Best heart rate monitors for runners and triathletes in 2026

Depending on how seriously you’re taking your training, or what school of thought you’re part of, having reliable data from a reliable and accurate heart rate monitor (HRM) can be invaluable.

That’s because it’ll allow you to control the intensity of your training to achieve your desired results, whether that’s staying in Zone 2 for a low impact session or opting to take on some intervals.

While many of the best triathlon watches offer very accurate heart rate tracking, they still don’t quite reach the high levels of accuracy you can get from many dedicated heart rate monitors, particularly during higher intensity sessions.

So, with that in mind, here’s a selection of the best heart rate monitors for running and triathlon that our team of testers has reviewed and vetted.

Best heart rate monitors for running and triathlon

1. Wahoo Tickr Heart Rate Monitor

Price	£39.99 / $49.99
Weight	48g (1.7oz)
Battery life	500 hours
Connectivity	Bluetooth and ANT+

If you’d prefer a heart rate monitor that sits outside the Garmin or Polar range, it’s well worth considering the Tickr from Wahoo, particular if you have other devices from the brand already.

Made to clip on and take off with ease, it has a front snap fastener for simple access with a smooth and slimline design that shouldn’t feel uncomfortable at any point of your workout.

Thanks to the LED lights that will flash on when it’s in use, there’ll be no confusion over whether you’ve actually turned it on either, so no nasty surprises and disappointments when you go to collect your data at the end of the event.

See our full Wahoo Tickr review for more.

2. Wahoo Trackr Heart Rate Monitor

Price	£79.99 / $89.99
Weight	1.4 oz (39 g) with strap
Battery life	100 active hours of training
Connectivity	Bluetooth and ANT+

Wahoo Trackr Heart Rate Monitor has upgraded on its previous models with a comfortable and rechargeable chest strap.

The monitor offers 100hrs of running time, and is ANT+ and Bluetooth compatible for up to three devices. This is handy if you’re training indoors as you can connect to both Zwift and the Wahoo apps on your phone.

Heart-rate accuracy is good, but sadly, it doesn’t store training data or have the advanced features of pricier models. That said, it is value for money for the price.

It’s works well for wet runs and rides, but is not suitable for swimming though it can cope with 30min submerged in 1m-deep waters.

3. Garmin HRM-Pro Plus

Price	£119.99 / $129.99
Weight	52g (1.8oz)
Battery life	12 months (one hour of use per day)
Connectivity	Bluetooth and ANT+

Garmin’s HRM-Pro Plus is the upgrade over the HRM-Pro, but the only difference is around the battery unit.

That seems like marketing gone hyperbolic but it’s an important change for triathletes as the cover is more water secure than its older sibling.

This is damn useful as the Pro Plus stores swim heart-rate data, albeit it doesn’t stay quite as firmly in place as Garmin’s HRM-Swim, which features a wider strap.

When used as a standalone device, it records the basics of steps, all-day heart rate, calories burnt and intensity (in minutes).

With our Garmin Enduro strapped on, we tapped into a whole host of running metrics that are next level.

These include ground contact time and vertical oscillation which, granted, you might use sparingly out of interest more than anything else, but also power, which is becoming an increasingly popular run metric for triathletes.

The HRM-Pro Plus also calibrates for treadmill running by gauging stride patterns at different intensities when running outdoors. It needs about two hours of pavement pounding to start calibration, which doesn’t need to be in one session.

The device supports Bluetooth and ANT+ and picked up our Zwift sessions quick-smart (which also means it links with other watches). All in all, it’s very good, though costly for this genre of training tool.

4. Polar H10 Heart Rate Monitor

Price	£76.50 / $89.95
Weight	60g (2.1oz)
Battery life	400 hours of training
Connectivity	Bluetooth and ANT+

Designed to assist each triathlon discipline, this heart rate monitor from Polar promises particularly precise results to a swimming depth of 30m, though you’ll probably have to transfer the data to your watch afterward, as Bluetooth doesn’t transmit data in water.

The silicon strap is made with a slip-proof material to help stop it moving around when you’re in the water, and it has 400 hours of battery, which means you can take in plenty of metrics to measure your performance over an extended period of time before needing to pop a new battery in.

Accuracy is very good indeed, while Bluetooth and ANT+ connectivity means you can use this monitor with many different devices.

Read my full Polar H10 review for more.

5. Polar Verity Sense

Price	£86.50 / $99.95
Weight	19g (0.7oz)
Battery life	30 hours per charge
Connectivity	Bluetooth and ANT+

What’s the point of an arm-based heart rate monitor over a wrist-based monitor, you may ask? Well, there’s certainly anecdotal evidence from sport scientists who work with athletes that they feel it’s more accurate.

That’s significantly down to the compression you can enjoy with an arm strap compared to wrist alternative, which is the ideal when using an optical sensor.

We’ll come back to accuracy but more on the usability first. It has three modes – heart rate, record and swimming – that you switch between via one button, before slotting into the arm band.

Heart rate transmits your bpm to either the Polar Flow app on your smartphone or a compatible device, which are many as it has both Bluetooth and ANT+ connectivity. We synced it to our Polar Grit and it worked well.

The record feature does as it says: records the session, though this time in the Verity itself, which you can then download to the app afterwards. Simple.

And then there’s the swim mode, which is arguably the greatest sell to triathletes, though note that it’s for indoor swims only.

You choose the pool size on your Polar app and the Verity will do the rest, which really is about monitoring heart rate as it’s not about measuring factors like stroke rate.

It measures heart rate via a goggle clip and your pulsating temple, which we felt proved pretty accurate. Our slight ambivalence is it’s very hard to have a standard to compare against in the swim as it’s notoriously hard to measure.

As per many optical sensors, there’s a slight lag on tougher efforts, especially circuit training, but overall we were impressed. Whether you need an extra heart-rate tool in your armoury remains to be seen.

6. Coros Heart Rate Monitor

Price	£69 / $79
Weight	19g (0.7oz)
Battery life	38 hours per charge
Connectivity	Bluetooth and ANT+

Another armband offering but the Coros’ accuracy in testing was middling. The strap’s a hearty mix of polyester and nylon, and is extremely comfortable. It’s lightweight and svelte so slips beneath your base layer nicely. Battery life’s around 38hrs, which is up there with its competitors.

But it’s against straps like the Verity where the Coros falls short. You see, Coros’ remit is very tight: to broadcast heart rate to an accompanying watch or phone. And that’s it. Which is fine. But too tight a brief when you compare it to the Verity, which stores up to 600hrs of training data for download and subsequent analysis.

The latter also has a swim mode; the Coros is waterproof, but that’s it – no swim mode. All in all, it’s fine. But you’d struggle to make a case for it over the Verity, especially as they’re currently the same price.

What to look for in a heart rate monitor

Accuracy

This is where chest straps continue to rule over the wrist-based heart rate monitors you’ll find on triathlon watches.

Chest straps work by dampening the electrodes and pressing them against the skin, which then utilises electrocardiography to detect the heart’s electrical activity.

According to a 2017 study published in the Journal of Medicine and Sport and Exercise, the Polar H7 chest strap proved to be 99.6% accurate when compared to the gold standard of an ECG (electrocardiogram).

The same year, the Journal of American Medical Association Cardiology reported similar with chest straps showing a 99% correlation with an ECG.

These results compare favourably with their wrist-based siblings, which work via a method called photoplethysmography (PPG) to measure heart rate.

Essentially, this involves shining light through the skin to read fluctuations in bloodflow.

These are arguably more practical but less accurate as the results can be skewed by a variety of factors, including letting light into the sensor, skin tone and even moles.

A 2019 study published in the Journal of Sport Science found wrist-based accuracy varied between99% and 86.5%.

Comfort

Most chest straps score highly in the comfort stakes as, at their heart, they’re a soft, breathable, pliable fabric.

Where discomfort might strike is the sensor part. This tends to be a firmer strip of material because it’s cradling the chest sensors.

That’s understandable but, when it comes to comfort, a slightly more pliable material is what you’re after. A Polar H10 chest strap is a good example.

Also look out for the mechanism to clamp the strap in place, which tends to be a clasp or buttons. Just remember that you’ll need it tight enough to record an accurate reading but not so tight that it’s restrictive and uncomfortable.

The best heart rate monitor chest straps will retain their shape over time. Though some lose elasticity, which means they can start to slip down.

Connectivity

Chest-strap heart rate monitors are the data collectors. But you’ll need a watch or smartphone to display the information.

That’s where connectivity comes in, which is via Bluetooth or ANT+.

Historically, Polar relied solely on ANT+ connectivity but the rise of Bluetooth changed all that and now, like all the major HRM manufacturers, they’re Bluetooth applicable. In our experience, both are reliable.

Also note that the sensors employ coin-size batteries that’ll need changing over time.

What’s the difference between cheap and expensive heart rate monitors?

The key difference between chest strap monitors is the breadth of features. The majority offer heart rate and might record the data for download later.

However, more expensive chest straps, like the Garmin HRM-Pro Plus, offer much more. This is one of the few chest-strap heart rate monitors to break the three-figure price barrier, which is justified by a suite of features that go beyond recording heart rate.

This includes running dynamics, which measures vertical oscillation, ground contact time, stride length, vertical ratio and more.

These metrics are designed to improve your run form and, vis-à-vis, run speed.

Just note that in the case of the Garmin HRM-Pro Plus you’ll need a Garmin device to display the running metrics.

More expensive chest-strap heart rate monitors tend to be lighter and more svelte, too, which is something to consider if you’re planning so slip yours beneath a form-fitting tri-suit.

Time to invest in a new watch to go alongside your heart rate monitor? Take a look at our list of the best triathlon watches.

Recent updates

• 23 January 2026: we updated the formatting of this roundup of the best heart rate monitors and found the best deals for each HRM.