Best bathroom scales: six body-composition scales from a no-app Salter to the eight-electrode Withings

The cheapest Wi-Fi scale here: it uploads to the eufy app over your router whether or not your phone is nearby, with Bluetooth as a fallback. Sixteen measurements including heart rate, 50 g steps, a 200 kg limit (step on with more than 5 kg to wake it), and a display you can set to show the reading you care about first. Four AAA cells, rated by eufy at three to four months. It syncs to Apple Health, Google Fit and Fitbit.

The AAA cells are the running cost, and it is a plain four-electrode platform. eufy says 1.7 kg; the listing says 2.

For a family that wants automatic syncing without thinking about it, it is the buy.

The British brand’s app scale: a 200 kg limit, eight user profiles recognised by weight, an athlete mode, a backlit display and Bluetooth to the free Salter Health app. The listing claims 17 metrics and a 15-year guarantee; Salter’s page lists the main readings and says “and more”, so both are flagged.

Bluetooth only, so the phone has to be in the room to sync.

For a heavier household, or anyone who wants a Salter with an app, it is the one.

No phone, no account: step on and the backlit display shows weight, then body fat, water, muscle, bone, BMI and BMR, seven readings from four electrodes, in 0.1 kg steps, for up to nine users, to 180 kg. Salter publishes all of it on the product page.

There is no history unless you keep one, and the limit is 180 kg.

For a shared bathroom where nobody wants another app, it is the sensible scale.

The best-selling budget smart scale: 13 metrics in the Renpho Health app, 50 g steps, a 180 kg limit, unlimited users, three AAA cells and sync to Apple Health, Google Fit, Fitbit and Samsung Health. Renpho’s UK site lists only the newer Elis 1 L, so every figure here is the listing’s and is marked pending.

Bluetooth only, plain glass, and no maker page to check against.

For the lowest price that still puts a trend graph on your phone, it is the one.

The same seven readings as the grey Salter in frosted black glass that hides footprints, with eight user profiles and an athlete mode, which the grey model lacks. 180 kg limit, no connectivity. Salter does not publish the graduation for this one.

No app, and no stated step size.

For a gym-goer who wants the athlete setting and nothing to pair, it is the alternative to the grey one.

Eight electrodes, four of them in a handle that pulls up from the platform, and bioimpedance across 13 frequencies up to 800 kHz, so the scale measures arms, legs, torso and abdomen as six zones rather than inferring them. More than 40 metrics, 50 g steps, a 200 kg limit, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a rechargeable battery Withings rates at up to a year on USB-C, and a colour display that shows the key readings without a phone. Withings quotes the display at 2.8, 3.4 and 3.5 inches on different pages, which is flagged.

It costs as much as three ordinary smart scales and weighs 2.2 kg.

For anyone tracking muscle against fat seriously, including on weight-loss medication, it is the only scale here that measures what the others estimate.