Best Free Online Tools to Track a Phone Location by Typing in a Number

Phone number trackers are designed to track a phone’s location by entering a number. It can be a general location, such as a country, region, or city, or an exact GPS position up to street and house, or pinpointed on a map.

Sometimes, basic data is enough to get a hint about who is behind the unknown number and identify the country the call is from. But to track a partner, friend, child, or relative’s phone location, you usually need real-time, precise live tracking.

There are different tools available online or on the Play Store that let you type in a phone number and find a location for free. However, to find the one that really does what it promises is hard. We spent three working days testing various services and installing apps to compile this list of the best online tools for tracking a phone’s location by entering a number.

All tools can be divided depending on their form:

• online websites (with or without subscription);
• iOS & Android applications (for checking unknown numbers or for setting up tracking between friends/relatives).

ℹ️ Note: If you want to find your own lost or stolen phone by number, check our articles about the dedicated Find My app for iOS and Google Find My Device for Android.

Why you can trust HeyLocate:

• [25+] hours testing;
• [37] services compared;
• an objective, comprehensive rating according to HeyLocate Blog methodology;
• experienced team of writers and editors who specialize in phone and GPS tracking, and follow HeyLocate’s strict guidelines for editorial policy.

Disclaimer: The services reviewed in this article are provided for informational and educational purposes only.

Any phone number tracking tools should be used responsibly and lawfully. Unauthorized use may violate local, national, or international laws, as well as the terms of service of the platforms involved.

These tools are intended for legitimate purposes such as identifying unknown callers, preventing fraud, or managing contacts, but not for harassment, stalking, surveillance, or any unlawful activity.

Quick Overview

⭐

HeyLocate Free Phone Number Tracker – Best Overall

⭐

Our HeyLocate service is truly free, in contrast to many online services that only promise to be so. Get quick online access to the basic phone number details with the HeyLocate tracker. Worldwide coverage. No installation or login required.

📌

Scannero – Editor’s Choice

📌

This mobile number locator shows country, carrier, and time zone for free, without registration or apps. Quickly and easily. Moreover, it has additional options for live tracking. Try it now to discover why it is HeyLocate editor’s choice!

Now, let’s review in detail all the best free services and apps that you can use to track a phone number’s location online.

Try FREE PHONE TRACKER

Bottom Line:

At HeyLocate, we encountered and reviewed various phone trackers. We saw what the market lacked and created our own service – really free and effective. Our tracker may show you a phone number’s network carrier, country, its code, region, city, and time zone – all at no charge.

The HeyLocate online service provides basic details about a phone number. However, for some people, this can be enough or a good starting point for further investigation, which you can begin with offers from our partners, like live location tracking and discovering background details (mainly for the USA).

Try Scannero.io

Bottom Line:

This standalone service can locate any phone on the planet. It does not need you to install an app. With the person’s phone number, you can reveal their country, carrier, and time zone for free.

Then, with a cheap $0.89 trial, Scannero can use a tracking message and GPS to narrow down your target’s location. You only need a web browser and an account. But that’s optional. See all the reasons we love this service in a full Scannero review on the HeyLocate blog.

Try Loca App for Android

Bottom Line:

The app works very intriguingly. It shows only the country of the phone number, but it may also show an image and the first letters of the owner’s name. We tested the app with different phone numbers, and the effectiveness varied: it impressed us with correct results, yet equally disappointed us with incorrect ones. Nevertheless, compared to other free apps, it stood out even with this level of effectiveness.

Try Detectico

Bottom Line:

Detectico requires no app installation and lets you discover the phone number’s info in a few clicks. With it, you find out the country and the carrier. It works online, without distractions.

You may also opt for its cheap trial (less than $1) and access more than one general locator feature, but also live tracking, phone lookup, and data leak check, among others. See how we tested Detectico for our comprehensive review.

Try EMobileTraker

Bottom Line:

It is a known online reverse mobile number lookup, although the information it provides is not generous. During my test, EMobileTracker showed the correct country ISO and flag, although “Atlanta” was marked as the country, not the USA. Moreover, the time zone was not in UTC, but mentioned the area, like New York time.

In comparison to this, HeyLocate gives more precise details. Still, EMobileTracker works for free, without subscription or installation (although with ads), that’s why we included it in our top list.

Try Mobile Number Tracker for Android

Bottom Line:

Play Market offered us early access to a Mobile Number Tracker – Phone Number Locator. The app has many features, but most of them are about your own phone number location, IP, physical address, and GPS tracking of your routes.

Only the Number Tracker feature lets you track someone; however, it shows the country of the unknown number solely. Moreover, the app contains plenty of ads and extra features that make it seem helpful, but in fact, it just uses the country code to identify the country.

Still, among the variety of similar apps, it does at least something.

Bottom Line:

The app works only through location sharing within its system, which makes it suitable for friends or relatives but not for tracking unknown numbers. Locator lets you send a tracking code to anyone by phone number, social media, or email. The person gets a message: “Please install OneLocator App and enter the tracking code…”.

OneLocator has many ads and a paid premium version without ads, unlimited location history, updates, and alerts. It can be a suitable alternative to Find My for iOS users and just as good for Android owners.

Try iSharing

Bottom Line:

The app is known and professional, made by iSharing, Inc. Although it is more similar to family trackers, the app is targeted for phone number tracking as well. Still, you can trace only phone numbers that are added to your circle with the other person’s consent. Moreover, they should install this app too.

Try TrueCaller

Bottom Line:

Everyone knows TrueCaller. But under the name “Phone Number Locator,” it just searches its database and provides available info. Thus, the effectiveness is unstable: once I could discover only the country, another time – state or city, and sometimes – only the name of a person behind the number, but not their location.

Comparison Table of the Key Features

Let’s compare the best free phone number trackers in one place.

How We Test

We followed a proven HeyLocate methodology to identify and evaluate the best free phone number tracker. We searched for services that offer free access to the phone number location data. We then conducted real-world testing to assess whether the services perform as claimed.

HeyLocate focused on core features critical to this category. These are location accuracy, free access, privacy, and safety. For each service, we evaluated its effectiveness and reliability, noting both strengths and weaknesses.

We assessed usability by examining how intuitive the interface was, how easy the service was to use or set up, and how smoothly its main features worked.

We also evaluated reliability and security, including performance stability, privacy policies, data protection practices, and, where applicable, the difficulty of bypassing restrictions.

I tested how each service performs with my own phone number and the phone numbers of people I know to check whether the tool shows my location or theirs correctly. This helps determine how effective the services are in everyday use.

Based on these criteria, HeyLocate compiled the final selection and assigned each locator an overall score on a 5-point scale, making it easy for readers to compare options and choose the best solution for their needs.

How We Evaluate

Each service receives a final score from 0 to 5, calculated as a weighted average across five criteria:

• Functionality (30%)
• Usability (20%)
• Reliability & Security (25%)
• Customer Support (10%)
• Data Cost & Trade-Offs (15%)

Final score interpretation:

• 5.0 – Perfect
• 4.0–4.9 – Excellent
• 3.0–3.9 – Good
• 2.0–2.9 – Average
• 1.0–1.9 – Poor
• 0 – Does not deliver on its claims

A detailed explanation of the scoring system is available in the HeyLocate Methodology for Best-Listings.

Security & Privacy Considerations

When using free phone number trackers, remember that many of these tools operate with limited transparency into how user data is collected, stored, or shared.

Free services often request access to personal information, such as email addresses, phone numbers, or device permissions, that may not be essential for providing basic lookup results. Once submitted, this data can be used for marketing purposes, shared with third parties, or stored without adequate protection.

Some platforms lack clear privacy policies or fail to comply with data protection regulations, increasing the risk of data misuse. In more severe cases, malicious services may attempt to harvest sensitive information or expose users to phishing, malware, or unauthorized subscriptions.

Be cautious of free trackers that claim anonymity while simultaneously requiring account creation or app installation. Such contradictions may indicate weak security practices or deceptive data handling.

Brands Excluded from Our Ranking

You can see these trackers when searching for the right one, but we can’t recommend them for several reasons we have identified.

• GEOfinder.Mobi

  GEOfinder is an effective, anonymous phone number tracker available on the web or in the app. However, it is not free. Nevertheless, HeyLocate users can use the GEOfinder trial or code HL15 for a 15% discount on the monthly plan. To ensure you need it, check our GEOfinder review.

  

• Phone Tracker by Number by Awesome Game Studio

  The app is full of ads. From the very beginning, it tries to send you to other trackers outside the app. When you stay, it guides you through a 20-step process, with ads on almost every step.

  Then, for precise tracking, the other person needs to install the app and share the code. But even low-precision tracking with just a phone number didn’t give sufficient results: a mix of US and Ukrainian locations with a request to come back in two days. No comments.

  

• Live Mobile Number Locator App by Droid-Developer

  This app also contains numerous ads. Nevertheless, its number locator showed an incorrect location. For the second try, the app asked to go premium or watch more ads, but even after that, it still showed the exact wrong location.

  

• IPqualityscore.com

  Free Phone Number Lookup by IPQualityScore gives limited free trials and promises to show the location, but when tested with my own phone number, it showed it incorrectly.

  

• YoTracker.com

  The service makes impressions by searching information about the phone number, even its messages, contacts, and media, but the result is a notification to complete one offer to verify.

  

• Location-tool.com

  The service promises to be free, but only shows the country’s flag and requests payment to see more.

  

• Locateanumber.com

  The platform kept displaying results that showed it was still processing the information. After a couple of minutes, it led to another page where one had to complete 2 offers (like completing a poll or finishing verification on other suspicious sites) to get the number’s GPS position.

  

• Buddy-Locator and LiveGPSsearch

  These two just waste your time. They give the impression that they search for a location using the satellite, but then tell you that it’s all a prank and not real. The second one even shows inappropriate images. Not funny.

  

• Mobile Number Tracker by bina2app showed an incorrect location; meanwhile, GPS Locator & Quick Tracker by hosdev suspiciously requested permission to access my location, storage, and camera.

  

Many other apps on the Play Store appeared to be paid, such as locators from Handy Tools Studio, ReiDxSoft, Appstark Tech, GZ TECH (GEOzilla), and MAJ X.

While searching for locators on the App Store, many apps seemed to be free and showed the initial tracking process, but then required a payment.

We compiled an even bigger list of services that can be advertised as phone number trackers. However, many domains use misleading branding (e.g. “phone tracker,” “locator”) but actually fall into one of these categories: people search databases, parental control software, CPA/offer-wall funnels, or generic GPS apps.

How to Use Phone Number Location Trackers

The usage of such locators depends on their type.

For free online tools:

Enter the phone number you want to locate and wait for the result.

ℹ️ Note: Some platforms may require you to complete additional offers to receive your report, but we don’t recommend doing so (see explanation in Risks & Limitations above).

For paid online services:

Usually, you are required to provide your email address and pay for a trial or a full subscription. Then the platform sends an anonymous SMS with a tracking link. If a person clicks it and grants permission to their location, you see it on a map.

For phone number tracking applications:

1. Install the locator app you’ve chosen.
2. Grant the necessary permissions (some may request access to your contacts for quick number lookup or to your location to share it whenever you want).
3. Enter the phone number to locate it and get the available information.
4. Family- and friends-oriented apps require you to create a circle with other users to track each other. Thus, they also need to install the same app.

Free vs. Paid Services Comparison

If you’re still not sure what to choose—free or paid locator—let’s compare them in the table below.