Airmate vs Plotter
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/
Plotter
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Plan your flight by hand with Plotter on iPhone and iPad. Place a transparent navigation ruler on the map, align the rotating grid and keep your measurements, drawings and study notes in one workspace. A MANUAL PLOTTER ON YOUR MAP • Move, rotate and resize the ruler. Turn its gridded disk independently of the body. • Align the grid with map meridians, read reciprocal directions and choose nautical or statute miles. • Zoom in for shorter distances: distance marks recalibrate to the map scale. • Record your own readings, then compare them with calculated references when you choose. DRAW AND KEEP YOUR WORK Use Apple's drawing tools for pens, markers, erasers, colors and line widths. Apple Pencil works on supported iPads. Drawings stay attached to geographic positions when you pan or zoom. Add your own VOR, VOR/DME, NDB, airfield and reporting-point symbols, names and notes. Routes, drawings, symbols and student notes remain saved on your device when you reopen the app. Share a complete study document or export route JSON/GPX and navigation-log CSV. MAPS THAT TRAVEL WITH YOU Choose a whole-world package of approximately 4.05 GB or 8.53 GB, or download the visible area at your preferred detail level. Check size, follow progress, pause and resume. Offline coverage ends at the downloaded area and detail level; zooming further adds no new data. Initial downloads need internet and sufficient storage. PLAN AND LEARN Use route, wind-correction, heading, time, fuel and E6B calculations with your own inputs. View NOAA METAR observations and their timestamps. Optional GPS recording works while the app is active. The interface supports English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. Map place names depend on the available source data. No separate Plotter account is required. SUBSCRIPTION Map and study tools require a monthly auto-renewing subscription. Eligible users receive a 3-day free trial, then the U.S. reference price is USD 4/month. Apple shows the actual local price, currency and trial eligibility before you confirm. Without a trial, payment applies when you confirm the purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. The subscription renews monthly unless canceled. To avoid trial renewal, cancel at least 24 hours before it ends in Settings > your name > Subscriptions. Deleting the app does not cancel the subscription. Expiry does not automatically delete saved work or downloaded files. Plotter is a planning and learning aid. The basemap is not an official or certified aeronautical chart. Use current official charts, NOTAMs, weather briefings and approved aircraft data. User symbols are annotations, not a live navaid database. Sharing a route does not file an ATS flight plan. New METAR requests require internet; map offline mode does not disable weather or Apple connections. GPS recording stops in the background. Privacy: https://akincijet.com/plotter/privacy/ Terms of Use (Apple EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Support: https://akincijet.com/plotter/support/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Plotter at every 3 days against Airmate's every 6 weeks. Airmate's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Airmate sells 21 in-app purchases, starting at $24.99 per year and Plotter sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.00 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Airmate ships an update every 6 weeks, Plotter every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Airmate | Plotter |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (545 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 545 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 220 MB | 122 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Myriel Aviation SA | Yigit Can Akinci |
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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- Argentina Center VFR 2022$4.99
- Chile North VFR chart 2022$4.99
- Chile Santiago VFR chart 2022$4.99
- Argentina/Chile South VFR 2022$4.99
- Support Airmate development!$8.99
- Chart download token$8.99
- Italy North Avioportolano 2022$11.99
- Support Airmate development!$17.99
- Airmate Pro version$22.99
- Tunisia VFR Air Million 2024$24.99
- Skyguide Swiss VFR Airport Plates (with one year updates)$36.99
- Airmate Dispatcher$44.99
- Avioportolano VFR Airfield Plates for Italy (one year subscription)$46.99
- Airport Plates premium browser$54.99
- UAE 2023 Rogers Data$79.99
- UAE 2025 Rogers Data$89.99
Plotter
- Plotter Monthly3 Days trial$4.001 Month









