OnTime and Life360 both put people on a map, so they often get mentioned in the same breath. But they're built around two very different ideas of what location sharing is for.
OnTime is about seeing where your group is while everyone is on the way to the same place, and then switching off. Life360 is about always knowing where your family is.
If you're trying to pick between them, that one difference decides almost everything else.
What OnTime is designed to do
OnTime solves one specific problem: a group of people heading to the same place.
You create a Radar, optionally add one or more stops, and share a link. Everyone who joins shows up on one live map with their trail and their distance to the next stop. When the Radar ends, or when you leave it, the sharing stops.
There's no permanent circle and nothing running in the background between events. The question it answers is "Where is everyone right now, and how far out are they?"
What Life360 is designed to do
Life360 is a family safety app. You create a Circle, invite your family, and from then on everyone in the Circle can see each other's location throughout the day.
On top of that ongoing location sharing, it layers safety features: alerts when someone arrives at or leaves places like home or school, location history, driving reports, crash detection and SOS alerts, with more of them unlocked on its paid plans. It runs on both iPhone and Android.
That's exactly what you want if the question on your mind is "Did my kid get to school?" or "Is everyone home safe?"
OnTime vs. Life360 at a glance
| OnTime | Life360 | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Groups meeting up or traveling together | Family safety, day in and day out |
| The question it answers | "Where is everyone?" | "Is my family safe?" |
| When location is shared | Only while a Radar is active | Continuously, while you're in a Circle |
| Who you share with | Whoever joined this one event | A long-lived Circle, usually family |
| How people join | Open a link, in the app or in a browser | Install the app and join the Circle |
| Destinations | Stops along a shared route, with distance to the next one | Saved places with arrive and leave alerts |
| Arrival | You tap "I'm here" | Detected automatically by location |
| Safety features | None. It's a coordination tool | Crash detection, SOS, driving reports |
| On the lock screen | Live Activity and Dynamic Island with your distance to the next stop | Notifications and alerts |
| Platforms | iPhone app, plus any phone from a web link | iPhone and Android |
Only for the trip vs. always-on
This is the biggest difference, and the one most people feel first.
With OnTime, location is shared only while a Radar is active, and only until it ends or you leave. Every Radar has an end time, and the host can end it early. After that there's nothing left to turn off.
Life360 is built the other way around. Sharing is the default state: once you're in a Circle, the people in it can see where you are whether or not anything is happening. For parents and kids, that's the whole point.
For a group of friends, it can feel like too much. Most people are happy for their friends to see them driving to the concert. Far fewer want those same friends to see where they are on a random Tuesday night.
Joining: a link vs. a family circle
Group plans are messy. There's always a friend of a friend, someone with a different phone, or someone who refuses to install one more app for a single evening.
With OnTime, anyone can join and share their live location straight from a web link, with no install and no account. The iPhone app adds background tracking, the Live Activity and the 3D map, but nobody gets left off the map for not having it.
Life360 assumes a stable group. Everyone installs the app, creates an account and joins the Circle, which is a reasonable ask for a family that will use it every day.
Stops vs. places
Both apps care about destinations, in different ways.
OnTime has stops, and they belong to one trip. Skip them entirely to just watch each other on the map, add one for a single meeting point, or build a full route for a road trip. Everyone sees their distance to their next stop, and taps "I'm here" when they reach it, so a weak GPS signal in a parking garage doesn't decide whether you've arrived.
Life360 has saved places. You mark home, school or work, and the app tells you when someone arrives or leaves. The places stay the same and the alerts repeat every day.
If you're planning a drive with several cars, see our road trip convoy tips.
What OnTime does that Life360 doesn't
OnTime is narrow, and everything in it is aimed at the trip itself:
- Sharing that ends on its own when the event is over.
- Joining from a browser, with no app and no account.
- Multiple stops on one shared route.
- Breadcrumb trails, so you can see the way someone actually came.
- Live Activity and Dynamic Island, showing your distance to the next stop without opening the app.
- A 3D chase view of the group on the move.
See the full list of features.
Pricing
OnTime is free for small plans: up to 5 people in a Radar with one stop. A subscription removes both limits for bigger groups and multi-stop routes. Only the host needs it. Everyone else joins for free.
Life360 has a free tier and several paid membership plans, with more of the safety features and longer location history on the higher tiers.
OnTime or Life360: which do you need?
- To see where your friends are while everyone drives to the same concert, you want OnTime.
- To keep a convoy together across several stops, you want OnTime.
- To meet up with people you don't want to share your location with forever, you want OnTime.
- To know your kids got to school and your family got home safe, every day, you want Life360.
- To get help in an emergency on the road, you want Life360.
They also work fine side by side. Plenty of people start a Radar when a group plan comes up and keep Life360 for their family.
Frequently asked questions
1. Is OnTime a replacement for Life360?
Not really. OnTime is a coordination tool for group trips and meetups, and only shares location during an event. Life360 is a family safety app with always-on location sharing, crash detection and SOS. They solve different problems.
2. Does OnTime track my location all the time?
No. Location is shared only while a Radar is active, and only until it ends or you leave. Nothing runs in the background outside of that.
3. Can my friends join without installing anything?
Yes. Anyone can join a Radar and share their live location from a web link, with no app and no account. The iPhone app gives the full experience.
4. Does OnTime work on Android?
OnTime is an iPhone app first. Friends on Android can still join from the web link and appear on the same map.
5. Does OnTime have crash detection or SOS alerts?
No. If you need emergency and safety features, Life360 is the better choice.
The bottom line
- OnTime is built around a group that wants to see each other for the length of one trip.
- Life360 is built around a family that wants to stay connected all the time.
If your location sharing should end when everyone has arrived, that's what OnTime is for.