CatchFlights vs Skycards: two ways to collect real aircraft
Skycards and CatchFlights both turn real aircraft into a collection, but they collect differently. Skycards, made by Flightradar24, turns the aircraft you capture with its in-game camera into cards: catch a model again to upgrade its card, and use your deck in card battles against other players. CatchFlights is a collecting game with a spotting logbook: its radar shows the aircraft actually flying near you, and every catch adds the aircraft type, registration, airline, airports and route to your collection, with daily aviation challenges on top.
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In short
- Skycards is a card game: aircraft models become cards you upgrade and battle with.
- CatchFlights is a spotting collection: types, registrations, airlines, airports and routes, kept in a logbook.
- Skycards uses live data from Flightradar24; CatchFlights uses community ADS-B receiver networks.
- Skycards is in English; CatchFlights is in English and German.
At a glance
| CatchFlights | Skycards | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | An independent developer | Flightradar24 AB |
| Platforms | iPhone (App Store), Android (closed testing on Google Play) | iPhone (App Store), Android (Google Play) |
| How you catch | Tap an aircraft on the radar around your location and catch it | Capture aircraft flying overhead with the in-game camera |
| What you collect | Manufacturers, families, models, registrations, airlines, airports and routes; curated sets | Aircraft models as cards; catching a model again upgrades its card |
| Playing with others | Fly-offs and relays with friends, daily Type Rating quiz and Dispatch assignments | Card battles against other players |
| Progress | XP, levels, daily streaks, achievements, a tech tree with radar range and Skywatch | Character levels, coins, avatar apparel |
| Logbook | Every catch, as a list and on a map | Not described in its listing |
| Aircraft data | Community ADS-B receiver networks | Flightradar24 |
| Price (US App Store) | Free | Free, with ads and in-app purchases: coin packs from $0.99 to $9.99, “Business Class” $19.99 |
| Languages | English, German | English |
Skycards details as listed on its App Store and Google Play pages and on skycards.app on 5 October 2026. Listings change; the sources are linked at the end of this page.
How catching works
Skycards describes itself as a game in which you spot aircraft as they fly overhead in real life and capture them with the in-game camera, using live data from Flightradar24.
CatchFlights starts from a radar of the sky around you. It shows the airborne aircraft within your radar range — 15 km at the start, up to 50 km as you build the Radar Range track of the tech tree. Tap a contact to see its type, registration, operator, route, distance, altitude and speed where they are known, then catch it. What you can catch is what really flies near you, so a quiet afternoon at home and a morning near a hub airport make very different days.
What you collect
Skycards collects aircraft models and turns them into a deck. Catching the same model several times upgrades its card, and the deck is what you bring into battles.
CatchFlights collects the way a spotter's notebook does. A catch counts for its manufacturer, family and model, but also for the individual airframe by registration, the airline, the airports and the route. Curated sets give the collection goals — complete a family, an airline or a theme — and every catch lands in your personal logbook, which you can browse as a list or on a map and search by airline.
Playing with others
Skycards puts competition into card battles: you challenge other players with the aircraft cards you have built up.
CatchFlights plays with friends instead of strangers. In a fly-off, you place six aircraft in the category where each does best and challenge a friend on the aircraft you have both caught. When a friend catches the same aircraft as you within a day, wherever they are, it counts as a relay and earns you both XP. The daily Type Rating quiz and the Dispatch assignments are challenges you play on your own.
Price, ads and languages
Both games are free to download. Skycards' App Store listing shows that it contains ads and offers in-app purchases — coin packs and a “Business Class” purchase. Skycards is in English. CatchFlights is free on the App Store and plays in English and German.
Which one should you pick?
- Pick Skycards if you enjoy deck building and card battles, and like the idea of a game built on Flightradar24's data.
- Pick CatchFlights if you want your collection to read like a spotting log — which types, registrations, airlines and routes you have actually had overhead — with daily aviation challenges, friends and German as well as English.
Nothing stops you from playing both. They read the sky in different ways and reward different things, and a rare aircraft overhead is worth catching in each.
Try CatchFlights. Open the radar, see what is flying near you, and start your collection with the first catch. Explore CatchFlights.
Sources
- Skycards: App Store
- Skycards: Google Play
- Skycards: skycards.app
Looking at more than these two? Our overview of plane spotting apps covers flight trackers and the other spotting games, too.