Smart Cat Collars: Which Is Best For Health And Gps Track…
Wearable health-monitoring devices, smart rings, smartwatches, and fitness trackers, help people stay on top of key wellness markers. By providing data on steps, heart rate, sleep, and more, these gadgets allow people to better understand their health, along with the opportunity to improve it with lifestyle shifts.
But why should humans have all the fun? Enter: smart collars for your cat. In addition to featuring live and historical GPS location tracking that will help any helicopter cat parent rest easy, the Fi Mini and Tractive Smart Cat Tracker monitor your furry friend’s movement and sleep. The collars also have alerts for health pattern changes, if your pet is moving less or sleeping more than average, which can function as early warning signs of potential health issues.
Photograph: Molly Higgins
For months, I tested these trackers on my cat Basil, analyzing each device’s location accuracy, sleep- and activity-tracking capabilities, and metrics summaries. I also considered practical factors, ease of use, product size, and battery life.
If you have a cat that also goes outdoors, these health and GPS trackers are much more reliable and holistic than something an AirTag, because they ping off the same towers as your cell, providing a more accurate location. They’ll also notify you if your cat gets out of the premarked “safe zone.” Although Basil is an indoor-only cat, the location features would be super helpful if he did get out: I’d be alerted on my phone right away, and I’d be able to his location on the map to find him more easily. (But because he didn’t, in fact, escape during my test run with these trackers, I wasn’t able to check these features firsthand.)
Ultimately, each smart tracker had its own strong suits. The best model for you and your cat depends on your priorities.
In This Guide
Best Location Accuracy and App Capability
Tractive Smart Cat Tracker
Amazon
Best Battery Life, Charging, and Size
Fi Mini
Fi (Cat) (12-month)
Best Location Accuracy and App Capability
Tractive
Smart Cat Tracker
Amazon
Walmart
Chewy
Tractive
WIRED/TIRED
WIRED
- Low cost
- GPS tracking
- Virtual fencing
- Tracks pets’ trends, and alerts when something is amiss
TIRED
- Need paid plan to use
- Live tracking drains battery when outside of Wi-Fi zone
- Super quiet alert sound
If tracking location and health metrics for your cat are your top priorities, Tractive (also called the Tractive Cat Mini) is the better option for you. Its historical heat maps display the areas your cat frequents, which is especially helpful for people with indoor-outdoor cats who roam large swaths of land.
However, both Tractive and Fi Mini rely on GPS for location tracking, just as a phone does. This means if the signal is weak—a common issue in rural areas, among others—you may not know the precise location of your cat. According to online reviewers on Reddit and Amazon, Tractive’s location tracking is less accurate in areas with thick vegetation. One bonus for Fi users with an Apple Watch: You can add the Fi app to your watch to monitor your pet’s location, activity, and enter “Lost Mode” without needing a phone, which is especially helpful if your cat’s escaped while you’re not by your phone.
When setting up each app, you can designate specific mapped areas as safe or danger zones, and then it notifies you when the pet enters or exits these zones.
Unfortunately, with both trackers, my apartment was too small to create a virtual fence around the perimeter, forcing me to expand it to an area outside my apartment. That means if Basil got out but stayed generally nearby, I wouldn’t get an alert.
The Fi’s danger zone alerts were glitchy during my testing. On three occasions, I got notifications that Basil had left the safe zone (aka my home and surrounding area). Each time, after I rushed home or raced to check my pet camera, I found him sleeping soundly on the living room couch. Other users have reported similar false alerts and location inaccuracy with the Fi.
In the Tractive app, after you create a profile, you’ll get personalized daily activity goals for your cat based on the stats of others of similar age and weight. The app assigned Basil 120 to 230 minutes of daily activity, and then later reported he was consistently more active than 70 percent of similar cats. I felt peace of mind knowing I’m keeping him on the move in my small apartment.
Tractive app via Molly Higgins
Through the Tractive app, you can see daily (by the hour) and historical activity data, compared to pets with similar stats. At the end of every day and week, the app serves you activity averages and average calories burned in a day, estimated using factors pet type, weight, and size compared to activity output.
Tractive’s sleep-tracking feature monitors sleep duration, breaking it down into categories of night sleep, day sleep, and calm. Because it tracks sleep length and cycle phases based on movement patterns and time of day, the data skews more general than precise. As with activity tracking, the app compared Basil’s sleep stats to cats of a similar profile, providing context around the amount of sleep that is typical.
The Fi Mini offers similar measures, but only compares statistics with the pet itself (as opposed to with other pets, the Tractive), noting whether stats are up or down from the day before. The Fi also doesn’t create goals, which I found helpful for a gut-check of whether Basil was in the normal range, comparatively. I did that the Fi allows you to add vet records, receipts, and insurance information, and you can add vets to pet-related documents and get appointment reminders.
In general, though, I found the information in Tractive’s app more useful and easier to analyze than the Fi. I felt clear on analyzing Basil’s own historical data and comparing his information to that of similar animals. This snapshot could provide a signal that a pattern may have shifted and something may be amiss.
Best Battery Life, Charging, and Size
Courtesy of Fi
Fi
Mini
Fi (Cat) (12-month)
Amazon (12-month membership)
WIRED/TIRED
WIRED
- Long battery life
- Convenient USB-C charge
- Small, compact size
- Multiple easy collar attachments included
TIRED
- Location works best if you’re near your phone
- Lag time on alerts for being outside of safe zones
- Sometimes sends false alerts for pets leaving a safe zone
- App needs to be open on your phone in order to work properly
- Doesn’t have historical location heat maps
Testing these trackers made me realize the importance of basic features battery life and ease of removing the tracker from the collar for charging. Here’s where the Fi Mini shines.
Fi app via Molly Higgins
Fi Mini takes about two hours to reach a full charge and then lasts two to three weeks. Fi claims four weeks, but it never stretched that long for me. Still, that’s much longer than the Tractive, which conked out at around five days on a full charge. While I didn’t test it, Fi claims to hold a six- to eight-week charge with the Fi Base add-on. In addition to extending battery life by functioning as a connection source when your pet is at home, the Base also claims to help with location accuracy thanks to its Wi-Fi connection.
Actually charging the Fi was a breeze. It uses the same USB-C charger as my iPhone, making the power-up process convenient and easy. The Tractive not only requires its own dedicated charger, but it also proved difficult to attach and detach from the device.
On the size front, the Fi Mini tracker is lightweight, small, and compact at just 1.5 x 1.0 x 0.5 inches. It comes with a strap loop and two types of soft cases. I d the loop attachment best because its stretchy rubber material allowed me to slip out the tracker without needing to fully remove Basil’s collar. Both the Tractive device itself and its collar attachment were much bulkier, and I worried it impeded Basil’s ability to fully move his head downward.
If what you want most in your tracker is GPS location accuracy and history, especially if you have an outdoor-and-indoor cat (or you’re just anxious about your indoor-only cat getting lost outside), I’d go with Tractive. If you more so value long battery life, ease of charging, and a small, lightweight tracker, I’d go with the Fi Mini. Be sure to check out both reviews for the full picture.
| Tractive (Cats) | Fi Mini(for Cats) | |
| Size | 2.2 × 1.1 × 0.7 inches | 1.5 × 1.0 × 0.5 inches |
| Weight | 25.5 grams | 16 grams |
| Battery | Up to five days (in the power saving zone) | Up to eight weeks |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Suitable for | Cats above 6.6 pounds | Cats (there’s a Mini dog version for dogs) |
| Compatible collar width | Up to 0.8 inches | Comes with three attachments: strap loop attachment’s maximum collar width is 1.25 inches (no minimum), soft case is 0.375 to 1.25 inches, and 3/8-inch soft case needs a collar of 0.375 inches |
| Connectivity | LTE, 4G, 2G, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi | Verizon LTE-M cellular coverage |
| Range | Unlimited | Unlimited (uses cellular coverage) |
| Location uses | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo | GPS and LTE |
| Compatible phones | Android 10.0+, iOS 17.0+ | Android and iOS |
| Price | One-year plan is $10 per month and decreases in price when you buy a longer plan | Starts at $99 for six months and decreases in price when you buy a longer plan |
Is a Smart Tracker Worth It for Your Cat?
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, about 10 million cats and dogs go missing each year in the US. While smart trackers aren’t a silver bullet for avoiding that problem, the data the devices provide can be helpful. Sure, you could technically use an Apple AirTag to track your cat—as I did for many years with Basil—but you’d have to hope it’s in range in an urgent situation. These smart health and GPS trackers are more accurate and alert you if your cat has escaped the “safe zone”—aka your home—especially helpful for indoor-only cats mine. If your cat is indoor-outdoor, helpful heat maps trace regular routes, and you can add multiple safe zones, so if your kitty ventures too far, you’ll still be alerted. No matter which type of cat you have, these trackers allow you to your pet in real time, when it matters most.
Plus, the health monitoring intel is helpful for better understanding your pet’s needs, routines, and normal patterns. The historical data comparisons can help with identifying warning signs of potential health issues, increased sleep or decreased activity levels.
There is a cost, though: A combination GPS tracker and smart health collar requires a subscription plan (see the individual reviews for more detail on rates), which is more expensive than a general tracker with no subscription required, an AirTag. These smart trackers also require maintenance frequent charging, firmware updates, and in-app monitoring. But I to think of the devices as insurance—you hope you’ll never need to rely on one, but in the event of an emergency, you’ll be glad to have invested. (Plus, it’s fun to measure your pet’s metrics and understand a little more about their inner world.)
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