Airmate vs Virtual Dashboard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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/
Virtual Dashboard
Create custom dashboards using your device's sensors to display speed, altitude, and more. Navigate with a map featuring route planning, points of interest, and breadcrumb tracking. Customize units, themes, and map views for a personalized experience.
- Customizable sensor gauges
- Speedometer and odometer
- GPS and barometric altimeter
- Artificial horizon
- Navigational map with overlays
- Route planning and ETA
- Points of interest search
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Bring your iPhone and iPad's sensors to life on Virtual Dashboard. Arrange a variety of different gauges to create your own custom dashboards. You can choose from: ○ Speedometer (with peak hold) ○ Odometer (distance travelled, resettable) ○ GPS Altimeter (absolute altitude) ○ Barometric Altimeter (relative altitude) ○ Accelerometer (with peak hold) ○ Artificial Horizon (pitch and roll) ○ Compass (with magnetic heading and true track indicator) ○ Elapsed time (with average speed) Swipe to display a navigational map with resizable gauge overlays. You can select from road, bike, nautical chart, satellite, topographic, and survey (blank) modes. The map shows your current coordinates, track, and heading, and drops breadcrumb markers as you travel. Tap to set a destination and the map displays your distance, bearing, direction to steer, and ETA to the destination. Search the map for points of interest or street addresses. Customize your units, map features, and gauge behavior. Select from one of the many available themes (theme requires in-app purchase). Connect your external MFI GPS device and see faster updates. We currently support the Bad Elf GPS units.
Screenshots
Verdict
Airmate and Virtual Dashboard both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Virtual Dashboard's written reviews are positive against 75% of Airmate's. Airmate's advantage is ratings volume (549 vs 13) and update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 5 months). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. Airmate sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $24.99 per year and Virtual Dashboard sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Airmate against 4.5 for Virtual Dashboard. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Airmate has 549 ratings behind it against 13, 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 Virtual Dashboard's.
Airmate ships an update every 6 weeks, Virtual Dashboard every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Airmate | Virtual Dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (549 ratings) — better | 4.5 (13 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 74.8% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 549 — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 13.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 220 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Myriel Aviation SA | Kevinnovate, LLC |
Customer experience
Airmate
Virtual Dashboard
In-app purchases
Airmate
- Airmate Premium$24.991 Year
- Photorealistic terrain display$47.991 Year
- Flight plan filing token$1.99
- Token for 1 year chart access$3.99
- Support Airmate development!$4.99
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- Support Airmate development!$8.99
- Chart download token$8.99
- Support Airmate development!$17.99
- Airmate Pro version$22.99
- Airmate Dispatcher$44.99
Virtual Dashboard
- Donate for Development$0.99
- Unlock All Themes$2.99
Questions
Is Airmate free?
Is Virtual Dashboard free?
Which has better reviews, Airmate or Virtual Dashboard?
Do Airmate or Virtual Dashboard have ads?
Which is updated more often, Airmate or Virtual Dashboard?
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