We make a pilot app too
FlightKit is ours. We are not an alternative to ForeFlight and this page is not pretending to be a neutral review — but it is also not a hit piece, because ForeFlight is a genuinely excellent product and you will probably end up owning it. Every figure here was read off ForeFlight’s own pricing and student pages on 20 August 2026. Where they overlap with us, we say so. Where they are better, we say that too.
The Short Answer
Yes, you will want ForeFlight — but not yet, and not for your checkride oral. It is the best electronic flight bag there is: charts, planning, filing, briefings, situational awareness in the airplane. Buy it when you start cross-countries, not on your first lesson.
It is an in-flight tool, and earning a certificate is mostly a ground activity. Ground school, the written, and the oral are outside what an EFB is built to do — ForeFlight’s own student material teaches you how to use ForeFlight, not how to pass your checkride.
Most pilots end up with both kinds of tool. The trick is not paying for the flying one before the flying it helps with has started.
What ForeFlight Costs
| Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $130/yr | Flight planning, aviation weather, VFR and IFR charts, airport info, pilot logbook |
| Essential | $260/yr | Everything in Starter plus geo-referenced approach charts and synthetic vision |
| Premium | $390/yr | Everything in Essential plus pre-built aircraft performance profiles and improved time and fuel calculations |
Worth knowing before your checkride: weight and balance is listed as an add-on at every tier, including the $390-a-year Premium plan, and pre-built aircraft performance profiles start at Premium. Your DPE will expect a loading calculation and takeoff and landing numbers, so budget for how you are producing those. FlightKit includes both from $9.99 a month, and our weight and balance tool is free to try. Check ForeFlight’s current pricing page before you buy — add-on packaging changes, and theirs is the page that counts.
What ForeFlight Does Better Than Anyone
Geo-referenced plates, moving map, synthetic vision, traffic and terrain. This is what an EFB is for, it is what ForeFlight has spent fifteen years perfecting, and nothing on your phone is going to beat it in the cockpit.
File IFR and VFR, pull a legal standard briefing, and have it logged. If you are going to fly in the system, you want the tool the system is built around.
Your instructor can review and sign entries remotely, and progress tracking shows how you are tracking against the private pilot flight requirements. This is genuinely good, and it overlaps with what we do — we are not going to pretend otherwise.
Every rating after this one, every airplane you move up to, most of the flight departments you might one day work for. Learning it early is not wasted money.
What It Does Not Cover
An electronic flight bag is built for the flight. Earning the certificate is mostly something you do on the ground, and that is a different product category — which is why ForeFlight does not sell it. Their published student offering is the logbook with CFI remote signing and progress tracking against the private pilot flight requirements; the training content teaches ForeFlight itself.
| The job | In an EFB? | Where it actually gets done |
|---|---|---|
| Charts, filing, in-flight awareness | Yes — this is the point | ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot |
| Route planning and briefings | Yes | ForeFlight, with your CFI |
| Logbook and currency | Yes | ForeFlight, FlightKit, or paper — pick one and stay there |
| Checklists | Yes, from Starter | Either — theirs are customisable POH templates you fill in by hand, ours prefill live wind, altimeter, crosswind and ATIS for the airport you are at |
| Weight and balance | Paid add-on at every tier | FlightKit, a POH worksheet, or the add-on |
| Takeoff and landing distances | Performance plans only | FlightKit from $9.99/mo, or the POH tables |
| Go/no-go call with reasoning shown | Not a product they sell | FlightKit, or your own judgement and a whiteboard |
| ACS ground school and study | No | A training app, a course, or a book |
| Written test practice | No | A test-prep tool |
| Spoken oral exam drilling | No | Your CFI, plus an AI examiner between lessons |
The honest overlap: logbook, currency and route planning exist in both ForeFlight and FlightKit. Do not pay twice for the same job — pick where your logbook lives and keep it there. What does not overlap is the training half: ground school, the written, and the oral.
When to Actually Buy It
You are flying the pattern at one airport with an instructor beside you. A $130-a-year EFB solves no problem you currently have. Spend the money on the written test prep and an extra hour of dual instead.
This is the moment. Planning a route, checking weather along it, and having geo-referenced charts in your lap is exactly what ForeFlight is for. Buy the tier your instructor uses so they can teach you on it.
Your DPE will expect you to plan the cross-country and run weight and balance. ForeFlight helps with the planning. It will not drill you on the oral, and its weight and balance is a paid add-on even on the top tier.
This is where ForeFlight is unambiguously worth it, and where staying proficient — currency, personal minimums, recurrent knowledge — becomes the thing nobody is checking for you anymore.
The half ForeFlight leaves to you
ACS ground school, written practice, and an AI examiner that runs your oral out loud — none of which an EFB does. Plus weight and balance, takeoff and landing numbers and a go/no-go call with the reasoning shown, without needing a Performance plan or a paid add-on. Free to start — no card, and no reason to cancel ForeFlight.
Keep learning
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need ForeFlight as a student pilot?
Not on day one. Before solo you are flying the pattern with an instructor beside you and a subscription solves nothing. The moment it starts paying for itself is when you begin cross-country planning — route, weather along the route, and geo-referenced charts in your lap. Buy it then, and buy the tier your instructor teaches on so you are learning the same screens.
How much does ForeFlight cost?
As of 20 August 2026, ForeFlight lists three tiers: Starter at $130 a year, Essential at $260 a year, and Premium at $390 a year. Flight planning, weather, VFR and IFR charts and the pilot logbook are in all three. Geo-referenced approach charts and synthetic vision start at Essential. Pre-built aircraft performance profiles are Premium only. Weight and balance is listed as an add-on at every tier, including Premium.
Is weight and balance included in ForeFlight?
No — ForeFlight lists weight and balance as an add-on across all three tiers, including the $390-a-year Premium plan. Worth knowing before your checkride, since your DPE will expect you to produce a loading calculation. Verify the current terms on ForeFlight’s own pricing page before you buy, since add-on packaging changes.
Does ForeFlight include ground school or checkride prep?
No. ForeFlight is an electronic flight bag, and its student-facing material teaches you how to use ForeFlight itself — flight planning, weather interpretation, logbook management. Its published student offering covers the logbook with CFI remote signing and progress tracking against the private pilot flight requirements. It does not include ACS-based ground school, written test prep, or oral exam practice. That is a deliberate scope choice on their part, not an oversight.
What should I use alongside ForeFlight?
Something that covers the parts of earning and holding a certificate that an EFB does not touch: ACS-aligned ground school, written test practice, and spoken oral exam drilling. FlightKit — which our team builds — does that, and adds the preflight math and go/no-go reasoning at $9.99 a month or $99 a year, with a free tier. It is not a replacement for ForeFlight in the cockpit and is not trying to be.
Is there a ForeFlight student discount?
ForeFlight runs an Educational Licensing Program that lets institutions offer its services at a discount, but it does not publish rates publicly. If you are training at a college program or an academy, ask your school whether you are covered before paying retail — plenty of students pay full price for something their program already provides.
ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot?
Both are excellent and the honest tiebreaker is what the people around you fly with. Your instructor can only teach you the app they know, the club airplane is probably wired to one ecosystem, and the panel you will eventually fly behind matters more than a feature comparison. Ask your CFI what they use and match it — you are buying instruction as much as software.