Tracki GPS Tracker review

Ever heard of a Tracki? It’s an intelligent GPS Tracker which uses Bluetooth in short range and most cellular networks within the UK and abroad to help keep track of your important items or people, including kids, the elderly, pets, vehicles, luggage and more.

Tracki is ‘No.1 in the world’ within the GPS tracking field – there are lots of other well-known trackers which work off of connecting to mobile phone devices and pinging the signal in this way. Scroll down to find out how our tester got on when testing the Tracki GPS Tracker.

Testing the Tracki GPS Tracker

The Tracki looks very simple, but comes with a whole host of accessories including a waterproof cover, a clip, magnetic attachment, lanyard and keychain loop, plus you'll even find a mini toolkit to attach all of these items onto your Tracki. It is around the size of a matchbox which is great, but maybe it could be a little smaller – especially for use with small children and pets in particular.

We put Tracki to the test in a variety of situations during the testing period. Over the last month we have tried testing the main functionality in shorter ranges and then long distance within the UK, and also even further to France – approx. 280 miles away. Packing this little device off with our five-year-old son should be simple – however for him the size was still quite big in comparison to well-known tag devices, which can lead to him fiddling with the device or removing it from his pocket.

Setting up our Tracki was straightforward, and easy to do. We had to pay £14.95 for a month's subscription to use the full features. This seems expensive in comparison to other similar items, which we have used, coming in at around half of the monthly subscription or less.

The app itself comes with a whole host of features, which you need time to sit down and discover for yourself. It offers speed history, past location details, movement indicator and an SOS alert function too.

A handy geo-fence option makes it possible to send you an alert if the device moves outside of a specific area – however, this is limited to a minimum of 230ft. It would be great to have a smaller area, but at this size, hopefully you should be able to have a visual on the valuable or child/animal within that distance.

Upon testing, the SOS function isn’t the best – within the app itself, in an alerts tab is the default location for notifications; however, you can set up email and mobile number function too for the SOS. When we tried this out, it didn’t work at all. It was set up to send two of us an SMS, but we never received them. We also think this should definitely be push notification-enabled too.

The straight line past location details are handy, but as with a child or car, you would really want more of an idea which route they have actually taken, as you could have multiple roads in that straight line given. The speedometer will give you a good idea if your child has left the area on foot or in a vehicle too, which is pretty crucial when you're looking for your child.

Overall I think the Tracki did a good job at the tracking element, working well locally and at longer range. It struggled initially when they arrived in France – but once it found its signal link we have had smooth updates throughout, including travel speed and past location marking. The movement indicator goes off easily even when picked up to leave the house too. We really think that the SOS functions need to work better and alert better throughout, as if a child was aware that they had the item and needed to make use of it, we would be none the wiser without specifically checking – and you don’t want to be continually stressing yourself to need to look at the alerts tab.

The company advises that the battery lasts:

However we found that even after a 4 hour charge, our battery wouldn’t last past a day; even on the setting for updates every 30 minutes rather than multiple times a minute. Our battery kept winding down very quickly which we wouldn’t expect, especially if you’re sending the Tracki off on a school trip with your child. We sought advice from customer service and they stated it should be longer.

Final verdict

Overall, the Tracki GPS tracker is a great device for its intention. It just needs some key elements smoothing out and the basic battery needs improvement. Its great that you can purchase an additional battery, but then his makes the product more expensive overall. I’d recommend this to parents with children travelling on their own or extended family, and definitely for those going abroad. I had peace of mind that they were travelling at an appropriate speed for their car journeys and arriving safely to their long distance destination. Plus at this price point it’s not too bad, you just need to consider the monthly charge against how you intend to use it.

Emily Gilbert is the Features & Reviews Editor for Mother&Baby and has written for the website and previously the magazine since 2015. First-time mum to Theodore, Emily writes about everything from the top baby products to pregnancy, fertility and maternal mental health. Specialising in product reviews, Emily is the first to know about all the exciting new releases in the parenting industry.