The Finest GPS Trackers for Vehicles of 2024

Vehicles, vans, trailers, and campers are costly investments. Including a GPS tracker to your car is an effective way to get peace of thoughts, maintain tabs on utilization, and most significantly, forestall loss in the case of theft. Trendy GPS trackers are comparatively reasonably priced, small and simple to stash, and even maintain related in case of emergency. There are a number of reasonsyou would possibly wish to add a GPS tracker to a car. Regardless of the motive and regardless of the use case, we’ve examined the most well-liked GPS Trackers in the marketplace to assist discover the proper one to suit your wants. 

On this information, we cowl GPS trackers that use cell service, satellite tv for pc networks, and cellphone Bluetooth to trace objects from anyplace on the earth. We’ll go over the totally different worth factors for each the models themselves and month-to-month service prices, key options of every tracker, what community they function on, weights, and sizes of all trackers. 

We searched the world large internet to seek out the most well-liked GPS trackers out there and put them to the check aspect by aspect throughout quite a lot of vehicles, trailers, snowmobiles, and extra. All in the hunt for the very best GPS tracker for any car. To study extra in regards to the particulars ofGPS trackers and a extra in-depth evaluation of how these can fluctuate, make sure to try our complete shopping for information, FAQ, and comparability chart beneath.

In any other case, scroll via to see all of our advisable buys for 2024.

The GPS Trackers of 2024

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GPS Tracker Comparability Chart

Scroll proper to view the entire columns: Value, Base Month-to-month Subscription, Battery Life, GPS Community, Weight, Dimension.

GPS Tracker	Value	Base Month-to-month Subscription	Battery Life	GPS Community	Weight	Dimension
Bouncie	$90	$10	Car Powered	4G LTE	1.13 oz	1.87” x 1.75” x 1”
Tracki GPS	$13	$20	5 – 50 days	4G LTE	1.26 oz	1.75”×1.6”×0.6”
SpyTech GL300 Mini	$18	$23	90-014 days	Yes4G LTE	3.2 oz	3.15″ x 1.15″ x 1.64″
Apple AirTag	$25	$0	12 months	IOS Machine Bluetooth	0.39 oz	‎0.47” x 4.09” x 3.27”
LandAirSea 54	$30	$20	10 – 180 days	International GNSS Satellite tv for pc	4.8 oz	2.25” x 2.25″ x 0.8″

How We Examined GPS Trackers

Our group examined a pool of GPS trackers head-to-head throughout a number of autos and a spread of cell service within the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Our major check autos included a 2017 Toyota Tacoma, a 2014 Ford F-150, and a Triton Snowmobile Trailer, plus various drivers.

Lead tester Eric Phillips has been an out of doors skilled for the final 10 years together with being an excessive automotive fanatic. At age 18, he constructed a truck from the bottom up alongside his dad and, whereas residing in Chicago, raced vehicles. Not one to take a car to a mechanic, Phillips picks up a wrench to finish the upkeep and upgrades his personal rigs. Phillips has spent lots of time utilizing GPS to trace himself and his belongings, from working search and rescue, break up boarding from huts, and searching within the distant excessive alpine to residing full-time at 9,000 ft in Colorado. He loves enjoying with apps and monitoring information throughout telephones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. 

We examined these models side-by-side by inserting all of them in the identical car and setting the identical set of alerts, together with the journey begin/cease, velocity, geofencing, and extra. Then we despatched off a driver to set off as many alerts as doable whereas frantically monitoring every app for notifications, alerts, and information factors.

All through our area checks and private expertise, we decided the very best GPS trackers primarily based on numerous metrics, together with subscription prices, GPS protection, battery life, ease of use, alerts, monitoring information, options, reliability of data, and monitoring intervals. 

Purchaser’s Information: Tips on how to Select a GPS Tracker

Loads of functions of GPS Trackers come to thoughts together with monitoring an on a regular basis car, trailer, motorbike, or bike for put on and tear, tax or office functions, or safety.

GPS Trackers are additionally useful for security, as they be sure that you understand the place family members are positioned in case of an emergency.

Battery Life

Battery life is an excellent necessary issue when selecting a GPS tracker. A lifeless battery received’t assist in case your car will get stolen. For those who park your camper in storage all winter and need it tracked, utilizing a tracker that requires charging each 10 days received’t make sense. Thats’s why contemplating the battery life is necessary when choosing out your GPS tracker. 

All of our trackers apart from the Bouncie run off battery energy. The Bouncie makes use of the car to energy the tracker however that solely works if the car is turned on or the automobile battery is charged. Some fashions of tracker embrace energy or energy-saving modes that protect battery life by solely monitoring at sure intervals. Of those, the LandAirSea 54 stands out with its 4 to six month battery life in power-saving mode. 

The Apple AirTag is exclusive in that it makes use of a nonrechargeable battery that provides one 12 months of battery life, which is nice for hiding in locations you don’t want frequent entry. 

For the LandAirSea 54, Spytec GL300 Mini, and Tracki, choices can be found for extending the battery life. That menu consists of prolonged batteries, that are an important various when the car or merchandise you wish to monitor doesn’t present its personal energy. If the merchandise you wish to monitor does have its personal battery, like a automobile or truck, {hardware} kits can be found, which allow you to wire the tracker to the car battery so it’s all the time powered. The draw back is wires coming off the battery are straightforward to seek out and disconnect within the case of theft. 

Month-to-month Subscription

When you would possibly assume that GPS trackers are low cost, the true value of utilizing a tracker comes within the type of a month-to-month subscription wanted to make use of the product. These month-to-month subscriptions are why these bodily trackers are priced so low. The subscriptions cowl connecting the trackers to satellites and cell towers and unlocking features throughout the paired apps. 

The stand-out product on this class is the Apple AirTag, which doesn’t require a month-to-month subscription to trace — simply an Apple account. Although its monitoring is restricted to Bluetooth and there’s no means to set alerts, the one-time worth of the AirTag could be very engaging. 

Second, within the standout aisle is the Bouncie, as its month-to-month subscription is the most cost effective out there at solely $10 a month. Additionally, there isn’t a tiered worth construction the place you pay extra per 30 days to trace the system in quicker intervals.

As you examine the costs of every tracker, make sure to notice the month-to-month subscription costs to get a sensible concept of how a lot every tracker will value to function yearly. 

Particular Design Elements

Whereas the primary function of a GPS Tracker is in its identify — with the ability to maintain monitor of the merchandise — there are lots of particulars out there that make utilizing sure trackers simpler and extra pleasant.

One major side is waterproofing. Storing a monitoring system exterior means it’s going to get moist ultimately. The LandAirSea 54 is the one tracker that comes totally waterproof whereas the opposite trackers provide some type of a water-proof case. Further elements that assist with out of doors mounting are magnets: The LandAirSea 54 and the Tracki each include built-in magnets for mounting whereas the Spytec GL300 Mini features a magnet-tapped and waterproof case. 

Another manufacturing specs we like embrace battery-saver modes, which extend the lifetime of the battery, and SOS buttons, which allow you to ship customized messages or an SOS alert. One other design element is car well being monitoring, which helps you to monitor a car’s engine well being, battery well being, and gas ranges.

A variety of parts exist throughout our examined GPS trackers from the almost featureless Apple AirTag to the jam-packed Bouncie. 

Actual-Time Monitoring

Actual-time monitoring refers to monitoring an merchandise or seeing the place your tracker is in real-time because it’s transferring. That is extraordinarily useful for those who’re searching for a stolen car that’s on the transfer, or monitoring a member of the family whereas they drive. Having the ability to see in real-time the place the tracker is, what velocity it’s going, and the place it’s headed are large pluses. Our testers had been most impressed with the Bouncie when evaluating real-time monitoring because it gave essentially the most frequent and likewise information-heavy updates. 

Whereas some trackers work in real-time, different trackers solely replace as soon as each one to a few minutes or throughout battery saver modes as spaced out as as soon as each 24 hours. This sort of monitoring makes use of much less battery and assets however isn’t as useful for those who’re searching for real-time updates. For those who’re monitoring a member of the family on a street journey and wish to see their progress, a 24-hour replace won’t be fast sufficient in comparison with real-time updates. Most trackers might be switched from real-time monitoring right into a battery-saver interval monitoring mode. 

Alerts

Alerts are available numerous kinds. They are often notifications from an online or cellphone app, an e-mail message, or an SMS textual content message. Alerts might be set to at least one, or a number of folks or codecs for every alert.

GPS trackers can ship alerts when sure parameters are triggered. These can embrace motion, journey begin/cease, gas ranges, exhausting acceleration/braking, rushing, idle time, geo-fencing, journey gas financial system, distance pushed, influence detection, curfews, SOS, and extra. We’ve analyzed the three most necessary ones beneath. 

Geo-Fencing

Geo-fencing refers to creating an space on a map within the form of a sq. or a circle. The tracker will monitor this space and ship alerts every time the tracker leaves the set boundary or geo fence, and once more when it enters a geo fence. These might be very useful when monitoring a member of the family or younger driver to make sure they don’t depart the native neighborhood, county, and even state. tracker ought to be capable of simply set and create alerts for geo fences after which obtain the alerts instantly when they’re triggered. 

Velocity

Velocity refers to setting a max velocity, like a velocity restrict on the tracker. Each time the tracker strikes quicker than the set restrict, an alert might be despatched. So everytime you toss the keys to your experience over to a good friend or member of the family, you’ll be able to say maintain it beneath X miles an hour and get a real-time alert if it’s damaged. 

Journey Begin / Cease

In all probability an important function you’d wish to know from a tracked car is that if it begins or stops transferring. In case your automobile begins transferring with out your permission, an alert from a tracker can shortly alert the proprietor {that a} theft could also be occurring and to name the authorities. An alert like this may actually assist in circumstances of theft. Journey alerts can be useful when monitoring members of the family so you understand once they have began, and ended car journeys. The Tracki has essentially the most delicate journey begin sensor as climbing right into a car the place the tracker was within the middle counsel was sufficient to set off a visit begin alert. 

FAQ