Comparison

Garmin Jr.™ vs Fitbit Ace

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Garmin Jr.™

This app helps parents manage their child's activity, sleep, and chores when paired with a compatible wearable. It also offers communication features and location tracking for added safety.

Highlights
  • Activity and sleep tracking
  • Chore management and rewards
  • Location tracking
  • Text and voice messaging
  • Family boundary alerts
  • Family challenges
Features
Read full description

When paired with a compatible Garmin kid’s wearable device, the Garmin Jr.™ app¹ is a parent’s resource for keeping track of kids’ activity² and sleep, managing chores and rewards and encouraging daily activity. With a compatible LTE-capable device, parents can also stay connected to their kids with texts, voice messages or voice calls to and from the device. They can track their location on the map in the Garmin Jr.™ app, set boundaries and receive alerts related to those boundaries. Your kids will only be able to interact with the people you add to your family in the app. The Parent Helper With the Garmin Jr.™ app on their smartphone, parents can: • Call and receive calls from your child’s compatible Garmin device.* • Send text and voice messages to your child’s compatible device.* • Track your child’s location on the map.* • Get detailed statistics about your child’s activity and sleep. • Celebrate personal records, including steps and active minutes. • Assign tasks and chores and reward your kids for a job well done. • Manage your child’s device settings, including goals, alarms, icons and display. • Create challenges to encourage the whole family to be more active. • Connect with other families and compete in multi-family challenges. • Invite up to nine trusted people to your family. • Get notified when your child leaves or arrives at a family boundary.* • Get notified when kids in the family request assistance from their compatible devices. • Add and organize music on your child’s compatible device. ¹Requires app loaded on parent’s compatible smartphone ²Activity tracking accuracy: http://www.garmin.com.en-us/legal/atdisclaimer * To use LTE features, an active subscription plan is necessary

About

Fitbit Ace

Manage your child's Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch. Securely call, text, track location, and monitor activity. Control contacts and ensure peace of mind.

Highlights
  • Secure calling and texting
  • Real-time location tracking
  • Activity level monitoring
  • Contact management
  • Child's smartwatch management
Read full description

The Fitbit Ace app is your home base for the Fitbit Ace LTE kids smartwatch. Use it to securely call or text message your child, see their location, check in on their activity levels, and manage their contacts. If you’re invited as a contact, you can also use the Fitbit Ace app to securely call or send messages to a child’s Fitbit Ace LTE smartwatch. *Fitbit Ace LTE device requires a paid Ace Pass data plan. Some features only available for kids with a supervised Google Account. Learn more about privacy for Fitbit Ace at g.co/fitbitace/privacy

Screenshots

Garmin Jr.™4 screens
Fitbit Ace4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Garmin Jr.™ at 4.6 against Fitbit Ace's 4.1. Garmin Jr.™ also leads on review sentiment (76% vs 50%) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Garmin Jr.™ holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Garmin Jr.™ has 7.4K ratings behind it against 223, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of Garmin Jr.™'s written reviews are positive against 50% of Fitbit Ace's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 27, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Garmin Jr.™ versus Fitbit Ace: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGarmin Jr.™Fitbit Ace
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (7.4K ratings) — better4.1 (223 ratings)
Positive reviews76.4% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings7.4K — better223
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size389 MB196 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperGarminGoogle

Customer experience

Garmin Jr.™

All ratings7,269 ratings
Positive91.9%
Neutral3.3%
Negative4.8%
Written reviews1,219 reviews
Positive76.4%
Neutral7.5%
Negative16.2%

Fitbit Ace

All ratings221 ratings
Positive74.7%
Neutral5.0%
Negative20.4%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral8.9%
Negative41.1%

User reviews

Garmin Jr.™

From 7.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Motivating for kids
  • 📊 Helpful for tracking activity and sleep
  • 💰 Effective chore and reward system
  • 🤝 Good for family communication

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Connectivity issues and syncing problems
  • 🔋 Poor battery life
  • 🤔 Limited game and story content
  • 🔍 Lack of customization options
  • 🕰️ Inaccurate activity tracking

Fitbit Ace

From 223 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for kids' independence
  • 🔒 Safe communication for kids
  • 📍 Reliable location tracking
  • 🏃 Motivates kids to be active
  • 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Easy for parents to use

Room to improve

  • 🚫 Incompatible with older iOS
  • ⚠️ Inappropriate content risk
  • 🚫 Features don't work offline
  • 🎨 Awful UI aesthetics
  • 🖼️ Cannot send images

Bugs and requests

Garmin Jr.™

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Watch time and date resets unexpectedly
  • App crashes when trying to access certain features
  • Coins and rewards not syncing properly between watch and app
  • Activity data not accurately recorded

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add GPS tracking capability
  • Improve app responsiveness and stability
  • Expand game and story content
  • Allow more customization of chores and rewards
  • Enhance sleep tracking and reporting

Fitbit Ace

Reported bugs

15 issues
  • Location, calling, and messaging features not working when disconnected from WiFi
  • Incoming calls on iPhone from Fitbit Ace have no sound, only vibration
  • Message history lost when moving to a new phone
  • App does not connect to the watch
  • App never loads or says no connection
Show 10 more
  • App stops working and requires restoration
  • Customer service never responded
  • Some messages are delayed
  • Some messages disappear after a bit
  • Takes forever to receive text and update location
  • App immediately asks for country and says not allowed
  • App is completely unusable, clicking does nothing
  • App freezes and nothing can be clicked
  • Cannot invite spouse to family account
  • Cannot contact other kids or their friends, only adults

Requested features

15 requests
  • Allow adjusting theme or colors
  • Add basic features like photo sharing
  • Allow communication between friends with watches
  • Enable parents to approve friend connections
  • Allow grandparents abroad to use the app
Show 10 more
  • Add more parental control options
  • More parental settings needed
  • Add voice message feature for parents
  • More child safety features updates
  • More family quests
  • More customization of night time hours
  • Increase size of keyboard buttons
  • Enable parents to call even during school time
  • Modify goals to include other exercises
  • UI tweaks for better user experience

In-app purchases

None

Garmin Jr.™

No in-app purchases

None

Fitbit Ace

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Garmin Jr.™ free?
Garmin Jr.™ is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Fitbit Ace free?
Fitbit Ace is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Garmin Jr.™ or Fitbit Ace?
Garmin Jr.™ is rated higher. Garmin Jr.™ averages 4.6 out of 5 from 7.4K ratings, while Fitbit Ace averages 4.1 from 223 ratings.
Do Garmin Jr.™ or Fitbit Ace have ads?
Neither Garmin Jr.™ nor Fitbit Ace shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Garmin Jr.™ or Fitbit Ace?
Garmin Jr.™ ships an update every 3 weeks, and Fitbit Ace every 3 weeks. Most recently, Garmin Jr.™ was updated on October 27, 2026 and Fitbit Ace on October 27, 2026.

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