DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GPS TRACKERS AND GSM TRACKERS
Vehicle security and vehicle tracking have become really popular and important for private and commercial vehicle owners in today’s world. Unlike the early days, technological advancements in the car tracking industry have now thrown up variety of options that people can choose from. As of today, there are two regular types of trackers a potential user could choose from. They are the GSM trackers and GPS trackers.
The main purpose of writing this article is to help you understand the difference between GPS and GSM trackers and to also help you make an informed decision that best suits your need.
In this article, I am going to assume that my readers are green in the car tracking conversation and so will start from scratch. Here we go:
WHAT IS A CAR TRACKER?
I believe that we cannot jump right into discussing the differences between GPS and GSM trackers without first making sure everyone understands what a car tracker is.
A car tracker is a smart device that is capable of helping to report your vehicle live location at any given time, help to keep travel history of your vehicle, alert you about over speeding, update you on your vehicle fuel consumption, allows you to remotely shut down your vehicle engine and so much more.
To be honest, car trackers have brought peace of mind to both private and commercial vehicle owners and even made life easy for law enforcement agencies.
Now that you know what a car tracker is, let’s move on to the difference between GPS and GSM car trackers.
First, let’s talk about GPS car trackers.
WHAT IS A GPS CAR TRACKER
GPS trackers which is the most popular type of tracker and otherwise known as Global positioning System trackers are the type of trackers that makes use of Satellite signals in pinpointing the exact location of vehicles regardless of its location on the face of the Earth. The GPS technology solely depends on a network of about 30 Satellites orbiting planet earth. GPS trackers are able to communicate with these 30 Satellites to provide real time geographic coordinates. When a GPS tracker receives location signals from the Satellites, it then in turn transmits this location data to a central server through either cellular networks or other means of information transmission.
While there is still so much more to learn about GPS trackers, the little information that i have provided in this article will give you a general idea of what GPS trackers are about. Now, let’s proceed to discuss GSM trackers.
WHAT IS A GSM TRACKER
GSM Trackers which is not as popular as GPS Trackers and otherwise known as (Global system for mobile communications) trackers are the type of trackers that instead of feeding off Satellites, they rather rely on mobile cellular networks to transmit data. A GSM tracker can only send information to users when there is a
sim card inserted in them. You must know that GSM trackers can only send information through cellular data services such as SMS and GPRS.
Whilst GPS trackers communicate with Satellites, GSM trackers collects data from mostly cell towers and sends it through cellular networks to the device of user or a monitoring center.
It is important to point out that there are a couple of key differences between GPS trackers and GSM trackers. Talking about these differences will help understand better the distinction between them. Here are a few of them.
1. POWER CONSUMPTION: Due to the peculiarity and technical dynamics of the GPS technology upon which it is built on, GPS trackers tend to consume more power and their internal batteries tend to drain out faster. It is even worse when the device is configured to sending out frequent real-time updates
WHILE
GSM trackers have long lasting internal batteries and consume less power.
2. SYSTEM OF LOCATION TRACKING AND TECHNOLOGY: As for GPS Trackers, they rely solely on Satellites in order to provide global positioning reports of high accuracy. GPS Trackers are able to give precise coordinates by triangulating signals from multiple Satellites.
WHILE
GSM Trackers utilise cellular network data. They rely on signals from cell towers to estimate location of vehicle or whatever asset that is being tracked. In the case of GSM Trackers, their accuracy largely depends on the weight of the cell towers providing the signal and this can range from anywhere between a couple hundred meters and several kilometers.
3. COVERAGE: GPS Trackers can be used in any part of the world for as long as the tracking device is able to communicate with GPS Satellites. In cases where there isn’t a clear line of sight to Satellites , like the vehicle being inside underground parking or inside a tunnel, then GPS tracker communication to satellite signal becomes poor and this consequently affects real time tracking adversely.
WHILE
GSM Trackers functions very well in cities and areas where cellular network coverage is great but can be quite ineffective in remote areas where cellular network reception is poor.
4. FUNCTIONALITIES: GPS Trackers are best suited for real time tracking, movement history playback , geofencing and a host of other complex features.
WHILE
GSM Trackers are best suited to sending regular updates or alerts. GSM trackers are not designed to take on multiple and advanced tracking features. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t undertake any task that goes beyond tracking.
5. COST: As a result of the enhanced functionalities and features that comes with satellite technology, GPS trackers tend to be way more expensive.
WHILE
GSM tracking services are cheaper and this is understandable. This is because there really aren’t much extra functionalities aside location tracking and even the location tracking is less accurate.
By now you must be wondering why some people would have preference for GSM trackers when it doesn’t seem to have a lot going except for tracking. Now, this is the thing. Choosing whether to go for either GPS or GSM trackers is largely dependent on a number of factors such as the environment where the vehicle frequents the most, your budget and the uniqueness of your needs.
For example, if you have need for high location tracking accuracy in real-time, then GPS trackers are what you need.
Also, if you want extra features such as history playback, voice monitoring, geo fencing , speed monitoring and fleet management enabling features, GPS trackers are what you need.
HOWEVER, If you live in an urban area and all you need is just basic tracking (no exact need for pinpoint accuracy), then you can take advantage of the affordability that comes with using GSM trackers.
You must also be informed that you can have the best of both worlds by purchasing an Hybrid tracker.
In case you don’t know what hybrid trackers are. They are trackers that possess the features of GPS trackers and GSM trackers in a single device.
As a matter of fact, many modern trackers are a combination of GSM AND GPS technologies, thereby leveraging on the strengths of both systems.
There you have it. Should you ever have reasons to purchase top quality and highly dependable GPS and GSM trackers or even Hybrid tracker well designed to suit your commercial and private needs, do not hesitate to reach out to www.cartrackernigeria.ng