Comparison

Planes Control! vs Headings

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Planes Control!

Guide aircraft to safe landings while avoiding hazards like storms and enemy attacks. Control over 60 different planes and helicopters across 13 challenging levels. Engage in aerial combat, fight wildfires, and manage air traffic in this addictive simulation game.

Highlights
  • Draw flight paths for aircraft
  • Avoid collisions and environmental hazards
  • Pilot over 60 types of planes and helicopters
  • Engage in aerial combat
  • Fight wildfires with air tankers
  • Navigate diverse and challenging levels
Features
Read full description

Take control of the sky and land your planes avoiding collisions and enemies. Guide your planes to ensure safe landing in this incredibly easy to learn yet surprisingly addictive game! Get an adrenalin rush while avoiding dangerous collisions, blazing storms and tornadoes, put out forest fire, get ready to repel an attack of enemy fighters and fight off an alien invasion! GAMEPLAY Planes Control is an game with simple controls. Draw lines with your fingers to determine the path each plane will follow as they find their way to land or to engage the enemy. This sounds easy? You will need fast fingers and strategy to manage all your planes and keep the sky under control. AIRCRAFTS You can navigate more than 60 different planes and helicopters including airliners, WWII fighters, jet planes and tilt rotors while playing Planes Control. Beside this, you will enjoy flying the SR-71 Black Bird (the world's fastest plane), the Antonov 225 (the largest aircraft in the world to fly multiple times) and famous combat planes like the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the F-14 Tomcat or the Apache AH-64 combat helicopter. LEVELS Planes Control has 13 awesome levels for mobile devices plus 6 new levels full of challenges created for tablets. More levels are on the way. • Earn your wings on a holiday resort, guiding your planes and helicopters. • Aerial combat! Shoot down hostile planes and helicopters over the scorching desert. • Air Tankers: Fight wildfires by dropping water with your planes and helicopters. • Storm Carrier landings: Command your military fighters and helicopters between the clouds and rain. • Navigate canyons in the Arizona’s Desert. • Successfully land your Aircraft during a tornado outbreak. • Night landings: Switch your landing lights on and find your way around the airfield. • Keep an eye on emergency calls and give priority landing to the planes that are running out of fuel. • Avoid cargo planes flying around your air space. • Land your planes in the middle of an alien invasion ! READY FOR A CHALLENGE? Earn new and different achievements in every level and challenge yourself to the limit. Please sit back, fasten your seatbelt and enjoy taking control of the sky – download Planes Control now! ⓘ For the latest inside information from Rarepixels: ► Like us at https://www.facebook.com/planesApp ► Visit us at http://rarepixels.com/games/planes-control/ ► Follow us at https://www.twitter.com/planes_control

About

Headings

Experience realistic air traffic control simulation with various difficulty levels and real-world airport scenarios. Learn ATC techniques, hone skills, and compete on leaderboards. Includes training modes for aspiring and current air traffic controllers.

Highlights
  • Realistic ATC radar simulation
  • Multiple difficulty levels
  • Real-world airport scenarios
  • Eurocontrol FEAST-II training mode
  • Leaderboard competition
  • Custom runway training
Features
Read full description

Headings is the most realistic Air Trafic Control (ATC) radar simulator and trainer for iPhone and iPad you will find. From complete newbie to seasoned ATCO, there is a mode for you. Learn about ATC techniques and tools such as vectoring, speed control, QDMs, aircraft performance and more. Also includes a Eurocontrol FEAST-II part 2 training mode so you can train estimating headings just by sight while also constantly shifting focus to different aircraft. (what we call scanning and is an essential skill for these kinds of tests) Acquire and hone new skills, then compete for the top spot on the leaderboard to see if you can beat real Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs). Scenarios currently include Dubai International, JFK (New York), Heathrow (London), Zaventem (Brussels), Schiphol (Amsterdam), Rome (Fiumicino) and New Delhi (Indira Gandhi) featuring actual aircraft callsigns and types from those locations. Or choose your custom runway direction you'd like to train on. 6 difficulty levels per scenario allow you to really become accustomed to the airspace and also focus training on a certain type of traffic. Extreme traffic modes make you experience the true at the top of focus/edge of drowning feeling just like real traffic does. For valid ATCOs, please add your 4-letter Unit identifier in your gamecenter name to show up in the leaderboards with your unit. This is version one of a one-man project. Love the job so much that I decided to make my own training/refreshing/game tool to enjoy during off days :-) Ad-free for life hence the initial one-time purchase. If you have any questions, suggestions, comments or requests for new airports/airspaces please send me an email at headingsatc@icloud.com. Screen size of the iPhone currently limits some airspace possiblities. In the works: Voice control, New headings game mode, bigger airspace which is GPS accurate SID/STARs, etc. Of course that will be free for those who support this version. Thank you and regards, N.

Screenshots

Planes Control!4 screens
Headings4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Planes Control! at Free against Headings's $8.99. Planes Control! also leads on ratings volume (7K vs 10) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.6). Headings's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ads (none vs shown). On rating, update cadence and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Planes Control! is free to download; Headings costs $8.99 up front. Planes Control! sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Headings asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Planes Control! against 4.8 for Headings. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Planes Control! has 7K ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 79% of Planes Control!'s written reviews are positive against 95% of Headings's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Planes Control! ships an update monthly, Headings every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Planes Control! versus Headings: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlanes Control!Headings
PriceFree — better$8.99
Rating4.7 (7K ratings)4.8 (10 ratings) — better
Positive reviews79.1% of reviews95.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings7K — better10
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size40 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAntonio Calvino Esquernick bols

Customer experience

Planes Control!

All ratings6,833 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral2.9%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews421 reviews
Positive79.1%
Neutral8.1%
Negative12.8%

Headings

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews20 reviews
Positive95.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.0%

Bugs and requests

Planes Control!

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Game freezes on iOS 14
  • High score not recorded correctly
  • Planes colliding off-screen
  • Notification bar interfering with gameplay

Requested features

5 requests
  • More level options and customization
  • Ability to pause and resume games
  • Improved tutorial and instructions
  • Difficulty settings for each level
  • Leaderboards and achievements

Headings

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Planes Control!

One-time10
  • Pack of 5× Rescue Teams.$0.99
  • Unlock all HD Levels$0.99
  • Classic levels$0.99
Show 7 more
  • Unlock "Time Machine" levels!$0.99
  • Unlock "10th Anniversary" levels!$0.99
  • Three crashes per game.$1.99
  • Classic levels and no ads$2.99
  • Pack of 20× Rescue Teams.$2.99
  • No Ads.$2.99
  • Pack of 50× Rescue Teams.$4.99
None

Headings

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Planes Control! free?
Planes Control! is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Headings free?
Headings costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Planes Control! or Headings?
Headings is rated higher. Planes Control! averages 4.7 out of 5 from 7K ratings, while Headings averages 4.8 from 10 ratings.
Do Planes Control! or Headings have ads?
Planes Control! shows ads; Headings does not.
Which is updated more often, Planes Control! or Headings?
Planes Control! ships an update monthly, and Headings every 3 weeks. Most recently, Planes Control! was updated on October 26, 2026 and Headings on October 24, 2026.

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