Whoop 5.0 vs Garmin HRM-Pro Plus: Subscription or Chest Strap?

These two devices both measure your heart rate, and that is where the similarity ends. The WHOOP 5.0 is a subscription wearable built to watch your body 24 hours a day. The Garmin HRM-Pro Plus is a chest strap you buckle on before a workout and forget about the rest of the day.

Key Differences

• Sensor location: WHOOP reads blood flow at the wrist with an optical sensor. The HRM-Pro Plus reads the electrical signal from your heart across your chest, which is the more direct measurement during hard efforts.
• What you get for the money: The HRM-Pro Plus costs $129.99 once. The WHOOP 5.0 launched at $199 and requires an ongoing membership to see any data.
• Battery: WHOOP runs about 336 hours (14 days) per charge. The Garmin strap runs on a replaceable coin cell rated for roughly 8,760 hours (365 days).
• Sensor suite: WHOOP adds SpO2, skin temperature, and a gyroscope on top of optical heart rate. The Garmin strap carries heart rate plus an accelerometer for running dynamics, and nothing else.
• Comfort profile: WHOOP weighs 26.5 g on the wrist. The strap weighs 52 g and sits under your sternum, which some people never get used to.
• Data connection: The Garmin strap speaks ANT+ and Bluetooth Low Energy and has internal store-and-forward memory, so it can record a pool or gym session with no watch nearby. WHOOP is Bluetooth only and pairs to its own app.

Deep Dive Comparison

Design & Comfort

The WHOOP 5.0 is a 34.7 mm polymer module on a fabric band, 26.5 g total, with no screen at all. There is nothing to read on it, which is the point. It is IP68 rated, so sweat and showers are fine.

The HRM-Pro Plus is a 53.7 mm plastic pod on an elastic chest band, 52 g, rated 5 ATM. That rating covers swimming, and the strap is designed for it. Chest straps chafe if the band is too loose and slip if the electrodes dry out. If you already know you hate chest straps, that dislike will not change here.

Battery Life

WHOOP goes about 336 hours (14 days) between charges, and it charges with a slide-on battery pack so you never take it off. The Garmin strap uses a user-replaceable coin cell rated near 8,760 hours (365 days) of typical training use. Neither has GPS, so there is no separate GPS battery figure to compare.

In practice this is a difference between a small recurring chore and an annual one. Fourteen days is generous for a wrist wearable, but a year on a battery you swap yourself is a different category of convenience.

[CHART: Bar | Battery Life (Days) | “WHOOP 5.0”: 14, “Garmin HRM-Pro Plus”: 365]

Health & Fitness Features

This is where the two split completely. WHOOP tracks optical heart rate, SpO2, skin temperature, and movement through an accelerometer and gyroscope. That combination is what feeds sleep staging, recovery scoring, and daily strain. It runs all day and all night without you doing anything.

The HRM-Pro Plus does one job. It measures heart rate from your chest and adds running dynamics through its accelerometer, so a paired Garmin watch can show cadence, ground contact time, vertical oscillation, and similar form metrics. Chest electrodes track fast heart rate changes better than a wrist optical sensor, especially during intervals, lifting, and cold-weather starts. If your interval data looks laggy on a watch, a strap fixes that.

Neither device has GPS. WHOOP has no display and no GPS at all. The strap relies entirely on the watch or phone it pairs with for pace and distance, unless you use its stored steps and distance data indoors.

Smart Features

Neither one has a display, a speaker, a microphone, music storage, or NFC payments. The HRM-Pro Plus has internal store-and-forward memory that WHOOP does not: it records a session on its own and pushes it to your Garmin watch or Garmin Connect the next time they connect. That is genuinely useful for swimming, indoor rowing, or any workout where you do not want a watch on your wrist.

WHOOP’s smart layer lives in its app, not the hardware. Everything you see comes from the phone, and everything you see requires an active membership.

Price & Value

The HRM-Pro Plus launched at $129.99 and frequently sells below that. You buy it, you own it, and the only future cost is a coin cell about once a year. There is no account, no tier, no renewal.

WHOOP 5.0 launched at $199 for hardware, and the membership is the real cost. Over two years, the total outlay is not close, and the strap is the cheaper device by a wide margin. What WHOOP sells is not raw heart rate data, it is the sleep and recovery analysis wrapped around it. Decide whether that analysis is worth a recurring bill before you look at the hardware price.

Technical Specs

Spec	WHOOP 5.0	Garmin HRM-Pro Plus
Launch Price	$199	$129.99
Released	May 8, 2025	July 13, 2022
Weight	26.5 g	52 g
Size	34.7 mm	53.7 mm
Material	Polymer	Plastic
Water Rating	IP68	5 ATM
Display	None	None
Battery	336 hours (14 days)	8,760 hours (365 days)
GPS	None	None
Sensors	Optical Heart Rate, SpO2, Skin Temperature, Accelerometer, Gyroscope	Heart Rate, Accelerometer (Running Dynamics)
Connectivity	Bluetooth, BLE	ANT+, Bluetooth Low Energy
Onboard Storage	Unknown	Internal (store-and-forward)
NFC Payments	No	No

The Verdict

For most people asking this question, the Garmin HRM-Pro Plus is the better buy. It costs $129.99 once, delivers the more accurate workout heart rate signal, adds running dynamics, runs a year on a coin cell, and stores sessions on its own when no watch is nearby. Nothing about it expires.

Buy the HRM-Pro Plus if you train with a Garmin watch, run intervals or lift, swim, or simply want reliable heart rate without a subscription. Buy the WHOOP 5.0 if what you actually want is sleep staging and recovery scoring around the clock, you are willing to pay monthly for it, and you accept optical wrist heart rate as good enough during hard efforts. Those are different products for different problems, and the strap wins on cost and on measurement quality during exercise.

One more option worth naming: plenty of people own both. A WHOOP band on the wrist for recovery and a chest strap for workouts is a common setup, because neither device does the other’s job.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which one is more accurate for heart rate?

The Garmin HRM-Pro Plus is more accurate during exercise. Chest electrodes read the heart’s electrical signal directly, so they track sudden changes during intervals and lifting without the lag optical wrist sensors show. WHOOP’s optical sensor is fine at rest and during sleep, which is what it was built for.

Do I need a subscription for either device?

WHOOP requires an active membership to see your data, so the $199 hardware price is only the start. The HRM-Pro Plus has no subscription at all: pay $129.99 once and replace a coin cell about once a year.

Can the Garmin HRM-Pro Plus work without a watch?

Yes. It has internal store-and-forward memory, so it records a session on its own and uploads it the next time it connects to your Garmin watch or Garmin Connect. That makes it usable for swimming or indoor sessions where you leave the watch behind.

Does either device have GPS?

Neither one has GPS. WHOOP has no display and no GPS, and the HRM-Pro Plus relies on the watch or phone it pairs with for pace and distance outdoors.

Which should I buy if I use an iPhone and no sports watch?

Go with WHOOP 5.0. It pairs to its own phone app and gives you sleep, recovery, and strain without any other hardware. The HRM-Pro Plus works over Bluetooth with phone apps too, but its best features, running dynamics and store-and-forward uploads, need a Garmin watch to be worth the price.