Who makes what
55 brands, the network each one actually uses, and whether its devices bill you. Including the two whose own websites now redirect to somebody else.
By Mike M.Last updated
#ad — we earn a commission if you buy through the links on this page, at no cost to you. It never changes what we recommend, and the structural reason it cannot is that we recommend the no-subscription devices, which pay the least. Full disclosure.
Brand matters more in trackers than in almost any other gadget category, and for a reason that has nothing to do with build quality. A tracker is a device plus a service, and the service belongs to the company. When the company goes, the service goes with it — so the question “who makes this” is really the question “who will still be answering the phone in year three”.
The answer splits cleanly. A Bluetooth tag riding Apple's Find My or Google's Find Hub keeps working even if its maker disappears, because the network belongs to Apple or Google rather than to the tag company. A radio direction-finding system keeps working because there is no company in the loop at all — the handheld talks straight to the collar. A cellular tracker stops, because its servers were the product.
That is not a hypothetical. Two brands in the table below have already been absorbed in a way you can check yourself in a browser: whistle.com returns a 301 redirect to tractive.com, and tryfi.com returns a 301 to fitracking.com. We read both responses directly and they are cited at the foot of this page. Of the 55 brands on this site, 27 sell nothing that can ever bill you, which is the column most brand directories in this niche leave out.
Everything in the table is derived from the same product catalog that drives the roundups, so the device counts and the subscription column cannot drift away from what the review pages say. The notes underneath cover the brands where we have a sourced fact worth adding; where we do not, the brand appears in the table and nothing is invented to fill the space.
55 brands
Unbranded accessories — collar holders, adhesive mounts, coin cells — carry no brand of their own in the catalog, so they are left out here. They are all in the price index.
The names that come up
One paragraph each, and only what we can point at a source for. Every specification and plan rate quoted here is listed with its access date at the foot of the page.
Apple Find My
The largest crowd network in the category by a wide margin, and free to use — there is no subscription tier for AirTag tracking and no iCloud+ requirement. The catch is platform lock: an AirTag needs an iPhone to set up and manage, and on Android it is detectable over NFC but not usable. Apple publishes over a year of CR2032 life and an IP67 rating.
SmartThings Find
The requirement people get wrong: the Galaxy SmartTag2 needs a Galaxy phone or tablet on Android 9 or later, not merely any Android handset. Samsung states up to 500 days of battery and up to 120 m of direct range. No subscription at any point.
Tile's own network
Tile is now a Life360 brand, and the shift shows in the pricing. Finding a Tile is still free, but smart alerts, 30-day location history and item reimbursement sit behind a Life360 membership published at $9.99 a month for Silver, $16.99 for Gold and $24.99 for Platinum. The network itself is the smallest of the major three, because it depends on other Tile users rather than on every iPhone or Galaxy in the street.
Apple Find My and Google Find Hub, depending on model
The most useful independent in the category precisely because it sells both: a Find My version for iPhone owners and a Find Hub version for Android, with no fee on either. Chipolo states roughly a year per charge for the rechargeable LOOP, with IP67 and a 125 dB ring. Note that Chipolo moved off the older sealed ONE line to the rechargeable LOOP and POP, so check carefully what you are buying if a listing still says ONE.
Apple Find My and Google Find Hub, switchable
The only brand here whose tags can be re-registered between the Apple and Google networks rather than being bought into one, which matters if you change phones. Pebblebee states up to 12 months per USB-C charge for the Clip 5 and an IP66 rating. No subscription.
Cellular
The default cellular pet tracker, and the plan is not optional — the subscription pays for the SIM in the collar. Tractive publishes Basic at $9 a month on a one-year term and $6 a month on a two-year term, which makes the cheapest honest route to three years $252 on top of the hardware. Worth knowing: whistle.com now redirects here, so Tractive is partly where this category's consolidation ended up.
Cellular
Buy with your eyes open. A plan is required, and whistle.com returns an HTTP 301 to tractive.com — we checked the response ourselves. The brand has been absorbed, so a Whistle collar today means buying into a platform whose own front door points at a competitor.
Cellular
Fi states on its own Amazon listing that a membership is required. Its website has moved too: tryfi.com returns an HTTP 301 to fitracking.com, which we also checked directly. Neither redirect means the collar stops working tomorrow, but both are the kind of thing to know before committing three years of payments.
Radio direction-finding, plus optional satellite
The one brand that sells genuine live tracking with no subscription at all, because there is no network in the loop: the Alpha handheld talks straight to the collar over radio. That is also why it still works in cellular dead zones where every SIM-based tracker goes quiet. The inReach satellite messaging is the part that needs airtime, and only if you want it.
Cellular
The clearest illustration on this site of why sticker price is meaningless. Spytec publishes $14.95 a month month-to-month and $12.95 paid annually; at the annual rate that is $466.20 of service across three years, attached to a device that lists for a fraction of it. The tracker is not the product. The plan is.
Cellular
The Amazon bundle includes a year of service and years two and three are billed by AngelSense. The company does not publish its monthly rate on its pricing page — you have to request it — and the month-to-month option carries a $59 activation fee. We will not print a monthly figure we cannot cite, so this one stays blank by choice rather than by oversight.
Cellular
Mixed disclosure within one brand. LandAirSea puts $8.95 a month in the Sync's own product title, which is more forthcoming than most of this category manages, and publishes nothing on a static page for the 54. Check the current rate before you buy either, because it is the larger half of the cost.
Cellular
An OBD-II device with a per-device subscription and no contract, per its own pricing page. Honest about being a subscription product, which puts it ahead of the brands that print no monthly fee on a box and bill in month thirteen.
Cellular, low-power
Sits between the two worlds: a cellular tracker built for long battery life rather than second-by-second reporting, which is why its battery figures look more like a Bluetooth tag's than a GPS collar's. Still a cellular device, so still a plan.
The question underneath all of this
Pick the network first and the brand second. A tag on Apple's or Google's network survives its maker; a cellular tracker does not. That single distinction decides more about what you will still be using in three years than any spec on a box.
Where the figures came from
Every specification and plan price on this page traces to one of these, read on the date shown. Device prices are live from Amazon and stamped separately.