It’s not a fitness tracker. It doesn’t count steps. It doesn’t have GPS so it doesn’t track movement.
It’s a recovery monitoring/measuring platform (device and app). All it measures is HR, HRV and sleep. It doesn’t have a display. The wrist monitor itself is pretty simple - I find the strap design to be rather hokey but it works. The app is well done.
Training Peaks and other power-based software rely on power data and algorithms to advise you as to your load and recovery state. Devices like Whoop use physiological measurement. Power meters look outside the body, Whoop looks within. A powermeter and related software are without a doubt powerful training tools. Whoop and others like it may be as well.
Sure you can say “just sleep more and drink alcohol less,” but we all know the adage “that which is measured gets improved.” I find it interesting data to see how my RHR and HRV change throughout my training cycle.
Pricing has changed from $500 to $30/mo with a 6-month minimum. There is at least one competitor - the Oura ring. I may check that one out. For me, the biggest downside of the Whoop is that if I want to wear my Apple Watch, I have bands on both wrists, which for me feels odd. One of the reasons I may check out the Oura ring, but similar issue there - will need to wear rings on both hands because I don’t think the wife would let me ditch my wedding ring in favor of this one. Oura ring is pretty chunky too, unless you’ve won a Super Bowl and are already used to wearing a big ring like that.