The Age Of Paying A Monthly Fitness Tracker Subscription Is Here
When Fitbit brought step counting into an era of mainstream popularity in 2009-2011, it sold us on the simple fun of fitness trackers, eventually branching out into a social pastime.
It's starting to look as though a new era has arrived, that of having to pay a monthly fee for fitness tracker use, or at least to get the most out of it.
Garmin's Connect+ caused uproar among its fanbase when it was announced in March 2025. While Garmin was far from the first wearable maker to offer a subscription, its approach to date had often seemed the antithesis of such a move.
A Garmin watch always got you more than you needed, while demanding no additional outlay beyond the cost of the wearable itself for most buyers.
Now another big name in hardcore fitness wearables has done the same, Polar. Much like Garmin, Polar insists that the features watch owners currently have will remain free. But the Fitness Program subscription, which costs around $11 a month, will unlock features otherwise not available to watch users.
Fitness Program has a strong focus on creating a training plan that 'adapts to your needs' and awards you with badges and 'stars' to help keep you motivated.
One of the top catalysts for these newly paid-for plans is AI, as it lets a company provide at least superficially personalized feedback to users without going to the expense of hiring actual experts and coaches. And they would likely not be able to provide the instant feedback of an LLM (large language model) based AI system anyway.
It's not clear whether, or how much, Polar's Fitness Program relies on AI. But there's clear scope for it to have a hand in the 'weekly personalized feedback' that makes one of the four pillars of the service.
While it might be tempting to chart this back to longer-standing services like Apple Fitness+, which launched in December 2020, that is really quite a different proposition. Fitness+ is based around bespoke content, bringing the gym class experience into your home.
It was apparently on the cards before Covid-19 too, but was well-timed given how many people were stuck at home in that period.
Polar's new service is more like the Runna app, which provides tailored training plans based on your fitness level and goals. It claimed to have 'hundreds of thousands' of users in November 2023.
Fitbit Premium, Garmin Connect+, Apple Fitness+ and Polar Fitness Program are not copies of each other. But they all address the same problem, that of a company needing to continue growth when doing so purely or largely through hardware sales has become increasingly difficult.
This is one to keep an eye on in the coming months and years, to assess how much the average fitness tracker owner is pushed into paying by degrading the 'free' experience.
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