Skyby vs Overflight
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Skyby
Instantly identify commercial flights overhead without searching. Track airline, origin, destination, and aircraft type in real-time. Set alerts for specific planes or monitor your chosen airspace.
- Instant overhead flight identification
- Real-time airline, origin, and destination
- Aircraft type and altitude display
- Inbound flight indicator
- Customizable alerts for specific aircraft
- Automatic logbook of flights
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Know exactly what's flying over you. Look up, and whatever is overhead appears on screen. Airliners, private jets, helicopters, and more, identified instantly. No searching, no typing, no menus. NOTE: Some features shown in the screenshots require Skyby Pro. Whether you're a planespotter camped at the end of a runway or a casual fan glancing up from home, Skyby reads the sky in real time and shows the aircraft directly above: the airline or operator, the aircraft type, the altitude, and, for scheduled flights, where it came from and where it's headed. An inbound indicator shows when a flight is coming into range. Two ways to use it: Set it and forget it. Prop Skyby on a desk, shelf, or windowsill and leave it running: a quiet radar for your patch of sky. Set an alert for the aircraft you care about, and Skyby chimes the moment one flies over. Pull it out and look up. On a walk or in the backyard, open Skyby and see what's flying over right now. From airliners to helicopters: Skyby identifies it all. The passenger and cargo jets, the private planes and business jets, the helicopters overhead. And yes, if a blimp drifts over, Skyby catches that too. Prefer to keep it to the airlines? Flip on Commercial Only in settings. Set your spot, or take it with you: Use your current location Drop a pin anywhere in the coverage area to watch the planes over home while you're away Or set the pin to live, and Skyby follows you as you move WHAT YOU GET Instant overhead ID for the aircraft above you Adjustable search area, up to 3 nm free (wider with Pro) Alerts that chime when a plane you care about flies over (A380 and 747 built in, free) An inbound indicator when a flight is coming into range Real routes and aircraft types for scheduled flights A logbook that saves your catches automatically Available across the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Philippines and Singapore today, with more on the way Skyby Pro adds aircraft photos matched to the tail number (when available), custom alerts (any airline, aircraft type, flight number, or tail), your full logbook with search and bookmarks, detailed stats, and an even wider search radius. Skyby runs on iPhone and iPad, and it shines on iPad propped up on a desk or shelf. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Overflight at 4.7 against Skyby's 4.4. Skyby's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, review sentiment, 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
Both are free to download. Skyby sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month 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.
Overflight holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 23 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 86% of Skyby's written reviews are positive against 80% of Overflight's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Skyby ships an update weekly, Overflight every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Skyby | Overflight |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (9 ratings) | 4.7 (23 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 85.7% of reviews — better | 80.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 23 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | StoryForward | DGR Labs |
Customer experience
Skyby
Overflight
In-app purchases
Skyby
- Skyby Pro$2.991 Month
- Skyby Pro Annual$19.991 Year
- Skyby Founder Lifetime$19.99
- Skyby Pro Lifetime$49.99
Overflight
- Overflight Pro Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Overflight Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Overflight Pro Lifetime$69.99









