We compared the plane spotting apps people actually use in 2026 and ranked them on what a spotter needs from an app, not on the size of the company behind it. FlightCatcherPro takes the number one spot: it is the only app on our shortlist that covers all five spotting jobs, from identifying an aircraft with your camera to keeping it in a collection. Flightradar24 is still the best live flight tracker, and JetLog suits Android loggers who live in spreadsheets.
FlightCatcherPro publishes this page and makes one of the apps on it. We scored every app, ours included, on the same published criteria, and every price, rating and count was checked on 14 October 2026.
Key Takeaways
- FlightCatcherPro ranks first because it is the only app here that covers all five spotting jobs we scored: a live map, camera identification, identifying a photo you already took, a personal logbook and collection. It is free on iPhone and Android, and it also identifies aircraft on the ground, museum pieces and warbirds that flight trackers cannot see.
- JetLog is the Android logbook for spotters who tick off registrations, and the only ranked app whose listing documents both offline use and CSV or Excel export. It has no iPhone version and 56 ratings, so it is small and new.
- Flightradar24 is the best live flight tracker, with 4.8 stars from 377,100 UK App Store ratings and more than 100 million Google Play installs. It covers two of the five spotting jobs, so most spotters pair it with a logging or collecting app.
- Skycards, also from Flightradar24, is a card game played on the live map: you catch aircraft by picking them off the map rather than spotting them yourself, then battle other players with the cards. Its UK App Store rating is 3.6 from 407 ratings, the lowest on the shortlist, though it does better on Google Play.
- Every ranked app is free to download, and full features cost from £8.99 a year (FlightAware ad removal) to £34.99 a year (FlightCatcherPro Premium). Four newer apps had fewer than 10 ratings, so we list them but do not rank them yet.
New to plane spotting?
Start with our free plane spotting for beginners guide: what to bring, where to stand and how to read a registration before you choose an app.
What plane spotting apps actually are (and what they are not)
A plane spotting app helps you identify, record or enjoy the aircraft you see with your own eyes. Plane spotting is the hobby of watching aircraft and noting what you saw: the type, the airline and above all the registration, the tail number that stays with one airframe for its whole life. A good spotting app turns that sighting into something you keep.
In practice the category covers five jobs. A live map shows which aircraft are near you right now. Camera or augmented reality identification tells you what you are pointing at. Photo identification works out an aircraft from a picture you already took. A logbook keeps a record of every aircraft you have seen, and collection mechanics such as rarity, medals and leaderboards give you a reason to go out again.
A plane spotting app is not simply a flight tracker. Trackers such as Flightradar24 and FlightAware are built for following flights, checking delays and meeting arrivals, and they serve travellers and the aviation industry as much as hobbyists. They are excellent at showing traffic, but most forget an aircraft once it has gone. A spotting app is also not a photo portfolio site or an air traffic tool: the positions these apps show are for interest, never for navigation or safety.
That distinction drives the ranking below. An app that does one job brilliantly can still be right for you, and plenty of spotters run two apps side by side. But for the question this page answers, which app is best for plane spotting, we count how many of the five spotting jobs each app covers.
How We Ranked These Plane Spotting Apps
We tested ten plane spotting apps that are live on the App Store or Google Play in the UK, from the big flight trackers to apps launched this year, and scored each one on five objective criteria. All figures were read from the stores and the vendors' own websites on 14 October 2026.
- Spotting jobs covered (0 to 5). One point each for a live map, camera or augmented reality identification, identifying an aircraft from a photo you already took, a personal spotting logbook, and collection or game mechanics. We checked each against the app's App Store or Google Play listing and its own website.
- Public store ratings. The average rating and the number of ratings on the UK and US App Store and on Google Play. A high rating from a handful of people tells you less than a slightly lower one from thousands, so we report both.
- Price of the full feature set. The lowest yearly price in pounds for the main paid tier, taken from the store's in-app purchase list. Where a vendor does not publish a price, we say so rather than guess.
- Platforms. Whether the app runs on iPhone, Android and the web.
- Maintenance. The date of the most recent app update, as a sign the app is actively looked after.
The ranking rule is simple: apps are ordered by the number of spotting jobs they cover, and ties are broken by the total number of public store ratings. To be ranked, an app needs at least 10 public ratings, so four promising newcomers are listed separately until more people have reviewed them. Prices vary by country and change often, so check the store before you buy.
From the FlightCatcherPro YouTube channel.
The Best Plane Spotting Apps in 2026
Six apps cleared our ratings threshold. They split into three kinds: an all-in-one spotting app, two specialists for gaming and logging, and three flight trackers that spotters keep for live traffic. The order follows the ranking rule above, so a tracker with millions of ratings can sit below a smaller app that does more spotting jobs. Each section ends with the kind of spotter the app suits best.
1. FlightCatcherPro, best for identifying and collecting the aircraft you actually see.
- Made by
- Tom Christian, UK
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android
- Spotting jobs
- 5 of 5
- Ratings
- 4.9 from 32 (UK App Store); 4.4 from 23 (US App Store)
- Website
- flightcatcherpro.com
FlightCatcherPro is a camera-first plane spotting app for iPhone and Android, built in the UK by its founder, Tom Christian, and first released on the App Store on 25 November 2025. You point your phone at an aircraft in the sky or on the ground, the app identifies it, and once you confirm the catch it goes into your Hangar, a personal logbook with the type, airline, registration and route.
It is the only app on this shortlist that covers all five spotting jobs. There is a live map of aircraft around you, camera identification, identification from photos already in your camera roll, the Hangar logbook, and collection mechanics: every aircraft type has a rarity, and you earn medals, keep streaks and compare hangars with friends on leaderboards. Museum aircraft, warbirds and static displays count too, which a flight tracker cannot see.
In the 90 days to 14 October 2026, 1,077 spotters in 88 countries made 13,569 camera catches and 951 photo uploads. In our own review of 180 camera catches between 6 and 8 October 2026, 88% were matched to a live flight automatically.
It is free to download from the App Store and Google Play, and the free plan includes camera catches and the Hangar. Premium costs £4.99 a month or £34.99 a year on the UK App Store, adds catches from your camera roll and lifts the free-plan limits. iPhone spotters in the UK rate it 4.9 out of 5. It works wherever aircraft fly, from the end of a runway to a museum hangar, which is why catches already come from 88 countries.
Best suited for: Spotters who want to know what they just saw and keep a record of it, from the airport fence to the museum hangar. It also suits families and newer spotters, because rarity and medals give every trip a goal.
Download FlightCatcherPro free on the App Store or Google Play.
2. JetLog, best for Android spotters who log registrations in spreadsheets.
- Made by
- Gavin Somerset, UK (Google Play developer)
- Platforms
- Android
- Spotting jobs
- 3 of 5
- Ratings
- 4.5 from 56 (Google Play)
- Website
- jetlogapp.com
JetLog is a plane spotting logbook for Android, built in the UK; Google Play lists the developer as Gavin Somerset in Barnsley. It is the most traditional app on this list: you tick off registrations as you see them against airline fleet lists and watch your completion grow.
It covers three spotting jobs: a live flight map, a personal logbook with fleet checklists, and light collection mechanics in the form of airline completion, streaks and milestones. It is also the only ranked app whose listing documents both an offline mode and CSV or Excel export, which matters if you keep your records in a spreadsheet or might move between apps later. It has no camera identification and cannot work out an aircraft from a photo, so you need to know what you are looking at.
JetLog is free to download with in-app purchases, but Google Play does not show the prices on the web and the JetLog website has no pricing page, so we could not verify what the paid tier costs. It rates 4.5 from 56 Google Play ratings with more than 1,000 installs, and it was last updated on 24 September 2026. There is no iPhone version: App Store searches for JetLog only find an unrelated pilot logbook.
The reviews it has are positive, and the app is actively maintained.
Best suited for: Android spotters who log registrations methodically and want to export their records. It suits experienced spotters who already know their types, because it will not identify aircraft for them.
3. Flightradar24, best for live flight tracking worldwide.
- Made by
- Flightradar24 AB, Sweden
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android, web
- Spotting jobs
- 2 of 5
- Ratings
- 4.8 from 377,100 (UK App Store); 4.8 from 670,340 (US App Store); 4.5 from 658,397 (Google Play)
- Website
- flightradar24.com
Flightradar24 is the best-known flight tracker in the world, run by Flightradar24 AB in Stockholm, which Mikael Robertsson and Olov Lindberg founded in 2006. Its live map is fed by a network of more than 40,000 receivers and it tracks more than 200,000 flights a day (both figures as of 2023).
For spotting it covers two of our five jobs: the live map, and an augmented reality view that labels aircraft when you point your phone at the sky. It does not identify aircraft from photos, it has no logbook of aircraft you have seen, and it has no collection mechanics; Flightradar24’s game is a separate app, Skycards.
It is free to download. On the UK App Store, Silver costs £2.99 a month or from £12.99 a year, and Gold costs from £3.99 a month or £33.99 a year, adding more data layers, longer history and alerts. No other app comes close on ratings: 4.8 from 377,100 UK App Store ratings, 4.8 from 670,340 US ratings, and 4.5 from 658,397 Google Play ratings with more than 100 million installs. It is available in 10 languages on iPhone, Android and the web, and was updated on 13 October 2026.
Most serious spotters keep it installed whatever else they use, to see what is inbound before it appears over the threshold.
Best suited for: Anyone who wants to know what is flying near them, where it is going and when it lands. Pair it with a logbook or collecting app if you want to keep a record of what you saw.
4. Plane Finder, best for a capable tracker with a cheaper premium tier.
- Made by
- pinkfroot, Southampton, UK
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android, web
- Spotting jobs
- 2 of 5
- Ratings
- 4.7 from 95,856 (UK App Store); 4.7 from 61,046 (US App Store); 4.7 from 16,354 (Google Play)
- Website
- planefinder.net
Plane Finder is a live flight tracker from pinkfroot, a company founded in 2009 and based in Southampton in the UK. It offers a live map in 2D and 3D, flight playback and an augmented reality camera mode that labels the aircraft in view.
That gives it two of our five spotting jobs: the live map and AR identification. Its latest iPhone release adds a MyFlights log, but that records flights you travel on as a passenger, not aircraft you spot, so it does not count as a spotting logbook here. It has no photo identification and no collection mechanics.
Plane Finder is free to download, and Premium costs £3.49 a month or £19.99 a year on the UK App Store, the cheapest full tier among the trackers we ranked. It rates 4.7 from 95,856 UK App Store ratings, 4.7 from 61,046 US ratings and 4.7 from 16,354 Google Play ratings, with more than a million installs. It is available in 10 languages on iPhone, Android and the web, and was last updated on 29 September 2026.
Its ratings are consistent across both stores and both countries, which is a good sign that the experience holds up on every platform rather than only on the iPhone.
Best suited for: Spotters who want a strong live map and AR view for less than Flightradar24 Gold costs each year. It also suits anyone who wants a second tracker to cross-check what the first one shows.
5. Skycards by Flightradar24, best for a card game played on the Flightradar24 map.
- Made by
- Flightradar24 AB, Sweden
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android
- Spotting jobs
- 2 of 5
- Ratings
- 3.6 from 407 (UK App Store); 3.7 from 1,949 (US App Store); 4.3 from 3,654 (Google Play)
- Website
- skycards.app
Skycards is a collectible card game from Flightradar24 AB, the Stockholm company behind Flightradar24. It was released on iPhone in November 2024 and is also on Android. It is built on the Flightradar24 live map: you catch aircraft by picking them off the map, turn them into cards, build a deck and battle other players.
It covers two of our five spotting jobs: a live map of aircraft around you, and collection and game mechanics. Catching happens on the map, so there is no camera identification and nothing checks that you actually saw the aircraft. It cannot identify an aircraft from a photo you already took, and it does not keep a spotting logbook of the registrations you have seen.
Skycards is free to download and contains advertising. In-app purchases are coin packs, from £0.99 for 10 coins to £9.99 for 500 coins, plus a “Business Class” item at £19.99; neither Apple’s listing nor the Skycards website says whether that is a subscription or what period it covers. Ratings are mixed: 3.6 from 407 UK App Store ratings and 3.7 from 1,949 US ratings, but 4.3 from 3,654 Google Play ratings, where it has more than 100,000 installs. It is English only and was last updated on 2 October 2026.
That makes it a game first and a spotting tool second, which suits people who want card battles more than a record of what they have seen.
Best suited for: Players who enjoy card collecting and battles and want them tied to real aircraft overhead. It also suits anyone who already uses the Flightradar24 map and wants a game on top of it.
6. FlightAware, best for flight status and arrival alerts.
- Made by
- FlightAware (Collins Aerospace), Houston, US
- Platforms
- iPhone, Android, web
- Spotting jobs
- 1 of 5
- Ratings
- 4.7 from 8,358 (UK App Store); 4.9 from 388,832 (US App Store); 3.3 from 45,000 (Google Play)
- Website
- flightaware.com
FlightAware is a flight tracking company founded in Houston, Texas in 2005 by Daniel Baker, Karl Lehenbauer and David McNett, and owned by Collins Aerospace since 2021. It runs an ADS-B ground station network across 195 countries and says it serves more than 10,000 aircraft operators and service providers.
For spotters it covers one of our five jobs, the live map. Its strengths are flight status, delay alerts and airport activity, with lookups by registration or flight number. The App Store listing does not mention AR identification, and it has no photo identification, spotting logbook or collection mechanics.
The app is free, with ad removal at £0.99 a month or £8.99 a year. The Aviator plans, at £8.49 and £16.99 a month, are for private pilots who own piston aircraft rather than for spotters, and on the web Premium+ starts at $44.95 a month. Ratings split by platform: 4.7 from 8,358 UK App Store ratings and 4.9 from 388,832 US ratings, but 3.3 from about 45,000 Google Play ratings, with more than 10 million installs. It is available in 14 languages and was last updated on 25 September 2026.
If you only ever need to know when a flight lands, it may be the only aviation app you need.
Best suited for: Travellers and people meeting arrivals who want reliable status updates and alerts. It also suits pilots and aviation professionals, who get the most from its paid Aviator and web tiers.
Newer apps we tested but have not ranked yet
These apps had fewer than 10 public ratings on 14 October 2026. We will rank them once they do.
- SkySpottr: An iPhone AR app that labels aircraft in the camera view from live ADS-B data, with a spotting history and a leaderboard. It covers four spotting jobs but had no public ratings yet. Free; Pro $1.99 a month (US).
- SpotterLog: A photo-first logbook launched in July 2026 that reads the registration from your photo and alerts you to ownership changes. Its data is US-focused and it needs iOS 26.2 or later. Free; £39.99 to £149.99 a year.
- TailSpotter: A social network for spotters: post aircraft photos tagged by registration and airport, earn XP and badges, and climb airport leaderboards. Free, no ads.
- What Plane?: A Home Screen widget and app that show the nearest aircraft overhead and live traffic within 30 nautical miles. It is the only paid download we tested. £4.99 to buy; Pro £2.99 a month.
Side-by-Side Comparison
The table repeats the ranking criteria: spotting jobs covered out of five, the store rating with its number of ratings, the yearly price of the main paid tier, platforms and the latest update. Ranked apps come first in rank order, followed by the newer apps we have not ranked yet.
| Rank | App | Spotting jobs | Live map | Camera or AR identification | Identify from an existing photo | Spotting logbook | Collection or game | Store rating | Full tier per year | Platforms | Last update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FlightCatcherPro | 5 of 5 | Live map: yes | Camera or AR identification: yes | Identify from an existing photo: yes | Spotting logbook: yes | Collection or game: yes | 4.9 (32, UK App Store) | £34.99 | iPhone, Android | 5 Oct 2026 |
| 2 | JetLog | 3 of 5 | Live map: yes | Camera or AR identification: no | Identify from an existing photo: no | Spotting logbook: yes | Collection or game: yes | 4.5 (56, Google Play) | Not published | Android | 24 Sep 2026 |
| 3 | Flightradar24 | 2 of 5 | Live map: yes | Camera or AR identification: yes | Identify from an existing photo: no | Spotting logbook: no | Collection or game: no | 4.8 (377,100, UK App Store) | £33.99 (Gold) | iPhone, Android, web | 13 Oct 2026 |
| 4 | Plane Finder | 2 of 5 | Live map: yes | Camera or AR identification: yes | Identify from an existing photo: no | Spotting logbook: no | Collection or game: no | 4.7 (95,856, UK App Store) | £19.99 | iPhone, Android, web | 29 Sep 2026 |
| 5 | Skycards by Flightradar24 | 2 of 5 | Live map: yes | Camera or AR identification: no | Identify from an existing photo: no | Spotting logbook: no | Collection or game: yes | 3.6 (407, UK App Store) | Coin packs; £19.99 “Business Class” (period not stated) | iPhone, Android | 2 Oct 2026 |
| 6 | FlightAware | 1 of 5 | Live map: yes | Camera or AR identification: no | Identify from an existing photo: no | Spotting logbook: no | Collection or game: no | 4.7 (8,358, UK App Store) | £8.99 (ad removal) | iPhone, Android, web | 25 Sep 2026 |
| Not ranked | SkySpottr | 4 of 5 | Live map: yes | Camera or AR identification: yes | Identify from an existing photo: no | Spotting logbook: yes | Collection or game: yes | No ratings yet | Free; Pro $1.99 a month (US) | iPhone | 10 Oct 2026 |
| Not ranked | SpotterLog | 3 of 5 | Live map: no | Camera or AR identification: no | Identify from an existing photo: yes | Spotting logbook: yes | Collection or game: yes | No ratings yet | Free; £39.99 to £149.99 a year | iPhone, web | 24 Jul 2026 |
| Not ranked | TailSpotter | 3 of 5 | Live map: yes | Camera or AR identification: no | Identify from an existing photo: no | Spotting logbook: yes | Collection or game: yes | 5.0 from 3 (US App Store) | Free, no ads | iPhone, web | 10 Oct 2026 |
| Not ranked | What Plane? | 1 of 5 | Live map: yes | Camera or AR identification: no | Identify from an existing photo: no | Spotting logbook: no | Collection or game: no | 5.0 from 2 (UK App Store) | £4.99 to buy; Pro £2.99 a month | iPhone, iPad | 24 Sep 2026 |
Which Plane Spotting App Fits Your Use Case
Most spotters end up with one app for live traffic and one for what they actually saw. Find the job you care about most and start there.
| If you want to… | Best pick | Why | Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identify the aircraft you are looking at | FlightCatcherPro | Camera identification that saves the catch to your Hangar | Flightradar24 AR view |
| Turn spotting into a game with friends | FlightCatcherPro | Rarity, medals and leaderboards built from aircraft you saw | Skycards card battles |
| Families and new spotters | FlightCatcherPro | The camera does the identifying, so nobody needs to know types | Plane Finder AR view |
| Museums, airshows and static displays | FlightCatcherPro | Identifies aircraft on the ground, which trackers cannot show | SpotterLog (photo of the registration) |
| Log registrations and export to a spreadsheet | JetLog (Android) | Fleet checklists, offline mode and CSV or Excel export | FlightCatcherPro Hangar |
| See what is inbound before it appears | Flightradar24 | The largest receiver network and the most-rated app | Plane Finder |
| Flight status and arrival alerts | FlightAware | Delay alerts and airport activity in 14 languages | Flightradar24 |
| A tracker upgrade on a budget | Plane Finder | Full Premium for £19.99 a year | Flightradar24 Silver from £12.99 a year |
What Results Look Like with FlightCatcherPro
These figures come from FlightCatcherPro's own analytics for the 90 days to 14 October 2026, and from our review of 180 camera catches between 6 and 8 October 2026.
- camera catches in the last 90 days
- 13,569
- spotters catching aircraft in that time
- 1,077
- countries those catches came from
- 88
- of camera catches matched to a live flight
- 88%
On top of 13,569 camera catches, spotters added 951 catches from photos already in their camera roll. Every catch is public on its registration page, so you can see exactly what spotters caught:
- F-GXLO: Airbus BelugaXL on approach.
- C-GJZV: Jazz CRJ-900 overhead at dusk.
- PH-BHN: KLM Boeing 787-9 at the gate.
Browse the latest catches from FlightCatcherPro spotters
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best plane spotting app in 2026?
FlightCatcherPro is the best plane spotting app in 2026 on our criteria, because it is the only app we tested that covers all five spotting jobs: live map, camera identification, photo identification, logbook and collection. If you only want live flight tracking, Flightradar24 is the strongest choice.
What is the best free plane spotting app?
All six ranked apps are free to download. FlightCatcherPro's free plan includes camera catches and the Hangar logbook, and Flightradar24's free map is the best free tracker.
How do plane spotting apps identify aircraft?
Most combine live position data, broadcast by aircraft over ADS-B, with where your phone is pointing, and some also recognise the aircraft in the photo itself. FlightCatcherPro uses both, which is why it can also identify aircraft on the ground and in museums.
What is the difference between a flight tracker and a plane spotting app?
A flight tracker follows flights: where they are, where they are going and whether they are late. A plane spotting app records the aircraft you saw yourself, usually by registration, and keeps it in a logbook or collection.
How much does a plane spotting app cost?
The ranked apps are free to download, and full features cost from £8.99 a year for FlightAware ad removal to £34.99 a year for FlightCatcherPro Premium. Specialist logbooks can cost more: SpotterLog's top tier is £149.99 a year.
What is the best plane spotting app for Android?
FlightCatcherPro is the best plane spotting app for Android too: it covers all five spotting jobs and is free on Google Play. If you only want a spreadsheet-style logbook, JetLog is the Android specialist, and Flightradar24 is the best Android tracker.
How do I log the aircraft registrations I have seen?
In FlightCatcherPro every catch saves the registration, type and airline to your Hangar automatically. In JetLog you tick registrations off against airline fleet lists and can export the list to CSV or Excel.
What can FlightCatcherPro identify?
It identifies aircraft in flight and on the ground, including airliners, business jets, military aircraft, historic warbirds and museum or static display aircraft. Each catch records the type, airline or operator and, where it can be matched, the registration and flight.
Try FlightCatcherPro for free (no credit card required)
FlightCatcherPro is free to download, and you do not need a card to start catching. Point your phone at the next aircraft you see and you will know what it is in seconds. Every catch lands in your Hangar, so your spotting record builds itself. Rarity and medals give every trip to the airport, airshow or museum a goal. Premium is there if you want camera-roll catches and fewer limits, but the camera and the Hangar stay free. Download FlightCatcherPro on the App Store or Google Play and make your first catch today.