Best plane spotting apps: which one does what
There is no single best plane spotting app, because spotters want different things from one. To see where flights are right now, use a flight tracker such as Flightradar24 or Plane Finder. To point your phone's camera at an aircraft, identify it and collect it, FlightCatcherPro is built for that. To collect aircraft as cards and battle with them, there is Skycards. And to turn the aircraft that actually fly near you into a collection and spotting logbook, with daily aviation challenges, there is CatchFlights — the app we make.
Reviewed:
In short
- Flight trackers (Flightradar24, Plane Finder) answer “where is that flight?” on a live map.
- Spotting games turn what you see into a collection: by camera (FlightCatcherPro), as cards (Skycards) or from a nearby radar (CatchFlights).
- Many spotters use a tracker and a collecting app side by side.
- We make CatchFlights; everything about the other apps comes from their own listings.
The apps at a glance
| App | Made for | Platforms | Price (US App Store) | Languages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flightradar24 | Tracking flights worldwide on a live map | iPhone, iPad, Android | Free with ads; Silver and Gold subscriptions | English and 9 more, including German |
| Plane Finder | Tracking live air traffic, with alerts and a 3D view | iPhone, iPad | Free to download | 10, including English and German |
| FlightCatcherPro | Identifying aircraft with the camera and collecting them | iPhone; Android pre-registration | Free with ads and in-app purchases, Premium from $4.99 | English |
| Skycards | Collecting aircraft as cards and battling with them | iPhone, Android | Free with ads and in-app purchases | English |
| CatchFlights | Collecting the aircraft flying near you, with a spotting logbook | iPhone (App Store), Android (closed testing on Google Play) | Free | English, German |
As listed in each app's store listing and on its website on 5 October 2026; sources at the end of this page.
Flight trackers: Flightradar24 and Plane Finder
Flight trackers show aircraft positions on a live map and answer questions about a particular flight: where it is, where it is going, how high and how fast. Flightradar24 is the best known; its listing also describes pointing your device at the sky to identify the flights overhead, a 3D view, and Silver and Gold subscriptions for more history and aircraft details. Plane Finder covers the same ground on iPhone and iPad, with a 3D view and alerts when a particular flight is heading your way — useful when you are waiting for something rare.
For spotting, a tracker is the tool that tells you what is coming. It does not keep a record of what you have seen — that is where a logbook or a collecting app comes in.
Spotting games: FlightCatcherPro, Skycards and CatchFlights
Three apps turn plane spotting into a game, and each one decides differently what counts as a catch.
- FlightCatcherPro is camera-first: you point your phone at an aircraft you can actually see, confirm the catch, and it is logged in your hangar with its type and airline. Its website adds legendary finds to hunt for and leaderboards to climb. It is on iPhone, with Android open for pre-registration on Google Play.
- Skycards, made by Flightradar24, turns aircraft into cards. You capture aircraft flying overhead with the in-game camera, upgrade a card by catching the same model again, and use your deck in card battles. Read our detailed comparison of CatchFlights and Skycards.
- CatchFlights starts from a radar of the aircraft within range of where you are. Every catch counts for its type, its registration, the airline, the airports and the route, and lands in a logbook you can browse as a list or on a map. A daily Type Rating quiz, Dispatch assignments and fly-offs with friends add a reason to open it even on a quiet day.
One difference matters for where you can play: a camera-based catch needs the aircraft in sight, while a radar-based catch needs the aircraft within range of you and of a receiver that hears its ADS-B broadcast. Aircraft without such a broadcast do not show up on CatchFlights' radar.
How to choose
- You want to know where a flight is — a flight tracker.
- You want to identify what you are looking at, by camera — FlightCatcherPro.
- You like deck building and card battles — Skycards.
- You want a collection and logbook of what really flew near you, by type, registration, airline and route, in English or German — CatchFlights.
Start your own collection. CatchFlights shows the aircraft near you on a radar and turns every catch into a logbook entry. Explore CatchFlights.
New to the hobby? Our plane spotting guide covers where to watch and what to bring, and our guide to Airbus vs Boeing helps you name what you see without an app at all.
Sources
- Flightradar24: App Store, Google Play
- Plane Finder: App Store
- FlightCatcherPro: App Store, flightcatcherpro.com
- Skycards: App Store, Google Play, skycards.app