Best AirTag Cases & Holders: Brilliant Accessories

There are cheaper alternatives, but this is the best AirTag key ring we’ve seen. It’s light, attractive and reassuringly well-made. It’s easy to put the AirTag inside, but the metal popper won’t let it escape. And we love the large, chunky (but quite flat) ring, although we’d recommend testing it out in a shop if you’re planning on attaching car keys with a small aperture. This reviewer’s Nissan and Skoda keys were both a tight fit.

The leather covering protects the AirTag’s edge from drop damage but leaves most of its chassis, both front and back, open to the elements and liable to scuff a little. We think this is worth it for the pleasing look, and scuffing is both inevitable and minor, but if you want total protection you’ll need to look elsewhere.–David Price

Orbitkey‘s leather offering is well worth your consideration. It costs roughly the same as Apple’s Leather Key Ring but it has a nice-looking design and a couple of advantages up its sleeve.

One is the slenderness of the ring itself. Whereas Apple’s broad, flat ring can be awkward for attaching car keys with a narrow aperture, this will fit into holes of the smallest dimensions. The second advantage lies in the innovative way keys are attached: an initially baffling locking system that, once mastered, is far quicker and easier (and far less painful) than prising apart the traditional two-layer ring with your fingernails.

The only real quibble is that the leather fob is quite a lot bigger than the AirTag itself. It has more space than it needs and wobbles around slightly inside the pocket. The key ring thus takes up more room in your pocket than it needs to. This does also give the AirTag far more protection than Apple’s version. It’s less likely to get scuffed than with the other key rings we tried out.

If the price tag puts you off, Orbitkey also makes a much cheaper Slim Case with a similar locking system.–David Price

If the leather key rings above are too expensive for your budget, consider Belkin’s cheerful, affordable alternative. The Secure Holder is made of plastic, which gives it more of a budget feel, but it’s reassuringly robust.

As with Apple’s key ring, both faces of the AirTag are left exposed, but the plastic surround sticks out more and thus provides more drop protection. The AirTag is secured inside the holder via a clever twist-and-lock mechanism. It’s available in white, black, pink and blue.–David Price

Olixar’s simple offering costs less than the Belkin key ring, and less than a third of the Apple option, for a pair. Very handy if you want to equip a couple of young teenagers with AirTags and keep an eye on their movements.

Wrestling the AirTag into the silicone cover is mildly tricky–there’s no clasp of any kind, you just stretch the edges and jam it in there–but it’s secure once inside and admirably protective. In fact you could say it provides twice the protection of Apple’s key ring since it covers the back completely: only the front face is exposed.

The karabiner-style opening on the ring makes it easier to use and more fun than a conventional ring (although slightly less secure, since it doesn’t have the lock feature of a full mountaineering karabiner). But this is essentially a basic option; if you’re prepared to spend a little more, consider Olixar’s ‘leather style’ version instead, or even its top-of-the-line genuine leather case.–David Price

Elevation Lab’s TagVault: Keychain offers a keyring nub, resistance to scratching or mars, or waterproof or water-resistant options. This rugged case has a gasket that prevents water intrusion while passing through ultrawideband and Bluetooth signals and allowing about two-thirds of the AirTag’s sound volume. It has an integral loop for a keychain ring and comes with a simple but robust one.–Glenn Fleishman

How about a properly rugged key ring accessory for your AirTag? The Caseology Vault is made from military-grade thermoplastic polyurethane, with a nicely grippy sandstone finish that makes it less prone to drops.

Like the Olixar Silicone it features a karabiner attachment. This is removable, which makes the Vault a versatile accessory. It’s just as happy tracking rucksacks as keys.–David Price

Before we finish looking at your key ring options, let’s briefly indulge ourselves in this glorious blast of pure luxury: Apple’s saddle-stitched Hermès offering in orange, brown or black leather. (Or, to be exact, Orange, Fauve or Bleu Indigo.) Most of the accessories in this roundup do not include an AirTag, but this one does, and the tracker you get will be custom-etched with the fashion company’s logo. Glorious.–David Price

Apple’s AirTag Loop is made of polyurethane and feels and looks smart, with two of the color options (Electric Orange and Sunflower) particularly bright and cheerful. This will also help you to spot your suitcase on the conveyor belt.

The AirTag clips in using a metal clasp that’s easy to use and secure; you then put the strap around your luggage’s handle and loop the head part back through the slit in the tail. It looks slightly delicate at first glance–the strap gets quite thin at a certain point–but proved resistant to moderate tugging and should be fine under non-military usage conditions. Like Apple’s key ring, it protects the edges of the AirTag but not the center of its two faces, so expect some scuffing.–David Price

Apple’s Leather Loop is available in Saddle Brown, Baltic Blue, Forest Green, California Poppy, or (Product) Red. It’s only a bit more expensive than the AirTag Loop–from a high starting point, admittedly–and looks and feels significantly nicer than the polyurethane version. (We also suspect it will prove more resistant to damage in the long term, although both have been fine so far.)–David Price

Olixar’s silicone AirTag strap has a very similar design to Apple’s Loop, but as you’d expect (given how much cheaper it is) the materials and quality of manufacture are slightly less luxurious. It’s a bit floppier, for one thing, and doesn’t feel quite as nice. It’s a perfectly decent, functional and much more affordable substitute, however, and there’s always the option of the leather version if you’re prepared to splash out a bit more for a taste of the finer things in life.–David Price

Belkin’s Secure Holder is also available with a robust string for attaching it to the handle of a suitcase or bag. Like the strap-style loops provided by other manufacturers this threads back through itself to easily attach to your luggage. It’s available in white, black, blue, and pink with a matching string. Since the front and back sections, string and key ring are all detachable, you could create a multicolor accessory by mixing and matching more than one holder.–David Price

The principal appeal of Casetify’s AirTag holder is the sheer range of designs and colors you can choose from. The ones pictured are, from left, Colorful Floral in Turquoise and Pink (with Peach background); Flowers for you by Matthew Langille (with Licorice); and Egg Tart with Mice (with Avocado). That last one is our favorite, but there are hundreds of options.–David Price

For luggage labels, too, Apple’s Hermès partnership provides the luxury option. It’s made of saddle-stitched Barénia leather, and available in any color as long as it’s Fauve. Like the deluxe key ring, the Hermès Luggage Tag comes with a custom-etched AirTag.–David Price

This handsome and luxurious bag charm is the most affordable of the four AirTag accessories made by Apple with Hermes–although affordability is a relative concept. It’s available in Orange, Fauve, and Bleu Indigo and comes with a custom-etched AirTag.–David Price

And here’s the fourth, final, and most expensive Apple/Hermès collaboration in this roundup. It’s a dual-function travel tag that attaches to your luggage and holds both an AirTag (included in the price) for geolocation and a card with written information. It isn’t listed on Apple’s store, so you’ll need to buy direct from Hermes. It’s available in Fauve only.–David Price

The TagVault: Pet uses screws with the small Torx T6 star-shaped drive for the portion that contains the AirTag and maintains the waterproof seal. These screws are piercing, self-tapping screws with a T10 slot. They’re used to hold a hard plastic anchor to provide further stability when attached to a pet collar that you provide–though the case may be too big for smaller collars. The kit includes a steel Torx T6 L-shaped wrench with screw tips on both ends.–Glenn Fleishman

The AirTag is a little prone to picking up scuff marks, and many of the holders in this roundup leave at least one of its surfaces uncovered and vulnerable to damage. If this is something you’re concerned about, consider buying a “screen” protector for your tracker–it hasn’t actually got a screen, of course, but the same principle applies. Olixar includes two TPU film covers in the pack, along with ethanol wipes and a cleaning cloth for preparing the AirTag, and an application card for smoothing out air bubbles.–David Price

If the thing you want to track hasn’t got a handle you can loop the AirTags to, or a pocket you can slip one inside, then the next option is stickiness. These neat silicone pockets (which come in a pack of four) both protect the tracker from external damage, and give it a strong and reliable adhesive surface to cling to a jewel box, schoolbag or games console.

Despite the unobtrusive look of the pocket the AirTag is still fairly obvious and easily slipped out, so this solution isn’t ideal for tracking down stolen property (unless there’s a more discreet internal surface you can stick it to). But for locating TV remotes–and for sheer versatility of application–they’re indispensable.–David Price

The TagVault: Bike is a lozenged-shaped plastic shell that houses the AirTag AirTag nestles inside its waterproof seal. It attaches to a bike via the bike’s water bottle mount, using longer screws to attach the bottle cage, or shorter screws if you don’t attach the cage. The case is a matte black, rendering it unobtrusive. Screwed in between a cage and the frame, a thief would first have to recognize it and then work hard to remove it quickly.–Glenn Fleishman

Nomad has tried to pair the utility of Apple’s AirTag tracker with a glasses strap. To accommodate many kinds of glass stems, the strap has three kinds of interchangeable tips that snap snugly into the ends of the strap’s cord. You can adjust the strap to provide a tight or loose fit, and friction keeps that tension in place until you change it again. Nomad has done everything it can to make the case invisible, compact, rugged, and comfortable, but some people may find the packaging too obtrusive or it might bother them in routine usage.–Glenn Fleishman