Best GPS Trackers for Dogs (March 2023)
GPS tracking for dogs is great - in theory. You attach a tracker to your dog’s collar, and you’ll be able to know exactly where they are if they happen to get lost. The peace of mind that brings to a dog owner is invaluable! But how well do they actually work? For the past month, I tested the top GPS trackers on the market head to head to see which one was best!
I tested the leading GPS trackers for dogs for the past month to see which one was best.
A little background on us
Roman at 4 months old wearing a Fi Series 2 Collar
We have a Estrela Mountain Dog puppy named Roman that we imported to be our Livestock Guardian Dog and protect our free range birds from predators. Roman has free roam of our 20 acres, and when we receive a notification that he leaves our property, we call him back home. For the past four months we’ve been using a Fi Collar to see where he is at all times. It works very well, and it got me curious to see if there’s an even better GPS tracker on the market!
I purchased some of the other leading dog GPS trackers and had Roman wear all of them simultaneously for the past month. Included in this review are the follower trackers: Fi Series 3 Collar, Tractive Tracker for Dogs, FitBark GPS, Whistle Health + GPS and Cube GPS Tracker. (Pathfinder Mini and Apple Tag coming soon). While many of these trackers have additional features like Activity and Wellness Trackers, the focus of this review is how well they actually find a lost dog. This blog is broken down into six sections that are imperative in a quality tracker: Design, Battery Life, App, Live Tracking, Price, and Escape Alerts. (Click to jump to section)
Bonus Reviews: We also included reviews of our Dogtra Pathfinder 2 Mini and Apple AirTag at the end of this blog. Click here to jump to this section!
Design
The design is a very important part of any GPS tracker. It needs to be able to withstand your dog’s rough play, it needs to be waterproof if your dog loves swimming or in case they get lost, and it needs to be low profile so it doesn’t bug your dog or get snagged on anything.
Fi Series 3 Collar
Best - Fi Series 3 Collar
The best designed GPS tracker for the tracker itself is the Fi Series 3. It’s sleek profile works well with both small and large dogs and lays flush with the collar. It looks great, and it feels high quality! It also has a IP68 & IP66k waterproof ratings and a 400+lb resistance rating, meaning it should be able to withstand all of your dog’s adventures. We had the Fi Series 2 previously, and the design of the Series 3 is a major improvement.
However great the Fi tracker is, it could be seen as a drawback to some that you can’t attach it to just any collar. Though in theory you should be able to attach a leash to your Fi Collar due to its resistance rating, I would be hesitant. Many Fi Series 2 owners complained that this is how their collars were broken. If you don’t attach a leash to the Fi Collar itself, you’re stuck purchasing an expensive “Fi compatible” collar or having your dog wear two collars.
Runner ups - Tractive, Whistle Health + GPS
I’m a big fan of both of these tracking units! They both have unique ways of attaching to your dog’s existing collar that are both very secure, and you’re able to easily remove the trackers from the collar to charge. They’re also both waterproof, and feel very sturdy/durable. They do stick out a bit from the actual collar, but they’re not big or bulky.
Okay - Cube
The Cube GPS Tracker has a good system for connecting it to your dog’s existing collar, but I do worry about it becoming loose over time. It is a bit big and bulky, so it would not be great option for small dogs or cats. It’s also not waterproof, so I would avoid with dog’s that love to swim.
Worst - FitBark
Right out of the box, the FitBark GPS felt rather cheap. You attach the actual tracker on your dog’s collar with zip ties. It works, but doesn’t feel high quality. This means you need to take your dog’s collar off or cut the tracker off their collar every time you need to charge it.
The charging port is covered by a cheap plastic piece when in use, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Roman came back with it missing someday. The FitBark boasts “waterproof” with no indication of rating, and I have serious doubts on how well this tracker would perform submerged in water.
Battery Life
Imagine your dog is lost and in the middle of your search, the battery dies on the tracker. This makes it useless in your search and would lead to a lot of extra frustration and anger. A long lasting battery is essential in a quality GPS tracker.
Of course, battery life on all these trackers is going to depend on a number of factors. If your dog is mostly connected to Wi-Fi or your bluetooth, then your battery will last a lot longer. For our test, Roman was on Wi-fi for 85% of the time with live tracking used periodically if he left our property.
Best - Whistle Health & GPS
All of the trackers were tested simultaneously under the same conditions, but the Whistle outperformed all the others! It lasted 19 days, which is actually even longer than the website claims! I’m going to keep monitoring the battery and see if performance declines over time and will update this section as needed.
Runner Ups - Fitbark, Fi, Tractive
These three trackers all had a battery life of 10-12 days, all of which are good! However, they all would last most other people longer! Roman goes in and out of our Wi-Fi multiple times a day, triggering the LTE GPS, which results in a shorter battery life. If your dog is always at home on Wi-Fi or connected to your BlueTooth, then you’ll get a much longer battery life out of these trackers.
Worst - Cube Tracker
The Cube GPS Tracker had the shortest battery life of about 3 days.
Note on FitBark Battery: When I first received the FitBark GPS, the battery was HORRIBLE. It lasted only 3 days and I received no escape alerts despite being on Wi-Fi most of the time. I spoke to support, and they sent an update to my phone that corrected both of these issues. If you’re having battery issues with any of these trackers that seem out of the ordinary, I’d recommend reaching out to support with your concerns.
Live Tracking
For our live tracking test, I asked my husband to drive Roman to random locations in town. He then would get out and walk around with Roman to simulate a lost dog wandering around. I repeated this test with all five trackers individually and noted which ones performed best in locating Roman’s exact location.
Screenshot of the Cube Tracker App with Live Tracking on
Best - Cube GPS Tracker
I was shocked to find that the Cube GPS Tracker was my favorite in actually locating Roman’s live location! It showed him moving in real time within the app AND his speed (in mph). This is a useful function so that you actually tell if your dog is riding in a vehicle, running or just walking leisurely.
Runner ups - Tractive, Fi, Whistle
The live updates for the Tractive and Whistle were every 2-3 seconds and 15 seconds, respectively. With this frequency of updates, you can easily locate your dog with no frustrating delay and seems to be in “real time”. The Fi live tracking updates are every 1 minute. You should have no issues finding your dog with these 1 minute updates; however, it was frustrating to wait for the next location update while I was looking for Roman. They do have countdown though, so you can see exactly when their location will be sent next!
Worst - FitBark
FitBark does a good job at sending you your dog’s last known location within a few minutes of you pressing Locate, but the live tracking is sub-par. Support said tracking updates should be sent every minute. However, location updates seemed to take longer than this. There was no countdown to indicate when the next location would be sent, so I was just stuck waiting and refreshing the app.
Price
While many dog owners would pay whatever reasonable price to keep their precious pet safe, price does play a large factor in deciding which tracker to use. Especially now, when there are several great ones on the market! Here are the five trackers listed from most to least expensive based on the cost of the tracker and annual fee.
Price Comparison between the GPS trackers in this review
When purchasing, you need to consider the ongoing cost of the subscription. If you look at Fi, the initial cost of $192 is comparable to the other trackers; however this is an ongoing subscription. In five years, that adds up to nearly $1,000, while you’ll have paid about half that if you have the Whistle, Tractive or FitBark.
App
Initially I wasn’t going to include this section in my review, but the app itself plays an important part in locating your dog. If you have a glitchy or hard to navigate app, that’s going to make a lost dog situation even more upsetting and frustrating.
Best - Whistle Health + GPS
The Whistle has the best app out of all that I tested! The layout and design is visually pleasing and every function of the app is easy to navigate and organized in a way that makes sense.
In addition to GPS tracking, it includes health and wellness tracking that I have found to be very accurate. It tracks the number of active minutes per day, calories burned, sleep and uses all of these metrics to come up with a Wellness Score for the day. To use Live Tracking, you just go to the Location tab and click “Find My Pet.” If your cell signal is strong, you’ll receive an update quickly.
Runner Ups - Fi, Tractive, Cube
The Fi and Tractive apps also offer health and wellness tracking that tracks activity and sleep that work very well. I have been having an issue with Roman’s Wellness score not calculating properly for the past week on the Tractive app. I’ve contacted them, and they said they will have a firmware update shortly that will fix this issue. I’ll post an update if/when this is fixed. I’ve been using the Fi App for years with no issues.
The Cube GPS Tracker is not specifically for dogs, and thus has no health and wellness tracking. All three of these apps were great for location tracking, and the apps work well with little to no glitching.
Worst - FitBark
I personally do not like this app. Many times I try to find something (like the live tracking function), and I have to continuously click around to find what I’m looking for. The menus don’t seem to make sense, and you have certain features that seem hidden until you find the magic button to click. I’ve also noticed the app doesn’t tend to update Roman’s stats frequently, even when he’s on our Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Compared to the other apps, FitBark tends to track less of his actual activity as far as steps, distance traveled and calories burned.
I will say their support is great! You can submit a support request directly on the app, and they typically reply within minutes. However, I shouldn’t need to contact support or look up an article every time I need to use a basic feature of the app. I would expect more out of an app that’s partnered with FitBit.
All of the apps have push notification escape alerts.
Escape Alerts
All of these trackers included virtual fences where you can set boundaries on a map within the app, and you can get notified when they leave this boundary. I was happy with the escape alerts on all of these trackers! All of them notify me when Roman leaves within 1-2 minutes of him crossing the boundary. All the apps offer push notifications for escape alerts, but the the Fi and Whistle Apps allow you to turn on text notifications as well.
All but Cube GPS Tracker allows you to set the boundary to your actual fence line. On the Cube Tracker you can only set it to a 200 meter round boundary, which is a pretty large radius. This could be too large if you have a small yard and you want quick alerts when your dog leave.
Verdict
I had a difficult time selecting one best tracker as they each had their own pros and cons! If I could build the perfect tracker, I’d take the live tracking of the Cube GPS Tracker and the design of the Fi Series 3, and combine it with the battery and app of the Whistle Health + GPS.
If I had to choose a clear all-around winner, I would have to go with the Whistle Health + GPS for the following reasons:
Solid, sturdy design
Long lasting battery life
If you purchase the Whistle Health & GPS+, you will receive two rechargeable battery packs so you never have to have the tracker off your dog! (Though you’re stuck with the collar that comes with the tracker similar to Fi)
Excellent, easy to navigate app
Lowest ongoing subscription price
Live tracking updates every 15 seconds
Quick escape alerts
Tracker Summary
Whistle Health + GPS
If you want the best all-around tracker, get the Whistle! It has the absolute best app and the best health and wellness tracking from those I tested. The live tracking works great with updates every 15 seconds, and it has the longest battery life.
Click here to get $20 off Whistle Health & GPS (First 12 people only)
Fi Series 3
If you want the best designed tracker, I would go with the Fi. The tracking unit is slim, waterproof and extremely durable and looks stylish! It’s the smallest of the trackers we tested, has a good battery life and a great app!
Get $20 off with code RESCUE20 (Expires 3/11)
Tractive GPS for Dogs
The Tractive is another excellent option with the lowest upfront cost! If you’re on a budget, I’d say go ahead with this tracker. It’s durable, has a great app and live updates every 2-3 seconds.
Cube GPS Tracker
If you want the absolute best live tracking device and don’t mind charging it every 3 days, this is the one for you! This tracker has updates in real time + it shows MPH so you can see if your dog is riding in a vehicle or running. The downside is its expensive and doesn’t offer the health and wellness tracking of the other apps.
FitBark GPS
There’s only one I would NOT recommend based on my experience, and that would be the FitBark. While their customer service, escape alerts and battery performance was great, everything else was slacking. I did not like the app at all and live tracking updates were infrequent. The tracker itself seems cheap, and I don’t believe it is legitimately waterproof as the website claims. For the price you pay, there’s much better options available.
Did you have a similar or different experience with one of these trackers? Is there another tracking unit you’d like us to test? Let us know below!
This blog includes affiliate links. We purchased most of the trackers listed and their subscriptions, but a few of them were gifted to us in exchange for an honest review.
Bonus Tracker Reviews
These are other trackers that I don't think should be compared to those mentioned in this blog, but could be great options for people looking for other solutions. The Dogtra Pathfinder2 is a great option for free-roaming dogs who have lots of acreage, and the AirTag could be a viable option for those that live in busy areas in town. See reviews below
Dogtra Pathfinder2 Mini
Our setup with Roman for the past several months has been a GPS tracker + e-collar (Dogtra 1900S) . Whenever we’re notified by the trackers that he’s left home, we vibrate his e-collar and call him back. Because he has such a wide area (20 acres), we didn’t want to use an in-ground electric fence. That’s a lot of line to bury, and he really doesn't need a harsh correction for bypassing our border since we live rather remote. Which brings in the Dogtra Pathfinder2 Mini. I thought this could potentially bring in the best of both worlds with an e-collar and tracker built into one.
Virtual Fence
I was pleasantly surprised by how well the e-fence feature works on this device considering it does not use cellular networks. You can set an internal and external fence, which I like this feature a lot. When your dog passes through the internal fence, they receive a vibrate so they know to turn around. If they ignore this and continue to pass through the external virtual fence, they’ll receive a static correction for 5 seconds. The distance between the internal and external fence is completely customizable by you.
The key difference between this collar and an e-fence like PetSafe is the Dogtra Pathfinder2 Mini has 100 levels of stem while the PetSafe only has 5. This means if you have a rather sensitive dog, you can set the stim a very low level. Unlike PetSafe where Level 1 is still relatively high. I also like with the Pathfinder2 app you can actually set a mobile fence radius around your phone, which could be an awesome feature if you travel somewhere and have your dog off leash.
The actual functionality of the virtual fence is excellent. I can see exactly on the map where Roman turned around after he felt the collar vibrate, and it was exactly where I had set the internal fence line on the app.
The App
It’s important to mention that the Dogtra Pathfinder2 Mini is designed for hunting dogs that track for miles. If you’re purchasing this collar for home use only, then there’s going to be a lot of extra features within the app that you won’t use and could be confusing. Once everything is set up though, it works well!
Live tracking is on by default unlike the other trackers in this blog. You can see exactly where your dog is within the Pathfinder2 app and a path of where’s he’s been. It seems to be in real time with updates every few seconds. You can apply vibrate or stim directly within the app or using the included remote at any time if your dog is within the 4 mile radius (9 mile if you get the regular Pathfinder2)
Battery
The battery life is short, but this is understandable considering the collar is vibrating, providing stim and continuously tracking your dog’s movement. It lasted us for 2 days with it being turned off at night. You can lengthen the battery life by getting less frequent live tracking updates.
Summary
I think this is an excellent option for someone who wants an e-collar + live tracker in one. You can see exactly where your dog is using the app, and the application of the stim/vibrate using the e-fence works great. The cost of the Pathfinder2 Mini is $429.99, but you only pay this once - there’s no ongoing subscription price. The app is free to access and use. You can also expand to up this system to up to 21 dogs!
Apple Air Tag
The AirTag could be an option for someone who lives in a busy area with lots of iPhones around. It’s not a viable option for more remote areas as it relies on pinging off other iPhones within BlueTooth range of the AirTag. I personally would use another GPS tracker in case your dog gets lost, but it’s cheap enough to have on your dog for a little extra security - $29.99 + $19.95 rugged case.