Drone Start vs RUKO DRONE
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Drone Start
This app provides advanced flight checks and planning for drones, ensuring safe takeoffs and operations. It analyzes weather, GPS, battery health, and local airspace conditions, while also offering detailed flight route planning with elevation and wind data.
- Comprehensive pre-flight safety checks
- Detailed flight route planning
- Real-time drone battery and sensor monitoring
- Weather, GPS, and airspace analysis
- No-fly zone and wind map visualization
- Daily FlyCast notifications
- Intelligent Return To Home height calculation
Read full descriptionHide full description
Drone Start is an advanced flight check & planning tool for drones. Drone Start is packed full of features that will help you plan a safe drone flight every time! You simply turn on your drone, plug your device into the drone controller, open the app & tap Start! Drone Start will then do a comprehensive set of advanced checks to see if its safe to fly in your current area & it will even check your drones battery and sensors in real time to check your drone is in perfect condition to take off! When your not out flying you can use Drone Start to create comprehensive flight plans, just type in where you want to fly and Drone Start will get Weather, GPS, Light Levels, Terrain Elevation, No Fly Zones and more! You can also plan your flight route and find out the elevation change & how much battery you'll have left! You can view the area map and see No Fly Zones, Terrain Elevations, Sunrise/Sunset Times & Positions plus you can also see an animated Wind Map, showing the wind direction with colour coded arrows so you can immediately see if its too windy to fly or not. Drone Starts calculation are also based on your drone model*, so things such as winds speeds and battery range are calculated using your actual drone! Drone Start also has some great advanced features too such as: Daily FlyCast Daily FlyCast is a daily notification sent at sunrise every morning outlining the days flying conditions. You'll also have access to the FlyCast Widget, so you can always quickly check if its good to fly without even opening the app! Solar Storm Warnings Solar Storm Warnings are notifications informing you incoming solar storms which can cause high levels of magnetic interference which can affect GPS signals and impact the accuracy of your RTH point. Intelligent RTH If enabled Drone Start will automatically calculate and set your Return To Home Height based on surround terrain elevation and building heights, making sure your doesn't fly into a mountain side or building when it returns to you! Fly Zone Alert When enabled you will receive a notification informing you have entered a No Fly Zone, we will also let you know when you leave one too! Battery Manager Drone Start records battery data before each flight so you easily check battery health, including deviations. It also recommends battery rotation order if you have multiple batteries. You can also perform a battery test to check it's heath & efficiency, plus create pdf reports from the results. Intelligent VPS If there are large bodies of water in the area, Drone Start will automatically disable your VPS for you and automatically enable it next time you fly in an area with low amounts of water. Active Drone Alerts Get notified when theres a another drone flying near your location. Drone Start Features Include**: Start Checks - Weather, GPS, KP Index, Terrain Elevation & Airspace Checks - Light Checks - Aircraft Checks - Aircraft Warming - Building Height Check - Drone Battery Health Check - Drone Sensor Health Check - Wind Altitude Checks - RTH Height Check - Wind Map - No Fly Zone Map - Terrain Elevation Map - Ephemeris - Dedicated Drone Model Checks - Golden Hour Times - Water Area Check - Active Drone Check - RTH Reminder Flight Plans - 7 Day Weather Forecast - 7 Day GPS Forecast - 7 Day KP Index Forecast - No Fly Zone Check - Terrain Elevation Check - Weather Check - Wind Map - 3D Building Map - No Fly Zone Map - Terrain Elevation Map - Ephemeris - Best Time To Fly - Flight Route Planner - Dedicated Drone Model Checks - Weekly Summary - Light Check - Golden Hour Times *DJI Drone Models are only currently supported. **Some Feature May Require An Active Monthly or Yearly Auto Renewing Subscription. See our Terms of Use here: www.faulknerlabs.io/drone-start-terms
RUKO DRONE
Connect your drone via WiFi to view real-time aerial footage on your mobile device. Remotely control your drone's flight and capture stunning images from above.
- WiFi drone connection
- Real-time image display
- Remote drone control
- Aerial photography
Read full descriptionHide full description
This is an APP that connects the drone through the mobile phone'S WIFI, displays the images taken by the aircraft in real time, and can control the drone remotely
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Drone Start at 4.1 against RUKO DRONE's 2.8. Drone Start also leads on review sentiment (41% vs 21%). RUKO DRONE's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Drone Start sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per month. RUKO DRONE asks for nothing beyond the download.
Drone Start holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 47 and 104 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 41% of Drone Start's written reviews are positive against 21% of RUKO DRONE's.
Drone Start ships an update every 3 weeks, RUKO DRONE monthly. The most recent releases landed on July 5, 2026 and September 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Drone Start | RUKO DRONE |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (47 ratings) — better | 2.8 (104 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 41.4% of reviews — better | 21.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 47 | 104 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 120 MB | 374 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Neil Faulkner | Shenzhen Ruike Innovation Technology |
Customer experience
Drone Start
RUKO DRONE
In-app purchases
Drone Start
- Professional Monthly7 Days trial$1.491 Month
- Professional Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
RUKO DRONE
No in-app purchases







