PlaneWatcher vs Dots
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PlaneWatcher
Visualize aircraft around you in real-time, worldwide, without needing your phone. Explore detailed flight information and customize your view with various filters and complications. Designed specifically for the Apple Watch.
- Real-time worldwide flight data
- Visualize aircraft on watch
- Detailed aircraft information
- Aircraft following
- Multiple filter options
- Customizable view
- Watch face complications
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Flight Tracking for the Apple Watch • Visualize aircraft around you, without having to reach for your phone • Worldwide, real-time, unfiltered flight data by ADSBExchange • Explore all the aircraft details like flight name, registration, type, operator, altitude, speeds and more (depending on data availability) • Aircraft following • Filter by multiple criteria • Customizable view options • Complications to match your watch faces Requires WatchOS 10.0 or higher. Built for the Apple Watch PlaneWatcher was designed specifically for the Apple Watch, providing the best possible experience on this small device. The map rotates to align with the direction you're facing, so you can easily identify aircraft that you see around you. Use the digital crown to zoom in/out and touch & drag on the screen to move around the map. Unfiltered Flight Data PlaneWatcher shows you all aircraft, unfiltered, unlike most major flight tracking apps. Made possible by ADSBExchange, the world's largest source of unfiltered flight data. If you're a frequent user, please support them (adsbexchange.com/donate) or become a volunteer feeder to help expand the service. Local & Worldwide View aircraft around your current location or jump to any airport in the world. Use the digital crown to zoom in on a busy LAX or watch aircraft taking off and landing at JFK. Aircraft Details Simply tap on an aircraft to see all its details: flight name, registration, type, category, operator, altitude, speeds and more (depending on data availability). Aircraft Following Interested in a single aircraft? Follow it as it proceeds among the other traffic. Just tap the small blue dot to exit follow mode and return to the main map. Multiple Filters Just want to see aircraft below 10'000 feet, Boeing 747s or only planes from a certain airline? You can filter by altitude, type, callsign or registration. Filters can be combined, too. Customizability Customize the display using many options. You only want to see helicopters and hide all small airports? You can do that and much more... Complications Support With many different complications available, designed to fit into all color schemes, PlaneWatcher is always just a tap away. Privacy Policy: https://www.planewatcher.app/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.planewatcher.app/terms.html
Dots
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Dots turns your photo library into a travel map. Give it access to your photos and it fills in every country you've visited, pins the cities, and lays your trips out on a timeline with their dates. You don't pin anything by hand. Your photos already know where and when they were taken, and Dots reads that on your phone to work out where you've been. YOUR TRAVEL MAP • Every country you've visited, filled in on one world map • Your count out of 195 countries, and how much of the world that is • Zoom into a country to see each city and stop along the way • Several map styles to choose from A PASSPORT THAT FILLS ITSELF Every country gets its own passport stamp, with its own ink color, shape and entry date. Share the whole passport as a story-sized image when you want to show off where you've been. TRIPS THAT ADD THEMSELVES • Your trips on a timeline, city by city, with the days you stayed • Stays found in your photos are added for you • Add a trip yourself, or plan where you're going next • Day-by-day routes through a city, drawn from the places you took photos YOUR TRAVEL RECAP When the first scan finishes, Dots plays a short recap of your travels: how many countries and cities, your busiest travel year, the city you keep going back to, and the country where it all started. GOOD TO KNOW, FOR EVERY CITY Current weather and local time, air quality, a month-by-month climate chart with the best time to visit, the exchange rate from your home currency, the languages spoken and which plug you'll need. NEW COUNTRY ALERTS Turn them on and Dots sends a notification when you cross into a country that isn't in your passport yet, so you can add the stamp while you're still there. This is optional and uses background location. YOUR PHOTOS STAY ON YOUR PHONE Dots reads your photo locations on your device. Your photos are never uploaded and no one else can see them. You can use Dots without an account, or sign in with Apple to keep your trips saved to your account. Questions or ideas? Write to us from Settings.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Dots at Free against PlaneWatcher's $9.99. Dots also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 6 weeks). PlaneWatcher's advantage is chart position (#157 vs unranked) and device support (3 vs 1). On ads and in-app purchases 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
Dots is free to download; PlaneWatcher costs $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
PlaneWatcher ships an update every 6 weeks, Dots every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 28, 2026.
| Parameter | PlaneWatcher | Dots |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.9 (23 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 77.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 23 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Best chart rank | #157 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ground Effect GmbH | Enes Eray |
In-app purchases
PlaneWatcher
No in-app purchases
Dots
No in-app purchases







