The small plastic and metal keychain dongles known as Bluetooth trackers are a blessing for anyone prone to losing their stuff. Rather than digging through the couch cushions to find where your darn keys went this time or hoping for the best if the airline loses your luggage, you can just tap an app on your phone and find where they are. Apple’s AirTag is by far the best Bluetooth tracker because it communicates with a network of more than a billion devices to help find lost goods, and it shows you precisely where they are once you’re near. If you have an Android phone (AirTags can only be used with iPhones), the Tile Pro offers similar functionality but with a smaller network and less precise finding. 

I’ve been testing Bluetooth trackers since 2015. There are only a handful of models competing for the top spot today, and we put them all to the test to find the best. If you’d like to read more specifics about how we vetted and tested, scroll down for more detail.

AirTags beat every other tracker in terms of their network size and precision, the two most important factors when it comes to finding lost goods.

There’s really no competition: If you’re an iPhone user and want to keep track of your stuff, get an AirTag (or a bundle of them). Apple’s tracker offers the greatest chance of locating your lost goods out in the world thanks to the company’s gigantic network of devices and the most precise finding system.

AirTags use Bluetooth wireless technology to communicate their location with your iPhone, which is common among this kind of product. If you lose something with an AirTag attached, you can launch the Find My app on your phone to see its location on a map in real-time (or the last known location if it’s not connected to the network) and play an audio alert from the tracker’s speaker. 

The thing that makes AirTags special is they also talk to other people’s Apple devices, including iPads and Macs, anonymously. This means if you lose your keys with an AirTag attached and someone walks by with an iPhone in their pocket, the iPhone will notice the tracker and send its location to the Find My app on your device. It all happens in the background and the iPhone owner who found the AirTag will have no idea about it; they’re not going to know where your keys are or even that their phone saw them. And because there are literally billions of these devices out in the world (just think about how many iPhones you see whenever you leave the house), the odds are pretty great that one of them will find your AirTag, and quickly at that. 

The other unique benefit of AirTags is what happens when you’re near your lost item. For more precise finding, Apple uses Ultra Wideband wireless technology, something no other tracker company on the market today is currently using. As long as you have an iPhone 11 or later and are within about 60 feet of the AirTag, you can pull up a view that shows you how far away you are with a compass-like arrow pointing you in the right direction. The distance figure on the screen decreases as you get closer, and the phone vibrates with increasing intensity until you’re right on top of whatever it is you’re looking for. Additionally, you can set notifications for when you leave an AirTag behind.

The AirTag is a 1.25-inch white plastic button (you can get free custom engraving if you order directly from Apple to distinguish between them, especially helpful if you have several). Its metal back twists off to reveal a replaceable CR2032 battery. Apple says you should expect the battery to last for about a year before having to be swapped out, and they’re very affordable when the time comes. 

To get the most out of an AirTag, you’ll likely want to buy a holder since the tracker doesn’t have any way to attach to your keys or bag itself. Apple sells its own Leather Key Ring, Loop and Leather Loop, as well as the premium Hermès-branded Luggage Tag, Bag Charm and Key Ring, which come with an AirTag (which you would expect for the $300-plus prices). Of course plenty of third-party accessory makers have alternate options in tons of styles, including stick-on holders, pet collar attachments, wallets and more. 

When The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern tested Bluetooth trackers, she also found the AirTag to be the best, but warned they’re another way for Apple to lock customers into its ecosystem of devices and services, and that there’s potential for abuse. Additionally, The Wall Street Journal newsroom has reported on security concerns with the AirTag, including bad actors using them for unwanted tracking and even stalking. Apple has continued to improve how it prevents this kind of behavior, but the threat can’t be totally eliminated.

If you’re not an Apple user, the Tile ecosystem is your best bet. The Tile Pro’s replaceable battery and long range make it a close second to the AirTag.

Tile was the first brand to popularize Bluetooth trackers a decade ago, and it has continued to improve and expand its product line since. Because AirTags require an iPhone, the most recent Tile Pro is the tracker you should get if you’re an Android user (although they work with Apple devices, too). 

Tile trackers mostly work like AirTags, sharing their location with your phone using Bluetooth. And they also support crowd-finding so that other people running the Tile app can anonymously find your lost goods. But Tile has a much smaller network than Apple: The company says it has sold 50 million Tile trackers as of March 31, 2022, and while Tile has a number of partners that extend its network and the promise of its parent company extending the network 10-fold, the reach is still less than Apple’s. This means that the odds of someone walking by and anonymously finding your bag with a Tile attached aren’t as high as they would be if you were using an AirTag. And while the app gives you an idea of how close you are to a lost item, using language like “very strong” to speak to the signal strength, Tiles don’t have Ultra Wideband, so they can’t deliver the precise finding experience. (Tile announced Tile Ultra, an Ultra Wideband tracker, in 2020, but it has yet to ship as of this story’s publication. A company spokesperson told us: “We remain excited about bringing this product to market when the time is right.”)  

The Tile Pro has a few distinct benefits over an AirTag. It can be used to ring your lost phone when you double press the button on its frontside, as long as you’re within range of it. There’s a keychain attachment point built-in as part of the design, so you don’t have to buy an accessory to connect it to your stuff. And the Tile Pro has a QR code on the back that can be set up with your contact information, so that if someone finds the tracker they can scan it and know how to contact you. You can do the same by tapping your phone against a found AirTag, but you have to know to do that; the QR code is far more obvious. 

Tile trackers are limited in usefulness unless you pay for the Tile Premium subscription. A fee of $3 a month or $30 a year gets you features including alerts when you leave something behind (something Apple’s tracker does for free), free battery replacement, the ability to share your Tiles’ locations with others, 30-day location history, a hardware warranty, enhanced customer service and item reimbursement. You can be reimbursed for the value up to $100 if you lose something with a Tile attached; the $100 a year Premium Protect plan bumps that reimbursement figure up to $1,000.

Tile also sells the Tile Mate, which is a little smaller than the Tile Pro but doesn’t have a removable battery, the credit card-sized Tile Slim for your wallet and Tile Sticker, a smaller version with adhesive that can be directly attached to your stuff, plus various bundles. They all work the same and are smart buys if they fit a particular need.

Family-safety company Life360 bought Tile in late 2021. At the time, the company made about 20% of its revenue from selling users’ location data, as reported by The Markup, but has since said Tile data will not be sold, even in aggregate form. Apple, on the other hand, states that it does not store or sell any location data. 

Because network size is so integral to finding your stuff if it’s lost, we can’t recommend any tracker ecosystems other than the largest, Apple and Tile. With that in mind, there are a few brands that leverage Apple’s Find My system and offer different factors worth considering. 

Pebblebee’s Card and Chipolo’s Card Spot are both plastic trackers the size and shape of a thick credit card made to fit in your wallet. They communicate with Apple devices when they’re lost just like AirTags. But since they don’t have Ultra Wideband technology, they don’t support the super-precise finding; you have to rely on the audio alerts from their built-in speakers instead.  

Both companies also make more traditionally-shaped trackers: For Pebblebee, it’s the Clip, and Chipolo has the One Spot. Each has an attachment point so you don’t need to buy an accessory to hook them to your keys, and the Clip is rechargeable. But like the Card and the Card Spot, they don’t have Ultra Wideband chips, so you’re better off sticking with an AirTag. 

I’ve been reviewing Bluetooth trackers for more than 6 years, and tested every major model released in that time. This means I have a deep working knowledge of how these things work, and what features are the most important.

While there are plenty of nice-to-have tracker features, the most important factors are how easy they make that process. Here’s what we considered in making our picks. 

I’ve been testing the real-world capabilities of these devices for several years. This includes manufactured stress tests, where colleagues have hidden trackers and then had me find them, and real-world use when I’ve actually misplaced my keys or backpack. Between these two kinds of tests, I’ve found dozens, if not hundreds, of items using both the Apple and Tile systems. 

By Buy Side from WSJ Staff

These are the deals our team of shopping insiders are buying and recommending.

Scoop up the real deals—and don't get suckered by big discounts on underwhelming laptops

In the market for an iPad or an Apple TV? Here’s what to buy at a big discount during Amazon’s mega sale