Fitness trackers and smartwatches have grown in popularity in the past few years as an easy way to keep an eye on your health and workout data.
While there are countless models to choose from, you’ll likely have come across options such as Whoop and Apple Watch. But which brand offers a better fit for your specific needs? Is one wearable better than the other?
To help you choose between the two, we’ve compared Whoop to Apple Watch and noted the main differences here. If you’re still unsure, make sure you visit our lists of the best fitness trackers, best smartwatches and best Apple Watch too.
Price and subscriptions
Both the Whoop and Apple Watch considerably differ in how you can buy them. Whoop operates as a subscription model, whereby you’ll receive either the Whoop 5.0 or Whoop MG Strap at no cost, but you’ll have to pay an annual membership fee to access the app and supporting features.
There are three memberships to choose from: One, Peak and Life. One is the cheapest starting at £169/$169 for a 12-month subscription, and includes a Whoop 5.0 device, charger and a Jet Black CoreKnit band.
Peak is the mid-range offering, with a starting RRP of £229/$229 for 12-months. This plan also comes equipped with a Whoop 5.0 device but also includes a wireless PowerPack and an Obsidian SuperKnit band.
The most expensive of the three subscriptions is Life, which starts at a whopping £349/$349 for 12-months and comes with a Whoop MG device instead, wireless PowerPack and a Titanium SuperKnit Luxe band instead. We’ll touch upon the differences between Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG throughout, but for a closer look make sure you visit our Whoop 5 vs Whoop MG guide.
Finally, at the time of writing, Whoop is offering a one-month trial for anyone who wants to try before committing. This offer includes a new or “certified pre-owned Whoop 4.0 device, wireless battery pack and a new SuperKnit band.
In comparison, the Apple Watch is much more straightforward. While there are optional subscriptions you can add to your watch, such as Apple Fitness Plus, you don’t need to tie yourself down to one in order to use the Apple Watch.
The cheapest of the series is the Apple Watch SE, which starts at £219/$219, while the Apple Watch Series 10 is the mid-range option with an RRP from £399/$399. Starting at £799/$799, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the most expensive available.
We’ll touch upon the differences between the Apple Watches in this piece, but our Apple Watch Series 10 vs Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 10 vs Ultra 2 guides offer a more in-depth look.
Design
The biggest difference between Whoop and Apple Watch is that the former is entirely screenless which the brand explains “means you can focus on your health”.
All Whoop straps also support an external PowerPack which slides on while you’re still wearing it. That essentially means you’ll rarely need to take it off, even to charge, for a more conclusive picture of your health. However, this PowerPack doesn’t come with the cheapest One subscription, so would need to be purchased separately.
On the other hand, all Apple Watches sport a square touchscreen display on top of its strap. While the exact size of the screen depends on the series of Watch you opt for as the Series 10 sports a choice between 42mm or 46mm, while the Ultra 2 is only available in 49mm.
Each Apple Watch also differs with the screen type. While all three of the current flagships have an OLED Retina display, the Watch SE only has a max brightness of up to 1000 nits and doesn’t have always-on technology, while the Series 10 and Ultra 2 do.
The Ultra 2 is designed to be used outdoors, which is reflected in its mighty 3000 nits peak brightness, compared to the Series 10’s 2000 nits.
Whoop 5.0
Apple Watch Series 10
Health tracking
While all Whoop straps are fitted with sensors to track the likes of your heart rate variability (HRV), sleep and blood oxygen levels, the exact monitors will depend on the subscription plan and Whoop model you opt for.
For example, while all models allow you to track and monitor your sleep and recovery, only the Whoop MG can take an ECG reading.
Plus, Peak and Life subscriptions have Healthspan which looks at how your daily habits impact your health. It also gives you a Whoop age, which is a measure of your physiological age as opposed to your actual age, and a “Pace of Aging” which measures how quickly your age changes.
As Whoop straps don’t have a display, you can find all your health data and metrics via the accompanying Whoop iOS or Android smartphone app.
Apple Watches also offer sleep tracking, heart rate, respiratory rate tracking too as standard, however more expensive counterparts offer additional monitoring. Both the Apple Watch Series 10 and Ultra 2 can monitor your wrist temperature, blood oxygen levels and allows you to take an ECG too.
Plus both the Watch Series 10 and Ultra 2 can detect signs of sleep apnoea too.
Fitness tracking
While you can manually log workouts to your Whoop app, the strap also has automatic activity detection which identifies when you’ve started exercising based on your heart rate, movement patterns and strain levels too.
One of our favourite features of the Whoop strap is its recovery score. Akin to the Garmin’s Recovery Time, Whoop’s Recovery measures your body’s post-sleep return to its baseline state and factors in your resting heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate and sleep to present you with a score between 1-100%. Essentially, the higher the score, the harder you can push yourself during a work out.
We were seriously impressed with this, and found it helps with “making informed, health decisions”.
Apple’s activity hardware has been relatively unchanged for the Watch, so even those sporting older models will be familiar with the newer versions. Having said that, the Apple Watch Series 10 and Ultra 2 do see some new features such as Training Load and, thanks to their respective water resistance ratings, more swim features too.
With the Apple Watch series, you can download compatible third-party workout apps like Strava and Peloton and track your progress through them. Plus, as we mentioned earlier, you can also subscribe to Apple Fitness Plus and benefit from hundreds of workouts too.
Smartwatch features
Put simply, Whoop isn’t a smartwatch in the traditional sense and shouldn’t be used if that’s your primary want. This means you won’t receive notifications or be able to play music from the strap, unlike the Apple Watch which pairs neatly with an iPhone.
In fact, we’ve praised the Apple Watch Series 10 as “the best smartwatch for iPhone users” and “if you’ve got an iPhone and don’t want a true sports watch […] this is the best smartwatch.”
When paired with an iPhone, you can receive your notifications such as messages and calls, use Siri and make purchases with Apple Pay, all without needing your iPhone nearby.
Battery
Regarding sheer battery prowess alone, Whoop significantly surpasses the Apple Watch. While the Apple Watch series offers a matter of hours, with the Watch Ultra 2 promising around 36 hours although we found in reality this amount actually surpassed 50 hours, the latest Whoop 5.0 is promised over 14 days.
You can also recharge the strap via the wireless PowerPack, which attaches directly to the top, like how a standard display would, to charge. This means you theoretically never need to take your strap off, therefore resulting in uninterrupted health tracking.
Verdict
It’s difficult to draw a conclusive verdict between Whoop and Apple Watch as they both offer different features. If you’re a keen athlete or someone who wants an in-depth look at their health and fitness metrics, and doesn’t necessarily want a smartwatch then the Whoop is undoubtedly a great choice.
However, if you’re an iPhone user who wants a way to keep on top of your notifications while tracking your health metrics, and without tying yourself down to a subscription, then the Apple Watch would suit you better.
