HiStrips Onyx vs FitSleeps Pulse: An Honest Comparison

Short answer

Priced on each brand's own site on 9 August 2026, the two are almost the same money: the HiStrips Onyx Vibration Alarm is $39.95 and the FitSleeps Pulse Standard is $39.00. What separates them is the small print. FitSleeps gives a 2-year warranty and free shipping on every order, but sells you the charger separately for $8.80. HiStrips states no warranty length on the Onyx page at all and only ships free over $50. And both display review counts on their own product pages that are far larger than their public Trustpilot profiles — FitSleeps by roughly 95 times, HiStrips by about four.

Disclosure: EIVOI sells a competing wrist-worn vibration alarm, so we are not a neutral party here. We have not tested either device. Everything below is a published figure, read off the named company's own website or its Trustpilot profile on 9 August 2026, and dated as such. Where they beat us, we have left it in.

The two prices, as listed on their own sites, 9 August 2026

One thing to know before you compare prices at all: FitSleeps runs the same device across a lot of near-duplicate listings. On 9 August 2026 we opened one FitSleeps page showing $39.00 and another showing $49.00 reduced from $79.00, both for the standard alarm, on the same day. Their product feed carries further listings at $41.95, $59, $63, $84 and $89, several with handles like fitsleeps-pulse-test-new-offer-pdp and 100-wake-up-alarm-copy-2 — the naming of price experiments rather than distinct products.

The practical consequence is that the FitSleeps price you see depends on which page you land on. Before you buy, open the site from a fresh search and check whether a cheaper listing for the same alarm exists. HiStrips does not do this: one Onyx page, one price, one Pro tier at double.

The charger is the real gotcha

On the FitSleeps product page, the alarm is offered with three paid add-ons at the point of purchase: a charger at $8.80 (shown as reduced from $20.00), a storage case at $9.95, and a waterproof upgrade at $7.95. Their feed also lists shipping insurance at $2.95 and spare straps at $25 to $30.

The charger is the one worth pausing on. A $39 alarm that then asks $8.80 for a USB adapter is a $47.80 alarm unless you already have a spare plug in a drawer, which most people do. But it is an unusual thing to unbundle, and it means the two headline prices are not comparing the same box. HiStrips does not offer a charger add-on on the Onyx page; their equivalent upsell is the $9.95 travel case, which is genuinely optional.

HiStrips runs the shorter free-shipping tail, though: free over $50, so a $39.95 Onyx on its own does not qualify. Adding the $9.95 case gets you there, which is presumably the point. FitSleeps ships everything free.

Now read the review numbers

This is the part of the comparison we think is most useful, and it applies to both of them.

FitSleeps. Their standard product page displays "4.8/5 — 51,837 reviews", with Trustpilot branding next to it. Their other alarm page displays "4.6/5 based on 225,000+ customers". Their actual Trustpilot profile at uk.trustpilot.com, checked the same day, shows 543 reviews, displayed as 4 out of 5 stars.

51,837 against 543 is a difference of roughly 95 times.

HiStrips. The Onyx page displays 1,829 verified reviews at 5 stars; the Onyx Pro+ page displays 1,838. Their Trustpilot profile shows 463 reviews at 4.6.

1,829 against 463 is a difference of roughly four times.

We are reporting these and stopping. There are ordinary explanations for a gap in either direction — on-site widgets typically collect post-purchase review requests across a whole catalogue and across years, while a Trustpilot profile only counts what was left on Trustpilot, and the two are not measuring the same thing. The reason to know the numbers anyway is this: the figure on the product page is the one being used to persuade you, and it is the one you cannot inspect. The Trustpilot profile you can open, sort by lowest rating, and read.

Apply the same test to us: can you read the individual reviews, with dates, and does an independent profile exist to check them against?

The wider pattern is covered in our guides to what to check before buying from FitSleeps and to cheap vibrating alarms on Amazon, where inflated and unauditable counts are routine across the whole category.

Guarantee, warranty and getting your money back

Both offer 100 days. HiStrips words theirs as a "100 Days Risk-Free Money Back Guarantee" alongside a "100% Wake-Up Guarantee — if it doesn't wake you up, you don't pay". FitSleeps words theirs as a "100-Day Trial" and a "100-day money back guarantee".

The difference is after that window. FitSleeps states a 2-year warranty on the product page. HiStrips states no warranty length on either Onyx page. For a device with a motor and a small battery that you wear every night, a stated warranty is worth something, and on this point FitSleeps is clearly ahead.

Neither sells the alarm on subscription. HiStrips runs a 20% Subscribe & Save, but on their consumables — their nasal strips page offers it at $23.96 a month against $29.95 one-time, with a 30-day guarantee rather than 100. That matters only if you plan to buy strips as well; it does not touch the alarm.

Honest limitations: what neither of these fixes

Neither publishes a vibration force figure, and neither do we. Nobody in this category does. That means no specification on either page tells you whether the device will wake you. Whether a stimulus rouses someone depends on sleep stage, sleep debt, age, alcohol and hearing status, and a vibration alarm is a different sensory channel rather than a straightforwardly stronger one. Anyone selling you certainty here, us included, is overselling. The honest reading is that the 100-day windows are the actual specification: they turn an unanswerable question into a returnable experiment.

Neither is the right primary alarm if you are profoundly deaf. A pad under the mattress or pillow moves your whole body; a band moves your wrist. That comparison is set out in bed shaker vs wrist vibration alarm. We should disclose that we now sell a bed shaker ourselves, so treat that recommendation with the scepticism it deserves — but we gave the same advice for a long time while selling nothing of the kind.

Neither fixes a sleep problem. If you are sleeping eight hours and still cannot get up, the alarm is not the variable. Start with why loud alarms stop working for heavy sleepers, and if mornings are consistently unbearable rather than merely unpleasant, that is a conversation with a clinician rather than a purchase.

Both are direct-to-consumer brands you are probably meeting for the first time. So are we. Read the returns page before you order.

Which one suits you

Buy the HiStrips Onyx if you want a single clear price with no add-on ladder, and you would rather not work out which of a dozen listings is the current offer. It is $39.95, the page says what it costs, and the travel case is an obvious optional extra rather than a component removed from the box.

Buy the FitSleeps Pulse if the 2-year warranty is what you care about, and you are happy to hunt for the cheapest of their listings and to skip the add-ons at checkout. Free shipping on all orders also makes a bare $39 purchase cheaper than a bare $39.95 one.

Buy neither yet if what you actually need is a second opinion on the whole category. Our three-way comparison including our own Silent Wake sets these two against the alarm we sell, with the same disclosure, and every wrist vibration alarm brand compared covers the rest of the field.

Common questions

Are HiStrips Onyx and FitSleeps Pulse the same device?

Nobody outside those companies can say for certain, and treat any confident answer sceptically. What is visible is that they share a form factor, a price band and a feature set, which is common in a category sourced from a small number of manufacturers. The useful response is not to guess at factories but to compare the terms: warranty length, what is bundled, shipping thresholds, and whether you can reach the seller afterwards.

Which is cheaper, HiStrips or FitSleeps?

On 9 August 2026 the HiStrips Onyx was $39.95 and the cheapest FitSleeps Pulse listing we found was $39.00, both on the brands' own sites. FitSleeps ships free on all orders while HiStrips requires $50, so a single bare unit is slightly cheaper from FitSleeps. Add the $8.80 FitSleeps charger and that reverses. FitSleeps prices vary by listing, so check more than one page.

Why does FitSleeps show 51,837 reviews when Trustpilot shows 543?

We can only report both figures, not explain them. On 9 August 2026 the FitSleeps product page displayed "4.8/5, 51,837 reviews" with Trustpilot branding, while their Trustpilot profile showed 543 reviews at 4 out of 5. On-site widgets and a Trustpilot profile count different things over different periods, so a gap is expected — but a gap of roughly 95 times is worth knowing before you weigh either number.

Does the HiStrips Onyx come with a charger?

The Onyx product page does not offer a charger as a paid add-on, unlike FitSleeps, which listed one at $8.80 on 9 August 2026. HiStrips does not itemise box contents on that page, so we cannot tell you exactly what arrives. If it matters to your decision, email the seller and get the answer in writing before ordering rather than relying on any comparison page, including this one.

Do either of these work if I am deaf?

A wrist-worn vibration alarm can work for some people with hearing loss, but it is not the strongest option. A bed shaker placed under the pillow or mattress moves far more of your body and is the better primary alarm for profound deafness. We sell a bed shaker, so weigh that advice accordingly. If waking reliably affects your safety or your job, specialist deaf alarm clocks with shakers are the category to look at first.

Related reading

• Alarm Clocks for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People
• Do Vibrating Alarms Actually Work?
• The Best Vibrating Alarm Clock in 2026
• Smartwatch vs Dedicated Vibration Alarm

All HiStrips and FitSleeps figures were read from histrips.com, fitsleeps.com and uk.trustpilot.com on 9 August 2026 and are subject to change — verify before you buy. Prices are USD as those stores served them. We have not tested either product; this compares published prices, terms and displayed review counts. EIVOI sells a competing vibration alarm and said so at the top.