Comparison

Drone Start vs Drone Scanner

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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 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

About

Drone Scanner

Transform your device into a drone scanner to track nearby flights in real-time. View detailed flight information, including pilot data and location history, on an interactive map. The app is updated to comply with current EU and US regulations.

Highlights
  • Real-time drone tracking
  • Detailed drone information
  • Interactive flight map
  • Support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi broadcasts
  • Flying zone highlighting
  • Data export functionality
Features
Read full description

The world's first drone Remote ID scanner made by Dronetag. _____ READ BEFORE DOWNLOADING! Limited access to features on some phones is caused by manufacturers’ restrictions. All iOS phones, for example, prohibit app access to Wi-Fi, so only Bluetooth data transmission will work (if and only the drone has an active Remote ID over Bluetooth). It is not a flaw of our app; we cannot fix this, and we don’t deserve negative reviews for these issues. _____ Transform your phone or tablet into a drone scanner and track all the nearby flights over Direct / Broadcast Remote ID standards. Browse real-time data about drones on a detailed map highlighting specific flying space zones. Download Drone Scanner for free and discover what drones fly above your head. Favourite features: - Discover more about drones flying nearby in real-time - Examine detailed information broadcasted by drones via Bluetooth 4, Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi Beacon, and Wi-Fi NAN - Browse a detailed map with your location and all nearby aircraft - Check available data about drones, including real-time height, direction, pilot identification, pilot position, operation description, and location history - Various flying zones marked and highlighted on the map - Easy export of collected data - Continuously updated to reflect the latest EU & US regulations All these features you find in Drone Scanner – a free app for tracking drones. The app is developed by Dronetag, manufacturing devices for remote drone identification. How it works: Anyone can quickly identify what drones are flying in the sky nearby. Direct Remote ID is a feature that transmits live flight data via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to the surrounding area. Drone manufacturers use various technologies to build an identification feature in new drones. Older drone pilots use add-on devices, enabling them to become digitally visible. With hardware on your smartphone, Drone Scanner can receive and read broadcasted data.

Screenshots

Drone Start4 screens
Drone Scanner2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Drone Start at 4.1 against Drone Scanner's 1.8. Drone Start also leads on review sentiment (41% vs 16%) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 3 months). Drone Scanner's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (145 vs 47). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Both are free to download. Drone Start sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per month. Drone Scanner asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Drone Start holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 1.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 47 and 145 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 41% of Drone Start's written reviews are positive against 16% of Drone Scanner's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Drone Start ships an update every 3 weeks, Drone Scanner every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on July 5, 2026 and September 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Drone Start versus Drone Scanner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDrone StartDrone Scanner
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (47 ratings) — better1.8 (145 ratings)
Positive reviews41.4% of reviews — better15.9% of reviews
Number of ratings47145 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB41 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNeil FaulknerDronetag

Customer experience

Drone Start

All ratings47 ratings
Positive76.6%
Neutral8.5%
Negative14.9%
Written reviews29 reviews
Positive41.4%
Neutral13.8%
Negative44.8%

Drone Scanner

All ratings145 ratings
Positive16.6%
Neutral6.2%
Negative77.2%
Written reviews107 reviews
Positive15.9%
Neutral5.6%
Negative78.5%

Bugs and requests

Drone Start

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Drone Scanner

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes on launch
  • Unable to locate drones in proximity
  • Inaccurate location tracking

Requested features

3 requests
  • Add support for WiFi-based Remote ID
  • Add support for more drone models
  • Allow changing units from metric to imperial

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Drone Start

Subscriptions2
  • Professional Monthly7 Days trial$1.491 Month
  • Professional Yearly7 Days trial$9.991 Year
None

Drone Scanner

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Drone Start free?
Drone Start is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Drone Scanner free?
Drone Scanner is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Drone Start or Drone Scanner?
Drone Start is rated higher. Drone Start averages 4.1 out of 5 from 47 ratings, while Drone Scanner averages 1.8 from 145 ratings.
Do Drone Start or Drone Scanner have ads?
Neither Drone Start nor Drone Scanner shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Drone Start or Drone Scanner?
Drone Start ships an update every 3 weeks, and Drone Scanner every 3 months. Most recently, Drone Start was updated on July 5, 2026 and Drone Scanner on September 16, 2026.

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