I've been using a Spot 'Connect' for the last 4 years, and it's been
okay but a bit of a pain. I used it at home (Alaska & Oregon), Greece, Thailand, Caribbean, Mexico, So Cal, and several other places. The concept is outstanding because we frequently would leave on trips and not be certain of where we were going. That can be a little unnerving for family. This is a pretty cheap & easy way for them to track us. Also on two of the foreign charters, we found out later the VHF on the boat did not work. So the little 'SOS' button could have been very important.
The Spot Connect could be a pain to use because the Bluetooth pairing never stayed connected and sometimes to re-pair, I had to reboot my phone and the Spot Connect. Multiple times. Their web site was also very clunky & slow.
On a couple of our longer foreign trips, it would stop posting on the tracking site for 24hrs or more, making friends & family wonder what was up.
Spot Connect and iPhone connect using Bluetooth
My Spot annual connection fee was coming due this month, so instead of paying it, it got an inReach SE. It cost $300, which as I recall is about 25% more than my Spot Connect. But wow, is it better and easier to use.
Among other things, in order to do tracking, you don't need to pair it with your phone. You can use it's little screen and keys to turn it on. Two clicks and you're tracking.
You can easily send pre-written text message or pair it with your phone to send custom text messages. You can also receive text messages. To me, all of this from anywhere in the world (regardless of cell signal) is pretty amazing at this price.
The battery is built in/rechargeable and is supposed to last 100 hrs with tracking set at 10 minute intervals.
It also uses the Iridium satellite network, which in my opinion is better than Spot's Globalstar network.
We did a little overnight trip this weekend and tested out the inReach ... we were quite happy with it. Easy, effective, etc.
Here is the tracking map it puts out:
https://share.delorme.com/MarkPearson
I'm going to do a larger test of the inReach beginning the end of this week, when I leave for a 1,200 mile trip to take Dad's boat from Palm Beach, FL to his home in Annapolis, MD.
Disclaimer: I think Spot had a lot of problems with the 'Connect' model I had ... they appear to have discontinued it. I would guess their other models are easier to use.