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Whoop

Whoop

product

12 creators use or recommend it

▲ 6 active in the last 90 days

1 use + recommend 10 use 1 recommend 20 mention 3 critical
Last discussed Oct 10, 2026

A wearable fitness tracker that monitors sleep, strain, and recovery with detailed health metrics.

What else do they all swear by?

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Chris Williamson, Ali Abdaal, Jason Calacanis and 9 others use or recommend Whoop. See what else they have in common.

See what they all swear by Or pick your own people

What creators think

Whoop has a real base of users who find it valuable, but opinion is genuinely split. Chris Williamson, who has tracked roughly 2,000 nights on the device, says it reliably reveals the gap between time in bed and actual sleep; Jason Calacanis frames it as a core piece of self-directed healthcare alongside blood panels; and Rich Roll says he loves it while deliberately keeping "an arm's length relationship" with how much he lets the data drive his behavior — a caveat worth noting. On the other side, Cameron Sapa and John Coogan both raise the anxiety angle directly: Coogan relays a case where low Whoop sleep scores turned out to be the *cause* of someone's fatigue, not a measure of it. Brad Stulberg, without endorsing or dismissing, questions whether any wearable algorithm can capture the complexity of human performance. The strongest honest takeaway is that Whoop surfaces real behavioral patterns for some users, while others find the scores themselves become a stressor — and the Oura Ring comes up repeatedly as the main alternative worth considering.

How Whoop compares

12 creators weighed in
Oura Ring Direct rival
smart ring health tracker

Both track HRV and recovery using similar methods. Whoop adds journaling, AI, and doctor video chats; Brad notes neither shares its algorithm openly.

D +5
9 creators
This Week in Startups

"I started recording in my Whoop. It has a journal. When I put in my journal that I had electrolytes or creatine, or I slept with a dog or an eye mask or I took a flight, it tells you how that affects your recovery. If I drink my electrol..."

Mentioned alongside Oura Ring and Apple Watch as wearable health trackers

This Week in Startups

"Whoop, everyone's favorite fitness wearable is bringing clinicians into their application via video chat. Whoop now let you do blood panels in it. They have an AI in it. And now, you know, I want a doctor. I want my doctor to start with ..."

Leading consumer healthcare alongside Oura, Function, and Superpower

Codie Sanchez

"You don't need an Oura Ring. You don't need a Whoop. You don't need sleep tracking."

Mentioned alongside Oura Ring as optional sleep tracking devices; Eight Sleep is the one Codie endorses

Joe Rogan

"Have you ever worn an Oura Ring or a Whoop strap or any of those things?"

Mentioned alongside Oura Ring as a comparable health tracking wearable

DF
David Frankel

"I look at Whoop versus Oura. Like we're so proud to be in both, but sooner — Oura has been a very quick journey."

Compared to Oura Ring — Whoop took longer due to hardware complexity, resulting in more dilution

+7 more comparisons
Apple Watch Different focus
Apple's smartwatch

Whoop skips the screen to focus on sleep and recovery scores. One creator said Apple Watch should be more like it.

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3 creators
JC
Jason Calacanis

"The Whoop plus getting your blood test, just self-directed healthcare with AI, man — you're going to get some early wins and then when you do go talk to your doctor, you have it right there. Whoop just added blood panels. So now your sle..."

Mentioned alongside Apple Watch as a complementary or alternative wearable option

JC
Jason Calacanis

"Putting the wearables in there is going to be really interesting — the Ouras, the Whoops, the Fitbits, Apple Watches. You start correlating that data with the blood work. I noticed Whoop offering labs now through Quest."

Mentioned alongside Oura, Fitbit, and Apple Watch as wearables that could feed data into health platforms

Marques Brownlee

"The market for screenless fitness trackers has more than doubled in just the past year alone, and that's been thanks to Whoop, who's more than half the market. The Whoop gives you a sleep score and a recovery score, so you have an idea o..."

Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Health app are being positioned as direct competitors to Whoop

This Week in Startups

"I think they should make an Apple Watch that's kind of like the Whoop — less like a watch and more just like dedicated health monitoring."

Used as a model for what a more health-focused Apple Watch should look like

Eight Sleep Different focus
smart temperature-regulating mattress

Both track sleep indirectly. Andrew says Whoop, worn on the wrist, can misread sleep stages due to limb movement.

2 creators
Andrew Huberman

"We monitor REM through like an Eight Sleep or a Whoop or some other device through changes in heart rate and breathing."

Mentioned alongside Eight Sleep as an example of indirect REM monitoring, contrasted with a new direct eye-movement-based sleep mask technology

This Week in Startups

"Whoop as a hardware product you know has some amount of lock in."

Example of hardware moat alongside Eight Sleep

Andrew Huberman

"A lot of the wristbands and rings for tracking sleep, while they can be quite good and are quite good, WHOOPs and Ouras being the two most popular ones, they can get movement wrong because of movement of limbs."

Less accurate than Eight Sleep for sleep staging

venture capital firm

Both are used as benchmarks for success in their fields, not compared as rival products.

2 creators
Marques Brownlee

"It's clearly aiming at the Whoop to be a puck on your wrist that is comfortable, that doesn't have a screen to distract you, and that has all the functionality of tracking you all the time. This is why people don't like Whoop."

Used as the benchmark that both Garmin CIRQA and Casana Smart Seat are competing against; criticized for its subscription fee

John Coogan

"It never got to mass consumer adoption like an Oura Ring or a Whoop band or anything like that."

Used as a benchmark for successful mass-market wearable adoption, contrasted with Leap Motion

Fitbit Air Direct rival
Fitbit's fitness tracking band

Both are health tracking wearables. Marques wears Whoop 24/7 for its screenless, lightweight design; Joanna notes Whoop users are now eyeing Fitbit Air.

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2 creators
Marques Brownlee

"I have a lot of friends, I play Ultimate Frisbee, friends and teammates who all wear Whoops. It's this screenless, lightweight puck in a thin band with all these sensors on one side that you just wear 24/7."

Compared extensively to Fitbit Air and Apple Watch throughout the video

JS
Joanna Stern

"Everyone wears their Whoop bands and now is very interested in the Fitbit Air."

Mentioned alongside Fitbit Air as health tracking devices

What creators say

Showing every creator card. Back to the faster view
This Week in Startups
uses recommends mentioned
Used for: General health and fitness tracking vs: Compared to The 90 pendant — Whoop doesn't track UV/sunlight exposure

"My Whoop doesn't record this, correct? So this is a unique device."

More from This Week in Startups →
+12 more mentions from This

"I woke up and my Whoop was — fire alarms going off. My respiratory rate, my skin temperature, everything. It's like you're dying."

"It says reading in my Whoop is a way to sleep better. So I was like, let me just get some of these short books and I'll start reading them."

Chris Williamson
uses mentioned
Used for: Tracking sleep duration and quality to understand actual sleep efficiency Praised: Reveals gap between time in bed and actual sleep; shows real sleep efficiency...

"I've got maybe 1,500, maybe 2,000 nights on Whoop tracked right over the years. And you're just always sleeping less than you think you are. If you don't have money to buy a wearable, just the rule is you're sleeping less than you think you are."

More from Chris Williamson →
+2 more mentions from Chris

"I think that's the number one realization that people get from wearing a sleep tracker like a Whoop and using an Eight Sleep or something, which is..."

"But when you see in data too and because I track everything with Whoop, it was a 30% increase in HRV. a 30% increase in HRV overnight and that held..."

WG
Used for: Tracking fitness and recovery during ultra-endurance events Praised: Long-term personal use predating the sponsorship relationship

"I'm with Whoop again. Well, I've been with Whoop for — I've worn one of these since pre-COVID. So I've always worn them."

More from William Goodge →
Used for: Tracking and comparing stress response levels between himself and his fiancée

"This is not a plug, but I'm an investor in a company called Whoop. And on there they have the stress measure. Again, it's not a perfect measure and nothing is a perfect measure, but I was looking at our differences in the stress response according..."

More from Steven Bartlett →
HS
Harry Stebbings
uses mentioned
Used for: Tracking sleep score and health metrics

"If you knew venture in 2026, dude, you'd know that we wear a Whoop and we don't drink martinis because it impacts our sleep score."

More from Harry Stebbings →
+2 more mentions from Harry

"I sold a Whoop. OpenAI or Anthropic?"

"Your Whoop or your Oura must absolutely hate you and your sleep score must be terrible, respectfully."

JK
Used for: Tracking heart rate data during races Praised: Accurate enough for his needs; provides the general picture he needs vs: Acknowledges Garmin is more precise for detailed data

"The last couple of years I've been just using my Whoop here on the bicep as kind of during the races. It's accurate enough, I think. It's better to use a Garmin in terms of getting the full picture, but I get the picture and that's kind of what I'..."

More from Johannes Klæbo →
JD
Joey Diaz
uses
Used for: Sleep tracking and optimization Praised: Helps determine sleep needs accurately

"I got the Whoop. I need eight hours of sleep. Eight. Solid. I need it."

More from Joey Diaz →
KK
Kyle Kuzma
uses
Used for: Daily health and fitness tracking Praised: Can track everything you need - sleep, workout, stress, strain vs: Wishes he could wear it during NBA games but league made him take it off

"The whoop, I don't really wish we could wear it during games. All summer, that's how I really track my daily life. I think it's amazing because you can track everything that you need, your sleep, your workout, your stress, your strain"

More from Kyle Kuzma →
Rich Roll
uses

"I mean I you know I have a Whoop. I love it. I definitely check it every morning, but I try to have an armslength uh relationship with how I let that data impact me"

More from Rich Roll →
+1 more mention from Rich

"I look at my Whoop data and I see the stress levels and I see the impact on my HRV"

Ali Abdaal
uses

"I use a Whoop to track my sleep, but you don't need it."

More from Ali Abdaal →
+1 more mention from Ali

"I wear a Whoop. I've got like a I've been using this for the last like 380 days or something. I've got a 380-day streak on it and so this gives me ..."

BA

"Usually I have my Whoop on because I used to have the Oura, but it hurt like I couldn't train with it."

More from Brendan Allen →
JC
Jason Calacanis
recommends mentioned
Used for: Self-directed healthcare combining wearable biometric data with blood panels and AI analysis Praised: Now includes blood panels in addition to sleep, steps, heart rate, respirator... vs: Mentioned alongside Apple Watch as a complementary or alternative wearable op...

"The Whoop plus getting your blood test, just self-directed healthcare with AI, man — you're going to get some early wins and then when you do go talk to your doctor, you have it right there. Whoop just added blood panels. So now your sleep data, y..."

More from Jason Calacanis →
+1 more mention from Jason

"Putting the wearables in there is going to be really interesting — the Ouras, the Whoops, the Fitbits, Apple Watches. You start correlating that da..."

Andrew Huberman
mentioned
vs: Does not measure REM directly, unlike the new eye mask

"Right now your Whoop, your Oura, your Eight Sleep, they're not measuring REM directly."

More from Andrew Huberman →
+4 more mentions from Andrew

"We monitor REM through like an Eight Sleep or a Whoop or some other device through changes in heart rate and breathing."

"Whether it's a Whoop or it's an Oura, it's your Eight Sleep — it's measuring heart rate and body motion mainly. Accelerometers, HRV. The HRV is the..."

Marques Brownlee
mentioned
Praised: Sleep score, recovery score, health span section with Whoop age, advanced lab... vs: Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Health app are being positioned as direct com...

"The market for screenless fitness trackers has more than doubled in just the past year alone, and that's been thanks to Whoop, who's more than half the market. The Whoop gives you a sleep score and a recovery score, so you have an idea of how well..."

More from Marques Brownlee →
+2 more mentions from Marques

"It's clearly aiming at the Whoop to be a puck on your wrist that is comfortable, that doesn't have a screen to distract you, and that has all the f..."

5.0 · newest

"I have a lot of friends, I play Ultimate Frisbee, friends and teammates who all wear Whoops. It's this screenless, lightweight puck in a thin band ..."

John Coogan
mentioned
Praised: Worn continuously unlike glasses vs: Compared to Meta Glasses with Muse as a wearable form factor

"People don't wear the glasses all the time, whereas a wristband like a Whoop, people wear that all the time."

More from John Coogan →
+4 more mentions from John

"If it was Oura Ring or Whoop or something like that, we'd be very impressed. Selling 7 million units of a new product — it could probably be like a..."

"It never got to mass consumer adoption like an Oura Ring or a Whoop band or anything like that."

Joe Rogan
mentioned
Used for: Tracking recovery improvements after hyperbaric chamber sessions vs: Mentioned alongside a generic 'ring' as examples of wearable trackers

"If you have like a Whoop strap or a ring or anything like that, it'll show that you've had an incredible recovery from a hyperbaric chamber session."

More from Joe Rogan →
+2 more mentions from Joe

"Have you ever worn an Oura Ring or a Whoop strap or any of those things?"

"if you're wearing an Oura ring or a Whoop strap or something along those lines you get much better recovery"

Codie Sanchez
mentioned
vs: Mentioned alongside Oura Ring as optional sleep tracking devices; Eight Sleep...

"You don't need an Oura Ring. You don't need a Whoop. You don't need sleep tracking."

More from Codie Sanchez →
DF
David Frankel
mentioned
vs: Compared to Oura Ring — Whoop took longer due to hardware complexity, resulti...

"I look at Whoop versus Oura. Like we're so proud to be in both, but sooner — Oura has been a very quick journey."

More from David Frankel →
BS
Brad Stulberg
mentioned
Used for: Tracking readiness and recovery; behavioral feedback on habits Praised: Can prompt behavioral change for some users regarding habits like alcohol con... vs: Mentioned alongside Oura Ring as examples of wearables with proprietary, unve...

"None of these devices — Oura Ring, Whoop — none of them release their quote-unquote proprietary algorithm. And I just think that human performance is so much more complex than an algorithm. I've also met people that said, 'I used to have two to th..."

More from Brad Stulberg →
JM
Jeff Morris Jr.
mentioned
vs: Contrasted with underperforming consumer social and marketplace startups

"If you look at Whoop or Oura, anything kind of like health-based, that category has been awesome. The wave of consumer hardware startups that have actually succeeded over the past several years is very understated."

More from Jeff Morris Jr. →
SN
Salim Najjar
mentioned
Used for: Tracking nightly average HRV scores vs: Uses RMSSD methodology similar to Oura Ring, unlike Apple Watch

"Most people nowadays, like myself, through wearables, like Oura Ring, Whoop, Apple Watch. The Oura and the Whoop use RMSSD versus an Apple Watch, which uses something else that'll be slightly higher."

More from Salim Najjar →
GM
George Mack
mentioned

"If you're the sort of person that's reading Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power and is thinking about what time they get up and tracking their Whoop scores, you've already pre-selected — you're not going to be in the just-do-it bin by nature."

More from George Mack →
IT
Ivanka Trump
mentioned
vs: Example of companies leveraging information to catalyze behavioral changes

"You see all the wearables like Whoop and other companies like that."

More from Ivanka Trump →
JS
Joanna Stern
mentioned
vs: Mentioned alongside Fitbit Air as health tracking devices

"Everyone wears their Whoop bands and now is very interested in the Fitbit Air."

More from Joanna Stern →
TBPN
mentioned
Used for: Sleep tracking and health monitoring, analyzing data with AI to detect conditions like sleep apnea Praised: Remarkable data, can detect health conditions when analyzed with AI

"I have seen a lot of people wearing the Whoop bands lately. And I think that there's some remarkable data. I was talking to someone who connected their Whoop data and found out that they had sleep apnea by analyzing it with an LLM."

More from TBPN →
+1 more mention from TBPN

"There were a few startups that Aura Whoop have seen"

JF
Jefferson Fisher
mentioned
Used for: Physical fitness and health tracking

"I got a Whoop, too. Like to be able to do all that physical discipline."

More from Jefferson Fisher →
AM
Amjad Masad
mentioned
Used for: Client using Replit for faster product development and feature testing Praised: Enables trying 10x more product ideas vs: Used to only try 5 out of 100 ideas, now can try 50

"Whoop is a client of ours and they told us the amount of ideas they can try has grown by an order of magnitude. They used to get like a hundred ideas but are able to only try five of them but now they can try the 50."

More from Amjad Masad →
MC
Marcus Capone
mentioned

"we're wearing our whoops and god forbid we're not in the green one day. You know, we tend to overanalyze that and think there's something wrong with us"

More from Marcus Capone →
DP
Dustin Poirier
mentioned

"if you have an Oura ring or a Whoop strap and you go into one of those things, it shows you. It's like, 'Oh, you have an amazing recovery day.'"

More from Dustin Poirier →
DZ
Dan Zavarotny
mentioned

"This is in some ways like the Oura ring or the Whoop of nutrition"

More from Dan Zavarotny →
SG
Scott Galloway
mentioned

"We are Whoop for your poop, Oura for your flora"

More from Scott Galloway →
All-In Podcast
mentioned

"Between your Eight Sleep, your Oura, your Whoop, all of that, your blood work coming together and giving you customized medicine."

More from All-In Podcast →
John Coogan
critical

"Will Manitis says, 'It brings me no joy to report I spent a year wondering why I was constantly sleepy and had a low sleep score on my Whoop. That was totally cured by simply stopped wearing the Whoop.'"

TV
Theo Von
critical

"They're wearing Apple watches and the fucking everything is whoop neck. They had to do with a fucking whoop neck brace. It was like it kept updating on his watch. It's like your neck's still broken or whatever."

CS
Cameron Sapa
critical

"oh my my Whoop score is not 100 now I'm going to be sleep deprived... I think it actually causes anxiety in a lot of people"

Sponsored mentions

These creators mentioned this product during a paid promotion

Chris Williamson recommends uses sponsored

"This episode is brought to you by Whoop. How you recover is literally going to determine how good your next day is going to be. And Whoop tracks all of it: sleep, strain, heart rate, recovery. All of this data gets pulled into a dashboard that act..."

+7 more episodes
Rich Roll uses recommends sponsored

"For me, it was actually an epiphany to see in a graph how eating late before bed raises my stress levels and resting heart rate while I sleep, which negatively impacts sleep quality and HRV in quite surprising ways. For me, this is huge and hugely..."

+17 more episodes
Joe Rogan recommends sponsored

"You should get a Whoop strap because the Whoop strap is no problem at all... one of the sponsors of the podcast, but I love it... it measures it really well... it's got a mountain of data... also great for sleep, it shows you really accurate sleep..."

About this data

  • ✓45,000+ mentions extracted from real podcast transcripts
  • ✓Every quote links to the source episode
  • ✓Sponsored mentions are always labeled
  • ✓Critical takes are shown, never filtered out
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