Pilot Log vs Smart Logbook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Pilot Log
This app provides a digital logbook for pilots to easily record and manage flight time. It offers cloud backup, digital signatures for dual instruction, and quick tracking of flight currency. Users can also export data to PDF or CSV formats for safekeeping and analysis.
- Cloud backup for flight logs
- Digital signatures for dual instruction
- Track Day/Night VFR and IFR currency
- Save logbook to Dropbox
- Export logbook to PDF
- Export logbook to CSV
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PilotLog is a clean, fast pilot logbook for student pilots, private pilots, and working professionals. Log a flight in under a minute, see your hours and currency at a glance, and keep an organized record of every leg you fly. Log flights without friction Quick entry with smart defaults: date, aircraft, departure and arrival, times, and the conditions you actually care about — cross-country, night, instrument, PIC, dual, simulated. Edit anything, anytime. Your aircraft, your way Manage tail numbers, categories, and class ratings. Custom fields let you log whatever your training or operation requires — landings, approaches, holds, sim sessions, you name it. Dashboard that tells you something Total time, recent activity, currency at a glance. Filter by date range. Stop scrolling spreadsheets to figure out where you stand. Reports (Pro) Detailed breakdowns by aircraft, time category, and any custom field you've defined. Designed for checkride prep, insurance audits, and recurrent training documentation. Endorsements (Pro) Create CFI endorsements, capture signatures, and share signed PDFs with your student. The whole loop, in your pocket. Photo attachments (Pro) Attach photos to any flight — first solo, the view from FL230, the gotcha you want to remember. Sync with the web Everything stays in sync between the iPhone app and pilotlog.app. Log a flight on the ramp, review it on your laptop at home. Free vs Pro Logging flights, managing aircraft, and the dashboard are always free. PilotLog Pro unlocks Reports, photo uploads, and creating new endorsements. Whether you're building hours toward your next rating or running a Part 61 sign-off, PilotLog gives you a logbook that finally feels native to your phone.
Smart Logbook
Effortlessly log flight hours, track currency, and manage pilot certifications. Visualize your flight history on an interactive map and receive timely renewal reminders for medicals and training. Supports various international regulations and export formats.
- Fast and easy flight logging
- Customizable totals calculation
- Currency and limit tracking
- Medical and training renewal reminders
- Interactive flight map
- Electronic signature capture
- Multiple export formats
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Smart Logbook makes logging your flights fast and easy. When you apply for a new rating or interview for a job, you can easily see your flying totals, over any span of time, in any type of aircraft. Track your currency and limits, and get reminders to renew your medical and recurrent training. As your flying experience grows, use the interactive map to see for yourself all the places flying has taken you. Getting started is easy. Download Smart Logbook and log 50 hours of flight time for free. Then make a one-time purchase in the app to continue adding flights. Besides getting the intuitive and powerful functionality Smart Logbook offers today, you'll also receive regular updates with new capabilities. Smart Logbook sync keeps your logbook securely backed up, and lets you seamlessly access it from multiple devices. Sync is included in the free trial. After that, just sign up for the very affordable sync subscription. The first year is free, and you can cancel any time. For more info about purchasing or the sync subscription, see https://thesmartlogbook.discourse.group/c/help/purchase Features: • Extensive customization, with defaults for general aviation and professional pilots. • Calculate your totals, filtered by time period, aircraft type/characteristics, and more. • Currency and limit tracking. Includes rules for FAA, EASA, and Transport Canada requirements, and allows creating custom rules. • Electronic signature capture, compliant with FAA standards. • Track certificates, ratings, endorsements, and medicals, and get notifications to renew items that expire. • Interactive map of your flights, which can be viewed and shared online. • Database of 40,000 airports, and allows adding custom airports. • Print your logbook in Jeppesen Basic/Pro, Transport Canada, EASA, or DGCA (India) format. • Calculate totals for the FAA Form 8710-1 / IACRA. • Add photos of aircraft, models, crew members, certificates, and flights. • Import flights from LogTen Pro or Excel/CSV file. • Export flights to CSV file. • Support for Dark Mode and Sign in with Apple. Privacy Policy: https://thesmartlogbook.com/privacy.html Terms & Conditions: https://thesmartlogbook.com/eula.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Smart Logbook at 4.8 against Pilot Log's 4.0. Smart Logbook also leads on ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (153 vs 1). Pilot Log's advantage is update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 3 months). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Pilot Log sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Smart Logbook sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Smart Logbook holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Smart Logbook has 153 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Pilot Log's written reviews are positive against 93% of Smart Logbook's.
Pilot Log ships an update every 6 weeks, Smart Logbook every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on August 17, 2026 and September 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pilot Log | Smart Logbook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (1 ratings) | 4.8 (153 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 71.4% of reviews | 93.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 153 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.2 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 73 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mobile Dev Group LLC | Kviation, Inc. |
Customer experience
Pilot Log
Smart Logbook
Bugs and requests
Pilot Log
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Smart Logbook
Reported bugs
5 issues- Multiple sectors during one day sorted by name, not by time of departure
- Some airports missing (e.g., VDTI)
- Flights added as simulator flights
- Search function is terrible, impossible to find crew member
- Cross-platform purchase restoration issues (Android to iOS)
Requested features
18 requests- Ability to input waypoints instead of just airports
- Automatically add normal flight times for a route
- Separate flights by year on the main page for better overview
- Display flight direction on the map
- Allow custom names in the create an airport option
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- Filter flights by date (older/newer)
- Edit totals to date hours on FAA print pages
- Show all dates filter by default
- Add search by airport name
- Option to mark/switch view of all visited countries
- Add Airline field
- Add filters by airlines
- Show aircraft model and airline on the same line of the list
- See flight times with different date filters together on one page (e.g., last 7, 30, 120, 365 days)
- Add a signature feature for examiners and instructors
- Configure night time manually in settings for automatic calculation
- Add a prefix with airline name for flight ID
- Log duty time with multiple legs
In-app purchases
Pilot Log
- PilotLog One Month Subscription$1.99
- PilotLog One Year Subscription$11.99
Smart Logbook
- Sync (monthly)1 Year trial$1.991 Month
- Sync (yearly)1 Year trial$14.991 Year
- Unlimited Flights (discounted)$19.99
- Unlimited Flights (on sale)$23.95
- Unlimited Flights$34.99








