Oura Ring vs. RingConn: What’s the Best Smart Ring for Health & Fitness?

Maybe you’re ready to jump on the fitness wearable bandwagon, but just aren’t a watch person. Or maybe that smartwatch is feeling extra bulky these days. Whatever brought you here, we’re going to help you scope out a smaller, sleeker corner of the wearable world: smart rings. Two of the more prominent brands are Oura and Ring Conn; we’ll break down their differences below.

Quick Overview:

• Oura is more expensive and requires a monthly membership (~$6/month), but offers more detailed, research-backed metrics and in-app coaching. It’s basically pricier but more polished and thorough. 
• RingConn doesn’t require a membership (one-time purchase, yay!), has a dedicated sleep apnea feature, and gives vibration alerts, but its app is more basic and doesn’t offer coaching-style insights.  

What to Consider While Smart Ring Shopping

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of this Oura Ring vs. RingConn comparison, let’s highlight what we look for while smart ring shopping. Keep in mind that this is for the average exerciser or someone who wants general wellness insights; if you’re an athlete or need more hard-core fitness data, you’d probably benefit from a sports watch.

• Size & style: Smart rings are generally designed to be worn 24/7—how else will they gather those ever-valuable sleep insights? But to make that a reality, it needs to fit well (and actually come in your size), feel good, and look pretty close to normal jewelry. 
• Metrics: This is the big one: your smart ring of choice should track all the metrics you care about. Heavy hitters include:
  
  • Heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), which serves as a good indicator of stress, recovery, and how your nervous system is working
  • Blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), which is primarily used to help track breathing while you sleep
  • Sleep duration and stages: We all want better sleep. Enough said. 
  • Skin temperature shifts, which can point to stress, poor recovery, or hormonal fluctuations
  • Physical activity: Metrics like step count (👀) and calories burned help paint a picture of your daily movement.
• App features: Smart rings send your data directly to an app so you can review it easily. Some apps are pretty bare-bones, leaving you to interpret your metrics, while others have a coach-like approach, which can help motivate you toward your goals. 
• Cost: This one’s a given. Aside from the upfront cost of the ring, we want to know whether the company charges a membership fee for access (and if so, whether it’s worth it). 

Oura Ring: More Expensive, More Impressive

Oura’s the most recognizable name in the smart ring space, and rightfully so. It was first to the game in 2013, and it’s backed by some notable research: an independent study published in Sensors found that the Oura Ring Gen3 was comparable to the gold-standard sleep assessment (called polysomnography, or PSG) for wake, light sleep, deep sleep, and REM estimation, and that it was more accurate than the Fitbit Sense 2 and the Apple Watch Series 8. 

Key Benefits: App Experience, Sleek Design

Here’s where Oura really thrives:

• A robust app with continuously improving features that help you interpret your results, such as:
  
  • Oura Advisor, an AI health coach that provides recommendations (based on your metrics and info you input, like injuries or specific goals), check-ins, and wellness plans for an impressively interactive feel
  • Ongoing daily health updates and “recent events”, which provides a timeline of your daily activities
  • Detailed metric insights, organized by category (readiness, sleep, stress, activity, heart health, metabolic health, women’s health, and core metrics)
  • Personalization throughout the app, making it easier to quickly access the metrics, insights, and recommendations that matter to you most
  • Habit and routine tracking, with visual representations of your health trends and an easy-to-understand rating system 
• A sleek look that could pass for normal jewelry (the Oura Ring 5 is 40% smaller than the Ring 4 at just 2.28mm thick, with a scratch-resistant titanium exterior and 6 color options) 

The Downside: Ongoing Membership Fee

There’s no denying that Oura is an amazing smart ring (and you could even credit it with making smart rings mainstream). But this is where the pin drops: pricing. The Oura Ring 5 comes in at $399 to $499, depending on the finish, which isn’t significantly costlier than the RingConn Gen 3 ($349), but the kicker is the membership fee. 

The Oura Ring isn’t really worth it without the monthly membership: without it, you’ll be limited to the Readiness, Activity, and Sleep scores, without the detailed breakdown or trend tracking. The membership costs $5.99 per month or $69.99 per year, plus taxes, although new members get their first month free.

You do get what you pay for with the Oura app when you consider the detailed metric insights that make it feel like a data-driven health coach. Plus, the ring itself and the membership fee are HSA/FSA-eligible, so if you have an HSA/FSA account, you could use your pre-tax funds for the expense. 

To save some cash, you can invest in an older Oura Ring instead of the latest model (the Ring 5). While it won’t spare you from the membership fee, it’ll bring down the cost of the actual ring, and you’ll still get the crucial features. The Oura app and its features also stay the same regardless of which ring model you have.

RingConn: No Monthly Fee & Great for Sleep Apnea (But a Less Insightful App)

RingConn was founded in 2021, so it was later to the game than Oura. But it still delivers in the accuracy department: a joint study conducted by RingConn and Shanghai Ruijin Hospital found that RingConn provides comparable accuracy in sleep assessment to PSG, the gold-standard sleep treatment we mentioned above.

The Benefits: Affordability, Sleep Apnea Features, Battery Life

Compared to Oura, RingConn delivers on value for money, sleep apnea tracking, and battery life:

• There’s no monthly membership fee with RingConn, you’ll just pay for the ring itself (which is also HSA/FSA-eligible!). So if paid subscriptions make you want to scream, this could be the one for you. You’ll still get access to all of your data in the RingConn app, which offers:
  
  • An AI health guide that gets better the more you use it with tailored health recommendations
  • AI-supported sleep apnea tracking (this is a major benefit, more on it below)
  • Cycle insights and forecasts
  • Standard metric tracking and timelines (HRV, SpO2, step tracking, calorie burn, etc.)
  • A continuous stress score based on HRV

• It’s the first smart ring to offer dedicated sleep apnea monitoring. RingConn tracks SpO2, HRV, heart rate, movement, and respiratory rate continuously overnight and translates them into sleep apnea pattern insights. While it shouldn’t be confused with a medical device or clinical-grade sleep apnea test, it can provide valuable info to help guide next steps (like a doctor’s appointment to discuss a formal sleep study)
  
  • Note that this feature isn’t included with the RingConn Gen 2 Air. 
• The RingConn 3 provides up to 14 days of battery life, compared to 6 to 9 days for the Oura Ring 5. If you’re like us and always forget to plug your gadgets in, this lengthy battery life is a major plus. 
• RingConn gives gentle vibration alerts to notify you about health changes, suggest a stroll during long sedentary periods, and signal low battery levels. 

RingConn is pretty comparable to Oura in terms of style; it’s 2.33 thick and made of titanium, with 5 color options. 

The Downside: A Less Thorough App

Wondering how RingConn’s app differs from Oura’s? Aside from the clear cost difference, RingConn’s app is mainly a dashboard displaying your metrics with an AI feature to help answer specific questions. Oura’s app provides a more comprehensive coaching feel with deeper-dive insights and recommendations, although it comes at the cost of about $6 per month. 

Find Your Perfect Smart Ring at the Stridekick Shop

Whether you’re looking to dish out on a super-sleek Oura Ring or want a monthly-fee-free RingConn, find the model that works for you at the Stridekick Shop. We’ve partnered with Truemed so you can seamlessly use your HSA/FSA funds for your dream ring (yes, they’re eligible!). Head over to the wearables section to start shopping.