Whoop vs Fitbit Air vs Garmin Cirqa: screenless bands compared

For years Whoop had the screenless band to itself. In 2026 Google shipped the Fitbit Air and Garmin shipped the Cirqa, both with no screen, both cheaper to start with, and both answering the same morning question: how recovered am I? They differ less in sensors than in how you pay and where your data can go. Here is the comparison, checked against launch coverage at the time of writing (October 2026).

What does each band cost to own?

The headline prices are not comparable, because the three companies charge in different places.

Whoop is a membership with a device inside it; stop paying and the band stops being useful. The Air and the Cirqa are devices with an optional subscription on top. Over two years the gap is wide: about $398 for the cheapest Whoop tier against $99.99 or $199.99 for the others if you never subscribe. If you keep Google's Premium coach on the annual plan, the Air lands near $300 over the same two years.

Do the sensors differ?

Barely. All three carry an optical heart-rate sensor, red and infrared light for blood oxygen, a skin temperature sensor, an accelerometer and a gyroscope, according to Tom's Guide's side-by-side. None has GPS; the Cirqa uses your phone's GPS for outdoor routes. What differs is the hardware around the sensors.

The Air is the lightest by a distance, which matters for sleep comfort, the main job of a screenless band. Whoop lasts longest between charges.

PeakU does this from your own data. A coach that reads everything you already track. Join the free beta →

Which recovery score does each one give you?

Same raw signals, three different philosophies, which is why owners of two devices see disagreement on the same morning.

• Whoop builds Recovery from overnight heart-rate variability and resting heart rate against your baseline, and sets it against the Strain you accumulate. The Peak tier adds Healthspan, which estimates a Whoop Age and Pace of Aging.
• Garmin Cirqa brings Garmin's watch metrics to a band: Body Battery, training readiness, HRV, stress, a sleep score and VO₂max estimates, all in Garmin Connect, with no subscription.
• Fitbit Air tracks HRV, weekly cardio load and readiness, and a morning sleep score, with an AI coach in Google Health Premium that answers questions about your data in chat.

None of these is the correct one. They weight the same night differently, a point covered in detail in Garmin vs Oura vs Whoop recovery scores. Pick the one whose question matches yours, and judge it on trends over weeks, not one morning.

What can each band share with Health Connect on Android?

This is the difference that matters if you want your data in more than one app.

The pattern is the same everywhere: the raw signals travel, the proprietary scores stay home. Garmin's sharing is one-way and it reads nothing back from Health Connect. If you plan to wear a band alongside a watch or log lifts in another app, decide which device writes which data type before you start, or you will count steps and workouts twice. How to combine Garmin, Samsung Health, Strava and Hevy walks through the setup.

Which band should you buy?

• You already train with Garmin. The Cirqa keeps you in Garmin Connect, gives you Body Battery and training readiness overnight, and costs nothing after the purchase. It is the natural sleep companion to a Garmin watch you do not want to wear in bed.
• You want the cheapest way in. The Air at $99.99 with no required subscription is the lowest cost of the three, and the lightest on the wrist.
• You want coaching built around strain and recovery. Whoop's whole product is that loop, and it has years of refinement behind it. You pay for it every year.
• You care most about battery. Whoop's 14 days beats Cirqa's 10 and the Air's 7.

All three work on Android and iPhone, so platform is not the deciding factor here.

What none of them can see

A band on your wrist reads your heart. It does not know what you lifted. A heavy squat session looks like an hour of moderate heart rate, and a band cannot tell it from a brisk walk. It also cannot see the runs you record on another device. That gap is the reason a recovery score can tell you to push on a morning your legs know better.

Whichever band you choose, the useful habit is the same: read the score next to your actual training log, and trust the raw inputs, resting heart rate and HRV against your baseline, over the number built on top of them. Training readiness, explained covers how to read one.

How PeakU fits

PeakU is a coaching app in private beta for Android, Wear OS and the desktop browser. It reads what your band writes to Health Connect, alongside lifts from Hevy and runs from Strava, and gives one daily score with the contributions shown. It does not replace the band's own app; it reads across them. It is not yet available to buy.

Hen Eytan · Founder, UPeak

Builds the UPeak apps and writes up the research behind them.