Best heart rate monitor for Zwift

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Recording your heart rate is not mandatory to just ride in Zwift. But when it comes to racing, several events will require heart rate data to let you participate. Using a heart rate monitor when Zwifting will give you the freedom to access all Zwift events while being a key performance indicator to improve your cycling fitness. Using heart rate is key during workouts for instance.

But which heart rate monitor (HRM) is best for Zwifting?

Note that there are other options available if you are not interested in a chest strap. They will be mentioned throughout the article.

Understanding heart rate monitor solutions for Zwifting

There are 3 types of heart rate monitors available on the market: chest straps, optical straps, and wrist heart rate monitors (meaning where the sensor is embedded in a watch).

Optical straps and watches use the same technology to measure heart rate data: by the use of an optical sensor. Optical sensors use the refraction of light to measure the change of blood pressure in your vessels. This means that the sensor accuracy can be affected by your movements when lights come through the gaps between your skin and the sensor. Thus they are considered less accurate than chest straps.

Chest straps use a different technology based on electrodes to measure the heart rate data. This technology is more accurate than an optical sensor but it requires the sensor to be tightly maintained against your skin for it to work. Some people do not enjoy wearing a chest strap as it can lead to friction issues. Note that chest straps can also have some issues working well on some people and here are the solutions if that’s your case.

How to choose the ideal heart rate monitor for Zwift

Here are the key features to look out for when buying a heart rate monitor for Zwifting:

• Dual ANT+ / Bluetooth Smart Connectivity

When Zwifting, you need to pair several sensors to your device running Zwift. There are limitations to how many sensors you can connect depending on the device you use. For instance, Apple TV limits the number of sensors you can connect via Bluetooth. I have written a dedicated article about this limitation.

For the best experience riding in Zwift, I recommend you buy an HRM that has dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart to ensure you can use it at all times, whatever your Zwift setup.

• Multi-channel Bluetooth

Opting for a sensor with multi-channel Bluetooth will allow you to connect more than 1 device to your Heart Rate Monitor. For instance, you can connect it to both Zwift and your sports watch at the same time. Some people also like to do indoor cycling using both TrainerRoad and Zwift at the same time, therefore needing to connect the Heart Rate to both software.

• Accuracy

Optical sensors are less accurate than electrode sensors, so if accuracy is key for you then do not hesitate and buy a chest strap.

• Comfort

Wearing a chest strap, an optical arm strap, or a watch, all have different kinds of feel and comfort. It’s all a matter of preference, but generally speaking, cyclists prefer the comfort of a chest strap.

We have seen the key features but when you will start comparing heart rate monitors you will hear about additional features: what I call advanced features. Do you need them? What are they for? Let’s see in the next paragraph.

HRM advanced features: useful for Zwift?

You might hear about HRV support, Running dynamics, Swim metrics, Onboard memory, and waterproofing metric… when looking at different chest straps. These are advanced features that are not useful for Zwift.

Note that if you wish to use your heart rate monitor not only for indoor cycling, then these features could be of interest to you. Very quickly:

• HRV (heart rate variability): measures how much fluctuates your heart rate between heartbeats
• Running dynamics: key metrics for runners to give you more insight, like running stride length and height…
• Swim metrics: extra metrics for swimming like min/max/average heart rate per interval
• Onboard memory: that’s key to doing activities watchless and still recording the HR data to view it later. Of course, for Zwift, this feature is useless as you connect directly to Zwift app to view the live data in-game.
• Waterproofing: this is only useful for swimming

Best heart rate monitors for Zwift

In conclusion

You may have noticed that they are lots of chest straps available on the market. Some from well-known brands, and others. From my experience, most will work fine, but if you want to be sure it’s reliable and works in the long run, then trust me, well-known brands like Polar, Garmin, and Wahoo are best.

As a Zwifter, you don’t need all the advanced features you can find in heart rate monitors. This is why the most expensive models are not necessarily the best for your needs. Polar H10 (and H9), Garmin HRM Dual, and Wahoo Tickr all will do the job. However, the Wahoo Tickr had some known issues which makes it less reliable than the other models.

If you already have a sports watch with an optical heart rate sensor, you can start broadcasting your heart rate while Zwifting and decide later on if you prefer to have a chest strap for accuracy and comfort.