At one time, GoPro stood alone in the action cam market. But that hasn’t been true for a while now, and they have serious competition from two companies: DJI (the Osmo Action line) and Insta360 (the Ace Pro line, plus the X-series 360 cameras). That’s good for us, but it hasn’t been great for GoPro’s bottom line.
There are also some budget clones from Akaso and others, but they’re staking out the low-priced end of the market, not the quality and innovation end.
The Sony, Garmin, Nikon, Ricoh, TomTom, and Olympus action cameras that used to round out this list have all been discontinued.
So this page now has two parts. First, the current field — the alternatives I’ve actually shot with, with links to my hands-on posts. Then the original 2017 rundown of the older cameras, kept because plenty of them are still in use and turn up secondhand.
The current GoPro alternatives (2026)
| Camera | Where it competes | My hands-on posts |
|---|---|---|
| Insta360 Ace Pro 2 | GoPro’s most direct rival: larger 1/1.3-inch sensor, flip-up screen, strong low light | sample images · shooting photos with it · SD cards · dewarping · batteries |
| DJI Osmo Action 6 | Matches GoPro on size and mounts; long battery life; magnetic quick-release | burst mode · batteries |
| DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro | The previous generation, now a value pick | SD cards · formatting |
| Akaso Brave series | Budget: a fraction of the price, with the compromises you’d expect | Brave 7 LE review · Brave 8 cards |
| DJI Osmo Action (original) | Discontinued, but it’s what started DJI’s run | RockSteady vs HyperSmooth · video modes |
If you’re deciding against a current GoPro, my GoPro accessories guide and SD card recommendations still apply to the mount ecosystem and card requirements, which are broadly shared.
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The older GoPro alternatives (2017 rundown)
What follows is the original list. Nearly all of these are discontinued; I’ve left it intact for anyone who owns one or finds one used. Prices and availability links are historical.
DJI Osmo Action
DJI is best known as the market leader for drones. They’ve also produced some very good gimbals, as well as cameras to go with both of those product categories.
And now they’ve taken direct aim at GoPro by launching an action cam. Overall, it’s a very strong first action camera product from DJI, and there’s a lot of overlap between this camera and the GoPro HERO7 Black. They have very similar specs, and they’re similar prices, and it’s hard to say which is clearly better. The DJI Osmo Action has a second front-facing screen that’s useful for when you’re in the frame, and the HERO7 Black has better in-camera electronic video stabilization. There are many more smaller differences once you dive into the details, which I’ve done here. Overall, the Osmo Action is the most direct apples-to-apples competitor here for the current flagship GoPro model.
Distinctive Features. The Osmo Action has a front-facing screen that can be used as a live view when the camera’s facing you. And it has a higher video encoding bitrate than the HERO7 Black.
You can find them at Amazon and B&H Photo.
Akaso EK7000 action camera
If you want a camera similar to a GoPro but don’t want to spend that much, this is a very good place to start. It’s hard to beat in terms of value for money. There’s now a lot of GoPro clones out there. This is one that’s taken off and become very popular, and after having played with it for a while now, I can see why. It doesn’t have all the features of the latest and greatest GoPro like video stabilization and voice control, but it’s a decent clone of the GoPros a couple of versions back.
It shoots video up to 4K25, 2.7K30, and 1080p60 and still photos at 12MP. It comes with a waterproof case that’s rated down to about 100 feet (30 meters). There’s a 2-inch screen on the back for live view, playback, and using the menus.
Distinctive Features. Its killer feature is its price. It costs only a fraction of most of the other cameras here but is an impressive clone of the GoPros a couple of models back. It also includes a splash-proof remote control and a spare battery.
I’ve been testing these out have had a chance to post my detailed review. If you’re looking for a GoPro alternative at a much lower price point and don’t need all the bells and whistles of the latest and greatest models, this one is well worth a look.
It comes in black, blue, or silver. They’re sold through Amazon.
Sony FDR-X3000 action camera
Sony’s flagship action cam looks more like an old-school camcorder rather than the boxy shapes of GoPros and the Garmin VIRB Ultra 30.
It’s a 4K action camera that shoots video up to 4K30, 1080p120, and 720p240 and 12MP still photos (in 16:9 aspect ratio). Battery life is similar to GoPros, with a maximum time a little over 2 hours in its most efficient mode (1080p30 with wifi off) and an hour or so in higher video modes. The body itself is splashproof and dustproof, but with the waterproof housing, it’s rated down to nearly 200 feet (60 meters).
Distinctive Features: Sony has incredibly deep technology when it comes to cameras, and they’ve leveraged some of it here. They’ve used a ZEISS Tessar lens and their own industry-leading sensor technology. Probably its most impressive feature that sets it apart is the way it does video stabilization. It uses an optical stabilization, which will often give better results than the digital stabilization that most of its competitors use. There’s also an unusual Motion Shot LE mode which is a single image comprises of multiple shots to show a sequence. You can also live stream. They’ve also enabled the option for unusually high bitrate recording with potentially much higher quality, up to 100 Mbps. And it comes with a remote control, which is a nice little perk rather than having it as an optional extra.
There’s another fancier remote available as an optional extra, the Live-View Remote, that is a pretty compelling feature by itself. It provides not just the usual controls but also a live view of what the camera is seeing. While you can do that through mobile apps with other cameras, there are times that having a dedicated, small viewer has its advantages.
The basic kit, which includes the camera and a waterproof case, has an MSRP of $399.99. There’s another kit with the Live-View Remote Kit with an MSRP of $549.99.
You can find them at Amazon and B&H Photo.
Sony RX0
This is a brand-new camera from Sony that’s aiming for the premium end of the market and is priced accordingly. It’s Zeiss lens is wide angle, but not nearly as wide and distorted as the bulging fisheye on some other action cams (it’s equivalent to 24mm in 35mm full-frame terms). It has some impressive features that you can’t find on competitors, including super slow motion at up to 1000 frames per second and a shutter speed up to 1/32000. And it has a much larger sensor, which opens the potential of much better low-light performance and sharper images.
Despite those specs, there are some curious omissions. It can shoot 4K, but to do that you’ll need to get an optional external recorder. By itself, it can only natively shoot up to 1080p. And there’s no built-in video stabilization.
So it’s a GoPro competitor in the sense of it being a tiny rugged and waterproof camera, but its emphasis is on some different areas, so it’s not a true apples-to-apples comparison.
Distinctive Features. It has a much larger sensor that promises better image quality, especially in low light. It has a less-distorted, high-quality Zeiss lens. And it has very fast shutter speeds and fps rates. But it also lacks some key features that others have.
Garmin VIRB Ultra 30 action camera
It’s a 4K action camera that can record video up to 4K30, 2.7K60, and 1080p120 and shoots 12MP photos. It’s a similar size and weight to the non-Session GoPros, comes with a waterproof housing that’s rated down to 130 feet (40 meters), and built-in image stabilization (but not 4K or 2.7K), and has voice control. Its battery life is similar to what you get from a GoPro (ie. around 2 hours if you’re lucky, and significantly less in high-end video modes). It’s also compatible with wireless control from a mobile app.
Distinctive Features: There’s built-in GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, and altimeter sensors that provide data overlays like temperature, speed, and elevation as well as activity-specific measures like hang time for snowboarding and cadence for cycling. It also has a photo burst mode of up to 60 frames per second, which is unusually fast.
The base model’s MSRP is $399.99 and you can find them at Amazon and B&H Photo.
Nikon KeyMission 170 action camera
Nikon has joined the action cam party a little later than some others, and after a very delayed rollout, they now have three cameras in their current action camera range. The others are the KeyMission 80 and the KeyMisson 360; the numbers refer to the angle of view in degrees. The KeyMission 170 is the closest competitor to most of the GoPros.
In terms of specs, when they announced it, it seemed cutting edge with a built-in waterproof enclosure and video stabilization. But after a very delayed rollout, by the time it hit the market, GoPro had released the HERO5 Black that stole much of that thunder and other manufacturers were releasing their own innovations.
So it lags a little behind many of the other action cameras above. It records video up to 4K30 and 1080p and 8.3MP photos. It has built-in stabilization and wireless compatibility with the SnapBridge mobile app ecosystem. Its battery life isn’t great–around 60 minutes of shooting.
It’s a similar shape, size, and weight to the GoPros. It’s waterproof (100 feet / 30 meters – IPX8) and dustproof.
You can find them at Amazon and B&H Photo, and I have more detailed comparison between the GoPro HERO5 Black and the Nikon KeyMission 170 here.
Ricoh WG-M2 action camera
It shoots video up to 4K30 and 1080p60 and still images at 8MP. It’s waterproof without a separate housing, rated down to 65 feet (20 meters) and has built-in digital stabilization. It can be controlled via wifi with a mobile app.
Distinctive Features. The layout of this camera is a bit different. The screen is on the top, which can be a more useful way to see it if you’ve got the camera mounted below you such as on a bike or snowboard.
Something I’ve long admired about Ricoh is that they like to think outside the box. Sometimes that results in a hit–the Theta spherical cameras and the GR series of high-end compact cameras come to mind, both of which I use regularly–but sometimes it results in misses. I’ve had a WG-M2 since they were released. I wanted to like it, but while it has some innovative features and ideas, I’ve been underwhelmed by the image quality and some aspects of the basic functionality and ruggedness.
They make them in orange and silver, have an MSRP of $299, and you can find them at Amazon and B&H Photo.
TomTom Bandit action camera
These look quite different to most of the other current action cams. Rather than a rectangular box, it’s a tube. They’re a slightly older model now, but you might still be able to find new ones around. It has some innovative features but has never quite taken off like some of the other cameras here.
It records video up to 4K15, 1080p60, and 720p120 and photos at 16MP. It’s waterproof, rated down to 130 feet (40 meters). It has built-in sensors for things like GPS and acceleration.
Distinctive Features. It’s quite a different shape to most of the other current generation of action cams. The tube shape allows it to use a kind of cartridge approach, where slide out the battery stick. It has a longer-than-average battery life of up to 3 hours.
It has a revised MSRP of $249.99, and you can find them at Amazon and B&H Photo.
Olympus TG-Tracker action camera
The Olympus TG-Tracker is part of Olympus’s Tough range and looks like a miniature old-school video camera. It shoots video up to 4K30, 1080p60, and 720p240 and still images at 8MP. It’s waterproof, rated down to about 100 feet (30 meters). There’s built-in digital stabilization and activity sensors for things like GPS, temperature, and acceleration.
Distinctive Features. It has an unusually wide field of view, at 204°, and a built-in LED headlamp.
It’s made in black or a bright green, and you can find them at Amazon and B&H Photo.
Other GoPro competitors
There are other action cams coming out all the time, and I’ll do my best to keep this page updated as they’re released.
There are also other action cameras that shoot HD video (1080p) but not 4K (UHD) video–cameras like the Polaroid Cube, for instance. You can even get versions designed for young kids. But I wanted to focus here on 4K video models in the hope it’s useful in deciding which is the best GoPro alternative for your needs. Stay tuned for a separate post on the best GoPro alternatives that aren’t 4K cameras coming soon.
