which tracking device to choose?

There is plenty of tracking devices in the market, from various suppliers. For all users, without any background knowledge about this kind of devices, the choosing process can be rather challenging and it demands at least couple of hours of extend research.

Definitely choosing the right tracking device depends on many factors and we think that the most important one among them is the purpose for usage. Of course the pricing plays also an important role and affects the final choice.

We tried the functions of two different tracking devices, Trackimo and Geotab.

Trackimo is a GPS tracking device, which can be placed in the vehicle or for tracking of people, pets and other items.

It’s a great solution to track elderly and/or people with dementia and kids, as it has SOS button, with which the person can alert us if they are in any kind of trouble. It allows also setting the fencing and it sends a warring alerts if the parameters of the fencing settings has been breached (home or school area, city, park…).

As the device is allowing to stay connected anywhere in the world, it provides a good solution also for luggage tracking. You can just place it in the bag and you can immediately track the luggage motion via phone, tablet or computer app. When the luggage reaches the destination, you will receive an alert and if the luggage will not be on the right location, you will be able to track it very quickly with Trackimo.

The device’s app can be easily installed on your computer or app on your smart phone and the device will keep you regularly updated about any suspicious activity and about locations in real-time.

The device price is very attractive (140€) and it includes the worldwide data transfer for 12 months.

On the other side, Geotab provides a little bit different solution and it’s more appropriate for fleet vehicle tracking. The device is very small and powerful. It allows the data transfer in all EU countries and even wider.

Besides vehicle tracking, the device has some additional features, such as alerts about accidents, driving style, data about safety distance, seat-belt usage and much more. At the same time it also stores all the engine data and data about tire pressure.

In case of an accident, the device saves last 70 seconds before collision, in order to have full information about happening.

All data is stored in database, which can be later used for detailed analysis, in order to improve driving safety and better protection of the drivers and vehicles. The app allows users to set the data and settings in accordance with their needs.

Geotab has many of useful functions, which are a treasure for car park managers. The price of the device is a little bit lower than from previous device and it’s between 70€ and 80€. However, the price doesn’t include the data transfer cost, which is in this case a bit more expensive, due to the included data range, and it’s around 20€ per month.

The table below shows the features of each device:

Size
Data transfer

Price
Application
Features

Trackimo
47 mm × 40 mm × 17 mm (L × W × H)
Included for 12 month, after 5€/month
140 €
Computer, tablet or smart phone
- Tracking of vehicles, people, pets, and other items
- SOS button
- Geo-Fencing
- "Real time" data transfer

Geotab
75 mm x 50 mm x 23 mm (L × W × H)
20€/month

70€ - 80€
Computer, tablet or smart phone
- Vehicle tracking
- Data storage about driving style, fuel consumption, seat belt usage and other data from control panel
- quck data updates  (app on 7 min)

It depends primarily on the usage purpose, which device would be cleverer to choose. We think that if you need a device for luggage, drone, elderly or pets tracking, Trackimo would be the right choice. This device has very easy instalment procedures and it comes with a battery, which can work between 48-72 hours, in standby around 144+ hours.

If you need the device to track your fleet vehicles and to cover good reporting system, the Geotab would be the right choice, with very extensive way of reporting. The device can be easily installed in all the vehicles, even in the vehicles without OBDII (it comes with special OBDII interface).