Facing a more crowded field than at any point in its history, Whoop has begun selling its hardware separately from its subscription service in Australia. However, it does not reduce the overall cost for new customers in the first year; rather, it opens a path to savings from the second year onwards.
The Whoop 5.0 now carries a standalone price of AU$99, equivalent to approximately £55, with a mandatory subscription running at AU$300 per year on top of that hardware cost, a combined first-year outlay that matches the AU$399 annual fee subscribers previously paid to receive the band included with their plan.
That parity disappears from the second year, as customers who already own the hardware no longer need to factor in a device cost, which gives the new model a financial advantage over the previous all-in subscription structure for users who do not upgrade their band annually.
<!–
–>
The Whoop MG with ECG follows the same framework at a higher tier, priced at AU$149 for the hardware, or roughly £83, and AU$450 per year for the subscription, with a five-year prepayment option available that brings the total to AU$1,580, around £880, plus the band cost.
That commitment places Whoop considerably above subscription-free alternatives, with the Amazfit Helio Strap and Polar Loop requiring no ongoing fees at all, and the Google Fitbit Air offering data access without a monthly charge at a hardware price that undercuts Whoop’s annual subscription by a substantial margin.
Whoop has positioned its higher pricing around the depth of its health analytics platform, covering menstrual cycle tracking, sleep monitoring, and stress insights, with the company’s core argument being that the granularity of its data justifies a recurring cost that comparable wearables from Garmin and Samsung do not ask their users to match.
The restructured pricing model currently applies only to Australia, with Whoop yet to confirm whether the hardware-decoupled approach will extend to the UK, the United States, or other established markets where the brand has built its subscriber base.
The post Whoop removes the health band from the subscription, with a catch appeared first on Trusted Reviews.