Can You Use The Oura Ring Without Subscription?

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Technically, you can use the Oura Ring without a subscription plan. However, the features available to you are very limited. You can view your three daily scores, but you can’t see how the ring calculates them. The Oura app also lets you change your settings and view your battery level. That’s about it. 

In this article, we discuss the features you can enjoy on the Oura Ring without a subscription, and what you’re missing. We also share Oura Ring alternatives that offer more benefits on their free plan.

What Features Are Available on the Oura Ring Free Plan?

The following features are available to Oura Ring users without an Oura membership:

Daily Scores

You get a daily analysis of your three daily Oura scores:

• Readiness Score: This shows your level of mental fitness.
• Sleep Score: This score determines if you had a good night’s sleep the previous day.
• Activity Score: The activity score evaluates how active you’ve been in the last 24 hours.

Although the Oura app will update these scores daily, you won’t be able to get a breakdown of each score. Knowing these basic scores alone isn’t enough to improve your well-being.

Here’s what I mean:

The Sleep score is calculated based on the time you spend sleeping. But sometimes, the Oura Ring can enter the time wrongly, thus giving you an inaccurate score. Without the Premium plan, you won’t be able to change the time and determine your actual sleep quantity.

Even if the ring calculates your Sleep Score correctly, you still need to check the breakdown of the score to decide how much time to add to your sleeping schedule.

Likewise, the Readiness score is generated based on your habits the previous day. Getting a full analysis of this score will help you determine which habits you need to stop to improve your mental fitness.

Basic Profile Details

The Oura app shows your battery level and helps discover charging issues. You’ll also learn about your Oura Ring’s health, the model, and the firmware version.

This data is only helpful for keeping your Oura Ring in good condition. It has no impact on your well-being if you aren’t on the Premium plan.

App Settings

The app settings let you change your theme, perform a soft reset, and hard reset your ring. If your Oura Ring is malfunctioning, you can use these functions to fix it.

Explore Tab

The Explore tab consists of basic meditation music and breathing exercises. If you know how to use the YouTube search bar, you can find these items for free.

Although the Oura app offers little information, you can still get your detailed personal data for free. To do this, you’ll have to download it from their website using the Oura API.

Take note that the data won’t come in clean graphs and pages, like you’ll expect it in the app. Instead, it will be a long list of data you may find difficult to make sense of.

 

Is the Oura Ring Worth It Without Membership?

If you aren’t subscribed to an Oura membership plan, your Oura ring is practically useless. You can’t get the information you need to change your life. Of course, your personal data is still available on the web, but using that method to access your data will give you a headache.

 

What does the Oura Ring Free Trial Offer?

After I got fed up with using the Oura free plan, I decided to try the 30-day free trial.

These are the features I started enjoying immediately:

Daily Score Analysis

I didn’t just get my daily readiness, sleep, and activity scores. I also knew why I was getting such low scores. I realized that I slept too late and woke up too early. So, I started sleeping more, and I noticed a shift in my temperament.

Before I saw the breakdown of my Activity score, I used to think that I was active enough. But the Activity Score analysis quickly changed my mind. Now, I run for 10 minutes every morning.

Heart Rate

Oura tracks your sleep heart rate, daytime heart rate, and workout heart rate. Once you get familiar with these features, you’ll be able to sense when your heart is beating abnormally fast.

Oura informed me that my heart beat too fast, even when I wasn’t nervous. This made me visit my doctor, who diagnosed me with hyperthyroidism. I’m glad I discovered it early.

Heart Rate Variability

The purpose of the heart rate variability is to determine your stress levels. If your heart rate changes as you move to a new situation, you are most likely stress-free and happy. However, a low heart-rate variability indicates that you are tired and pensive.

A high heart-rate variability could also mean that your body adapts easily to different situations.

Meditation Tracks

Are you feeling stressed about a certain task? You can take a few minutes to meditate using the unique soundtracks on Oura. I have to admit that the music on their playlist can zone you out from the rest of the world.

Body Temperature

This feature monitors your body temperature all day round. It’s great for detecting a fever or cold.

Nighttime Movement

The Nighttime movement feature measures how much you move while you’re sleeping.

Why is this important?

If you’re tossing and turning frequently at night, you might be facing a lot of stress. Constant movement during sleep may also indicate that you are taking too much caffeine, or that you have health issues.

If Oura states that your nighttime movement is high, you can easily determine the cause of the problem and resolve it immediately.

 

Oura Ring Alternatives Without Subscription

If you aren’t ready to pay for a subscription plan, you may want to explore Oura Ring alternatives with more valuable free plans.

These Oura Ring competitors offer more features without needing a subscription:

Circular Ring

The Circular Ring offers all its features for free. The only payment you make is the one for the ring.

Like Oura, Circular tracks your sleep and activity rates. The Circular app also has an alarm clock, which you can use to wake yourself at a set time.

The analysis of daily scores, which comes at a price on the Oura app, is available on Circular for free.

Here’s an in-app view of the circular app:

 

Prevention Circul

The Prevention Circul Ring is another Oura Ring alternative without a subscription plan. Like Oura, it tracks sleep, activity, heart rate, and temperature. In addition, this ring measures blood oxygen and blood pressure, both features that Oura Ring lacks.

What I don’t like about the Prevention Circul is that it feels heavy on the finger. So, you might feel uncomfortable if you wear it while running or working out.

Another downside of this ring is that it has poor battery life. The battery only lasts about 14 hours, which is short, compared to Oura Ring’s 7-day battery life.

Polar Ignite Watch

Unlike other sleep trackers in this category, the Polar Ignite Watch is a wristband. Although this watch is mostly used to aid athletic training, it is also effective for measuring sleep quality and quantity.

Once you buy your Polar Watch, you don’t need to pay for any subscription plan. You can download the Polar app and start getting detailed insights immediately.

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How Much Does Oura Subscription Cost?

The Oura Ring subscription costs $5.99 per month.

How Much Does Oura Ring Cost?

The cheapest Oura Ring costs $299. However, if you want a more stylish version of the ring, you might have to pay up to $349 to get it.

Does Oura Ring Track Without a Phone?

The Oura Ring can’t track your personal data without a phone. Your mobile phone must be within 30 feet of your Oura Ring for the Oura app to work.

Wrapping Up

If you decide to buy the Oura Ring, you’ll need to pay for a subscription after using the ring for one month. However, if you think the Oura membership isn’t worth it, get one of the Oura ring alternatives we’ve shared above.