ForeFlight vs Garmin Pilot vs FltPlan Go
ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot and FltPlan Go compared on price, charts, planning, weather and avionics integration, with a 3-year cost breakdown.
Organizational byline
Updated October 2, 2026
9 min read
The electronic flight bag has gone from a luxury to the single most important software decision a pilot makes. In 2026, the practical field for most Part 91 pilots comes down to three apps: ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, and FltPlan Go. Choosing between them determines which tablet you carry, how you brief weather, how you file flight plans, and — if you fly behind Garmin avionics — how deeply your tablet integrates with your panel.
This comparison covers the three apps as they stand in 2026: platform support, chart coverage, flight planning, weather, ADS-B and avionics integration, synthetic vision, logbook, weight and balance, and — because it matters to everyone — total cost over a realistic three-year period. For a wider survey of the apps that support a pilot's whole working day, see our best aviation apps roundup for 2026; the head-to-head between ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot covers that specific rivalry in more depth.
The three apps at a glance
| ForeFlight | Garmin Pilot | FltPlan Go | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price (2026) | $120–$390/yr | $110–$210/yr | Free |
| Platforms | iOS only | iOS + Android | iOS + Android + Windows |
| VFR sectionals/IFR enroute | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Approach plates (US) | Yes (georeferenced on paid tiers) | Yes (georeferenced on paid tiers) | Yes (georeferenced free) |
| Synthetic vision | Yes (premium tiers) | Yes (premium tier) | Yes (with terrain data) |
| In-cockpit avionics link | Garmin, AHRS, ADS-B | Garmin (deepest), ADS-B | Garmin (Connext), ADS-B |
| Logbook | Yes (integrated) | Yes (integrated) | Basic |
| Weight & balance | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Owner | Boeing (acquired 2019) | Garmin | Garmin (acquired 2019) |
ForeFlight: the benchmark that set the standard
ForeFlight is the app that defined the category. Its subscription ladder runs from a basic VFR plan around $120 per year to the full Performance Plus tier around $390 per year, with the mid tiers being where most private pilots land. It is iOS only — iPhone and iPad — and has been since its 2009 launch. That exclusivity is a genuine constraint for Android pilots and a non-issue for everyone else.
ForeFlight's strengths are the ones that compound over time. The flight-planning interface remains the reference standard for drag-a-route-and-see-everything workflow: you bend a route around weather with your fingertip and the profile view shows terrain, fuel and performance along the track. The integrated logbook, the document binding, the hazard-adjacent layers (TFRs, icing, turbulence, G-AIRMET), and the Tap-and-Hold-everything interface all reward daily use. Georeferenced approach plates on the appropriate tiers are the feature instrument pilots cite most — your plate moves on the map as you fly the approach.
The weaknesses are equally clear. No Android version, ever, per the company's consistent position. Pricing is the highest of the paid apps at the top tiers. And since the Boeing acquisition, some professional users have watched feature cadence closely, though the 2026 product remains the most polished EFB available.
Garmin Pilot: the avionics integration play
Garmin Pilot is ForeFlight's only true peer. It runs $110–$210 per year depending on tier, and — the structural difference — it runs on both iOS and Android. For a pilot who owns a modern Android phone or tablet, Garmin Pilot is not the alternative to ForeFlight; it is the only full-featured choice.
Feature-wise, Garmin Pilot has closed nearly every historical gap. Its flight planning, chart layers, weather depiction, synthetic vision and document management match ForeFlight's on paper, and its weight-and-balance and logbook tools are fully integrated. Where it historically ran behind was interface polish — ForeFlight's map layers and briefing workflow felt faster to learn — and the 2026 versions are much closer, though many pilots still describe Garmin Pilot as requiring more taps to do the same task.
Where Garmin Pilot is genuinely ahead is hardware integration. If your aircraft carries a Garmin panel — a GTN navigator, a GFC autopilot, a GDL inflight weather unit, a GTX transponder with ADS-B — Garmin Pilot connects through the Garmin Connext ecosystem with a depth no third-party app can match. On appropriately equipped aircraft, the app can display panel-synced flight plan data, stream attitude to drive its synthetic vision from the aircraft's own AHRS rather than a portable device, and interact with Connext-connected equipment in ways ForeFlight's Garmin support does not replicate. The practical rule: the more Garmin is in your panel, the stronger the case for Garmin Pilot.
FltPlan Go: free, and better than its price suggests
FltPlan Go is the companion app to Fltplan.com, the flight-planning website founded in 1999 and acquired by Garmin in 2019. The app is free on iOS, Android and even Windows — the only one of the three with a Windows option, which matters to pilots who brief on a laptop at fixed-base operators.
Free does not mean empty. FltPlan Go includes georeferenced approach plates at no cost, full VFR and IFR chart coverage for the US, weather briefing layers, a weight-and-balance tool, logbook basics, a scratchpad, and connectivity to Garmin Connext and ADS-B receivers. Pilots who filed through Fltplan.com for years — and there are many, particularly in the corporate and turbine world where the website's performance planning and weight-and-balance tools were standard — get their plans and paperwork on the tablet for nothing.
The honest limitations: the interface feels its age in places, the planning workflow is website-first rather than tablet-first, chart and data management is less automatic than the paid apps, and the polish gap shows in daily use. For a pilot flying VFR locally a few weekends a month, none of those limitations matter much. For a pilot flying actual IFR in the system every week, the paid apps earn their keep in briefing speed and plate management alone.
What actually differs: the details that decide it
Weather depiction. All three consume ADS-B/FIS-B and internet weather. ForeFlight's layer system (Satellite, Radar, Icing, Turbulence, Wind Aloft, G-AIRMET) remains the benchmark for glanceability; Garmin Pilot matches the data and adds tight GFD (Garmin's datalink ecosystem) integration; FltPlan Go delivers the essential products without the same visual refinement.
Synthetic vision. All three offer synthetic vision on the moving map. ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot tie it to premium tiers; FltPlan Go includes it free with downloaded terrain data. All three can drive it from a portable or panel AHRS. If synthetic vision is your primary interest, FltPlan Go's free inclusion is remarkable value; in practice the paid apps render it more smoothly.
Logbook. ForeFlight's integrated logbook is the most complete of the three and doubles as a currency tracker that counts approaches, landings and night time automatically from your flights. Garmin Pilot's logbook is similar and syncs with Garmin's ecosystem. FltPlan Go's logbook is basic. For a pilot building time toward certificates, this difference alone can justify a paid tier — logging flights by hand after every lesson is a chore that reliably gets skipped.
Weight and balance. All three do it. None of them is a substitute for knowing how to do it, and all three will happily let you load an aircraft out of its envelope if you enter the wrong numbers.
The three-year cost for a student pilot
This is where the decision gets concrete. Assume a student starting a private licence in 2026 who will fly 60 hours in year one, then continue as a new private pilot with instrument ambitions:
- FltPlan Go: $0 for three years. Add a $250 Android tablet or use a phone, and the entire software cost of training is zero.
- Garmin Pilot: at the common mid tier of roughly $160/year, about $480 over three years — plus the tablet, which can be almost anything, since the Android field starts cheap.
- ForeFlight: at the typical private-pilot tier around $180/year, about $540 over three years — plus the iPad, since the used iPad mini market is the floor here.
A realistic three-year software-and-tablet range runs from roughly $250 (FltPlan Go plus a modest Android tablet) to roughly $1,100 (ForeFlight plus a used iPad mini). Against the cost of flight training itself — covered in detail in our private licence cost guide for 2026 — even the expensive path is a rounding error. The real question is not whether you can afford ForeFlight; it is whether the free option costs you more in briefing time and friction than it saves.
Outside the United States
The trio above is US-centric, and two regional leaders deserve mention. SkyDemon dominates VFR flight planning in the United Kingdom and much of Europe; its airspace depiction, NOTAM visualisation and planning workflow are regarded by many European pilots as superior to any US app flown abroad, and it is far cheaper than the US flagships. OzRunways is the standard in Australia, with CASA-adopted charts and airservices data, and it is the practical default for any pilot operating under CASA rules in Australian airspace. A US pilot flying internationally will eventually carry a second regional app; both of these are the ones to look at first.
Verdict
- Best for most private and instrument pilots (iOS users): ForeFlight. You pay the most and get the most polished product, the best briefing workflow and the most complete logbook. It is the safe recommendation, and for once the safe recommendation is also the correct one for most pilots.
- Best for Android pilots and Garmin-panel owners: Garmin Pilot. On any Android device it is the only serious option, and in a Garmin-panelled aircraft its Connext integration is a genuine capability ForeFlight cannot replicate.
- Best for budget-limited students and VFR weekend flyers: FltPlan Go. Free plates, free synthetic vision, free logbook basics and georeferenced charts make it the rational choice when every dollar is going into the aircraft instead of the software. Upgrade later if your flying grows into it.
The one wrong answer is the app you don't learn thoroughly. Every one of these three can brief a flight, depict weather, overlay plates and save your certificate when the radios go quiet — if you know where everything is without thinking. Pick a platform, learn it to that level, and the subscription price becomes the least important number in this comparison.
