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Thatcham S5 vs S7 explained — and when you don’t need one

Approval is an insurance question, not a verdict on whether a device works. Both halves of that sentence matter, so here is the whole picture.

Last updated 2026-08-24 · Written by the Sentrix team, Britain

If you have shopped for a vehicle tracker in the UK you have hit the wall of jargon: S5, S7, Cat 6, ADR, “insurance approved”. Most of it exists for one reason — insurers needed a shorthand for “this security is real and independently tested”, and Thatcham Research provides it.

We should say up front where we stand, because it affects how you read the rest: Sentrix is not Thatcham approved. Neither is Monimoto, the tracker most widely recommended to UK riders — their own support pages say so. That does not make approval meaningless. It makes it a specific thing, for a specific purpose, and this page explains which purpose so you can tell whether it is yours.

The old labels and the new ones

You will still see Category 5, 6 and 7 in older listings. The scheme was tidied up:

S7: reactive

An S7 tracker gives you GPS tracking and a 24/7 monitoring centre. It has movement sensing, so it raises an alert if the vehicle moves with the ignition off, or if someone tampers with the power supply.

The word to hold on to is reactive. With S7, the sequence usually starts with you: you discover the vehicle is gone and you report it, and then the monitoring centre can act. It is a strong baseline, and it is meaningfully cheaper than S5.

S5: proactive, because of one extra part

An S5 tracker is an S7 plus Automatic Driver Recognition — ADR. You carry a tag or fob. If the vehicle moves and the tag is not present, the system knows immediately that whoever is moving it is not you, alerts the monitoring centre automatically, and the centre contacts you.

Nobody has to notice anything first. That is the entire difference, and it is why S5 sits at the top of the scheme and costs more — both to buy and to fit, since approved installation is part of the deal.

When your insurer will actually insist

Above a certain vehicle value, most insurers require an approved tracker as a condition of theft cover, and for the higher values they specify S5 with professional fitting. The exact threshold is not a national rule: it varies by insurer, by vehicle type and by your circumstances, and it is written into your policy rather than published as a standard.

So there is only one reliable way to find out. Ask your insurer these three questions, and get the answers in writing:

1. Does my policy require an approved tracker at all, and if so, S5 or S7?
2. Does it have to be professionally fitted for the cover to stand?
3. If it is not required, does fitting one reduce my premium — and by how much?

That third question surprises people. A tracker that is not required often makes no difference to the premium at all. Buy one because you want to know when your vehicle moves, not on the assumption of a discount.

What approval costs you, beyond the device

• Approved installation. An S5 or S7 has to be fitted by an approved installer to count. That is a fitting bill, and it ties the unit to that vehicle.
• Monitoring subscription. The control room is people, working around the clock, and it is normally the largest ongoing cost.
• Less flexibility. Wired and registered to one vehicle. Selling the bike means starting again.

When you genuinely do not need approval

Being honest about this is more useful to you than a sales pitch. Approval is probably not your requirement if:

• Your policy does not ask for it — check first, but plenty of policies on ordinary vehicles never mention trackers.
• You want to protect something outside the scheme’s usual scope: a work van’s contents, a trailer, a classic that lives in a garage, an e-bike, plant or equipment.
• You want to move the device between vehicles as you change them.
• What you actually want is to know immediately, on your own phone, and to make the call yourself — rather than pay a control room to make it for you.

And the reverse, just as plainly: if your insurer requires S5, buy an S5. A cheaper self-fit tracker is not a substitute for a condition of your cover, and discovering that after a theft is an expensive way to learn it. No self-monitored tracker, ours included, can satisfy an S5 requirement.

Where a self-fit tracker sits

Self-fit battery trackers borrow the idea that makes S5 clever — a key fob the system recognises — without the monitoring centre or the approval. The alert goes to your phone instead of to a control room. That is cheaper and more flexible, and it puts the responsibility on you: you are the one who has to wake up and call 999.

For a lot of riders that is exactly the trade they want. For some, it is not enough. Both can be true.

Common questions

Is Sentrix Thatcham approved?

No. Sentrix is a self-fit, self-monitored tracker: the alert goes to your phone rather than to a monitoring centre, and there is no approved installation. If your insurance policy requires an S5 or S7 device, Sentrix does not meet that requirement.

Is Monimoto Thatcham approved?

No. Monimoto’s own support pages state that it is not Thatcham approved, for the same structural reason: it is a self-fit, unmonitored device rather than one wired in by an approved installer and watched by a control room.

What is ADR on a tracker?

Automatic Driver Recognition. You carry a tag or fob, and if the vehicle moves without it present the system treats that as unauthorised straight away, without waiting for you to notice. ADR is the defining feature of the S5 category.

Will a Thatcham tracker get my bike back?

It improves your odds by shortening the time between the theft and someone acting on it, but recovery is done by police. No tracker in any category recovers a vehicle by itself.

Does S7 still exist, or was it replaced?

It exists. S7 is the current label for what used to be split across Categories 6 and 7, and it remains a legitimate insurer-recognised tier — just without the driver recognition that defines S5.