Comparison

Contrail vs Overflight

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

Head to head
About

Contrail

Track aircraft in real-time with live maps, flight details, and airport information. Save flights, explore past journeys, and access weather data. Optional Pro features include alerts and specialized map layers.

Highlights
  • Live flight map and trails
  • Detailed flight information
  • My Flights tracking
  • Airport search and boards
  • Past journey statistics (Passport)
  • Weather and airspace data
  • Flight alerts and watchlists
Features
Read full description

Hear a plane? Know where to look. Find aircraft nearby, follow a journey and keep the sky a glance away. Start free, with no account and no ads. WATCH THE SKY Watch the Sky shows an aircraft near your saved place, its distance, direction and how high to look. No need to open the app just to find out what is overhead. Watch aircraft near home, or see your next saved flight with its gate and departure time. On iPhone, choose a rectangular widget or a compact line to check the sky with a glance. Sky widgets are free. Readings update periodically; open Contrail for live tracking. Lock Screen widgets are available on iPhone. EXPLORE CONTRAIL Live map & trails Follow aircraft across the map. Filter by airline, aircraft type or flight phase, and explore their recent tracks. Flight details See available routes, altitude, speed, aircraft photos and registration. Check the age of the latest position. My Flights Save a flight by number and date. Follow its status, gate, delays and the aircraft operating the inbound journey. Search & airport boards Find flights, registrations and airports. Browse available arrivals, departures, gates and local airport times. Passport Keep past journeys, maps and travel statistics. Import and export CSV from Flighty, Flightradar24 and OpenFlights. iCloud logbook sync is available on iOS. Weather & airspace Explore airport weather, METAR observations, aurora forecasts and glider activity. Pro adds selected weather and airspace layers. CONTRAIL PRO (OPTIONAL) Contrail Pro adds alerts, watchlists and more ways to explore. Check current plans, prices and any eligible trial in the app. Flight alerts: Choose notifications for detected gate changes, delays, departures, arrivals and baggage updates. Live Activities · iOS: Keep one journey on your Lock Screen and, on supported iPhones, in the Dynamic Island. Discover & watchlists: Explore military, government and other notable aircraft. Get alerts when activity is detected for aircraft you follow. Flight Cinema: Replay supported past flights in 3D. Explore the timeline and camera views; some routes are reconstructed or incomplete. Specialist map layers: Explore SIGMET hazards, UK military airspace, holding patterns, activity corridors and the gliders-only filter. Watch the Sky, basic tracking, Passport CSV import/export and emergency-squawk alerts remain free. A sky widget and a Pro Live Activity serve different purposes. Coverage, timetables and aircraft details depend on the available data. Contrail is for exploration, not flight navigation. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://contrail-app.netlify.app/privacy

About

Overflight

Visualize live aircraft in your visible sky with a radar-style scope. Get details like flight number, altitude, and type. Upgrade for spoken traffic alerts and route information.

Highlights
  • Radar-style scope of visible sky
  • Live aircraft details (flight number, altitude, type)
  • Military and special-interest traffic highlighting
  • Spoken traffic and inbound alerts (Pro)
  • Live routes, origin, and destination (Pro)
  • Universal app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV
Features
Read full description

Look up! Overflight names the aircraft flying over you right now: airline, flight number, and type, with a live readout of altitude, speed, and track, and a radar scope of everything else in your sky. Around it, a radar-style scope plots the whole visible sky. Swipe to bring any other aircraft into focus, or just watch the one overhead. When the sky is quiet, a calm idle state waits for the next arrival. FREE • One aircraft always in focus, chosen from what you can actually see rather than a flat radius • Airline, flight number, and aircraft type, with altitude, vertical speed, ground speed, track, bearing, and distance • A live radar scope of the whole visible sky, north-up or heading-up • Military and special-interest traffic highlighted the moment it enters your sky • An aircraft declaring an emergency jumps straight into focus, flagged EMERGENCY • Helicopters and general aviation name their operator when it's one worth naming: police, fire, medevac, NASA • Tap the aircraft type to read about the airframe on Wikipedia, without leaving the app • Overhead, Near, Normal, and Far reach presets to tune how much sky you see • A universal app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV OVERFLIGHT PRO • Live routes, origin to destination, for every aircraft: airports spelled out by name • Spoken traffic: each aircraft called out aloud as it comes into focus, hands-free ("Traffic, two o'clock, twelve miles, southbound, a heavy Boeing 777, United flight 12, Denver to Tokyo"). • Notable inbound alerts: a pre-warning and a "look northwest" cue when interesting traffic is approaching • Indefinite always-on for an unattended ambient display when connected to a charger Your first aircraft's route and your first notable-inbound alert are free, so you can see what Pro does before deciding. The yearly plan starts with a 7-day free trial. There's a monthly plan too, or unlock everything once with a lifetime purchase. Powered by worldwide, community-run ADS-B data. No account, no sign-up. Your location is used only to find the aircraft above you. Not every aircraft broadcasts its position (some military flights fly dark), so the sky you see is the sky that's broadcasting. Overflight Pro is a monthly or annual auto-renewing subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase; the price is shown in the app before you buy. A subscription renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the period ends, and you can manage or cancel it in your App Store account settings. Privacy Policy: https://dgrlabs.co/privacy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Contrail4 screens
Overflight4 screens

Verdict

The call

Contrail and Overflight both sit at 4.7 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Contrail's written reviews are positive against 80% of Overflight's. On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Contrail sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Overflight sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Contrail against 4.7 for Overflight. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 10 and 24 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 100% of Contrail's written reviews are positive against 80% of Overflight's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Contrail ships an update every 5 days, Overflight every 4 days. Both last shipped on November 9, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Contrail versus Overflight: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterContrailOverflight
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (10 ratings) — better4.7 (24 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better80.0% of reviews
Number of ratings1024 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Apple TV — better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJacob LassenDGR Labs

Customer experience

Contrail

All ratings10 ratings
Positive90.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Overflight

All ratings23 ratings
Positive95.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Contrail

Subscriptions3
  • Contrail Pro Weekly3 Days trial$1.997 Days
  • Contrail Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Contrail Pro Yearly3 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time3
  • Buy me a coffee$1.99
  • Keep the servers running$4.99
  • I love this app$11.99
3 purchases

Overflight

Subscriptions2
  • Overflight Pro Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Overflight Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Overflight Pro Lifetime$69.99

Questions

Is Contrail free?
Contrail is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Overflight free?
Overflight is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Contrail or Overflight?
Contrail is rated higher. Contrail averages 4.7 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while Overflight averages 4.7 from 24 ratings.
Do Contrail or Overflight have ads?
Neither Contrail nor Overflight shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Contrail or Overflight?
Contrail ships an update every 5 days, and Overflight every 4 days. Most recently, Contrail was updated on November 9, 2026 and Overflight on November 9, 2026.

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