Our take on the ranking
Short answer: the PetSafe Guardian GPS 2.0 ($449.99) is the best GPS dog collar if you want a fence and live tracking in one device: up to 70 hours per charge, from 10 lb dogs, about $747 over three years with its plan. If you only need to find your dog, the Tractive DOG 6 ($79) is the cheap, light answer at about $427 over three years.
A "GPS dog collar" means two different things, and it is worth deciding which one you need. A tracker (Tractive, Fi) clips on or replaces the collar and tells your phone where the dog is. It never stops the dog. A GPS fence collar (PetSafe Guardian 2.0, Halo, Invisible Fence, SpotOn) does the tracking too, and also plays a cue when your dog nears a line you drew.
This ranking puts both in the same table and weights what matters when the goal is to see your dog on a map: live tracking (25%), cost over three years (20%) and battery (15%). Hunting systems from Garmin and Dogtra are here too: they work far from any cell tower over radio, with no plan at all.
Scope: every collar or tracker that shows your dog's location live, fence collars included, re-weighted for tracking, battery and cost. Scores on this page use the GPS collar weights (live tracking 25%, 3-year cost 20%, battery life 15%, containment 10%, positioning hardware 10%, fits small dogs 10%, gentle boundary cues 5%, warranty 5%); each review shows the overall score.
