We Tested GPS, RFID, BLE, and AirTags for Asset Tracking — Only One Actually Worked

Over the past 6 months, we benchmarked multiple tracking technologies for mobile, unpowered assets: construction gear, medical rentals, tools, shipping containers, and more. The goal: build a system that reliably tells you:

• Where is this item now?
• When was it last seen?
• What’s the cost per asset to do this at scale?

We tested:

• Cellular GPS (LandAirSea, Samsara)
• Passive/Active RFID (Zebra, Alien)
• BLE Trackers (Tile, One-Key, etc.)
• Apple AirTags + programmatic layer

Only one approach gave us:

• High-fidelity passive tracking
• Minimal labor
• Predictable location updates in the wild
• Sub-$4/month total cost

GPS Trackers — Power-Hungry & Operationally Fragile

What it’s good at:

• Real-time tracking when you have cell signal
• Fine-grained updates (every 10s–60s)

Failure modes in the field:

• Battery depletion → dead device in 7–30 days
• Indoor/urban canyons → GPS lock fails
• SIM provisioning → ~3% failure rate during setup
• Techs forget to charge or miswire installs

Measured in field:

• Avg install time (non-hardwired): 18 min
• Avg labor revisit per year: 5.7x
• Location latency indoors: >1hr or failed ping

GPS works for powered fleets. It breaks down hard for passive assets.

Annual TCO per device: ~$400
($150 hardware + $240 data + $50 labor)

RFID — Great for Warehouses, Not the Field

Useful for:

• Inventory control at fixed chokepoints
• Bulk scanning in highly structured environments

Limitations:

• No real tracking — just “seen at gate X”
• Requires infrastructure at every decision point
• 0 coverage outdoors, in transit, on job sites
• Readers are expensive and fragile (EM interference prone)

Cost Breakdown:

• Passive tags: $0.12–$0.80
• Reader infrastructure/site: $2,500–$10,000
• Integration overhead: high

Unless you control the entire environment, RFID creates visibility gaps you can't close.

Annual TCO (real deployments): $8k–$40k/site

BLE Trackers — “Tracking” That Usually Isn’t

Examples tested:

• Tile Pro
• Milwaukee One-Key
• Chipolo Business Beta

Core issue: They rely on proprietary apps running in the background — no real mesh, just marketing.

Mesh Density (urban tests):

• Tile: 2 updates/week/asset in SF
• One-Key: 0 updates outside Milwaukee job sites
• Battery life: ~12 months (replaceable CR2032)

Key limitation:

If no one’s running the app, the device is invisible. In practice, that means ~99%+ dead zones.

No way to manage at scale. No geofences. No asset dashboard. Just a few stale pings, if you're lucky.

TCO: ~ $30–$60/year
(still too high for something that barely works)

AirTags — When Paired with the Right Stack, They Win

Key technical advantages:

• BLE beaconing interval: ~800ms (adaptive)
• U1 chip + BLE triangulation improves spatial accuracy
• Global passive mesh: 2.2B+ iOS devices relay encrypted updates
• Battery: 2–4 years on CR2032
• Range: We observed ~0.2–2.3 miles real-world handoff distance in cities

Test results:

• Urban ping latency: <8 minutes
• Suburban latency: ~12–45 minutes
• Dense indoor location accuracy: ~10–15m radius
• Deployment time: <60 seconds per asset
• No SIM, no charge cycles, no field config

This is the only BLE-based system with actual nationwide mesh reliability.

Real Cost Comparison (Per 100 Assets, Per Year)

Final Notes

AirTags alone are not sufficient for business use. They lack:

• Asset naming / grouping
• Geofencing
• Bulk management
• Alerting / integrations
• Silent mode (you don’t want customers getting “you’re being tracked” alerts)

But when paired with a platform that solves those (e.g., airpinpoint.com), they become arguably the highest-leverage, lowest-friction tracking layer available for unpowered asset fleets.

If you’re trying to track forklifts, pumps, dollies, carts, containers, or anything that moves but doesn’t have power — this is the stack to beat.