Comparison
Overflight and Flightradar24 answer different questions
Let's not pretend the incumbent is bad: Flightradar24 is a remarkable product that most of us building in this space grew up on, and if you want what it does, you should use it. The two apps are shaped around different questions.
Flightradar24 is the atlas: every flight on a world map, searchable, with history, playback, airport boards, and fleet data. You go to it to look something up, anywhere on earth.
Overflight is the instrument: one fixed question, asked from where you're standing. What is that, and where do I look? No map of Europe, no search box. A radar scope of your own visible sky, the aircraft overhead identified in full, and an amber takeover when something notable is inbound.
- The question
- Flightradar24: "where is flight X?" — anywhere, any flight. Overflight: "what's over my head right now, and which way do I look?"
- The display
- Flightradar24: a world map you pan and tap. Overflight: a radar scope centered on you; the overhead aircraft is identified without any tapping.
- Apple TV
- Overflight is built for tvOS as a first-class platform: an ambient instrument that holds one aircraft until it leaves your sky. Flightradar24's home is the phone and the browser.
- Look direction
- Overflight gives a bearing, distance, and degrees above the horizon for the aircraft in focus, and speaks it via VoiceOver in ATC phraseology. Finding a dot on a map and translating it to a sight line is on you.
- History & search
- Flightradar24, comprehensively. Overflight has none, on purpose: it's about the sky above you in the present tense.
- Data
- Both build on ADS-B. Flightradar24 operates its own enormous receiver network; Overflight draws on the open, volunteer-run ADS-B community.
- Account
- Flightradar24 has tiers and subscriptions. Overflight has no account at all, and the app is free; Overflight Pro adds routes, spoken traffic, inbound alerts, and always-on with no timeout, for $3.99/month, $19.99/year, or $69.99 once.
Plenty of people will keep both
If you feed ADS-B or lurk on FR24 already, nothing here asks you to switch. Overflight is the glanceable instrument for the moment the house shakes, and the ambient scope on the TV the rest of the time. The atlas stays on your phone for everything else.
See the instrument over your own sky
Overflight is on the App Store now. It's free to download and works out of the box; Overflight Pro unlocks the full instrument.
iPhone iPad Apple TV