Beame vs Cartrack

The short answer

Beame fits drivers who want straightforward recovery cover on a secondary or lower-value vehicle at a low monthly cost, without a live-tracking and analytics layer. Cartrack fits drivers who want a full tracking platform — live tracking, driver-behaviour insights and a mobile app for daily use.

These are different products serving different needs. The honest comparison isn't 'which is better' — it's 'which one is right for this specific vehicle and use case'.

Beame — what the product is built to do

Beame's positioning is intentionally narrow: wireless (battery-powered, no hardwired installation), recovery-focused, and priced at a single low tier — typically around R99/month at the time of writing. The unit is small, simple to fit in most cases, and designed to deliver recovery service if the vehicle is stolen.

The product is scoped to recovery rather than day-to-day telematics. Live tracking, geofencing, trip history, driver-behaviour analytics, logbook reporting and fleet management sit outside that scope. That is a design decision rather than a shortcoming — but it does mean that if those features are part of what you are buying, you are shopping in a different product category, not simply at a different price.

Beame fits well for: secondary vehicles (a second family car, a motorcycle, a caravan or trailer); paid-off vehicles where a recovery-tier device satisfies the insurer's requirement; and drivers who genuinely don't want a tracking app and want recovery cover and nothing else.

Cartrack — what the product is built to do

Cartrack's range is built around a full feature set: live tracking, a mobile app, driver-behaviour analytics and fleet management integration. Consumer pricing runs from around R99/month (entry Quick tier) up to around R260/month (Exec Plus top consumer tier) at the time of writing, with free professional installation typically bundled on consumer packages.

The trade-off runs the other way: the range is built around a platform you are expected to use, and the mid and premium tiers are priced accordingly. Fitment is hardwired and professionally installed rather than self-fit. If you want the simplest possible device and no app at all, that is not what this range is designed for.

When Beame is the right answer

You have a paid-off vehicle and your insurer's tracker requirement is satisfied by a recovery-tier device — recovery cover is enough.

You have a secondary vehicle (a second car for the family, a motorcycle, a caravan you use occasionally) where an active-tracking layer isn't worth the extra monthly cost.

You're fitting a tracker purely to satisfy a tracker requirement on a lower-value asset and want a straightforward approved-device option.

You don't want a mobile app, don't need driver-behaviour analytics, and want recovery service if something happens.

When Cartrack is the right answer

You have a daily-driver vehicle and want live tracking, trip history, and geofencing.

You value driver-behaviour analytics (your own driving feedback, or family member monitoring).

You might add more vehicles to a fleet in future and want a platform that scales.

Your insurer requires a mid-tier or premium tracker and you want the full feature set at that price level.

Insurance approval

Both Beame and Cartrack are widely approved on SA insurer approved-device lists. The discount you receive is based on tracker tier — a recovery-tier device such as Beame typically qualifies for the entry-tier discount; Cartrack consumer packages qualify across tiers depending on the package level.

If your insurer specifies a mid-tier or premium tracker requirement, a recovery-tier unit may not satisfy that specification. This is about the tier your insurer asks for, not about the brand. Confirm the requirement with your insurer before fitting either product.

The honest pricing comparison

Beame at around R99/month provides recovery cover without a live-tracking layer or daily-use app.

Cartrack Quick at around R99/month provides recovery plus live tracking and an app at the entry tier.

At that entry price point the two are buying different things, so neither is the better deal in the abstract. It depends entirely on whether you would actually use the live-tracking layer. If you would, the Cartrack entry tier includes it; if you wouldn't, you would be paying a similar amount for capability you never open.

Above the entry tier the two ranges stop overlapping. Beame does not publish mid or premium consumer tiers in the way Cartrack does, and Cartrack's range continues to around R149-R260/month. If your insurer requires a premium-tier device, the useful comparison is between products within that tier rather than across these two.