and I recently joined our local HOTWORX for easier access to HIIT. Check out the photo, I may be a longtime tech nerd but ya boy knows a little something about working out! 🙂

I haven’t gotten much out of the Stress Management feature either. I enter how I’m feeling from time to time. It’s almost always “very calm” as I tend to be using the Fitbit app as I am working out which is calming for me. I see my number, but it means nothing to me. It’s a nice idea, but I don’t get what I think Fitbit wants me to get by entering my data.

Fitbit Premium Important Note

I do feel compelled to reiterate the fact I have been using the service on a dated Charge 4 the past six months. Additional features, such as my daily readiness and snore scores will be available once my new Charge 5 arrives. I acknowledge my perception could change entirely with these additional features, but I don’t believe so.

Conclusion

I don’t see a scenario where I renew this service for another year. The data it provides is nice, but the difference between Fitbit Premium versus the regular Fitbit app is not enough to warrant paying for it. I want to like it, but it doesn’t move the needle for me even as a health fanatic.

It should be said I am still a fan of Fitbit and wear my tracker everyday unless I purposefully leave it at home while on vacation. The days are rare that I don’t check the app multiple times. I do some sort of physical activity most days, and my inner tech nerd enjoys seeing the data and challenging myself to beat previous bests.

While I don’t personally think Fitbit Premium adds much value for me, that’s not to say it would not for you. If you’re interested in signing up for the service, by all means I encourage you to check it out for yourself! Once my year long subscription is up there’s a high probability I’m going to let it go, but I will continue on enjoying everything I get out of the free service provided with the trackers. Until next time thank you for reading, and please take care of yourself and the ones you love.