If you’ve been following smart pet tech closely over the last couple years, you might know Pawport. I saw the company’s smart pet door at the last two CES’s, and was my first introduction to this specific product category. At the time, Pawport hadn’t yet launched; now they have. But there’s one key difference between the pet door Pawport showed off at CES 2025, and the one that eventually launched late last year.
Pawport’s smart pet door
In a lot of ways, Pawport’s official pet door is the product I saw last year: Pawport is made of aluminum, and is reportedly bulletproof. (The company has a model riddled with bullet holes on display). This smart door is designed to fit over an existing pet door in your home. If you don’t have one, the company also sells an insert to install into your wall. It’s weatherproof, has deadbolts on the top and bottom for security, and connects to smart home and voice control assistants. It can even work on battery power, though you can also plug it into power.
But Pawport tells me the big change between last year’s prototype and its official launch model is the technology used in the smart tag that attached to your pet’s collar. Now, Pawport uses a type of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology to communicate between the tag and the door. That gives the user more control over things like how far your pet has to be from the door before it opens: Maybe you prefer your dog to be two feet away inside before it opens, but five feet away when outside. Pawport says UWB also gives the door more security than before. Now, the tech enables end-to-end encryption between the dog collar and the door, so, according to the company, the door can’t be hacked. It’s a bold claim, but, if true, that should give pet owners some peace of mind.
Credit: Lifehacker
Pawport now also gives pet owners control over whether pets can run outside in adverse weather conditions. If there’s rain or lightning, users can configure the app to lock the door from the inside, so pets can’t scurry off into an unsafe backyard. That only locks one way, as well, so if the pet is already outside when the weather lock takes effect, they can still get back inside.
In addition, the company tells me that UWB has extended the battery life of the tag this go around. While the previous prototype was rated for around six months of battery life, the new model has an advertised battery life of one year, though users could see their batteries lasting up to 15 to 18 months.
Pawport plans to eventually sell a dedicated outdoor pet door as well, but at the moment, it only sells the indoor unit. That starts at $599 for the company’s six standard colors in their medium sized unit, and $849 for one of eight “signature series” designs, which adds a polished wood look to the door. You can upgrade to a large unit for another $50, or the extra large unit for an extra $100.