Ascent EFB vs ForeFlight: What You Actually Get for the Money

TL;DR: ForeFlight sells three tiers from $130 to $390 a year, and several of the capabilities pilots most want sit above the entry plan. Ascent EFB sells one plan at $89.99 with everything in it. If you have been pricing out which ForeFlight tier you actually need, that is the comparison that matters.

ForeFlight is the app every EFB gets measured against, and it earned that. It is deep, it is mature, and a lot of professional flying runs on it every day. This is not a takedown, and you should not switch because a blog told you to. But if you are about to buy, here is the honest side-by-side. Every ForeFlight figure below was read from their own published pricing page on August 7, 2026.

The comparison

Where we are genuinely better

One plan, and this is all of it. No tier decides which layers you get.

One price, everything in it. This is the real difference and it is not a marketing line, it is arithmetic. With Ascent you pay $89.99 and you have the whole app. With ForeFlight you pick a tier, and per their own pricing page capabilities like synthetic vision and geo-referenced approach plates sit above the $130 Starter plan. Most pilots comparing honestly are not comparing $89.99 to $130. They are comparing $89.99 to whichever tier carries what they need.

Nothing to decode before you buy. There is no matrix to study, no "which plan has the thing I want", no discovering mid-flight that a layer belongs to a higher tier. One plan is a feature.

Built now, for current hardware. Ascent was written in 2026 for modern iPhones and iPads, not carried forward through a decade of iOS versions. That shows up in how the map moves and how fast the app opens. That is our opinion of our own work, and the right way to check it is the trial, not our say-so.

METARs and TAFs decoded in plain language, part of the base plan.

Where ForeFlight is genuinely ahead

Writing a comparison that pretends otherwise would insult you and would be easy to disprove.

Track record. ForeFlight has more than a decade of real-world flying behind it, across every kind of operation, in weather we have not seen yet. Ascent launched in July 2026. Maturity is earned in hours, and they have far more of them.

Ecosystem and integrations. Third-party hardware, ADS-B receivers, avionics, flight departments, dispatch tooling. If your operation is already built around ForeFlight, that integration is real and it is worth money.

Depth in the corners. Performance profiles, specialised planning, features that matter enormously to the pilots who need them. We do not match all of it yet, and weight and balance is not in Ascent today.

So who should actually pick which

Pick ForeFlight if you fly a complex operation that leans on its ecosystem, if you need a capability we do not have yet, or if your flight department already standardised on it.

Pick Ascent if you are a general aviation pilot who wants the full picture without a tier ladder, at a price that does not move, and you would rather not pay for a decade of enterprise features you will never open.

3D terrain, and it keeps working with no signal at all.

The only honest way to decide

Both apps give you 30 days free. Fly one real cross-country in each: plan it, brief the weather, put the device in airplane mode on the ramp to see what survives, fly with it on your lap, divert mid-flight, then check what the logbook captured on its own.

We think you will keep Ascent. We would rather you find that out in an airplane than take our word for it.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ascent EFB cheaper than ForeFlight?

Yes. Ascent is $89.99 a year with everything included. ForeFlight's published plans start at $130 and go to $390, with capabilities distributed across those tiers.

Does Ascent do everything ForeFlight does?

No, and we will not claim it does. ForeFlight has more than a decade of depth and a larger ecosystem, and Ascent does not have weight and balance today. Ascent covers the core flight: charts, weather, moving map, 3D terrain, offline, and automatic logging.

Can I try both before paying?

Yes. Both publish a 30-day free trial, so evaluating both costs you nothing but flying time.

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ForeFlight pricing and plan structure were read from foreflight.com's published pricing page on August 7, 2026 and change over time. Ascent is our product, so treat our opinions as ours; every factual claim about ForeFlight here is limited to what they publish themselves. Any EFB is a supplemental aid to situational awareness, and final authority rests with the pilot in command.