Air Manager vs X
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Air Manager
Design custom flight simulator instrument panels on your iPad. Connect to popular simulators like X-plane and FS2020 to use your iPad as a primary or secondary instrument display. Offers over 1000 free instruments and intuitive touch controls for a realistic simulation experience.
- Custom instrument panel design
- iPad as primary/secondary display
- Connects to X-plane, FS2020, P3D, FSX
- Over 1000 free instruments
- Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
- Control simulator functions via touch
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Air Manager lets you design custom flight simulator instrument panels on your iPad. Panels can connect to X-plane, FS2020, FS2024, Prepar3d and FSX. Use your iPad as a primary instrument panel and have your computer monitor for outside view only, or use your iPad as a secondary com stack to easily set frequencies through the iPad touch screen. Air Manager comes with more than 1000 free instruments. Add, drag, scale, build your instrument panel in only a matter of minutes. Save your created panels, and switch between them quickly. User friendly No difficult settings or downloading and configuring of third party applications. You can download the necessary plugins from our website for free. We offer a complete solution! Place instruments anywhere you like Tap an instrument to add it to the canvas, hold and drag to rearrange, and pinch to scale, it’s as easy as that. Loads of free instruments The application comes with more than 1000 free instruments, and this collection keeps growing. Buttons, Switches and Knobs Controls like Buttons, Switches, and Knobs let you control the simulator from your 2D panels, so your Flight Simulation is super realistic. Setting a radio frequency or the altimeter setting, moving electrical switches, and controlling the autopilot are just a few examples of what you can do without directly accessing the flight simulator. Multiplatform and multi simulator The Air Manager plugin runs on Microsoft Window, Mac OSX, and Linux, both 32 bits and 64 bits, and is compatible with Laminar Research X-Plane 9, 10 and 11, Microsoft FSX and Lockheed Martin Prepar3D.
X
Control your desktop flight simulator from your mobile device. Connect wirelessly over your local network to manage X-Plane 12 with pro-level precision. Experience a new way to interact with your flight simulation.
- Local LAN control
- X-Plane 12 integration
- Pro-level precision
- Mobile device interface
- Wireless connectivity
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Run X-Plane 12 for desktop Mac, Windows or Linux on your local LAN. Run this App on your iPad or iPhone on the same LAN! Choose the copy of X-Plane you want to control on the opening screen and viola: You've got Pro-Level control of X-Plane 12!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: X at Free against Air Manager's $22.99. X also leads on rating (3.6 vs 3.0) and device support (3 vs 1). On review sentiment, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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
X is free to download; Air Manager costs $22.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
X holds the better App Store score, 3.6 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 29 and 23 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of Air Manager's written reviews are positive against 37% of X's.
Air Manager ships an update every 10 months, X every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Air Manager | X |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $22.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.0 (29 ratings) | 3.6 (23 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.8% of reviews | 36.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 29 — better | 23 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months | Every 5 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 897 MB | 3.0 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sim Innovations B.V. | Laminar Research |
Customer experience
Air Manager
X
In-app purchases
Air Manager
No in-app purchases
X
No in-app purchases







