ForeFlight vs Garmin Pilot: Which EFB in 2026?

If your tablet runs Android, the comparison is over before it starts: Garmin Pilot installs on Android 11 or newer, and ForeFlight's pricing page licenses the app for iPads and iPhones and lists no Android version at all (both checked October 2026). For everyone else the two apps cost between $110 and $390 a year, carry the same FAA charts and the same core weather at the bottom tier, and separate on three things: how the tiers are gated, what hardware each one talks to, and how good the logbook is. Every price and feature below was read from the two vendors' own pages in October 2026, and the links are there for you to re-check.

Price and plan tiers, checked October 2026

Prices are annual, for the US region, from ForeFlight's pricing page and Garmin's US Garmin Pilot catalog, both read October 2026.

ForeFlight renamed its tiers in 2025: Basic Plus became Starter, Pro Plus became Essential and Performance Plus became Premium, and the support article says "the pricing and included features remain exactly the same" (ForeFlight support, updated May 1, 2025). One geographic region is included in the price; other regions are sold as add-ons. Garmin sells by region too, with a Worldwide bundle, and asks organizations with more than 5 users to contact it directly (Garmin Pilot plans overview).

Two numbers to hold onto. Garmin's bottom tier undercuts ForeFlight's by $20, and Garmin's top tier costs less than ForeFlight's middle one. Whether that is a bargain depends on which features you need, which is the next section.

Android is the structural difference

Garmin's compatibility page requires iOS 18 or newer on Apple devices and Android 11 or newer on Android, and the Android device must natively support the Google Play Store (Garmin Pilot app compatibility requirements). ForeFlight's license text names only iPads and iPhones (ForeFlight pricing, checked October 2026). There is no ForeFlight for Android.

Both have a browser version. ForeFlight on the Web is "available to all ForeFlight customers"; it does planning and filing, shows weather and a briefing, and keeps aircraft profiles that sync to the mobile app (ForeFlight on the Web). Garmin Pilot Web appears in both of Garmin's tiers. A pilot with a Windows laptop at home and an iPad in the airplane is served by either; a pilot with an Android tablet in the airplane is served by one.

Android on Garmin Pilot is not the whole app, though. Garmin's own plan comparison marks the Document Catalog and Viewer as "iOS Only", and the Jeppesen eChart viewer and the US-plus-Bahamas charting solution as iOS as well. If you fly Android, read the catalog table line by line before you assume feature parity.

What each tier gates

For a VFR student, both bottom tiers are enough airplane. Starter and Standard each give you sectionals, IFR en route charts, terminal procedures, METARs with TAFs, radar, plus filing and a briefing. The things students want next are geo-referenced approach plates and a terrain picture, and those are the gate on both sides. ForeFlight puts geo-referenced approaches, synthetic vision and terrain profile in Essential at $260; Garmin puts geo-referenced FliteCharts, synthetic vision and terrain alerts in Premium at $209.98.

Weather is close at the bottom tier. ForeFlight lists animated NEXRAD with lightning, color infrared satellite, METARs, TAFs, winds aloft and graphical AIRMETs and SIGMETs in every plan; the icing and turbulence layers and the surface analysis overlay need Essential or Premium (ForeFlight pricing). Garmin lists US radar, North American satellite, lightning, METARs and TAFs, AIRMETs and SIGMETs, and winds aloft in Standard, with the icing forecast for the contiguous US and southern Canada held back for Premium (Garmin Pilot catalog).

The two top tiers are not aimed at the same pilot. ForeFlight Premium is a performance-planning product: pre-built aircraft profiles, optimized autorouting, performance for takeoff and landing, PDC with D-ATIS, fuel ordering. Garmin Premium is a situational-awareness product: SmartCharts, which redraw an approach to show only your transition and one set of minimums for your aircraft category, plus SafeTaxi and terrain and obstacle alerts (Garmin Pilot overview). In our view a weekend renter in a 172 has a use for most of Garmin Premium and almost none of ForeFlight Premium.

Filing, briefing and the parts both do equally well

At the filing layer there is little to choose. ForeFlight files IFR in the US and its territories, in Canada, the Caribbean and Australia, and in every EUROCONTROL member state, files VFR within and between the US and Canada, and turns the text briefing into its Graphical Briefing on every tier (ForeFlight pricing). Garmin files VFR plans globally and IFR plans in the US, in Canada and in Europe, can pull in plans filed through FltPlan.com, and includes a weather briefing in both tiers (Garmin Pilot overview).

The charts are the same government charts. ForeFlight's US region bundles FAA sectionals, terminal area charts, flyway charts, IFR high and low en route charts, terminal procedures and helicopter route charts. Garmin's US plans list VFR charts for the US and Caribbean, IFR en route high and low, and FliteCharts terminal procedures for the US. Both draw on Jeppesen navigation data; ForeFlight states this outright, and Garmin sells an optional Jeppesen NavData package at $49.99 a year for pilots whose panel is loaded with Jeppesen data and will not accept a plan otherwise (Garmin Pilot catalog).

Every tier of both includes weight and balance, a checklist tool and airport pages. ForeFlight's weight and balance ships with more than 100 aircraft models; Garmin's is basic in Standard and graphical in Premium. ForeFlight claims an airport directory of more than 25,000 locations with an FBO directory carrying fuel prices and fees. Garmin lists fuel prices and the Chart Supplement.

None of this will limit a student. You will not out-fly either bottom tier in your first 100 hours. Put the price difference in the fuel truck.

Panel connectivity: Sentry, Stratus and Garmin avionics

ForeFlight's connectivity page is long. It names ForeFlight's own Sentry family (Sentry, Sentry Mini and Sentry Plus, sold at Sporty's), the Stratus 3, uAvionix echoUAT and skySensor, Dynon SkyView, Avidyne IFD navigators, L-3 Lynx and FreeFlight RANGR (ForeFlight Connect, read October 2026). Garmin hardware is on the list too. ForeFlight says its integration with Garmin portable and installed avionics gives "wireless two-way flight plan transfer" plus ADS-B weather and traffic, attitude for pitch and bank, and GPS, and for SiriusXM subscribers it works with the Garmin GDL 51 and GDL 52. It also publishes an extended GDL 90 specification so third-party receivers can feed it.

Garmin's page names Garmin hardware. Connext moves flight plans between compatible Garmin avionics and the app, shares traffic, weather, GPS position and attitude from the panel, streams engine data in flight, and Database Concierge pushes database updates to the avionics (which needs a separate database subscription). The portable receiver named is the GDL 52, which adds SiriusXM and ADS-B (Garmin Pilot overview). No third-party receiver appears on the pages we read.

A rule of thumb, not a rule: a Sentry owner is a ForeFlight user, a GDL 52 owner can be either, and a Garmin panel transfers flight plans to both apps, with Garmin Pilot adding Database Concierge and engine-data streaming on top. Buy the app first and the receiver second, because the receiver is the part you cannot return easily.

Which logbook is better?

On the vendors' own pages ForeFlight's logbook is the more complete. It lists remote instructor signing, more than 60 endorsement templates from AC 61-65H, an 8710 report and web editing; Garmin lists automatic entries, photos, plus currency and endorsement tracking (ForeFlight Logbook; Garmin Pilot overview).

ForeFlight creates draft entries from recorded track logs or filed flight plans, computes night time and night landings from out, off, on and in times, and supports four types of simulator. A student can send a draft entry to an instructor, who can edit it, sign it, and add the flight to their own logbook as dual given. Export is from the website, any time; the steps are in how to export your ForeFlight logbook. Garmin's logbook records dates and times, aircraft and airports, and landings during the flight, holds photos and remarks, tracks currency and endorsements, and syncs to flyGarmin, where a template-based CSV import and export tool has existed since 2016 (Garmin blog). Garmin's plan comparison lists the logbook in both tiers, while its overview page footnotes the logbook line as requiring the premium upgrade; confirm which applies before you buy Standard for the logbook.

Our opinion: for a private pilot either logbook is adequate, and the instructor-signing workflow is what separates them for a student. Neither should be your only copy. FlyFren, which we build, is a planning and logbook companion rather than an EFB; it imports both apps' CSV exports with a preview before anything is saved and tracks currency, so it sits alongside either app rather than replacing one (FlyFren logbook). Export from whichever EFB you choose every quarter and keep the file. If you want a logbook that costs nothing at all, the candidates are in the free logbook apps compared.

Who should pick which

ForeFlight, if any of these describe you:

• You fly an iPad and own or want a Sentry or a Stratus.
• You are an instrument student or a CFI who wants remote endorsement signing and plates on the map at the $260 tier.
• You plan long trips in a faster airplane and will use performance profiles and autorouting.

Garmin Pilot, if any of these describe you:

• Your tablet or phone runs Android.
• The airplane you fly has a Garmin panel, and you want its databases and engine data handled from the app.
• You want geo-referenced plates, synthetic vision and terrain alerts for $209.98 rather than $260, and you do not need ForeFlight's performance planning.

Price-sensitive and undecided: compare the two bottom tiers feature by feature, not tier by tier. The $20 gap between Starter and Standard is small; the gap between what each next tier adds is not.

Suppose you are a 25-hour student at a school that flies G1000-equipped 172s, you own an iPad, and you have budgeted $150 a year for the app. Starter at $130 and Standard at $109.99 both fit. The iPad removes the Android argument. The G1000 does not break the tie either, because both apps advertise two-way flight plan transfer with compatible Garmin panels; ask the school what its airplanes are wired for. With the airplane and the budget a wash, decide on the logbook: if your instructor signs endorsements in ForeFlight, the remote-signing workflow settles it.

Now suppose you have the certificate and are starting the instrument rating. The feature you want is plates drawn on the moving map with your position on them, and that is Essential at $260 against Garmin Premium at $209.98. The $50 difference buys, on the ForeFlight side, Hazard Advisor and the icing and turbulence layers. On the Garmin side the same money is already spent on SafeTaxi and SmartCharts. Neither is wrong. The price is close enough that the receiver you own should break the tie.

Try the free month before you pay for either

Garmin offers a 30-day free trial to new users (Garmin Pilot downloads); ForeFlight's pricing page lists no trial (checked October 2026). Use the Garmin month for two real flights, including one with the logbook, then decide. Whichever app wins, run its logbook export once in the first week so you know the file exists before you have 200 entries riding on it.

This article is educational and is not a substitute for the current regulations, the AIM, official weather briefings, or instruction from a CFI. Check the current text at the linked sources before you rely on any detail.