Written by Andrew Lenau | ISSA CPT & Sports Nutritionist
Fact checked by Tyler DiGiovanni, BSBM
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Wearable fitness trackers come in many different shapes and sizes, this modern technology helps you become more aware of your current exercise, sleep patterns and eating habits. In addition to helping you form better habits, wearable activity trackers can provide you with a fun way to challenge yourself. So it is pretty easy to understand why so many people are investing in fitness trackers and smartwatches that focus on a multitude of metrics to give users a good idea of their general health and sleeping habits.
If you have been on the market for a wearable fitness tracker, we have put together this comprehensive guide on our two favorite wearables, the Oura Ring 3 and the WHOOP 4.0.
This post compares the Oura Ring 3 vs WHOOP 4.0 to give you a good idea of which tracker is best for fitness while we'll also cover the features and benefits of each.
WHOOP and Oura are two recovery-focused devices that track things like heart rate variability, the stages of sleep, and physical activity rather than just focusing on the number of steps and calories burned.
Unlike other smartwatches and fitness trackers, these two emphasize the importance of sleep quality and how to optimize our wellness through measurable variables in an effort to help people understand how prepared their body is for daily activity and strain.
Both Oura Ring and WHOOP intend to help customers get more in tune with their bodies and their varying needs, with the goal of guiding you to improve your overall health through proper sleep, recovery, and activity. To find out which fitness tracker will work best for you, we looked at WHOOP vs Oura regarding a number of important factors.
Let's look below to see which wearable wellness tracker is the perfect choice for your needs.
WHAT IS OURA RING?
Oura Health is a Finnish health company technology company that was founded in 2013 by Petteri Lahtela, Kari Kivelä, and Markku Koskela. The company raised its initial $2.3 million seed funding in 2015, led by Lifeline Ventures, introduced the first generation of the Ring on Kickstarter in 2016, and finally launched the Ring at the Slush tech conference in 2017.
Oura's goal is to help people navigate the vulnerability of health through personal guidance and is unwavering in its commitment to accuracy, validation, and design.
The Oura Ring has been through several iterations since then, with the Oura Ring 3 being the most recent. The Oura Ring is a titanium wedding band-like sleep and fitness tracker that's worn on the ring finger and collects data about your body, activity, and sleep cycles using an array of sensors.
The smart ring shines infrared light beams through your skin and uses sensors that capture changes in the reflected light beams to track your respiratory rate, heart rate, and heart rate variability.
The Oura Ring uses those data points, along with an accelerometer to detect movement, to track your sleep and activity, transmitting your results to an app that pairs with the Ring through Bluetooth. The Oura Ring also includes two sensors that measure your skin temperature.
WHAT IS WHOOP?
WHOOP is an American wearable technology company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, that created the first iteration of its popular fitness wearable in 2015; as of 2021, they debuted the WHOOP 4.0, their most technologically advanced version to date.
The WHOOP's principal product is a wearable fitness tracker that measures strain, recovery, and sleep. The WHOOP strap band is popular among consumers and professional athletes such as basketball player LeBron James and swimmer Michael Phelps.
They are on a mission to "Unlock human performance. We believe every individual has an inner potential to tap into if you can better understand your body and your behaviors. We've built technology across hardware, software, and analytics designed to continuously understand you."
The WHOOP 4.0 is a well put together wearable fitness-tracking and coaching device that allows you to gain valuable information and insight into your health and wellness by tracking several factors like your sleep stages, daily activity, and readiness. WHOOP recommends getting the most accurate data from your WHOOP device by wearing the wrist strap and device 24/7.
WHOOP isn't like other fitness trackers and smartwatches. It doesn't have a screen, GPS tracking, or notifications. It is a purely physiological fitness device to help individuals learn about their bodies and get the most out of their workouts. In order to access the data and interpret it, WHOOP has an in-house app that houses all the data and coaching software for the system to work smoothly.
The WHOOP 4.0 strap records your heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygenation levels, breathing rate, and body temperature throughout each day. WHOOP then takes this data to give recommendations on how you can improve your performance.
Basically, WHOOP measures how much stress you experience through life and exercise, how well you recover from it, and how well you sleep.
What's unique about WHOOP is it can be worn in several ways besides on the wrist. The standard options are wearing a WHOOP band unit on either the wrist or biceps. Both are made of material similar to a woven bracelet and are pretty comfortable when you're wearing them.
For those who want the WHOOP to be out of their way, WHOOP, alongside the WHOOP 4.0, launched a line of athletic wear fitted with pods into which you can slot the WHOOP tracker.
That includes leggings, underwear, and sleeves for your arms and knees, which is perfect for active individuals and people who want to keep their wrists free while being active.
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Oura Ring Vs. WHOOP: Activity/Workout Tracking Features
Oura and WHOOP serve the purpose of tracking your activity levels whether you're going for a walk or lifting weights. Let's look at how both the Oura Ring and WHOOP operate.
Oura Ring
The Oura Ring 3 goal is to make health and wellness information easily accessible and personal. The Oura Ring 3 can track your activities, active calories burned, steps, temperature, blood oxygen saturation, and heart rate.
The Oura Ring 3 can also monitor some sleep factors, what sleep cycles you're in and for how long, and then provide you a readiness score in the morning. This is super important as deep sleep will vastly improve your overall wellbeing compared with constant nights of light sleep. The sleep tracker Oura offers provides you with a sleep analysis that can be used to make adjustments in your lifestyle.
The Oura Ring can track a plethora of activities automatically and provides information about the duration, type, and intensity of the activities you're partaking in. Some activities it cannot track, in which case you can manually input the data into the app or import the activities from other compatible health and fitness apps.
Pros:
- Accurate heart rate tracking
- Quick transfers of data from Ring to app
- Integration with Apple Health & Google Fit
Cons:
- Sleep tracking can be inconsistent
WHOOP
WHOOP is a slim and comfortable smart tracker with biometric tracking that helps you understand your body in ways you've never been able to do before—WHOOP bases most of its data on your Heart Rate Variability. Heart rate variability measurements, or HRV, is a measure of your autonomic nervous system and is considered one of the best metrics for physical fitness and determining your body's readiness to perform at maximum effort.
The goal of using WHOOP is to increase your HRV over time, which will improve your overall health and lower stress. It does this by tracking the three main pillars: sleep, recovery, and strain.
When it comes to sleep data, WHOOP will teach you about how efficient or inefficient your rest is, but it'll also learn about your sleep habits, what times you generally go to bed and wake up, and then give you a heads up about what time you should aim to sleep at. It bases this on the previous night's sleep and how recovered your body is. You can also choose from a few varying time spans for rest, based on how well you need to perform tomorrow.
For recovery analysis, it is tied into all of your WHOOP's data collection and the information you manually input. So by combining all your data (which includes HRV, activity, strain, and sleep), WHOOP can estimate how well your body's doing, based on a 1-100% scale—making it super valuable information and teaching you how to fix lousy recovery habits.
WHOOP's strain score shows how hard you should push your body while working out, which will help you figure out whether you need to slow down and work on recovery or it's time to hit some killer workouts. Judging how much physical load you should take on will improve your performance over time.
Pros:
- Tracking isn't limited to the wrist
- Tons of data collected
- It helps you to understand when and how to train as well as recover
- Tracks the quality of your sleep, plus how to train & recover
Cons:
- Proprietary terms
Oura Ring Vs. WHOOP: Design
A few key differences in WHOOP vs Oura appear just on the surface level, here's a glimpse of what to expect in terms of design and overall form factor.
Oura Ring Design
The Oura Ring Generation 3 is a sleek, stylish ring that has several options. The base ring comes in silver or black editions, which look polished but not overly glossy. It also comes in Stealth (matte) and gold options. The latter two options feature a different finish (color) that some users might find more stylish and premium-looking. Some people even wear Oura rings in place of a wedding ring.
In terms of just aesthetics, the Oura Ring is hard to beat. It is a bit bulkier than "normal" rings, but that is understandable when the device is packing some serious hardware. The uncomplicated design doesn't look out of place whether you're at the gym or a formal event.
Pros:
- Lightweight, durable, and comfortable to wear all-day
- Four modern and sleek colors.
- Water-resistant
Cons:
- Not flexible
- It shouldn't be worn during workouts. (Easy to scratch)
WHOOP Design
The WHOOP is built more like a traditional fitness tracker because it is meant to be worn on your wrist, roughly an inch or so away from your wrist bone, to get proper health measurements. Its simple, screenless, and buttonless design may look similar to its predecessors.
The main body is small and rectangular with a solid casing and clasp. It then clips into the fabric WHOOP band or slides into the clothing pods. The fabric bands feel a bit like a seatbelt and, based on reviews and experience, it's sturdy yet soft and easy to adjust to get the perfect fit.
The WHOOP 4.0 and straps come in different colors and patterns, including Onyx, blue, white, silver, green, rose gold, and many more. The WHOOP 4.0 also has an IP68 rating, which means it's dustproof and water-resistant. This means it'll handle depths of up to 10 meters for roughly two hours. You can keep it on when you're showering, swimming, and sweating. Although we don't recommend it as it can take a while for the strap to dry out.
Pros:
- The band is flexible and can be adjusted
- Comfortable and discreet
- Apparel line high-quality and functional
Cons:
- The charging design could be better
Oura Ring vs. WHOOP: Cost
Oura and WHOOP are high-tech gadgets that perform a number of important tasks to accurately track sleep time, resting heart rate, activity balance and more. With all these important features you can expect it to cost you some money, so let's look at WHOOP vs Oura in terms of associated costs.
Oura Ring Cost
The Oura brand has several options for the Oura Ring 3. The base options start at $299 for the Silver and Black editions. The premium options are a bit more fashionable and are available in Stealth (matte) and gold for $399. The latter two feature a different finish and material that some users might find a bit more fashionable.
Once you complete your initial purchase, you will receive a free sizing kit so you can find your perfect fit before receiving your brand new Oura Ring 3. Your Oura Ring includes a one-year warranty, but you also have the option to purchase extended protection plans for either two years at an additional $45 or three years for $60.
The cost of the Oura Ring 3 and membership consists of the Ring itself plus all of the tracking and data available inside the Oura App, which is constantly being updated and improved to add more insights and value. A recent addition to the Oura Ring 3 is a mandatory membership which is currently $5.99 monthly fee after the included 6-month free trial with the Ring.
Despite the more considerable upfront cost, Oura Ring is the cheaper option after a couple of years compared to the WHOOP 4.0 strap.
Pros:
- Slightly cheaper than WHOOP in the long run
- Low monthly subscription cost
- Get to keep the hardware
- Premium options
Cons:
- The upfront cost is high
- It didn't use to have a subscription
WHOOP Cost
WHOOP has used a subscription model with previous models, and the WHOOP 4.0 strap is no different.
The membership cost comes with the latest, most advanced hardware for "free" plus access to the WHOOP app, which includes personalized insights, built-in coaching, and in-depth weekly and monthly performance reporting to help you achieve your goals. Of course, WHOOP is continually adding new features and functionality directly to the app without the need to buy new hardware.
When you sign up for WHOOP, you can try it for 30 days. If for any reason, you decide that WHOOP is not for you, you can return your WHOOP 4.0 within that 30-day window.
Otherwise, you have several options.
You have the option of a $30 a month subscription with a minimum of a twelve-month commitment. If you're looking to save some cash, they do offer 12-month membership at $25 a month, which equals an upfront payment of $300. Lastly, they offer a 24-month membership at $20 per month, which ends up being a $480 upfront payment.
WHOOP also offers a WHOOP Pro membership which costs an additional $12 per month in addition to your standard WHOOP membership. WHOOP Pro is billed annually at a standard rate of $144 per year and isn't an option for those on monthly billing.
We can't forget that they have a wide variety of additional accessories that range from premium wrist & bicep bands, battery packs, and their new WHOOP clothing line. Their accessories range from $12 to $109+ depending on what you purchase.
Pros:
- No upfront cost
- More options
- Tons of accessories
- You can get new accessories every three months with WHOOP Pro
Cons:
- Twelve-month minimum commitment
- Expensive monthly subscription for access to WHOOP's app
- The clothing line needs more color options
Oura Ring vs. WHOOP: Hardware & Software
Both Oura and WHOOP display some impressive specs when it comes to hardware and software. Let's look at WHOOP vs Oura regarding these important metrics.
Oura Ring Hardware & Software
The Oura Ring 3 is constructed using titanium with a PVD coating along the outside and a high-quality bonded clear molding on the inside, which is where the sensors are located. The design is lightweight and durable, which should help prevent light scratching and blemishes from bumping it on hard surfaces.
With that said, Oura recommends avoiding strength training or lots of contact with other metals or ceramics while wearing the Oura Ring to prevent damage. The smart ring is also water-resistant up to 328 feet, so you can wear it while swimming, showering, diving, or just doing the dishes.
Oura Ring 3 battery life generally lasts about 6-7 days per charge and comes with a simple wireless charger design. A black puck with a raised nub in the middle ensures that you properly put the Ring on the charger. The Ring only fits on the puck one way, and it's easy to turn until it's appropriately fitted for charging.
It's honestly impressive that Oura could pull off cramming so much hardware into such a small package. Oura ring 3 tech includes:
- NTC body temperature sensors
- Infrared PPG heart rate sensors
- Red & green LEDs
- Accelerometer
The newest version also has 16 MB of memory, which is a considerable step up from earlier editions and helps ensure the Ring captures more accurate data. Packed with all this tech, the Oura Ring 3 captures robust data throughout the day and night, then compiles it into three scores in the app: Readiness, Sleep, and Activity.
When setting up your new Oura Ring 3, the Oura app will give you the option to link your account to Apple Health or Google Fit during the setup process. If you choose, the Ring automatically syncs your workout, sleep, and meditation data between the apps.
Then you will answer some lifestyle, goal, and sleeping-related questions. Once onto the main screen, the Oura app is well organized, with the Home, Activity, Readiness, Sleep, and Explore tabs all at the bottom.
The Home tab offers a snapshot of your data, including your daily Activity, Readiness, and Sleep scores. In the Activity, Readiness, and Sleep sections, you can find a detailed breakdown of the factors contributing to each score.
Each day offers trend graphs and educational information to help you understand the metrics it tracks, interprets your results, and gives personalized guidance. The app will take two weeks to establish a baseline for your health tracking metrics.
Pros:
- High-quality materials
- Solid app design
- Non-allergenic
Cons:
- Can be prone to scratches
- The app can run slowly at times
WHOOP Hardware & Software
The main body of the WHOOP 4.0 is a small rectangular device that is significantly thinner than its predecessor and has no screen or buttons. There isn't anything on the device that you can interact with. They've also ditched the annoying way the fabric bands went on, opting for a simple clasp design that works better. They've even dropped the charging contact points from the WHOOP 3, opting to now use an innovative wireless charging pack to get the battery to 100%.
All of the sensors are located on the bottom of the device, which is a robust sensor suite with five LEDs, four Photodiodes, a pulse oximeter, a skin conductance sensor, a 3D accelerometer, gyroscope, and a body temperature sensor so you can continuously track things like skin temperature, blood oxygen levels, training, sleep, recovery, and so much more.
One of the most important factors that make the WHOOP so great is that the sensors collect data 100 times per second, making the device capable of detecting even the most minor changes in how your body responds to stimulants, exercise, and rest. Plus, the WHOOP strap is waterproof, so you can continue tracking while swimming or taking a shower.
WHOOP 4.0 is meant to be worn 24/7 and has a battery life that should last about five days. WHOOP has an intuitive charging approach, making charging on your wrist a breeze. Just slide on the smart battery pack whenever you need it; it will charge your device while you wear it. The chargers and primary devices are IP68 dustproof and water-resistant at depths up to one meter for two hours, so you can even shower while charging it.
WHOOP can automatically detect over 80 types of exercises, as long as they last longer than 15 minutes or result in a strain score of eight or higher. You can also use the WHOOP app on your smartphone to start or log an activity instead of trusting the tracker to detect the activity automatically.
The WHOOP app features a home screen that offers you a fantastic overview of the most critical metrics, including your recovery scores, daily strain, heart rate variability, calories burned, health monitor, and everyday things like battery life.
On each of these overviews, you can swipe up and get a graphic representation of your data and how your body is holding up. The WHOOP app also offers strain and sleep coaching to provide you with live data and how to leverage your workouts and recovery.
Overall the WHOOP 4.0 hardware and software are the best on the market and worth checking out.
Pros:
- Breathable fabric
- Strap is adjustable
- Stylish colors
- The app is easy to use
- Tons of data collected
- Helpful insights
- Health monitor
Cons:
- No screen
Oura Ring vs. WHOOP: Purpose (key benefits)
Oura and WHOOP serve multiple essential purposes but each has its strengths. These two products are much more than just sleep trackers, let's have a brief overview of what else they are capable of doing.
Oura Ring benefits
The Oura Ring considers itself a sleep and recovery tracker. The app centers around three scores: readiness, sleep, and activity. Each factor is calculated based on the heart rate, temperature, and activity tracking data collected by the Ring. So a high score is good, while a low score means you might need to take it easy or reevaluate your habits.
Sleep tracking is an important factor Oura Ring focuses on and can give you a sleep score that is determined by factors like total sleep, REM sleep, deep sleep, recovery index, and timing.
Overall, sleep monitoring is one of the best functions of this smart ring. From the time you fall asleep you the sleep tracker starts accessing your sleep performance.
Oura Ring's daily readiness score is similar to WHOOP's recovery score. It's supposed to give you an idea of how prepared your body is for taking on the physical and mental strain. This will provide helpful insight into whether you should take it easier that day or hit more strenuous workouts.
If you want more insight and information outside of sleep and recovery, the Oura app can provide more. The Oura Ring tracks your health and workouts. As soon as the Oura app detects a rapid spike in your heart rate and body temperature, it will start recording your workout routine.
Pair it with the companion app to monitor your fitness progress and overall health. By the end of the day, you will receive an overall fitness score based on your training frequency, recovery time, calories burned, and movement throughout the day.
Pros:
- 24/7 Heart rate monitoring
- Can detect illness symptoms
- Sensors can map out the different sleep stages and other metrics including sleep duration
Cons:
- Have to add stationary activities manually
- Struggles to record high-intensity workouts
WHOOP Benefits
WHOOP's purpose is to help people unlock their peak performance inside and out of the gym. To help people achieve these goals, WHOOP focuses on several aspects of your daily life: sleep, training, recovery, and wellness.
To help you achieve better sleep, WHOOP will record your sleep cycles and quality of sleep to help you understand how much sleep you get every night and the quality of that sleep. With sleep tracking, the software can tell you how much sleep you need every night to help with recovery.
WHOOP offers helpful clues and information about your training and lifestyle behaviors that affect your recovery. Using important metrics like workout heart rate monitoring and resting heart rate, WHOOP can provide a daily recovery score to optimize your performance.
When wearing your WHOOP during training, it will measure and collect data from your training and daily effort, giving you a calculated strain score that will help you understand what days are better to push yourself and other days when it would be a good idea to rest.
Another feature of the WHOOP strap is menstrual cycle tracking. Labeled as menstrual cycle coaching WHOOP provides valuable insight into how your cycles may affect your training and recovery.
Lastly, WHOOP's newest wellness feature may be one of the most important things to pay attention to. It allows you to track vital wellness factors like blood oxygen levels, heart rate, skin temperature, and more so that you can learn to identify when something is off in your body. These aspects are essential for an athlete or competitor training to achieve peak performance.
Pros:
- Great wellbeing and fitness data
- Guides you to workout responsibly
- It uses haptic signals to wake you up
- Excellent sleep and recovery tracker
Cons:
- It takes four days before it starts to provide you with helpful insights
- Sleep pattern tracking isn't always reliable
WHAT'S BETTER FOR FITNESS: WHOOP OR OURA RING?
Our choice for this was pretty easy. The WHOOP feels as though it's designed more for athletes and those that are serious about optimizing their performance during their workouts.
The WHOOP 4.0 is a fantastic health tracker for anyone looking for accurate and enhanced health insights. This is one of the best reasons why a lot of the top athletes in the world can be seen with one on their wrist, as the data it can provide is worth its weight in gold.
It's also worth mentioning that WHOOP takes great pride in being on the bleeding edge of technology, so it's safe to say that the accuracy at which the WHOOP fitness and recovery wearable can track and predict your vitals is highly accurate.
Oura Ring is no slouch either, but in our opinion, it seems to be designed more for individuals who want to understand their bodies in relation to sleep and how to balance their daily movement with proper rest and recovery. It is worth noting that the Oura Ring is supposed to be receiving an update later this year that should improve its abilities as a fitness tracker.
Join WHOOP for as low as $30 and get the new WHOOP 4.0 free with your membership. Free shipping on orders over $75....
Oura Ring Vs. WHOOP FAQ
Is Oura Ring Better than WHOOP?
It depends on your needs as both bring something unique to the table. You should get the Oura Ring 3.0 if you are an average person looking for a fitness wearable that is comfortable to wear and is accurate in tracking your sleep and recovery.
The Oura Ring can share data with Google Fit and Apple Health, so you can use a secondary activity tracker such as an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch to track your workouts without your phone and still have that data be factored into Oura's recovery and activity assessments.
WHOOP caters to high-achieving athletes and lifters who want to get as much data as possible. You should get the WHOOP 4.0 strap if you want an all-in-one fitness and sleep wearable. They also offer a small line of sportswear that allows you to put the device on other body parts, so you don't always have to wear it on your wrist.
WHOOP gets the added benefit of being a subscription-based service, so whenever they update their product, you can return the one you have and receive the newest cutting-edge technology.
Is Oura Ring Worth it?
For the right individuals, absolutely. The Oura Ring is a fantastic wearable if you're looking for a nice-looking recovery wearable that offers excellent sleep tracking, solid fitness tracking capabilities, an easy-to-understand app, and decent battery life. If you're someone who doesn't lift weights as your primary source of activity, the Oura Ring is a great option.
Is WHOOP 4.0 Worth It?
The WHOOP 4.0 is definitely worth you investing in it. It is perfect for you if you want a wearable that focuses on fitness-focused users that want to improve their recovery. Don't feel like wearing it on your wrist? Not a problem. WHOOP offers the ability to wear it in multiple places through their innovative clothing line.
Don't forget that WHOOP 4.0 has some of the best data tracking on the market, has a simple but effective accompanying app, and doesn't have a considerable upfront cost.
WHOOP tracks health metrics like your pulse, heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, sleep data like the time spent sleep stages, efficiency (the amount of time in bed you spend asleep), and respiratory rate. It offers automatic activity and sleep tracking, as well as manual tracking of over 80 workouts and recovery activities.
We believe WHOOP has some of the best fitness trackers on the market and is worth investing in.
Tips to Help You Get the Most Out of Your New Fitness Tracker and Achieve Your Goals
- Take some time to critically analyze WHOOP and Oura to get a feel for which option you think will provide the best info for your goals. Also, think about which one will be more comfortable to wear every day.
- Make sure to wear your new fitness tracker. Enough said.
- If you're struggling to decide, both products offer a 30-day return policy, so you could always test the products and keep the one your like.
- Use the apps to your full advantage. The fitness tracker cannot be helpful if you don't use the data and information it provides to make better steps towards your goals.
- Remember that so many variables play a role in your overall health and wellness, and a wearable fitness tracker can only tell you so much. Use your best judgment when making healthy meals and sleep choices.
- Always consult your doctor if you need additional help and support to ensure you have the proper tools and resources you need to live your fittest and healthiest life.
SUMMARY
Both WHOOP and Oura deliver impactful and insightful info that we can use to our benefit as we aim to improve our wellness across different areas in our lives. While WHOOP is targeted more toward the athletic and performance audience, Oura Ring can seem to be more focused on recovery and sleep.
We believe WHOOP and Oura are incredible and that the insights you can get from their tracking capabilities are invaluable for health tracking and recovery. Given a choice, we would choose WHOOP over Oura for the best overall tracker as it's more comfortable and easy to wear, has flexibility with where you can put the device through their WHOOP clothesline, and the detail that goes into every metric.
However, for those looking for a wearable with a more in-depth focus on sleep tracking and optimization, Oura Ring will be the best option for you.
Both of them are excellent choices, and it comes down to which one will work best for you. So it is worth your time to perform a little bit of research, bookmark this article, think about your needs, and invest your money properly.
The best fitness wearable should last you a long time if properly taken care of, saving you money, time, and helping you live a healthier lifestyle in the long run.
Do you have any questions that you feel we didn't cover? Make sure to leave them down below in the comments!
Andrew Lenau
Author