Hi Todd
Happy 4th and a day…
While I can’t compare the inReach to the Zoleo nor even comment on the Zoleo, my experience with the inReach has been positive and as you know well we have some very lonely places in the Western USA and I really like the comfort of the inReach as a life line if things go sideways.
I’ve used the InReach from prior to acquisition by Garmin and have always been happy with it. In fairness, it’s a bulkier object than the mini and I did seriously think about “upgrading” to the mini but money aside felt the reduced battery life might become an issue on a multi day Sierra hike.
Don’t know if the Zoleo has the web based near real time location sharing but that is potentially useful for chasers and maybe even my wife. Here is an example of what you can see.
The iPhone app is pretty good and never seems to have a bluetooth pairing issue unlike a lot of other products like my Jeep and occasional heart rate monitor.
I have the $25 pm plan which isn’t cheap but it predated another option at about $11 pm which might well be good enough for your needs.
Paul