Best GPS trackers 2024: the tracker devices for cars you can trust

There are many reasons why you might want to keep an eye on a vehicle and its movements. You could be a fleet operator and want to know that your vehicles are sticking to their routes. You might want to keep tabs on how and where your kids are driving. Or you may have a habit of losing your car in shopping centre or airport car parks.

But perhaps the most compelling reasons to monitor a vehicle’s location are to be alerted if it moves without your knowledge or permission – or to help the authorities to locate and recover it if it’s been stolen.

The stark reality is that car theft is a huge problem. According to DVLA figures, more than 64,000 cars were stolen in 2023, and according to a Home Office report, only one in four were recovered in 2021. It’s not just high value models, either, as our list of the most stolen cars shows.

A GPS tracker can increase the odds of you seeing your pride and joy again; according to Tracker, which manufactures the equipment, recovery rates can be as high as 95%.

And while the higher recovery rates tend to be for professionally-fitted devices, a DIY or self-fit tracker can be a huge help when it comes to getting your car back. 

Below, you’ll find the five options to keep an eye on your car and stand a chance of getting it back if it is stolen. 

The products or services referenced in this story have been reviewed independently by our experts. When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. However, this will never influence our opinion or ratings.

- Best overall tracker – TruTrak Pro

- Best for likely recovery – Tracker Nano

- Best for theft alert – Monimoto

Best GPS car trackers 2024

TruTrak Pro GV57MG V2 – Best Overall Tracker

£95 - from TruTrak

What Car? Rating - 5/5

Pros

- Permanently powered

- Tags for theft protection

- Live and historical tracking

Cons

- Extra keyring to carry around

- Requires discrete or hidden fitting

- Geofence breach annoying unless fobs used

There are two versions of this hard-wired unit; one standalone (£54.99) and one that comes with two fobs which alert you the instant the vehicle is moved without a fob being present. We tested the version with pre-paired key fobs, although the functionality of the tracker and its interface is identical for both versions.

The main unit is fairly straightforward to fit – we mounted it in the boot for our testing, wired directly to the battery which was within the three-metre range of the fob. The unit has its own internal back-up power in case the main car battery is disconnected during theft or maintenance. If we were fitting it permanently, we would have chosen a more difficult-to-reach location.

The printed instructions on the unit are very clear and two LEDs indicate the GSM and GPS signals. You then need to activate the unit, which begins with a five-minute drive to ensure the unit is working properly and has the necessary connections. 

You’ll then need to activate the unit via TruTrak’s website using the IMEI number that’s printed on a removable sticker on the back of the unit. You then download and log in to the smartphone app where you can view the car’s position and speed in real-time, look at previous routes, set and manage geofences and a host of other features. The online portal works well but the app is really good; it’s intuitive and easy to navigate. 

The standalone version is impressive but if you set up a geofence, at home for example, you will get notifications every time you leave it which could get rather tiresome. However, versions with fobs allow you to set up an alert for a ‘keyless start’, which will trigger when the vehicle is moved without one of the two tags present. 

This is a much more usable option, as each time we tested the unit in this way, the app pushed a notification to our phone’s locked screen, as well as showing within the app and online portal. We were even sent an email, too. And when we moved away with the tag in the car, it did nothing, showing the concept worked perfectly. 

The accuracy was excellent during our simulated ‘theft’, showing the exact location of the car, and we could track it all the way back to base after the car started moving again. 

Another impressive feature is the courtesy call every new user gets from the company after a few days to check that everything is working, and to see if they require any additional assistance. 

Tester’s insight

“Not only is the basic unit really useful, when paired with the fobs, it’s even better. You can set your alerts to go off when the car is moved without the fobs present and you can view the vehicle’s location at any time of day or night, in real time. The app is really easy to use and the courtesy call was a really nice touch. For theft alert and live viewing, it ticks every box. And less than £100.”

Buy it if

- You want an easy-to-control app

- You want to be able to minimise false alarms

Don’t buy it if

- You don't have the skills to fit and hide the unit

- You don't want additional fobs on your car keys

The facts

Tracker Nano Assist/Nano Plus – Best for likely vehicle recovery

£133.33 from R&G

What Car? Rating - 5/5

Pros

- Insurance discounts for use

- Company partnership with police forces

- Roughly 85% recovery rate

Cons

- Only reports location every 24 hours

- No live tracking

- Set-up is more complicated than some others

The Nano from Tracker is a tiny self-contained unit that can be fitted discreetly in the car, and operates differently from the others here. There are two variants available; the standard version and the Plus, which comes in an IP67 weatherproof box, making it ideal for motorcycles or trailers, as well as cars. 

The Nano reports its position every 24 hours so while it may not alert you immediately if it is stolen (indeed, for up to 24 hours) or offer live tracking information, the back-up from the company kicks in as soon as you realise your vehicle has gone. You contact the police to report it stolen, then the Tracker control centre, which subsequently activates constant location alerts and liaises with the police to find the vehicle. The company has a formal agreement with – and has provided its tracking technology to – every police force in the UK. 

Set-up is straightforward; slide a switch to turn it on (this is the time that it will report its position every day) and register the unit using the app. Annoyingly, scanning the QR code with your smartphone inserts the IMEI number in the wrong box, so you have to manually input it, followed by the security token which is emailed to you when you purchase the device. You then create an account, fill in a few more boxes and you’re ready to go. 

The unit itself is incredibly unobtrusive and the app allows you to view the vehicle’s reported location using Google Maps or Apple Maps on any date following its initial activation. It will also show your distance to the vehicle, and an arrow indicating its position relative from you.

In our testing, it reported every 24 hours on the dot and the accuracy was phenomenal – like the TruTrak, it showed the actual location of the vehicle every time. The timestamp shown in the app was an hour earlier than reality, presumably because it hadn’t switched to British Summer Time. Oddly, the time was shown correctly in the online portal.

Tester’s insight

“The Tracker has some serious back-up. You may think 24 hours is a long time for a vehicle to be stolen but Tracker says it's more like seven hours on average and once you report it, the company can activate constant tracking and direct the police to find your car. So while you can’t live-track your vehicle (there are plenty of other products in Tracker’s range that can) you can rest assured that this product is highly likely to get you your vehicle back.”

Buy it if

- You want the best chance of getting your car back if it is stolen

- You want minimal faff once set up

Don’t buy it if

- You want to know where your car is at any given time

- You don't want to wait up to 24 hours to find your vehicle has been stolen

The facts

Monimoto 9 – best for theft alert

What Car? Rating - 4/5

Pros

- Calls when unit moves

- Key fob for disarming

- Map view of location

Cons

- No live location monitoring

- Supplied with one fob

- Extra fob is expensive at £30

The Monimoto was originally designed for motorcycles – hence its waterproof housing – but it’s equally relevant to car owners. Setting up is easy; charge the on-board battery via a USB-C cable – said to be good for 12 months – then download the app and follow the steps. This is also very straightforward; you input your phone number and it sends you a code to confirm, then everything is done within the app. 

The Monimoto works slightly differently to some – it is based on movement and the presence of the key fob. There’s no activity in the app or the armed unit if nothing is happening, but once movement or vibration is detected, the unit wakes and looks for the fob. If the fob is present then all is good and you continue on your journey. If the fob is not present, the unit enters alarm mode. The fob has a range of up to 25m, but this can be reduced if you store your keys closer to your car than that.

At this point, it calls your phone with a pre-recorded alert message and relays its position constantly until the vehicle stops. When that happens, it will send its final position after 30 minutes of inactivity, allowing you to notify the police as to the vehicle’s whereabouts. If it begins moving again, it resumes sending its location.

It isn't possible to view the unit’s location in real-time, as this functionality would, the company says, affect the battery life. However, the unit will report its position every five minutes while moving in alarm mode and this can be shortened in the unit settings menu to around every two minutes for ten minutes, at which point it reverts to the original frequency. 

Although it seems quite a convoluted process, it's actually very slick to use. In our simulated theft, the number called us within 90 seconds of driving away from the fob with the recorded message and began transmitting its location. This can be viewed either as a list of locations and conditions – moving, stationary etc – or on a map view. This was accurate to within a few metres of the stopped vehicle for this test. 

Tester’s insight

“Not what you might expect and not something that you can use to monitor a vehicle’s position but as an anti-theft alert and subsequent tracking system, it's really good. Its operation is slick, it works purely through an app on your smartphone and as long as you don't want live positioning data for your vehicle, it’s a great option to protect your vehicle.”

Buy it if

- You want quick notification of theft

- You want a supremely easy set-up

Don’t buy it if

- You want to live-monitor a vehicle’s location

- You use a basic phone – you need a smartphone to make the most of it

The facts

iTrack FS003 – best for vehicle data

What Car? Rating - 3/5

Pros

- Powered by the vehicle so always ready

- Live tracking and position

- Geofence breach alerts

Cons

- Live position suffers time lag

- App and online portal tricky to use

- No push notifications to smart devices

The iTrack FS003 is a tiny device that slots into a car’s OBD socket – typically close to the driver’s knee. This means the device is simple to fit and can be moved between vehicles, which is handy if you have more than one – although equally easy for a thief to disconnect. 

Unlike others here, it can also provide vehicle data such as fuel levels, odometer readings and offer over-speed warnings. It’s powered by the vehicle, but like the TruTrak, has an internal back-up battery in case the car’s electrics are cut.

Fitting the device is easy and once fitted, the set-up process begins. You create an account via the website, then download and link the app on your Apple or Android smartphone. Once the pair are linked, you can view the vehicle location, a trace of any journey selected by date and time and create and implement geofences. 

This latter is a bit tricky, although there is a link to a YouTube video explaining how to do it, but it isn't particularly intuitive or obvious. It is also an involved process to set up notifications, such as if the geofence is breached – by someone stealing the car, for example. Unfortunately, this will happen every time you move the car, as there is no feasible way to disable this if the car is being driven legitimately. 

The same video shows how to set up push notifications which seem to work well within the online portal – including audible warnings and in the app if it is open on your device. However, it will not currently send push notifications to the lock screen on any Apple or Android device – although the company says it will in the future. We did still get emails for each breach, however. 

Monitoring the car’s location through the app or online portal is rather convoluted, although once you have the hang of it, it's reasonably straightforward. You can check this in real time and track its movements based on a record log of date and time. The route taken by the vehicle can even be animated to show where the vehicle moved, and at what time at specific locations. 

In one of our tests, the unit failed to register that we had breached the geofence and didn't track us until several minutes into the journey. When looking back at the history, it didn't begin to record positions until it sent the breach notification several minutes later. In our simulated theft test, a notification was emailed, delivered to the app and to the online portal quickly, but the subsequent live location was around 50 metres from the car’s actual location. It remained so until the car began moving again (after five minutes), at which point it showed as parked at that location in the historical trace.

Tester’s insight

“The iTrack OBD unit is small, unobtrusive and notwithstanding the fact you can't close the port cover door on our vehicle, is easy to hide and use. However, the user interaction with the tracking could be better. The online portal is clunky and feels outdated and the app, which operates in a similar fashion to the portal, is only marginally better. Neither are particularly intuitive and improvements here, along with push notifications, could make a big difference to the overall experience.”

Buy it if

- You have more than one vehicle to use it in

- You have the patience to work out the portal or app

Don’t buy it if

- You want an easy to work interface

- You want push notifications

The facts

Apple AirTag – Best for value

What Car? Rating – 2/5

Pros

- Cheap and readily available

- No subscription fees

- Easy to set up (for Apple users)

Cons

- Limited range

- Needs other users to bounce off

- Can be found – and disabled - by thieves

We have included Apple’s AirTag here to see how it performs as a vehicle tracker. Clearly some think it will, including cycling and motorcycling brand Muc-Off, which has developed this plastic and metal holder. It will mount an AirTag somewhere discrete in a machined aluminium and plastic device. You could, of course, save yourself the £40 and simply bury the AirTag somewhere within the car’s interior. 

Like most of Apple’s products, it is incredibly easy to use; remove the battery-activation tab and place it alongside your Apple iPhone or iPad. The two talk to each other, you give it a name and it immediately shows up in your ‘Find My’ app, which allows you to locate it, activate a sound to find it physically (assuming you are within Bluetooth range) and highlight it on a camera view through the screen.

It's a slick item and works nicely. It's made all that much easier if you are already an Apple user, as you will be familiar with the kind of usability involved. If you’re not, then it's not for you – there is no support for Android owners. 

The AirTag works by knowing its own position via GPS and communicating that by piggybacking-off any nearby Apple products using Bluetooth technology, to Apple servers. The obvious limitation here is that unless there are other Apple products around, it won't be able to communicate its whereabouts.  

In use, it can be clunky. Many Apple users will be familiar with a location in the Find My app that is 5/15/90 minutes old or longer. This, presumably, is because that is the last time the unit found another Apple device to ‘bounce’ its location off. As a result, it can lag real time depending on how often it finds another device. 

In initial testing, we turned Bluetooth off on both phones that were inside the car as we went for a test drive and the AirTag failed to pick up any other Apple devices and report its position, simply displaying a location that got increasingly older. As soon as we reactivated Bluetooth on one of the phones, it showed up immediately and once it could share its location, it was actually very accurate. 

In our simulated theft, it sent an ‘AirTag left behind’ push notification to the phone’s lock screen quite quickly and immediately began transmitting its location – the driver of the car had an iPhone with Bluetooth enabled. However, once the car stopped, it displayed its location as several hundred metres away from its real position. When the app was closed and reopened on the phone, it reported the correct position within a couple of metres of the actual location. 

Another downside is because AirTags could be used by people to follow others without their permission (such as by thieves following cars to steal later), there are various ways that they can be found. However, one could argue that this in itself could be a deterrent, since if a potential thief discovers your car has an AirTag buried somewhere inside in, they may think twice about actually stealing it. 

Tester’s insight

“As a dyed-in-the-wool Apple user, I really wanted this to work – I keep tabs on the kids via their phones using the Find My app and hoped this would do the same. However, as can happen with their phones, its response was, at times, patchy and frustrating and at other times, spot on. Because of the way it works, it’s better suited to use in densely-populated areas though of course if the car is taken away from this, you may lose the ability to track it.”

Buy it if

- You're all about the Apple products

- You're based in a fairly populated area

Don’t buy it if

- You use a non-Apple smartphone

- You want reliable, accurate real-time locations

The facts

How to choose a GPS car tracker

There are several key points to consider before you buy a GPS tracking device. 

The first is how you want it to be powered. Some can be driven by the vehicle’s on-board electrical system and generally have a live-feed wire and an earth. While these can easily be connected to the battery, this leaves them fairly detectable so installation behind the vehicle’s stereo or infotainment system. Here there’s plenty of available power options, and it’ll be tricky for a thief to access quickly. 

Alternatively, others can be plugged into the On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) port so they know when the vehicle is parked, is being driven or indeed, towed away. While these may be easier to find than a hard-wired device buried in the dashboard, they are also easier to fit and may suit those with more than one vehicle. Either device powered by the vehicle is likely to have an internal back-up battery to continue to provide their location in case the car’s electrical system is disconnected.

Other devices may use rechargeable batteries and hence, can be located anywhere. The advantage here is that they don't need to be kept close to electrical power, so can be buried in the depths of the vehicle. The disadvantage, of course, is that eventually, whatever battery they are using will need charging or replacing – although modern units can go for months or even years on one charge. 

The latter can also be very useful for caravans, trailers or horse-boxes which don't have any on-board power. 

The next choice is how you want to actually monitor the device’s location. Most will be through a corresponding online portal or smartphone app, or both. A smartphone is likely to be more useful, as it will be with you wherever you are, but an online portal can also work for setting up or determining parameters such as geofences and alert notifications 

Alternatively, you may be the sort of person who constantly loses their car keys and have added a small tracker, such as a Tile or Apple AirTag, so you can find them on a corresponding app. Accuracy will vary on a number of factors, including the strength of the signal used by the device and the environment it is in but most should give at least a ball-park location, if not a spot-on location. 

Some can allow a geofence to be set up – this is an invisible GPS-specified barrier that if the vehicle moves outside, particularly without approval, the app will alert you. This is especially useful at night in case your car is stolen. 

Most trackers will operate on a GPS location system and a GSM network to report its position. As a result, there will often be subscription charges to pay for cellular network access. Some (though none tested here) will add VHF tracking alongside GSM positioning which offers more detail and greater resistance to blocking, as it will operate underground and in environments such as a metal shipping container or a building. 

Some units are supplied with proximity tags which you fit to the car keys. If these are in the vehicle when it’s being driven, nothing will happen. But if the vehicle is driven or towed without them i, it will send an alert to warn you the vehicle is being stolen. 

How we test GPS car trackers

There are various trackers available on the market but they tend to use similar technology and installation methods. We researched the market, selecting examples to test based on first-hand experience, units sold by reputable retailers and with user reviews from trusted suppliers. 

We registered and activated each tracker unit as per the instructions and downloaded each tracker’s corresponding app and set it up to display the unit’s location, as well as using online portals where applicable. 

We then secreted each tracking device in a typical location in a test vehicle and set up a geofence for the vehicle where appropriate. We travelled to various locations and compared the reported positions with the actual. We also carried out simulated ‘thefts’, making sure that for units supplied with proximity tags, we drove off without them and made sure that we travelled well outside of any geofences. 

We noted the response time from the unit and/or the app when the relevant conditions were breached and the nature of the notification of the ‘theft’. We also measured the accuracy of the location of each product during a stationary period under trees at the bottom of a small valley in a rural location.

Finally, we looked to see if any of the trackers could provide a trace of the vehicle movements or simply a location either on request or at a given time. 

How we rate GPS car trackers

Ease of fitting 

We looked at how easy each was to fit. Did they need wiring in or do they have an on-board battery? Do they come with adhesive pads to locate them in the vehicle? Do any tags come pre-connected to the relevant unit? 

Ease of setting up

How easy was it to register and activate the device? How straightforward was it to install the app and set it up to monitor the tracking device’s position? 

Ease of use

How straightforward and intuitive was the monitoring app or online portal to use? Was it easy to find a live location and show a trace of movements? Was setting up geofences and alerts easy?

Alert mechanism

Did the app notify the monitor when the car moved away? Did it alert once or continue to alert? Did it create audible and visual alerts? Did it send push notifications to a locked phone?

Accuracy

How accurate was the tracking in use? Did the environment affect the accuracy? 

How we test products

The products or services referenced in this story have been reviewed independently by our experts. When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network. However, this will never influence our opinion or ratings.

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