Halo Collar vs SpotOn Collar – What's the difference?

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We’ve gotten a lot of questions about what makes SpotOn the better GPS fence. We know SpotOn is the more expensive option for two products that seem almost identical. The video above from a neutral third party sums it up pretty nicely, but if you want to dive a little deeper as you do your research, here is a little more info about the technology that powers SpotOn. 


SpotOn GPS fence technology is extremely accurate— critical for keeping your dog within his boundaries and safe. 

1. SpotOn works out of the box! You don’t need a subscription to get going and train your dog. Plus, everything you need to get started is in the box, including a charging cradle.

2. SpotOn accesses 128 satellites orbiting the earth as it simultaneously connects to four satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, Beidou and Galileo). Connecting to 25-30 satellites at any one time, your SpotOn Fence will be in constant communication with multiple satellites from all four of these constellations, which means it can more accurately interpret your dog’s location. 

2. SpotOn's antenna and receiver system has the highest noise immunity in the market. This, combined with SpotOn’s intelligent adjustment algorithms, pinpoint your dog’s location to typically within three feet and ignores GPS signals partially blocked by buildings or trees. In short, your dog’s location and fence boundary are inherently more accurate

3. SpotOn's GPS antenna is optimally placed. The position of the GPS antenna is essential.  GPS works best when it has an unobstructed view of the satellites. SpotOn’s antenna is set where your dog’s body cannot block it. Resting at the back of your dog’s neck, it always has a clear view of the sky and can maintain accurate boundaries and maintain an uninterrupted satellite connection. 

4. SpotOn offers True Location™ technology, which balances GPS shift, a natural phenomenon that occurs with any GPS product. SpotOn auto-corrects your dog’s location, so his boundaries and his position are more accurate.

Access to the constellations, combined with the GPS antenna’s quality and location, affects how many satellites your SpotOn dog collar can connect to at once. Better connection to more satellites means boundary accuracy and static correction are not impacted by cloudy weather or tree coverage. Your dog can freely move within the boundaries you set without being falsely corrected or not corrected at all. 

5. SpotOn works everywhere. Our patented True Location™ Technology maintains accurate GPS performance at all times - even under heavy cover from trees, brush, or bushes.

6. SpotOn provides extremely customizable fences by drawing in the app or walking them in real time. SpotOn’s patented technology allows you to precisely customize your fences to your property with the ability to drop 1,500 fence posts. If you choose to walk your boundary, SpotOn tracks your movement and automatically drops fence posts as you walk, and lets you know when you're close to reaching your max. Halo collar's fence creation maxes out at 20 fence posts, which you must manually select at different points in your yard. Fencing a large property or getting a curve around a flower bed, shrubbery, or around an obstacle is much easier with more posts. 

7. SpotOn GPS dog fence lets you activate GPS fences individually. Make, save and activate different fences for different times, seasons and places.  You can create different fence configurations on the same property if you like (like a daytime fence that includes the woods and a nighttime fence that goes to the edge of the grass). Because Halo collar’s fences cannot be activated individually (all are either on or off), you cannot have any boundary lines overlap in any way, which makes creating multiple fences on your property impossible. 

8. Battery life. A single charge on SpotOn's battery lasts for 22 hours in containment and 14 hours while tracking.

9. SpotOn Keep Out Zones are GPS-enabled and let you create custom-shaped, off-limits areas within your fences. You can use Keep Out Zones to keep your dog out of the garden, the pool, the chicken coop, or to prevent playtime in the poison ivy patch. Keep Out Zones have a minimum size of 30’x30’. But unlike some other GPS fences, SpotOn zones have no maximum size or range, and are not restricted to a circle shape. So you can create a custom shaped zone to keep your dog out of whatever area you need to. 

10. SpotOn Home Zones are GPS-enabled and allow you to disable corrections inside your house and any other buildings, enabling your dog to come indoors without taking the collar off. So your dog can go in and out freely without any false corrections. Unlike some other GPS dog fence options, there is no maximum size for a Home Zone, and your zone can be whatever custom shape you need, it’s not restricted to circular zones.


SpotOn is the original GPS fence.

SpotOn gathered a team of engineers that created GPS devices for the US military and applied that knowledge to invent the first GPS containment system for dogs. We hold multiple patents, have been in the market since January 2019, and have thousands of dogs who rely on SpotOn. We have tested our system with hundreds of dogs, including independent livestock guardian dogs, rough and tumble farm dogs, and wandering suburban dogs. We’ve worked through challenges with durability, technology, and bugs, identifying and resolving many of the issues Halo users report including the collar falling apart, poor GPS accuracy, and software glitches that result in the dog being corrected where it shouldn’t or not corrected where it should. 

We have learned a lot and launched a next-generation system that integrates 3+ years of customer feedback and enhanced, more advanced technology.

SpotOn doesn’t make you pay for things you don’t need. 

You are not bound to a subscription fee and we have a 90-day money-back guarantee with NO restocking fees.

Cellular plan is NOT required. SpotOn's GPS dog fence  does not require you to purchase a cellular plan to create and maintain fences for your dog. There is an option to enable cellular for your SpotOn, which will allow you to see your dog’s location from your phone and receive battery and location notifications on our Verizon or AT&T LTE-M cellular service. Specifically for internet-enabled devices, LTE-M offers coverage in many places where your phone’s 4G LTE service may be weak or unavailable.  

We offer a 90-day money-back guarantee as an extra level of protection as your dog is learning the fence. After the trial period, there is a fee that is charged either monthly, annually, or bi-annually. There is no contract—you can cancel or resume cellular service at any time. Plans start at $5.95 a month.  Click here to learn more. 

As part of your purchase, we also offer a free training program and a complimentary 1X1 session with one of our certified trainers which is tailored to the needs of you and your pup.

We stand behind our product (and your experience). We offer a 1-year warranty and a 90-day return window with no restocking fees.


And... SpotOn is assembled in the USA!! Our design and development team is in New Hampshire. We proudly manufacture, with both domestic and foreign parts, right here in New Hampshire.

We hope this helps answer your questions! If you would like more information, we can be reached at support@spotonfence.com or at 603.488.1504.


See what One SpotOn user has to say about how SpotOn GPS fence compare to Halo Collar.

"While the tracking was fun and the app is nice, it (Halo) completely fails at its core feature: being a containment system. At least several times a week the dogs would be in the middle of my property and the Halo would suddenly jump clear across the neighborhood up to a quarter mile away. 

Fortunately I have trained my dogs on tone only, as it was causing horrible confusion and they quickly became hesitant to wear the collars. I would never know when it would happen. It also took a very long time to lock on to the satellites each time I took it off the charger. Often I would need to go outside and stand there before even putting the collar on the dogs. 

It was completely unpredictable, unreliable, and from being in user groups it is far from isolated. Many others are dealing with the same "jump" of location. Drift is acceptable, but not hundreds of yards. I have had no issues with Spot On as a fence." -  TK Shaffer

How SpotOn Dog Collar compares to Halo Collar

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