You Can Get a Whoop Band With a 12-Month Subscription for $199

The Whoop band is a screenless strap that you can wear on a wristband, armband, or tucked into various specially-made clothing items. I recently compared it to the Oura ring to find the best non-watch fitness tracker, and the Whoop won hands-down. One of its decisive blows in that battle was costing just $239 for the hardware and a year's subscription. Now, with the company's Black Friday sale, you can get that same deal for just $199. That's under $17/month for your first year, with "free" hardware.

You can get that price in an easily-giftable package by buying the Amazon version, which comes with a black ("Onyx") band and includes the first year of your subscription, prepaid. Or for a more customizable experience, head to Whoop.com and select the colors and accessories that speak to you. (Colors cost more, even on the main Whoop site, though.) Whoop is also offering a discount on their two-year membership at $359 instead of $399.

If you were already thinking about getting a Whoop at $239, here's what I'd do: Get the $199 deal, and then add a bicep band for $43.20 (normally $54). This lets you wear the Whoop on your upper arm, keeping it away from your wrist—great if you don't like wearing watches, or if you like wearing watches so much you already have one you'd like to keep on.

With that combo, you're getting the Whoop device, a one-year subscription, and the bicep band, for about $242—only $3 more than you would have paid, say, last week for the device and subscription without the armband. That said, there are also third-party accessories, like this Yeahxing bicep band for $15.99.

Why go with Whoop? Besides being cheaper than the Oura ring, it also tracks heart rate during exercise reasonably well (not as good as a chest strap or most Garmins, though) and has an excellent system for measuring your recovery from strength training (much improved from when I first tested out that feature). It has extensive abilities to track what improves your sleep and recovery over time (if alcohol screws with your sleep, you'll know) and it's full of guidance and coaching features to make the most of your sleep and exercise. If you don't want a watch, and you're choosing your device based on features and price, you can read my Whoop vs. Oura comparison here.

But if you're open to considering a watch, you may want to consider one of the options that does have a screen and doesn't have a steep subscription cost. Fortunately, there are plenty of deals on other fitness trackers, like Apple Watches and Garmins, which both have sleep-tracking as well.