Comparison

Airmate vs DroneSense

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

Head to head
About

Airmate

This app provides pilots with comprehensive flight planning tools, including weather forecasts, airport data, and navigation charts. It enhances situational awareness with a moving map, traffic displays, and terrain elevation views. Pilots can also file flight plans and record their flights.

Highlights
  • Flight planning and weather forecasts
  • Airport data and aviation maps
  • Moving map with aircraft location
  • Traffic and terrain elevation display
  • Flight plan filing and management
  • Flight recording and replay
  • ADS-B traffic and weather reception
Features
Read full description

Airmate is a free and easy to use flight planning and weather app for pilots, improving situational awareness and providing instant access to airport data and aviation maps, up to date weather and NOTAMs, traffic around. IFR and VFR airport plates are freely available in US (FAA charts), Europe, and more than 200 other countries. Many of them are georeferenced and could be overlaid on the aviation chart. A powerful Plate Manager allows to download in advance all airport plates in a country, they could be easily printed and viewed. During the flight, the moving map will display the aircraft location along the route, show airports and aeronautical data details and traffic around, warn you if your planned route is crossing restricted areas. A profile view is available to display terrain elevation, crossed areas and forecasted weather across the route. Airmate can also display a backup aircraft attitude indicator and flight parameters in an EFIS-like view. In the whole world, Synthetic Vision displaying in the EFIS-like view the ups and downs of rolling terrain ahead is available. In selected countries, Airmate can display scenery if this option is purchased. Airmate includes a worldwide aeronautical database updated free of charge with airports, navigation beacons, waypoints, airways, obstacles, regulated and restricted areas. Topographic maps and elevation data for most countries may be downloaded free of charge, as well as additional aviation map overlays such US Sectionals. A procedure database provide details of departure (SID), arrival (STAR) and instrument approaches in the USA, and you could add those procedures to your planned flight route (the procedure database includes all US airports, we are workding to add airports in other countries). Once loaded, the procedure path is displayed on the aeronautical map, including curved paths and racetracks. When coupled with a supported external ADS-B received, Airmate will display nearby traffic on the moving map, and receive FIS-B weather and NOTAM during the flight. To improve safety, Airmate can display neighbouring traffic received over mobile network. Such traffic include commercial airlines and transponder-equiped aircrafts, FLARM gliders, aircrafts whose pilots are using Airmate and other users using other safety broadcasting equipment. Airmate is able to transmit the flight plan data to supported avionics such Dynon SkyView. Thanks to the Auto Route feature, you could search and select the best route for your flight, and then file your VFR or IFR flight plan. Once filed, your flight plan could easily be managed, delayed or cancelled. Airmate will also record your flights and allow to replay them later or export the flight path in gpx format, you could take pictures from the app during flights. Pilot log entries are automatically computed from flown flights. A Satellite map display mode in flight planning or replay mode allows to familiarize with significant landmarks. Airmate will save planned and flown flights, user waypoints and user aircrafts in the cloud and sync them between your devices and Airmate web flight planning. Airmate brings numerous social features to the community. Pilots may leave ratings, tips and comments to share their experience with fellow pilots, and report fuel prices and landing fees. They could find friends, instructors, flight schools, aviation events and aircraft to rent near their home airport or any visited airport. Airmate may be connected to most flight simulators to keep flying skills sharp, and will manage also AHRS and simulated traffic data transmitted by the flight simulator. Planned flights and personal waypoints may be imported and exported. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

DroneSense

This platform enables public safety agencies to manage drone operations, from pilot control and asset management to real-time situational awareness for incident commanders. It offers automated flight logging and a centralized system for organizing personnel, hardware, and flight history.

Highlights
  • Professional drone piloting
  • Live video streaming
  • Automated flight logging
  • Asset and risk management
  • Real-time situational awareness
  • Collaborative operations hub
Read full description

For UAS Pilots - Fly a wide range of professional drones with DroneSense! Simply download this app directly onto your iPad and plug directly into any drone remote. Incorporating the latest and greatest drone is easy; there is no new training as the pilot will always fly with our app and have the same experience, no matter what drone is chosen. Share your live video stream with incident commanders easily to enable increased situational awareness on-scene. Automated flight logging ensures all data from all flights are available at any time. For Program Administrators - DroneSense is your complete system of record. It is a complete asset and risk management tool that provides accountability and transparency across your organization. Organize your people, hardware, and flight history in a powerful but intuitive interface. Whether it is automatically logging flight hours, filing NOTAMs, or managing personnel, DroneSense is your one-stop solution. Our software lets you quickly leverage all your resources so you can spend more time focused on the mission at hand. For Incident Commanders - DroneSense gives incident commanders and remote stakeholders the power to strategize and tactically collaborate. Our Operations Hub enables you to share real-time, low-latency, high definition views of a scene and plan dynamically. Anyone with a connected device can see a live pilot session, and multiple drone pilots can work together seamlessly. Please note that usage of the DroneSense Platform requires user registration and authorization from accredited public safety agencies.

Screenshots

Airmate4 screens
DroneSense2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: DroneSense at none against Airmate's 10. DroneSense also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 75%). Airmate's advantage is ratings volume (549 vs 32) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Airmate sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $24.99 per year. DroneSense asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Airmate against 4.6 for DroneSense. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Airmate has 549 ratings behind it against 32, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 75% of Airmate's written reviews are positive against 100% of DroneSense's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Airmate ships an update every 6 weeks, DroneSense monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Airmate versus DroneSense: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAirmateDroneSense
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (549 ratings)4.6 (32 ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings549 — better32
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size220 MB375 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMyriel Aviation SADroneSense INC

Customer experience

Airmate

All ratings545 ratings
Positive89.2%
Neutral4.4%
Negative6.4%
Written reviews412 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral9.5%
Negative15.5%

DroneSense

All ratings32 ratings
Positive90.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative9.4%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Airmate

Subscriptions2
  • Airmate Premium$24.991 Year
  • Photorealistic terrain display$47.991 Year
One-time8
  • Flight plan filing token$1.99
  • Token for 1 year chart access$3.99
  • Support Airmate development!$4.99
Show 5 more
  • Support Airmate development!$8.99
  • Chart download token$8.99
  • Support Airmate development!$17.99
  • Airmate Pro version$22.99
  • Airmate Dispatcher$44.99
None

DroneSense

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Airmate free?
Airmate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is DroneSense free?
DroneSense is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Airmate or DroneSense?
DroneSense is rated higher. Airmate averages 4.5 out of 5 from 549 ratings, while DroneSense averages 4.6 from 32 ratings.
Do Airmate or DroneSense have ads?
Neither Airmate nor DroneSense shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Airmate or DroneSense?
Airmate ships an update every 6 weeks, and DroneSense monthly. Most recently, Airmate was updated on November 1, 2026 and DroneSense on November 2, 2026.

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