Oura Ring vs Livity
I almost spent $399 on a ring to tell me what my watch already knew.
I'm Martynas, and I built Livity. Here's an honest comparison — including the things the ring genuinely does better.
Free to download · 4.7★ on the App Store
The maths that stopped me
You pay for the ring. Then you pay to read it.
That last number is the one that got me. Stop paying the monthly fee and you still own the ring — you just stop getting most of what you bought it for.
Livity costs $0 in new hardware. It reads the Apple Watch, Garmin or Fitbit already on your wrist — and turns that into the same kind of Sleep, Recovery and Readiness scores.
First, what the ring gets right
Let me be fair, because this matters: Oura makes a genuinely good product, and there are things a ring does better than any watch.
- It's far nicer to sleep in. A ring is lighter than a watch and you forget it's there. That's a real advantage, and it's the main reason people buy one.
- The battery lasts days, not hours. No nightly charging ritual to plan around.
- It's discreet. No screen, no notifications, nothing buzzing at you.
So this isn't “rings are bad.” It's a question about what you're actually buying — and whether you already own most of it.
The part the ads skip
A ring only works the night shift
Here's the thing nobody mentions until after you've bought one: you will still wear a watch during the day. So you're not replacing a device — you're buying a second one to cover half the day.
It needs your phone to know where you went
There is no GPS chip in the ring — a chip plus the battery to run it does not fit in something that lasts a week. Oura borrows your phone’s instead, so your pace, distance and route come from the phone in your pocket. Leave it at home and they go with it.
It cannot show your heart rate on its own
Seeing your heart rate live during a workout means pairing a separate Bluetooth monitor — a third device. That is a limit of the hardware, not something a firmware update fixes.
No ECG, no fall detection, no crash detection
The safety features you may already be wearing on your wrist are simply not in a ring.
You have to guess your size
Order a sizing kit, wait, then order the ring. Your fingers change size in heat and cold, and it is not resizable afterwards.
The bit that surprised me
Your watch already measures nearly all of it
Depending on your model, the watch on your wrist is already recording:
- Sleep stages — light, deep and REM
- Heart rate variability (HRV)
- Resting heart rate
- VO₂ max
- Wrist temperature
- Blood oxygen
The data was never the missing piece. The interpretation was. That's the entire job Livity does: it reads what your watch already collected and gives you one clear answer each morning.
The short version
Side by side, honestly
The ring and its membership, against the watch you already own plus Livity.
| Oura Ring 5+ membership |  Your watch + Livity | |
|---|---|---|
| Works with hardware you already own | – | Yes |
| No new hardware to buy | – | Yes |
| Pay once, keep it forever (no subscription) | – | Yeslifetime option |
| Sleep stages, HRV, resting heart rate | Yes | Yes |
| Daily readiness / recovery score | Yes | Yes |
| AI coach you can ask questions | Yes | Yes |
| Cardio / fitness age estimate | Yes | Yes |
| GPS route without carrying your phone | – | Yesvia your watch |
| Live heart rate during workouts | partial | Yesvia your watch |
| ECG, fall & crash detection | – | Yesvia your watch |
| Works with Apple Watch, Garmin and Fitbit | – | Yes |
| Reads an Oura Ring too | Yes | Yes |
| Comfortable to sleep in, multi-day battery | Yes | partial |
The ring measures your night. Your watch already measures both — Livity just reads it back to you.
Already own an Oura? Livity reads it.
I'm not going to tell you to throw away a ring you already paid for. Livity connects to Oura directly — sleep stages, HRV, blood oxygen and VO₂ max flow straight in, alongside whatever your watch picks up during the day.
Wear the ring at night, wear the watch by day, and Livity reads both without double-counting.
One caveat, so there are no surprises: connecting Oura needs an active Oura membership, because that's what their API requires.
We're not telling you to throw away a ring you own.
We're telling you not to buy one you don't need.
What it actually looks like
A normal Thursday
You wake up
One number, not a wall of charts. Recovery 61 — slept fine, but your HRV is still under your baseline from Tuesday's session.
You ask why
The coach answers in plain language, and it remembers what you told it you were training for.
You decide
Intervals today or an easy hour? Livity already told you which one your body signed off on.
40,000+ people · 1,000+ five-star reviews
“Best health app I've tried. Great features at a good price. Lifetime member already! Developer is very responsive on Reddit.”
“Recovery score helps plan workouts. Sleep tracking improved my rest. 💤 Stress tracking is accurate. Body battery feature is useful! 🔋”
“Love how this app combines everything in one place! Training load insights help me avoid burnout. 💪 The monthly recaps are beautifully designed. Fitness age feature is eye-opening. Great value!”
Your health data stays yours
Livity reads your health data to score it — that's the whole job. We don't sell it, we don't use it for interest-based advertising, and we don't use it to train our own AI models.
You can delete supported chats, memories and reports from inside the app, and request account deletion whenever you want.
Full detail — including what we keep and for how long — is in our privacy policy.
Honest answers
Do I have to wear my watch to bed?
Yes — that’s the honest trade-off, and it’s the one real advantage a ring has. Most people charge their watch while they shower or make coffee, which is enough to get through the night. If wearing something to bed is a dealbreaker for you, a ring genuinely is the more comfortable option.
I already own an Oura. Is this useless to me?
Not at all. Livity connects to Oura directly and reads your sleep, HRV, blood oxygen and VO₂ max, alongside your watch’s daytime data. Connecting Oura does require an active Oura membership, because that’s what their API needs.
Isn’t a ring more accurate than a watch?
They measure from different places and each has its strengths — Oura publishes research making the case for the finger. We’re not trying to out-measure anyone. Livity’s job is interpretation: taking whatever your device records and turning it into one clear answer each morning.
What if I don’t own a watch at all?
Livity still works with just your iPhone, using steps and whatever else Apple Health has. You get less depth than with a watch, but it’s a real starting point — and it costs you nothing to find out.
Which devices work with Livity?
Apple Watch, Garmin, Fitbit and Oura. Anything else that writes into Apple Health will be read too.
Is it free?
Livity is free to download and free to start. There’s an optional Pro upgrade, including a one-time purchase if you’d rather not have another subscription.
Try it before you spend $399.
Livity is free to start, and it works with the watch already on your wrist. If it doesn't tell you something useful in a week, you haven't lost anything.
Free to download · 4.7★ on the App Store