Comparison

Prepware Private Pilot vs Private and Recreational Pilot

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Flashcard-style review
  • Questions, answers, and explanations
  • Study by subject
  • Practice tests
  • FAA Knowledge Exam preparation
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Private and Recreational Pilot

Prepare for your FAA Private Pilot checkride with realistic oral exam questions and detailed explanations. Covers all essential knowledge areas, including aerodynamics, weather, regulations, and navigation. Features aircraft-specific questions and free lifetime updates.

Highlights
  • Realistic checkride questions
  • Unlimited study and practice
  • Free lifetime updates
  • Hundreds of charts and figures
  • Aircraft-specific information
  • Current and valid content
Features
Read full description

Are you a student pilot or would you like to become a Private or Professional Pilot? RideReady will help make you confident and ready for your FAA Practical Test / Checkride (that combination of flight test and oral quizzing when you will have to go through to receive your Private Pilot certificate) and allow you to impress the examiner with your knowledge of relevant knowledge areas as per the Practical Test Standards and current FAA practices and recommendations. For the FAA Private Pilot Airplane practical test, topics covered include aerodynamics, weather, instrumentation, regulations, aircraft systems, charts and navigation, avionics, emergencies, procedures, flight planning, FAA special emphasis areas, weight and balance, and much more. RideReady features more questions than oral exam prep booklets thus helping you be more prepared for a wide variety of realistic questions. Additionally, RideReady's content is also more illustrated and our explanations more detailed to really help you understand the material. Our RideReady app can offer you speed, power, availability, and flexibility that no book or DVD can. For example, you can tell RideReady which aircraft you fly (from a list of common training aircraft) and RideReady will ask you questions on its systems and operations - just like a real examiner will. Remember: while books are out of date from the moment they're printed, updates are FREE FOR LIFE, meaning that you can get the most up to date quickly and easily through the built-in update mechanism. Please note that after downloading this app, the app will need to check for updated data from our servers. RideReady is the smart pilot's secret to checkride success! Features: * Realistic Checkride Questions - Hundreds upon hundreds of realistic memory, analysis, and scenario type questions taken from practical test exit interviews, key FAA documents, and the combined experience of our editorial team of pilot examiners and flight instructors. * Unlimited Study and Practice - At your own pace, on your own schedule * Free Lifetime Updates. Get acquainted with the material weeks or months before your checkride, study hard in the days leading up to it, and then brush up years afterwards. * Hundreds of Charts and Figures - Illustrate key points and help you learn * Aircraft-specific information - Includes questions specific to common training aircraft types (just like your examiner will ask) plus the ability to customize values and add your own custom aircraft. Built-in aircraft in this title: Cessna 150, Cessna 152, Cessna 172N/RG/SP, Diamond Katana, Piper Warrior II. * Current and valid for right now - As soon as you purchase and install this app, use the built-in update feature to get the latest and greatest content that we offer in mere moments. We regularly update the content to keep up with changes in practical test standards, FAA emphasis areas, and aviation technology. * Thousands of Success Stories - Every year, thousands of pilots use RideReady to learn or brush up the material to make them confident and ready to pass their FAA checkrides. We invite you to be next! Make sure you are looking at the right app for you! * This is FAA Practical Test (checkride oral exam) preparation for AIRPLANE PILOTS. * This is NOT FAA written (knowledge) test preparation. If you want FAA written (knowledge) test preparation, check out our GroundSchool FAA line of products. Many pilots buy both RideReady and our GroundSchool-FAA apps as they work well together. * Again, this title is for AIRPLANE PILOTS ONLY. This is NOT preparation materials for helicopter, glider, gyroplane, hot air balloon, or other pilots. We have other RideReady titles for different aircraft types, but this one is for AIRPLANE PILOTS ONLY as it contains much information particular to airplanes. Thank you again for checking out RideReady!

Screenshots

Prepware Private Pilot4 screens
Private and Recreational Pilot3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Prepware Private Pilot at $9.99 against Private and Recreational Pilot's $39.99. Prepware Private Pilot also leads on ratings volume (139 vs 3) and review sentiment (61% vs 47%). Private and Recreational Pilot's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 3.8) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Prepware Private Pilot costs $9.99 and Private and Recreational Pilot $39.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Private and Recreational Pilot holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Prepware Private Pilot has 139 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 61% of Prepware Private Pilot's written reviews are positive against 47% of Private and Recreational Pilot's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Prepware Private Pilot ships an update every 4 months, Private and Recreational Pilot every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Prepware Private Pilot versus Private and Recreational Pilot: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPrepware Private PilotPrivate and Recreational Pilot
Price$9.99 — better$39.99
Rating3.8 (139 ratings)4.3 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews60.8% of reviews — better47.4% of reviews
Number of ratings139 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
Best chart rank#15 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size60 MB238 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperASADauntless Software

Customer experience

Prepware Private Pilot

All ratings138 ratings
Positive68.1%
Neutral9.4%
Negative22.5%
Written reviews74 reviews
Positive60.8%
Neutral16.2%
Negative23.0%

Private and Recreational Pilot

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive47.4%
Neutral15.8%
Negative36.8%

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 more
  • 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 more
  • 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

Private and Recreational Pilot

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Prepware Private Pilot

No in-app purchases

None

Private and Recreational Pilot

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Prepware Private Pilot free?
Prepware Private Pilot costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Private and Recreational Pilot free?
Private and Recreational Pilot costs $39.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Prepware Private Pilot or Private and Recreational Pilot?
Private and Recreational Pilot is rated higher. Prepware Private Pilot averages 3.8 out of 5 from 139 ratings, while Private and Recreational Pilot averages 4.3 from 3 ratings.
Do Prepware Private Pilot or Private and Recreational Pilot have ads?
Neither Prepware Private Pilot nor Private and Recreational Pilot shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Prepware Private Pilot or Private and Recreational Pilot?
Prepware Private Pilot ships an update every 4 months, and Private and Recreational Pilot every 3 months. Most recently, Prepware Private Pilot was updated on October 30, 2026 and Private and Recreational Pilot on October 29, 2026.

Other comparisons