Comparison

PilotDeck vs SimpleFlight

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

Head to head
About

PilotDeck

Access decoded aeronautical weather, including METARs, TAFs, and civil forecasts. Get live NOTAMs and a comprehensive route briefing for any airport worldwide. Includes cognitive pre-flight checks and aviation training tools.

Highlights
  • Decoded METAR and TAF
  • Hour-by-hour forecasts
  • Live NOTAMs
  • Full route briefing
  • Smart push alerts
  • Cognitive pre-flight checks
  • Aviation training games
Features
Read full description

PilotDeck puts real aeronautical weather in your pocket — decoded METAR and TAF, minute-by-minute rain where you are, live NOTAMs, aviation news and a full route briefing for any ICAO airport in the world. Built by a pilot, for pilots, in a clean flight-deck (FMS) style. WEATHER — FREE, FOREVER • Live METAR and TAF, decoded into plain language • Hour-by-hour forecast: temperature, wind, gusts, precipitation, pressure • 7-day outlook with wind, UV and precipitation charts • Add unlimited airports to your watchlist • Runway wind component and crosswind advisories • Everything cached for offline reading in the cockpit WEATHER WHERE YOU ARE — NEW IN 2.0 Not just airports — the weather at your exact position. A minute-by-minute nowcast tells you when rain starts and stops, a live ticker keeps wind, thunderstorm risk, fog and heat in view, and a 12-hour outlook shows the trend. AVIATION NEWS — NEW IN 2.0 Twelve trusted sources in one feed, refreshed around the clock. Incidents and regulation changes are categorised and can alert you the moment they land. Bookmark anything to read offline, or keep the news widget on your Home Screen. SMART PUSH ALERTS — THE FEATURE PILOTDECK WAS BUILT ON Follow any airport and PilotDeck watches it for you. The moment a new METAR or TAF is issued — a wind shift, a drop to IFR — an instant push reaches you, even with the app closed. ROUTE BRIEFING — YOUR WHOLE FLIGHT ON ONE SCREEN Stop gathering the picture from five places. One tap builds a complete departure–destination–alternate brief: • Hazards flagged first (density altitude, hot day, low visibility) • Live NOTAMs, sorted so the critical ones are on top • Distances, times and decoded weather for every field • A TAF timeline that shows the trend — VFR now, IFR in two hours • A plain-English verdict: GOOD TO GO / CAUTION / NOT RECOMMENDED See every country you overfly, re-route around any airspace in a few taps with the extra distance shown instantly, and watch the leg on a 3D globe. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Live airport weather with a colour-coded wind compass, your Daily Check streak and the latest aviation news — without opening the app. DAILY CHECK — A PRE-FLIGHT FOR YOUR BRAIN Every pilot checks the weather. PilotDeck also checks you. A two-minute cognitive pre-flight measures reaction, memory and decision-making, then gives you a FIT index for today. Includes an IMSAFE self-check and a 30-day trend history. PILOT GUIDE — NEW IN 2.0 An illustrated, interactive guide to every part of the app — short visual lessons instead of a manual. Like all in-app reference, it is provided in the six ICAO languages: English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish. TRAINING AND TOOLS • Holding Entry — direct, parallel and teardrop entries, Trainer and Time Attack • Scan & Catch — METAR scanning speed drill • Crosswind Crunch — crosswind practice with a scientific debrief • Needle Chase — ILS/LOC tracking under changing weather • Aviation quizzes with detailed explanations • Flight-planning tools: wind/drift, top-of-descent and more PILOTDECK PRO Unlock everything with a PilotDeck PRO subscription: • Unlimited training games (the free plan includes a few plays per day) • Full quiz question banks and longer quiz sessions • Daily Check history and IMSAFE self-check Weather, route briefing, NOTAMs and news are always free and are never limited by PRO. Subscription options: • Monthly — €4.99 • Annual — €39.99 (best value) Both plans start with a 7-day free trial. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless turned off at least 24 hours before the current period ends; your account is charged within 24 hours prior to the end of that period. Manage or cancel in your App Store account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial is forfeited on purchase. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ In partnership with DataFly Systems LLC.

About

SimpleFlight

This app helps VFR pilots plan flights by providing essential information on distance, duration, fuel, weather, airspace, and destination conditions. It offers wind-corrected headings, decoded weather reports, and airspace details, all designed for simplicity and VFR flight in the United States.

Highlights
  • Route planning with airspace avoidance
  • Wind-corrected heading and fuel calculations
  • Decoded METARs and TAFs
  • Animated winds, radar, and satellite imagery
  • Airspace class details with altitude floors/ceilings
  • Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) alerts
  • Runway diagrams and traffic pattern information
Features
Read full description

SimpleFlight answers the questions that matter before a VFR flight: how far, how long, how much fuel, what the weather is doing along the way, what airspace is in the way, and what the destination looks like when you get there. Built by a pilot, for the United States, for VFR. Saying no to everything else is what keeps it simple. PLAN • Pick a departure and destination. Press and hold the route line to bend it around airspace; it snaps to nearby airports, VORs and fixes. • Choose from legal VFR hemispheric altitudes, each with its headwind or tailwind and time en route from current winds aloft. • Get wind-corrected heading, groundspeed, time, fuel burn and reserve for your airplane. WEATHER • Decoded METARs and TAFs for reporting airports along the route, colored by flight category. • Animated winds at your cruise altitude, radar and satellite on the map. • Winds aloft table for 6, 12 and 24 hours. SIGMETs, G-AIRMETs and pilot reports in the corridor. ROUTE PROFILE • A side view of the route: terrain under it, your cruise altitude, Class B, C and D shelves, cloud bases from METARs and the freezing level. • Highest terrain on the route and your clearance at cruise, with a preview of every VFR altitude. • Edit the route from the profile: find the ridge, drop a waypoint there and drag it around, then re-plan in place. MAP RULER • Hold two fingers on the map to measure distance, magnetic course from each end, and no-wind time and fuel. AIRSPACE AND TFRs • Class B, C and D with floors and ceilings. Shelves that apply at your altitude stand out; the rest fade back. • TFRs on or near the route, checked against your planned time and altitude, with the NOTAM text a tap away. DESTINATION • Headwind and crosswind for every runway, with the favored runway marked. • A to-scale runway diagram and the expected traffic pattern, drawn on the map when you zoom in, with left or right traffic from FAA data and pattern altitude. • Frequencies, elevation, fuel, sunrise and sunset. SHARE • Send the route to ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot in one tap, or export a Garmin FPL file, waypoints included. YOUR DATA • No account needed. Without one, nothing you enter leaves your device. • Optional Sign in with Apple syncs your airplanes and plans between iPhone and iPad. Export or delete your account any time in Settings. • No ads. No tracking. IMPORTANT SimpleFlight is a planning aid. It is not an official weather or NOTAM briefing, it is not approved by the FAA, and it is not for navigation. Data can be late, incomplete or wrong. Terrain comes from USGS elevation data and does not include towers or other obstacles. Traffic patterns and runway diagrams are schematics; ATC instructions and published procedures take precedence. The pilot in command is responsible for every decision. Get an official briefing and check current charts before every flight. Data: Aviation Weather Center (NOAA), FAA, USGS, Iowa Environmental Mesonet, Open-Meteo.

Screenshots

PilotDeck4 screens
SimpleFlight4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SimpleFlight at none against PilotDeck's 2. SimpleFlight also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8). PilotDeck's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 11 days) and ratings volume (5 vs 1). 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. PilotDeck sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. SimpleFlight asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

SimpleFlight holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PilotDeck has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PilotDeck ships an update every 4 days, SimpleFlight every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
PilotDeck versus SimpleFlight: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPilotDeckSimpleFlight
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (5 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 11 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size46 MB28 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFlight Service SIAKip Haas

Customer experience

PilotDeck

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

SimpleFlight

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

PilotDeck

Subscriptions2
  • PilotDeck PRO (Monthly)7 Days trial$5.991 Month
  • PilotDeck PRO (Annual)7 Days trial$44.991 Year
None

SimpleFlight

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is PilotDeck free?
PilotDeck is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is SimpleFlight free?
SimpleFlight is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, PilotDeck or SimpleFlight?
SimpleFlight is rated higher. PilotDeck averages 4.8 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while SimpleFlight averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do PilotDeck or SimpleFlight have ads?
Neither PilotDeck nor SimpleFlight shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PilotDeck or SimpleFlight?
PilotDeck ships an update every 4 days, and SimpleFlight every 11 days. Most recently, PilotDeck was updated on October 4, 2026 and SimpleFlight on October 17, 2026.

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