Sensor Bio
vs WHOOP
One is signal infrastructure, built to carry raw physiological data into any system that needs it. The other is a consumer wearable, built to carry Strain, Recovery, and Sleep coaching onto a membership screen. Here is the difference, specification by specification.
Built as infrastructure, not as a gadget.
Four differences decide whether a wearable can carry an institutional workload. WHOOP was built as a consumer coaching product, not as partner signal infrastructure.
The full waveform, not the summary
Scores and insights sit on top of the exposed raw signal, with the context that shows what drove the number.
Public Developer API hands over scored summaries. Continuous raw PPG, IBI, and intraday HR series are not listed on that surface as of 2026-10-28.
One system, every use case
Designed from the ground up as a data platform that clinical, defense, and enterprise partners build on directly.
A membership product for athletes and teams. Partners inherit the WHOOP app, scores, and roadmap.
Your brand on the signal
Ships as infrastructure a partner can put its own name on from the first deployment.
White-label / OEM is not listed on current whoop.com product pages as of 2026-10-28. The brand stays theirs.
Shaped to the deployment
Data model, retention, and reporting are configured to the partner's environment: a hospital, a base, a research protocol.
Configured per membership tier and individual athlete, not per hospital, base, or research protocol.
A wellness tracker tells a person a score and stops there. A signal platform shows the score, the raw signal behind it, and hands over the data to prove it.
Six problems institutional buyers run into, and how we answer each one.
Raw waveform export is the default data product for every partner, not a gated upsell.
The public WHOOP Developer API (OAuth2) documents scored summaries. Continuous raw PPG waveforms, beat-to-beat / RR intervals, and continuous intraday HR sample series are not listed on those OpenAPI docs as of 2026-10-28. Unite / research channels may differ; partners should confirm with WHOOP.
Deployments are configured to retain the history a partner actually needs.
Public API collections are paginated with start/end filters. A partner-configurable retention window is not listed on the public OpenAPI docs as of 2026-10-28.
Every score ships next to the raw signal it was built from, plus the context for what drove it.
Recovery, Strain, and Sleep scores are the product. The public API returns those scores (and supporting summary fields) without the raw waveform they were built from.
Partners build directly on the Sensor Bio platform, built as infrastructure from the start.
Partners build on the WHOOP membership cloud and the public Developer API. Trusted Partner OAuth is documented for lab / requisition workflows, not as a general raw PPG export path.
Native white-label from the first deployment. The partner's brand carries the platform end to end.
A white-label or OEM path is not listed on current whoop.com product pages as of 2026-10-28. Members live in the WHOOP app under the WHOOP brand.
Configured per deployment from day one: a hospital, a base, or a research protocol.
Built for athletes and teams who want Strain–Recovery–Sleep coaching. Institutional capture, white-label, and waveform-level control are a retrofit.
Everything the Sensor Bio SDK hands you on day one.
Eight categories of physiological data, fetchable per day or across a range, with the raw datapoint series underneath every summary. No separate license. No gated tier.
Continuous core signals
Heart rate, daily and trending, with a Poincaré plot. Heart rate variability across the same daily and range views.
Respiratory rate, daily and trending.
Skin temperature: min, max, average, and the full point series.
Movement and energy
Steps graphed over time, and calories.
Daily activity score with baseline difference and progress percentage.
See how much you move with a daily running total of movement duration.
Readiness, daily and ranged
Daily recovery score compared across weeks, months and years.
Scores are personal to you and after calibration, reflect your physiological changes.
Use the underlying biometrics or the aggregate score for easy reference.
The deepest surface in the SDK
Sleep score with running average, contributing factors, and penalties. Awake, REM, light, and deep percentages, plus minute-by-minute stage intervals across the night.
Resting HR and HRV, plus full HR, HRV, and respiratory-rate graphs with every datapoint. Skin temperature with min, max, average, uncertainty, and baseline comparison.
Total sleep time, onset and wake timestamps, and per-session timing including naps.
Recommended bedtime, wake time, and duration. Circadian score and net sleep debt with three-night accounting. Range views add score trends, daily sleep-time points, and an aggregated debt graph.
On-demand snapshot
HRV against baseline, and parasympathetic to sympathetic balance.
Min, max, and average HR with a graph, plus respiratory rate and stress index.
Signal-to-noise ratio on the reading, and a PDF report link.
Session-level biometrics
Per-workout average, min, and max heart rate.
Time-in-zone breakdown for the session.
Summary, detail, and timeline endpoints per workout.
Cloud-synced attributes
VO₂ max, max HR, and computed max HR.
Height, weight, and walk / run stride.
Biometrics, sleep, and steps across a date range in one call.
Raw signal, in real time
During an active recording session the band streams HR, HRV, respiratory rate, beat-to-beat intervals, raw PPG, signal-to-noise ratio, and motion.
This is the ground-truth channel a wellness tracker never exposes. Everything above is derived from it.
Compiled from the public SensorBio SDK interface, v0.17.0. Categories one through seven are fetched from the cloud after sync, per day or across a date range, with cached and force-remote variants. Sensor Bio V2 is a general wellness device: not FDA-cleared, not FDA-approved, not intended for diagnostic use.
What the public WHOOP Developer API actually exposes.
OAuth2 authorization-code integration for apps that already have WHOOP members. Scored objects, not a raw-signal product. Sourced from the public OpenAPI surface at developer.whoop.com/api/ as of 2026-10-28.
Recovery score, HRV (RMSSD), resting heart rate. Sample objects also include SpO2 percentage and skin temperature.
Day Strain, kilojoule, average and max heart rate, and step count for a physiological cycle.
Workout Strain, average/max HR, energy, distance, altitude, and zone-duration totals.
Sleep performance, efficiency, and consistency percentages, plus stage durations (light, slow-wave, REM, awake). A hypnogram timeline is not in the public samples.
Name and email. Height, weight, and max heart rate.
Continuous raw PPG waveforms, beat-to-beat / RR intervals, and continuous intraday HR sample series are not listed on the public WHOOP Developer API OpenAPI docs as of 2026-10-28. Trusted Partner OAuth (whoop-partner/token) is documented for lab / requisition partner workflows, not as a general raw PPG export path. Research partners should confirm Unite / raw export terms with WHOOP.
How the two platforms actually compare.
| Specification |
Platform
 |
Platform
WHOOP
WHOOP 5.0 / MG
|
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | ||
| Band material | Matte black woven nylon diamond-weave, low-profile curved module | Interchangeable bands for WHOOP 5.0 / MG: SuperKnit, CoreKnit, SportFlex (silicone), CloudKnit, LeatherLuxe, Navigator, Meridian (stainless mesh). As of 2026-10-28, whoop.com apparel page. |
| Case material | Plastic and polycarbonate sensor housing with TiN electrodes | Not listed (as of 2026-10-28) |
| Sensor hardware | Multi-wavelength raw PPG with three-axis accelerometer and temperature |
Optical heart-rate sensors collecting data points every second, 24/7. Press notes (May 2025) describe sensors capturing data 26 times per second. PPG wavelength count is not listed (as of 2026-10-28). Product pages list HR, HRV, respiratory rate, skin temperature, and movement. |
| Continuous wear and battery | 3-4 days of continuous PPG capture |
14+ days per charge on WHOOP 5.0 and MG. Full charge about 2 hours. Wireless PowerPack (on-body) or wired Basic Charger. As of 2026-10-28, whoop.com locker (dated 2026-09-14). |
| Water resistance | IP68, water-resistant to 1.5 m for 30 minutes |
IP68, water-resistant to 10 meters for two hours. As of 2026-10-28, whoop.com product pages. |
| Weight and fit | About 1 oz, one size, adjustable, all-day wear | Device weight not listed (as of 2026-10-28). Screenless sensor; wrist, biceps, or WHOOP Body apparel. Press (May 2025) describes a 7% smaller form than the prior generation. |
| Operating temperature | −40°C to +85°C | Not listed (as of 2026-10-28) |
| Sync | Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0, one-touch pairing, no PIN required | Syncs with the WHOOP app. Radio / Bluetooth version not listed (as of 2026-10-28). Live heart rate broadcast is listed as a battery-affecting feature. |
| Platform | ||
| Design philosophy | Signal-first screenless band. Scores sit on top of exposed raw signal, not in place of it | Screen-free consumer wearable that feeds Strain, Recovery, and Sleep coaching in the WHOOP membership app |
| Backend model | Built as infrastructure. Every partner builds directly on the platform | WHOOP membership cloud. Public Developer API is OAuth2 scored-summary integration for apps |
| White-label and OEM | Native white-label, partner brand from the first deployment | Not listed as a white-label or OEM product path on whoop.com as of 2026-10-28 |
| Customization | Configured per deployment: clinical, defense, or research |
Configured per individual membership (One / Peak / Life) as of 2026-10-28 |
| Primary market | B2B enterprise solutions | Individual athletes and teams in the WHOOP membership ecosystem |
| Data | ||
| Raw signal access | Raw waveform export is the default data product |
Continuous raw PPG waveforms, beat-to-beat / RR intervals, and continuous intraday HR sample series are not listed on the public WHOOP Developer API OpenAPI docs as of 2026-10-28. Research partners should confirm Unite / raw export terms with WHOOP. |
| Scores and insights | Activity, recovery, and sleep scores, always paired with the raw signal behind them |
Recovery score, Strain, sleep stage durations, HRV / RHR on recovery, and workout zones — the documented public API output as of 2026-10-28 |
| On-device storage | Local buffer pending BLE sync |
Not listed (as of 2026-10-28) |
| Cloud and history | Sensor Bio cloud platform, with raw data export to partners | Public API collections are paginated with start/end filters. A fixed consumer history window is not listed on the public OpenAPI docs as of 2026-10-28 |
| Reporting and clinician share | Customizable RPM dashboard with raw and derived export |
WHOOP app coaching views. Public API returns scored objects. Trusted Partner OAuth is for lab / requisition workflows, not a general raw PPG export path, as of 2026-10-28 |
| Biometrics | ||
| Heart rate | Continuous raw PPG |
Continuous optical HR in the consumer product. Public API returns average / max HR on cycles and workouts, not a continuous sample series, as of 2026-10-28 |
| Heart rate variability | Captured whenever enough IBIs are valid: good signal quality, low motion |
HRV RMSSD on the recovery score object via read:recovery. Raw IBI / RR intervals are not listed on the public OpenAPI docs as of 2026-10-28 |
| Respiratory rate | Derived from raw IBI |
Respiratory rate on the sleep score object (read:sleep). A continuous series is not listed as of 2026-10-28 |
| Activity tracking | Raw accelerometer and gyroscope |
Day Strain, kilojoule, and step_count on cycles; workout Strain and zone-duration totals on the public API as of 2026-10-28 |
| Sleep tracking | Continuous multi-sensor sleep detection |
Sleep performance, efficiency, and consistency percentages, plus stage durations (light, slow-wave, REM, awake). A hypnogram timeline is not in the public samples as of 2026-10-28 |
| Temperature tracking | Continuous skin temperature, 24/7 at per-minute resolution |
skin_temp_celsius on the recovery score object (public API as of 2026-10-28). Product pages list 24/7 skin temperature. Continuous series export is not listed on the public OpenAPI docs |
| ECG | Single-lead ECG capability, coming soon |
On-demand Heart Screener with ECG on WHOOP MG with a Life membership; medically regulated and not available in every region (as of 2026-10-28). Not listed on the public Developer API OpenAPI docs as of 2026-10-28 |
| Heart rate recovery | Available from raw data | Not listed on the public Developer API OpenAPI docs as of 2026-10-28 |
| Stress and autonomic balance | Parasympathetic and sympathetic balance plus stress index, available on spot check | Real-time Stress Monitor is listed on Peak membership marketing as of 2026-10-28. Not listed as a public API resource as of 2026-10-28 |
| Cadence and gait | Yes, via raw data export | Not listed (as of 2026-10-28) |
| Alerts and notifications | Custom triggers, alerts, and notifications on any metric | Health Monitor with health alerts listed on Peak membership as of 2026-10-28. Partner-defined metric triggers are not listed |
Sensor Bio figures are sourced from the Sensor Bio V2 technical specification sheet, current as of July 2026. Sensor Bio V2 is a general wellness device: not FDA-cleared, not FDA-approved, not intended for diagnostic use. It is not intended for diagnostic use and does not imply RPM billing eligibility. WHOOP hardware figures (whoop.com product pages) and Developer API figures (public OpenAPI at developer.whoop.com/api/) are current as of 2026-10-28. “Not listed” means the fact was not found on that public surface — not that the capability does not exist.
Athletes and teams already in WHOOP
Choose WHOOP when members want Strain–Recovery–Sleep coaching inside the WHOOP ecosystem, and when scored OAuth summaries are enough for the integration.
Builders who need the signal
Choose Sensor Bio for research, clinical-ops-adjacent programs, defense and enterprise, and product teams that need raw multi-wavelength PPG, IBI, live stream, white-label, and deployment-configured retention as infrastructure.
See what a signal platform does that a wellness app cannot.
Better signal leads to better insights — and better health.