Comparison

FlightDeck vs Spot

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

Head to head
About

FlightDeck

This app provides real-time flight tracking with AI-generated insights, offering context beyond raw data. It highlights notable aircraft, weather conditions, and airport details, with customizable alerts and emergency detection.

Highlights
  • Real-time flight tracking map
  • AI-generated flight briefs
  • Notable aircraft spotting
  • Weather intelligence overlays
  • Detailed airport information
  • Customizable flight alerts
  • Emergency squawk detection
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Every plane in the sky. Every cockpit message. Every emergency, the second it happens. FlightDeck plugs into the same live feeds airlines and ATC run on and turns them into plain English. PILOT MESSAGES (ACARS) The digital messages pilots and dispatchers send worldwide, decoded live the moment they go out. Diversions, emergencies, mechanical issues, and the occasional cockpit humor. No other app shows you this. TRACK YOUR FLIGHT Follow any flight on your Lock Screen with real ATC-grade detail: IFR clearance, pushback, the exact runways it uses, even the inbound jet that becomes your flight. EVERYTHING ELSE Live weather radar, turbulence and pilot reports, D-ATIS, METARs, and plain-English NOTAMs. FAA ground stops and delays, active runways, gates, TSA waits, and approach charts. Emergency squawks are for military and government aircraft, and custom alerts you write in plain English. SUBSCRIPTION FlightDeck requires a subscription to use. We offer a weekly or yearly subscribtion. Privacy Policy: https://www.tryflightdeck.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.tryflightdeck.com/terms

About

Spot

Discover and track a wide range of real-world phenomena, from aircraft and trains to celestial bodies and natural events. Customize your map view, build a personal logbook, and receive custom alerts for nearby occurrences. Your data remains private and on-device.

Highlights
  • Live radar map
  • Customizable map layers
  • Detailed object information
  • Personal logbook and collection
  • Customizable alerts
  • Sky and astrology tracking
  • On-device data privacy
Features
Read full description

Spot is a spotter's logbook for everything that moves. Planes overhead, trains and buses going past, ships offshore, tagged wildlife, the ISS at dusk. See what is around you, bank what you catch, and build a collection. THE MAP Aircraft, with helicopters, military, emergency and privacy-flagged flights called out. Trains, buses and ships. Airports. The ISS and upcoming rocket launches. Earthquakes, wildfires, lightning and severe weather. Road incidents, roadwork and events. Tagged sharks from OCEARCH. Landmarks. Confirmed ALPR camera locations from public OpenStreetMap data. Flight restriction zones. Tonight's sky objects on real geography. RADAR SCOPE The same contacts on a plan position scope centred on you. Range rings, a rotating sweep, phosphor afterglow and colour coded blips. Pinch to set the range, 2 km to 500 km. SENSOR Your own movement, from the phone's GPS, barometer and accelerometer. Live speed on a dial, altitude, climb rate, g-force, heading and position. All on the device, so it works in a tunnel, on a train, or in airplane mode. Choose mph, km/h or knots. JOURNEYS Hit record, put the phone in your pocket, and Spot writes the whole trip down: route, speed, altitude, climb and g-force. It keeps going with the screen off and pauses itself when you stop. Every journey lands on a globe you can spin, each mode in its own colour Replay a trip with a time scrubber, or watch a long flight play back on the globe Lay your live stats over video you filmed on the trip and save it to Photos Export any journey as a GPX file LIVE ACTIVITIES Pin a flight and follow it on the Dynamic Island and Lock Screen: position, altitude, speed and arrival. Start a nearby radar and watch the count of aircraft around you change. A recording journey gets its own Live Activity with a stop button. SPOTDEX Every kind you have caught, laid out like a dex. Dex numbers, first and last seen, flyover tallies, notes and photos. Uncaught entries stay silhouettes until you find them. BADGES Over a hundred badges across milestones, logbook, craft, places, photos, habits, flyovers, watchers and journeys. FOG OF WORLD The ground you have walked is cleared from a fog layer over the map. Fold the world into a globe, see the countries and cities you have set foot in, and climb the explorer ranks. Journeys clear fog as you travel. SKY AND SPACE What is up tonight from where you are: the Moon and its phase, planets, bright stars, meteor showers and comets, with rise and set times and a watchlist. Then the solar system in 3D, with the ISS on its live orbit. SPOTTER AR Hold the phone up and Spot overlays nearby aircraft and the ISS on the real sky, so you know which light you are looking at. ALERTS A tracked plane or train passing overhead. Emergency squawks nearby. Rare aircraft and special callsigns. The ISS overhead or due. Earthquakes, wildfires, lightning and severe weather near you. Launch countdowns. Entering a flight restriction zone. A followed shark surfacing again. A watched wildfire growing, contained, or out. PRIVACY Location stays on the device. One tap on the kill switch shuts down every GPS read across the app, and a blur option hides your exact pin for screenshots. Nothing is posted anywhere unless you share it. WORKS OFFLINE The Sensor readout, journey recording, Fog of World, the globe, the sky chart and your whole logbook all run with no connection. ICLOUD Sightings, photos, badges, fog, follows, watchlist and journeys sync through your own private iCloud database. You choose what carries. SHORTCUTS AND WIDGETS Widgets for your pins and the radar. Siri shortcuts to pin a flight, start a radar, or ask what is overhead. SPOT PRO Spotting, pinning, the logbook, badges, Fog of World, the sky chart, Sensor and Journeys are free. Spot Pro adds the server backed feeds and their alerts, monthly. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

Screenshots

FlightDeck4 screens
Spot4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Spot at 89% against FlightDeck's 19%. Spot also leads on monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription) and ads (none vs shown). FlightDeck's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 4.1) and ratings volume (1.1K vs 8). On price, update cadence, 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

Both are free to download. FlightDeck sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 7 days and Spot sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

FlightDeck holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FlightDeck has 1.1K ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 19% of FlightDeck's written reviews are positive against 89% of Spot's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

FlightDeck ships an update every 4 days, Spot every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
FlightDeck versus Spot: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFlightDeckSpot
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (1.1K ratings) — better4.1 (8 ratings)
Positive reviews18.9% of reviews88.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.1K — better8
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#29 — better—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS18.017.2 — better
Further details — not scored
Size139 MB62 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJAC LLCWilliam Whitehouse

Customer experience

FlightDeck

All ratings1,093 ratings
Positive88.7%
Neutral1.6%
Negative9.6%
Written reviews227 reviews
Positive18.9%
Neutral11.0%
Negative70.0%

Spot

All ratings8 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive88.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative11.1%

In-app purchases

6 purchases

FlightDeck

Subscriptions6
  • FlightDeck Pro$6.997 Days
  • FlightDeck Pro$12.997 Days
  • FlightDeck Pro$19.991 Month
Show 3 more
  • FlightDeck Pro$49.991 Year
  • FlightDeck Pro3 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • FlightDeck Pro3 Days trial$69.991 Year
1 purchases

Spot

Subscriptions1
  • Spot Pro$0.991 Month

Questions

Is FlightDeck free?
FlightDeck is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Spot free?
Spot is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, FlightDeck or Spot?
FlightDeck is rated higher. FlightDeck averages 4.6 out of 5 from 1.1K ratings, while Spot averages 4.1 from 8 ratings.
Do FlightDeck or Spot have ads?
FlightDeck shows ads; Spot does not.
Which is updated more often, FlightDeck or Spot?
FlightDeck ships an update every 4 days, and Spot every 5 days. Most recently, FlightDeck was updated on September 24, 2026 and Spot on September 22, 2026.

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