Prepware Private Pilot vs FAA Private Pilot Prep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Prepware Private Pilot
Prepare for your FAA Private Pilot Knowledge Exam with this comprehensive study and test tool. It offers flashcard-style review of questions, answers, and explanations, allowing you to study by subject or take realistic practice tests.
- Flashcard-style review
- Questions, answers, and explanations
- Study by subject
- Practice tests
- FAA Knowledge Exam preparation
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Comprehensive preparation, study and test tool for the FAA Knowledge Exam. Flashcard style review of questions, answers and explanations included for you to study by subject or with a true-to-form practice test.
FAA Private Pilot Prep
Prepare for your FAA Private and Recreational Pilot knowledge tests with a comprehensive database of actual, up-to-date questions. Features detailed explanations, included charts, and flexible study modes to help you pass your exams.
- Actual FAA questions
- Free updates
- Illustrated explanations
- Compatible with FAA ACS
- Comprehensive question database
- Flexible study modes
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Spend less time studying and more time flying! This is the FAA Private and Recreational Pilot version of GroundSchool, our FAA knowledge (written) test preparation featuring up-to-date questions, free updates, and illustrated explanations written by a professional team of pilot examiners and instructors. GroundSchool is fully compatible with FAA ACS (Airman Certification Standards) and our editorial team is working to keep it so as ACS continues to evolve. Don't be fooled by imitators! Competing apps use only the limited set of questions that the FAA publicly releases via its website - that is not enough to adequately prepare you for your test! Our GroundSchool app, on the other hand, features a much more comprehensive database (typically about 2-4 times the size of the demo FAA public one) of actual and current FAA questions that you likely can and will be asked on the actual test! This along with our detailed, professional explanations and easy to use interface are major reasons why pilots have come to trust GroundSchool. Study actual, up-to-date FAA questions and then ACE your FAA Private Pilot and/or Recreational Pilot knowledge (written) test the easy way with GroundSchool FAA Knowledge Test Preparation software by Dauntless Aviation, the trusted leader in FAA written test preparation. Features: * Actual FAA Questions Current and Valid for Right Now. As soon as you install the software, use the 'update' feature and the software will connect to our servers, grab the latest questions, images, figures, and explanation content, and you'll be good to go. * Detailed Explanations written by an experienced editorial team of examiner and instructor pilots. * All Charts and Figures Included * Several flexible study modes - fits the way you want to study! * Compatible with all FAA "ground school" classroom-based courses This Private and Recreational Pilot version of GroundSchool will prepare you for any or all of the following tests: * Private Pilot Airplane (PAR) * Private Pilot Rotorcraft Helicopter (PRH) * Private Pilot Glider (PGL) * Private Pilot Balloon - Gas (PBG) * Private Pilot Balloon - Hot Air (PBH) * Private Pilot Rotorcraft Gyroplane (PRG) * Private Pilot Powered Parachute (PPP) * Private Pilot Weight Shift Control (PWS) * Private Pilot Lighter-than-Air (Airship) (PLA) * Recreational Pilot Airplane (RPA) * Recreational Pilot Helicopter (RPH) * Recreational Pilot Gyroplane (RPG) * Private Pilot Airplane / Recreational Pilot - Transition (PAT) * Private Pilot Helicopter / Recreational Pilot Transition (PHT) * Private Pilot Gyroplane / Recreational Pilot Transition (PGT) * Canadian Private Pilot to USA FAA Conversion (PCP) With Dauntless Aviation's GroundSchool, you don't need to worry: * Our material is UP TO DATE. No matter what date is listed here in regarding the 'Release date', this date refers to the program itself only. Once you get the program on your device, use the built-in update feature and it will connect to our servers and download the latest and greatest version of the test prep content and our explanations that we have available. To learn more about this, please visit our website. * Furthermore, you are welcome to update the material as often as you like. This means that even if you don't take your test soon, when do you, GroundSchool will be ready for you. Compare this to books or DVDs (which are going out of date from the moment they are printed). * We pride ourselves on the quality of our explanations. This is not some idle boast - our explanations are more detailed and more illustrated than that of ANY other FAA knowledge test provider, period. * Tens of thousands of people have used our products to prepare for their FAA knowledge tests. Ours is a system that works. Good luck on your test!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Prepware Private Pilot at $9.99 against FAA Private Pilot Prep's $69.99. Prepware Private Pilot also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and chart position (#10 vs #172). FAA Private Pilot Prep's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 3.9) and update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months). On ratings volume, ads 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
Prepware Private Pilot costs $9.99 and FAA Private Pilot Prep $69.99 up front. FAA Private Pilot Prep sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Prepware Private Pilot asks for nothing beyond the download.
FAA Private Pilot Prep holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 137 and 73 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 63% of Prepware Private Pilot's written reviews are positive against 79% of FAA Private Pilot Prep's.
Prepware Private Pilot ships an update every 4 months, FAA Private Pilot Prep monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Prepware Private Pilot | FAA Private Pilot Prep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 — better | $69.99 |
| Rating | 3.9 (137 ratings) | 4.5 (73 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 62.5% of reviews | 79.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 137 — better | 73 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #10 — better | #172 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 640 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ASA | Dauntless Software |
Customer experience
Prepware Private Pilot
FAA Private Pilot Prep
User reviews
Prepware Private Pilot
From 137 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💯 High scores achieved
- 📚 Great practice for harder questions
- 📱 Convenient for studying on the go
- ✅ Questions similar to real exam
- 💡 Detailed explanations provided
Room to improve
- ❓ Powered flight questions for glider pilots
- 📱 Small screen issues for plotting/maps
- 🤷 Missing essential questions
- ⚠️ Not a sole reliance tool
- 🤔 Questions worded differently
FAA Private Pilot Prep
From 73 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💯 Excellent test preparation
- 📚 Comprehensive explanations
- 🔄 Frequently updated content
- 🎛️ Numerous practice modes
- 🎯 Clever stack system
Room to improve
- 😞 Not modern or aesthetically pleasing
- 🐛 Update issues
- 🐛 Incorrect answers reported
- 🐛 No response to review requests
- 🐛 Poor audio system integration
Bugs and requests
Prepware Private Pilot
Reported bugs
24 issues- Powered flight questions appearing for glider pilots
- Small screen makes chart plotting difficult
- Missing essential questions for the written exam
- Some answers are incorrect
- Macbook app not working properly
Show 19 moreShow fewer
- Dark mode has contrast issues, making text unreadable
- Status bar bug with black text on black background
- Right answers not highlighted after getting a question wrong
- Study portion allows pushing through without selecting the right option, leading to false 100% scores
- Questions cut off at the end
- Save and exit function does not save progress
- App resets to homepage after a short period or if not actively used
- Quiz shuffles questions, preventing picking up where left off
- Errors in questions referencing sectional charts
- Sections on charts not available when referenced
- New update degraded the app interface
- White lettering on light background makes questions unreadable
- Dark mode compatibility issues with white text on gray background
- Questions in rotorcraft sections refer to fixed-wing regulations
- Irrelevant gyrocopter and fixed-wing questions in rotorcraft section
- Dark theme not displaying correct/incorrect answers properly
- App not compatible with iPhone X screen
- No way to systematically study, questions are random
- Questions that reference a chart or diagram are cumbersome to view
Requested features
14 requests- Ability to save/create a bank of difficult questions
- Scramble answer choices for realism
- Improve UI for newer devices (iPhone X/Xs/Xr, iPad Pro)
- Add Apple Watch support
- Vary the length of test modules
Show 9 moreShow fewer
- Allow studying more than one section at a time
- Add better reference information in explanations (page/section numbers)
- Allow resizing of figures on iPhone
- Show explanation immediately after wrong answer
- Fix grading to allow for incorrect answers without immediate correction
- Make questions more compatible with dark mode
- Fix contrast issues in dark mode
- Add a feature to stop showing questions already known
- Allow review of only missed items
FAA Private Pilot Prep
Reported bugs
66 issues- Update issues
- Incorrect answers
- No response to review requests
- Poor audio system integration
- Lacks dark mode
Show 61 moreShow fewer
- Appalling audio quality
- Inconsistent cloud storage
- Lacks 'Sign with Apple'
- UX/UI design issues
- Expensive compared to alternatives
- Dated UI design
- Annoying sound effects
- Difficult to read UI
- Annoying figure viewing
- Need to flip back and forth
- Customer service issues
- Rude customer service
- Unusable after iOS update
- Crashing on devices
- Blank screen on test questions
- No customer service phone
- Limited MP3 questions
- Crashing frequently
- Audio volume varies
- Sectional diagrams poor quality
- PDF issues
- Slow website
- App restarts from main menu
- Nuisance switching contexts
- Missing chart/sectional questions
- E6B used differently
- Some questions not in app
- Phrasing and figures differ
- Not all questions covered
- Expensive
- Vocal teaching inconsistent
- Audio files disappear
- Wasted money
- Needs programmer work
- Database failure
- Bugs, bugs, bugs
- Never performs updates
- Database corrupted message
- Crashes on launch
- Slow loading
- Not as effective as old tapes
- Not a test simulator/tutor
- Limited to test passing ability
- Lacks silly graphics/mnemonics
- Needs tweaks
- Cannot see charts and questions simultaneously
- Lose progress when going home
- Why would anybody use this app?
- Floundering and falling asleep
- Needs human instructor videos
- Interface quirks
- Doesn't always save progress
- Cartoon-like UI
- Expensive
- Vocal teaching only sometimes works
- Buggy
- Cannot update test questions
- Likely out of date questions
- Poorly tested on iPad
- Ignores non-working parts
- Not a serious piece of software
Requested features
15 requests- Dark mode
- Use Apple's iCloud for storage
- Use 'Sign with Apple'
- More FAR/AIM questions
- Improved UI/UX design
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- More modern interface
- Better audio playback system
- More comprehensive MP3 review
- Fix sectional diagram quality
- Improve chart and sectional questions
- Better saving of progress
- Allow viewing charts and questions simultaneously
- Add CFI sign-off to iPad version
- Improve audio loudness consistency
- Add more human instructor videos
In-app purchases
Prepware Private Pilot
No in-app purchases
FAA Private Pilot Prep
- Audio Review$19.99
Questions
Is Prepware Private Pilot free?
Is FAA Private Pilot Prep free?
Which has better reviews, Prepware Private Pilot or FAA Private Pilot Prep?
Do Prepware Private Pilot or FAA Private Pilot Prep have ads?
Which is updated more often, Prepware Private Pilot or FAA Private Pilot Prep?
Which is more popular, Prepware Private Pilot or FAA Private Pilot Prep?
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