Garmin Pilot vs 8Flight Aviator EFB
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Garmin Pilot
This app offers comprehensive tools for general aviation and corporate pilots, including flight planning, interactive maps, weather briefings, and navigation. It streamlines pre-flight preparation, filing, inflight navigation, and post-flight logging with an intuitive interface.
- Pre-flight planning with aviation weather data
- Interactive maps with track-up navigation
- Flight plan filing via Leidos Flight Service or DUATS
- En-route navigation with moving map and GPS panel
- Electronic logbook with automatic GPS data generation
- Real-time weather and traffic information (with compatible hardware)
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*30 Days Free Trial on initial download!* Plan. File. Fly. Log. Garmin Pilot is the most comprehensive suite of tools for the iPad designed specifically for general aviation and corporate pilots. Flight planning, charts, interactive maps, weather briefing resources and navigation capabilities; it’s all included. The app’s intuitive interface mirrors those on the newest Garmin touchscreen avionics so you can go seamlessly from preflight to inflight. Plan Garmin Pilot’s powerful capabilities start with pre-flight planning, providing pilots with the most comprehensive aviation weather information to make better-informed flight decisions. Pilots can check NEXRAD radar, visible and infrared cloud imagery, METARs, TAFs, AIRMETs, SIGMETs, PIREPs, NOTAMs, winds and temperature aloft, TFRs and lightning data. With Garmin Pilot, data can be displayed over Garmin’s interactive maps that support track-up navigation, VFR sectional or an IFR low or high en-route chart to visualize the weather for your route. Add text-based weather widgets and use the exclusive NavTrack feature to view weather along the planned route. File With Garmin Pilot, users can easily enter a flight plan and interactively edit it on the map. Pre-loaded forms make it quick to save and reuse data for frequently flown routes. And when the flight plan is ready, Garmin Pilot makes it simple to file, amend or close the flight plan via Leidos Flight Service or DUATS. Fly Garmin Pilot provides full en-route navigation capability on its moving map. Pilots can also navigate with Garmin’s patented panel, a GPS-driven instrument pack with a graphical HSI directional display and indicators for groundspeed, altitude and vertical speed. After takeoff, pilots can continue to view real-time weather in the U.S. and traffic information by wirelessly connecting to Garmin’s GDL 50 series portable ADS-B Receiver (sold separately). Log Garmin Pilot includes a comprehensive electronic logbook that syncs with flyGarmin. The logbook automatically generates entries based upon GPS data collected during the flight, tracks currency, supports manual entries, endorsements and creates reports. Garmin Pilot U.S. Standard: - Rich, interactive maps support Track-Up navigation - Charts: VFR Sectionals, low and high IFR en-route, airport diagrams and approach procedures - Ability to view Jeppesen Terminal Charts (Jeppesen echart subscription required) - Weather Maps: Animated radar, Infrared and Visible Satellite, AIRMETs, SIGMETs, Lightning, TFRs and more! - Extensive text products: METARs, TAFs, Winds Aloft, PIREPs, AIRMETs, SIGMETs, Area Forecasts and NOTAMs - AOPA Airport Directory - Weight and Balance - Checklists - Flight plan filing via Leidos Flight Services - Garmin patented navigation panel - Terrain and Obstacles - Smart Airspace - Fast Find predictive Waypoint Entry - Logbook - Optional VFR Premium: Synthetic Vision (SVX), Terrain and obstacle alerting, and Garmin SafeTaxi® - Optional IFR Premium: VFR Premium plus geo-referenced Garmin FliteCharts® Garmin Pilot has regional offerings for Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe and Latin America. Features include: - Worldwide Jeppesen NavData - Rich, interactive maps support Track-Up navigation - Radar and Satellite imagery for Western Europe, U.S., Canada and Australia - Ability to view Jeppesen Terminal Charts (Jeppesen echart subscription required) - Worldwide METARs, TAFs, AIRMETs, SIGMETs, NOTAMs and winds aloft - VFR Flight Plan Filing - IFR autorouting and Flight plan filing in Europe - Terrain and Obstacles with alerting - Synthetic Vision (SVX) - Smart Airspace - Logbook - Optional VFR charts from DFS, IGN and NATS and IFR enroute charts from EuroControl - Optional Garmin FliteCharts® and SafeTaxi® diagrams available on a country-by-country basis *Note: Use of GPS running in the background may decrease battery life.* *Note: One subscription to Garmin Pilot may be used on three devices.*
8Flight Aviator EFB
This app provides advanced flight planning with real-time weather forecasts and complete, accurate fuel and FBO pricing. It offers graphical weather data, FBO filtering by service and hours, and includes information on airport amenities. Designed for pilots to save time and make informed decisions.
- Data-driven flight planning
- Complete fuel and FBO pricing
- Graphical aviation weather forecasts
- Real-time weather radar
- FBO filtering by service and hours
- Airport amenities information
- Offline access
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8Flight is a data-driven flight planning platform, and the world's only source of complete and accurate fuel and FBO pricing. Download for a 30-day free trial. World's fastest flight planning. No other EFB has this many graphical forecasts, FBO data this accurate, or flight planning this fast. 4D advanced flight planning. Mappable aviation weather forecasts and FBO data let you view things like the best priced full-service fuel available at a particular day/time alongside forecast weather radar. Both retail avgas/jet fuel and contract fuel prices are always up to date. Our AI-based data engine and human reviewers conduct refresh and verification processes 24/7, and data downloads to the app seamlessly so you never have to worry about missing anything, with complete offline access in-flight as well. Unique Graphical Aviation Forecasts ~ 7-day forecast weather radar, echo tops, icing, turbulence, clouds, winds, and more - worldwide ~ 8Fusion: 100 aviation forecasts in 1, updated in realtime ~ Vertical Route Profile, synced to the map in 4D ~ Highest-resolution, fastest-updating realtime weather radar in the world ~ 3x faster realtime satellite cloud tops ~ Full METARs and TAFs on the map ~ Only EFB with full AIRMETs and SIGMETs ~ Weather widgets, Skew-Ts, and more Save 30+ Minutes on Every Trip ~ Don't spend an hour calling 4 FBOs at each of 3 airports. We already did. And we'll show you who's open when. Filter by Self Serve or Full Serve & Hours ~ $5.50 fuel is great these days, but sometimes you want to pay $6.00 to sit inside while someone does it for you. And sometimes passengers want an FBO that's open. right. now. Airport Restaurants & Museums (with hours!) and Hotels ~ The world's most complete in-flight collection of airport hotels, airport restaurants, and aviation museums, filtered on the map by hours for the time you'll arrive. And everything else: ~ Global Aviation Basemap ~ Synthetic Vision & Terrain (including Minimum IFR Altitudes + Obstacles) ~ AHRS, ADS-B, and Flight Plan Send/Receive (Dynon, Avidyne, Lynx, Stratus, Stratus, etc) ~ FMS Navigation ~ Weight & Balance ~ Detailed Aircraft Performance ~ Pro Pilot Logbook ~ Sync & Annotate Charts & Documents ~ Curated FAA Documents Library ~ Import & Sync Custom Map Content ~ Flight Plan Filing & Activation 8Flight requires a subscription. Visit https://eightflight.com to learn more. Currently covers primarily the entire US & parts of the Caribbean. More regions coming soon. Learn more: https://eightflight.com Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://eightflight.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Garmin Pilot at free with in-app purchases against 8Flight Aviator EFB's subscription. Garmin Pilot also leads on ratings volume (4.1K vs 81) and chart position (#44 vs #181). 8Flight Aviator EFB's advantage is review sentiment (71% vs 42%) and update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Garmin Pilot sells 18 one-off in-app purchases and 8Flight Aviator EFB sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Garmin Pilot against 4.6 for 8Flight Aviator EFB. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Garmin Pilot has 4.1K ratings behind it against 81, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 42% of Garmin Pilot's written reviews are positive against 71% of 8Flight Aviator EFB's.
Garmin Pilot ships an update fortnightly, 8Flight Aviator EFB weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Garmin Pilot | 8Flight Aviator EFB |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (4.1K ratings) — better | 4.6 (81 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 42.0% of reviews | 70.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4.1K — better | 81 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Subscription |
| Best chart rank | #44 — better | #181 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 650 MB | 201 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Garmin DCI | Eight Flight |
Customer experience
Garmin Pilot
8Flight Aviator EFB
Bugs and requests
Garmin Pilot
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes when viewing weather data
- Weight and balance profile import/export issues
- Database concierge not working as expected
- Inability to file VFR flight plans in some regions
- Groundspeed and track data not working on certain devices
Requested features
9 requests- Ability to mark up and annotate charts
- Vertical navigation view
- Cabin altitude/hypoxia warning
- Apple Watch app
- Passenger app for flight following
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- Google Maps integration with user waypoints
- Ability to import GPX/CSV waypoints
- Printable logbook reports
- More detailed weather imagery and forecasts
8Flight Aviator EFB
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Garmin Pilot
- Canada Premium$74.99
- Latin American Premium Upgrade$74.99
- Europe Premium Upgrade$74.99
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- U.S. Premium Upgrade$99.99
- Africa Standard$109.99
- Pilot Asia Standard$109.99
- Australia Standard$109.99
- Canada Standard$109.99
- Europe Standard$109.99
- Latin American Standard$109.99
- U.S. Standard$109.99
- Garmin Pilot Africa Premium$184.99
- Garmin Pilot Canada Premium$184.99
- Garmin Pilot Asia Premium$184.99
- Garmin Pilot Europe Premium$184.99
- Garmin Pilot Latin America Premium$184.99
- Garmin Pilot U.S. Premium$209.99
- Worldwide Premium$599.99
8Flight Aviator EFB
- 8Flight Data$5.991 Month
- 8Flight Data$59.991 Year
- 8Flight Aviator1 Month trial3 variants$99.991 Year
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- aviator1 Month trial$129.991 Year
- 8Flight Aviator + Pro Logbook$179.991 Year
Questions
Is Garmin Pilot free?
Is 8Flight Aviator EFB free?
Which has better reviews, Garmin Pilot or 8Flight Aviator EFB?
Do Garmin Pilot or 8Flight Aviator EFB have ads?
Which is updated more often, Garmin Pilot or 8Flight Aviator EFB?
Which is more popular, Garmin Pilot or 8Flight Aviator EFB?
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