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Featured in this article

Best All-RoundPolar H10

$105 $77 (27% off) Amazon

Best for RunningGarmin Forerunner 970

$750 Amazon

Best for SwimmingForm Smart Swim 2 Pro

$299 Backcountry

Best for Garmin UsersGarmin HRM 600

$170 REI

Getting your pulse taken only once a year at the doctor's office is a thing of the past. Nowadays, the best heart rate monitors are cheap, comfortable, and ubiquitous. You don’t have to spend a lot of money, or even leave your home, to check your heart rate during exercise or at rest. Even the cheapest fitness tracker boasts a heart rate monitor these days, and sensors are popping up all over the place, with smartwatches, chest straps, arm straps, and even headphones squeezing one in. Not all are built equally. Some are more comfortable to wear, they vary in the metrics they offer, and some are more accurate than others.

Whether you’ve been prompted to keep closer tabs on your ticker due to health concerns or you need a better sense of how hard you’re really pedaling in your Peloton-powered pain cave, these are the heart rate monitors that deliver where it matters. Right now, the best heart rate monitor is the Polar H10 ($85), but the best armband is the Coros heart rate monitor ($79). Be sure to check out the rest of our health and fitness guides, like the Best Walking Pads, Best Gravel Running Shoes, and the Best Smart Rings.

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- Compare Top HR Monitors

- FAQs

- How to Wear a HR Monitor

- How We Tested

Updated March 2026: We added the Garmin Forerunner 970, the Apple Watch Series 11, and the Form Smart Swim 2 Pro smart goggles. We also updated links and prices.

- Best All-Round

Courtesy of Polar Electro

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Polar

H10

$105 $77 (27% off) Amazon

$105 Polar

A chest strap remains the most accurate way to track your heart rate for exercise, putting an EKG sensor closest to your heart. The Polar H10 is the standout here. That’s because Polar has replaced the typical loop-and-hook connector found on most monitors with a buckle-style connector to reduce irritation. The company also uses small silicone dots to make sure the strap stays put during high-intensity activities so the HR data is still good.

Comfort aside, it’s the most accurate of the monitors I’ve tested for exercise. There were no glaring drop-outs or underreporting or overreporting during my test runs, indoor cycles, strength training, or interval sessions. Having some built-in memory to store data for a session is useful, and the ANT+ connectivity means you can effortlessly link equipment like turbo trainers or swap out the HR stats on your watch for more accurate ones. You can take it for a swim too, and you won’t have to replace the battery for a year, even if you’re wearing it on a regular basis. If you'd like to save a few bucks, the previous Polar H9 ($70) offers many of the same features for about $30 less.

SpecsBattery lifeUp to 400 hoursBuilt-in memoryYesWater resistanceSplash-resistantBluetooth and ANT+ connectivityYes

WIRED/TIRED

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WIRED

- Buckle-style connector is less irritating

- Most accurate monitor

TIRED

- The Polar H9 is almost the same, and cheaper

- Best for Running

Photograph: Brent Rose

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Garmin

Forerunner 970

$750 Amazon

$750 REI

$750 Best Buy

The Forerunner 970 is Garmin’s most capable runner’s first smartwatch. It takes features from Garmin’s pricier Fenix 8 series and puts them into a more manageable design, while also offering the best heart rate tracking performance. The Forerunner 970 has the latest version of the in-house built Elevate optical sensor, which is the same sensor in the Fenix 8. That setup fuels a rich set of heart rate tracking features, including extremely reliable 24-hour monitoring, powering insightful metrics like Training Readiness, or sending out alerts when heart rate is abnormally high or low.

The sensor performance during exercise is where the Forerunner 970 really shines. It more than holds its own against a gold standard chest strap monitor across a range of activities, That includes runs, high intensity indoor bike rides, more explosive home workouts, and also when you’re going all out on race day. Garmin also makes room for an ECG sensor to offer extra health insights on top of the training-focused ones. It’s the optical setup that stands out and helps to justify paying the pretty sizable price to strap it to your wrist.

SpecsBattery lifeUp to two weeksBuilt-in memoryYesWater resistance5 ATMBluetooth and ANT+ connectivityYes

WIRED/TIRED

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WIRED

- Garmin's brightest screen

- In-house optical heart rate sens

Best Heart Rate Monitors (2026): Polar, Coros, Garmin | WIRED