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ForeFlight Alternative for Europe: The European VFR App

Updated August 20, 2026 · Tim Krauss

In short: A ForeFlight alternative for Europe must primarily be able to do one thing: reflect European VFR reality. EuroPilot Connect renders its own European aeronautical chart from licensed and open aeronautical databases, shows traffic patterns for DACH airfields (in Germany from official DFS chart geometry where available, otherwise calculated), follows the 28-day AIRAC cycle, and downloads entire countries offline to the iPad. Price: €99 per year for up to three devices, 30 days free.

If you fly VFR in Europe and are looking for an alternative, it's rarely about a "better app" in a vacuum. It's about concrete things: Does the airspace look like what you actually fly? Is your home airfield's traffic pattern included? Does the map work in an Alpine valley without network coverage? And do you ultimately pay a price in Euros that you understand?

EuroPilot Connect originated from the Sport- und Segelfliegerclub Bad Waldsee-Reute , based at EDMZ, 660 meters of grass, runway 14/32, not on the drawing board of a software company. Many in the team hold a pilot's license, and flights and tests are conducted on Bristell LSA, Comco Ikarus C42 C, and Robin DR400, i.e., across ultralight and Echo class. I built the app myself, so I am not neutral. This article is not a neutral test review, but an open comparison. The prices for both sides come from the respective provider websites and bear their verification date; where I have no documented information about the functionality of others, I state that instead of guessing.

Original view from EuroPilot Connect on iPad. Discover all 14 app views →

In brief

• You fly VFR in DACH and want an app built for Europe → EuroPilot Connect (native iOS app, €99/year, 30 days free, up to 3 devices).
• You want a broad overview of VFR apps first → read the VFR App Guide.
• You are primarily concerned with moving map and cockpit operation → this is covered in the flight navigation apps.
• You want more than just a map (club, logbook, community) → see Pilot App as a Platform.
• You want to know ForeFlight's current functionality and price → this is available at foreflight.com first-hand. I deliberately make no claims about it here.

What must a ForeFlight alternative for Europe be able to do?

European VFR flying has peculiarities that an app either reflects or not. Airspace is fragmented and changes with national borders. Mandatory reporting points, gliding areas, and temporarily active restricted areas are part of everyday life. And the official basis is not a single authority, but one per country: in Germany the DFS with the AIP VFR, in Austria Austro Control, in Switzerland Skyguide.

This results in four practical test questions for any app you look at:

1. Chart display: Are airspaces, reporting points, and airfields displayed as you know them from the ICAO chart?
2. Local details: Are traffic patterns, airfield layouts, and frequencies available for the airfields you actually fly to?
3. Data currency: Does the aeronautical database follow the AIRAC cycle, and how are short-term NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen, official short-term messages such as closed runways) incorporated?
4. Offline: Do you still get a map in the Alpine valley or over the North Sea without mobile reception?

I will answer these four points specifically for EuroPilot Connect below. For any other app: Ask the same four questions and have the provider answer them.

What I say about ForeFlight, and what I don't

ForeFlight will come up in almost any search for EFB apps (Electronic Flight Bag, i.e., the digital kneeboard in the cockpit). What I can substantiate is on ForeFlight's own pricing page, accessed on September 4, 2026: The single-user plans are called Starter, Essential, and Premium and cost 130, 260, and 390 US dollars per year. An annual subscription is valid for two iPads and one iPhone or one iPad and two iPhones. One geographical region is included, European charts are available via optional add-on packages, the price of which the page does not specify.

Two things about this, so that the comparison remains fair. The amounts are in dollars, not euros, and what ultimately appears on your bill depends on the exchange rate and sales tax. And I don't know what the Europe add-on package costs, so I won't estimate it either. For comparison, our own page: €99 per year, up to three devices, 30 days free, Europe is not an add-on package, but the starting point.

Beyond that, I remain cautious about the range of functions: I do not have independently verified data on map licenses, regional scope, and the features of individual plans, and I will not invent any. What ForeFlight covers in Europe today, what map options are available, and what a subscription costs, you can best read directly on foreflight.com. For price and feature comparisons, it is always advisable to check the current conditions yourself before making a purchase decision, both with us and with competitors.

What I can provide you with instead is maximum transparency about our own side. That is the rest of this article.

How to test any alternative in 15 minutes

Comparison lists online quickly become outdated, and every app changes prices and features. A quick self-test is more reliable. Take a route you actually fly, for example, Augsburg (EDMA) to Friedrichshafen (EDNY), and go through this list in each app:

1. Plan the route and look at the airspace stratification along the way. Can you immediately recognize which airspace you will encounter at what altitude?
2. Call up your home airfield. Is the traffic pattern stored, with direction and altitude?
3. Switch the device to flight mode. How much of the map remains?
4. Find the NOTAM briefing for the route. How many steps does it take to get there?
5. Calculate the annual price to the number of your devices. With EuroPilot Connect, up to three devices are included in the €99; how other providers handle this is stated in their price overview.

After these five points, you will know more about an app's suitability for your airspace than after any comparison table, including mine.

What does the European map in EuroPilot Connect look like?

EuroPilot Connect renders its aeronautical chart itself; it is not a scanned or purchased paper chart, but is built from aeronautical databases, primarily from KEYVAN Aviation. There is an ICAO chart mode that is deliberately close to the appearance of official 1:500,000 VFR charts, so you don't have to re-familiarize yourself.

Underneath is a self-hosted European base map that covers 25 European countries and is delivered by our own infrastructure instead of a third-party provider. The map includes the usual suspects: airfields with frequencies and elevation, navaids (VOR/NDB/DME), scale-accurate runway geometry, and compulsory and non-compulsory reporting points.

Specifically from the cockpit perspective: If you fly from Augsburg (EDMA) to Friedrichshafen (EDNY), you will see the airspaces along the route filtered according to your planned cruising altitude, plus a vertical route profile with terrain and airspace layers, and optionally the airspaces in 3D if you really want to understand a situation before the flight.

Are traffic patterns included for German airfields?

Yes. EuroPilot Connect displays traffic patterns with left or right-hand circuits and traffic pattern altitude. For German airfields, official DFS VFR chart geometry is used where available; where it is not available, a rectangular traffic pattern is calculated. Additionally, the app suggests the appropriate runway depending on the wind.

At an airfield like Augsburg (EDMA), you can thus see the traffic direction and traffic pattern altitude directly on the map, instead of having to look them up from the approach plate before departure.

Important and without embellishment: The app does not replace consulting the official AIP VFR or the airfield's approach plates. The official publication remains authoritative; the traffic pattern in the app is for preparation and situational awareness, not the legal basis. Especially at airfields with noise abatement regulations or special departure routes, an additional look is always worthwhile.

How current is the aeronautical data?

The aeronautical data follows the AIRAC cycle: This is globally defined by ICAO and runs in fixed 28-day increments, which also guide the national AIPs of DFS, Austro Control, and Skyguide. EuroPilot Connect synchronizes from the server at the beginning of the cycle; you do not need an app update from the store for this.

One point I explicitly want to clarify because it is safety-relevant: NOTAMs do not follow this 28-day rhythm. NOTAMs appear at short notice and continuously. In EuroPilot Connect, they are therefore loaded separately and displayed in a geographical context along your route. A current AIRAC status is therefore no substitute for a fresh NOTAM briefing before the flight.

Does navigation work without an internet connection?

Yes, and deliberately as an offline-first approach. You tap a country and download its package: base map, terrain, airfields, airspaces, navaids, runways, reporting points, traffic patterns, and airfield layouts. The download persists across app restarts and synchronizes across your devices.

Practical example Alps: On a flight towards Innsbruck (LOWI) or over the main Alpine ridge, mobile reception is hit-or-miss in sections. With the pre-loaded Austria and Germany packages, the map, including terrain and airspace, remains complete, regardless of reception.

Quick comparison: what is verifiable, what is not?

This table is deliberately asymmetrical. The EuroPilot column is based on our own feature registry; I leave the ForeFlight column blank because I have no verified data for it, anything else would be guesswork.

If that's not enough comparison for you: perfectly legitimate. Then the most honest recommendation is to run both apps in parallel on the same planned flight and judge for yourself. We offer 30 days without payment for this; whether and for how long other providers allow testing is stated on their own pages.

What do I get besides the map?

A map alone does not make a flight. In EuroPilot Connect, flight preparation is directly linked to the route: METAR (current airfield weather report), TAF (airfield forecast), as well as SIGMET and AIRMET (warnings of significant weather) for each airfield, plus an AI weather briefing in plain text, a fuel planner with reserves, weight & balance with CG envelope (the permissible center of gravity range for your aircraft type), and a performance calculator with automatic density altitude. For a summer flight to Innsbruck, the latter is not a luxury: density altitude determines the realistic takeoff distance there.

For the flight itself, there is the moving map with track-up orientation and HUD (Heads-up Display with altitude, speed, and course), airspace proximity warnings, the glide circle in case of engine failure, and an emergency mode with the nearest airfields.

Regarding traffic, a close look is worthwhile because too much is often expected here: Internet-based ADS-B traffic within a radius of about 20 NM is displayed, so you need reception for this; in an Alpine valley without mobile reception, it is not available. If a FLARM device is additionally connected via Wi-Fi, its targets run on the same level. The map display serves situational awareness and is expressly not a certified collision warning system. FLARM collision warnings remain actively unaffected, even if you turn off the traffic display on the map.

And after landing: The recorded flight automatically lands in the logbook, can be shared with the community, and, if your club uses Vereinsflieger.de, synchronized with flights, members, and reservations. The app generates the ICAO flight plan as a PDF and guides you to the correct national flight plan submission portal; it deliberately does not submit it automatically.

Who is it for?

• Choose another app, if your flying predominantly takes place outside Europe or you are tied to a specific avionics ecosystem. Which app best covers this, you clarify directly with the respective provider; I have no verified data on this.
• Choose EuroPilot Connect, if your flying takes place in DACH and Europe, you want a map built for this area including traffic patterns, value offline countries, and prefer a clear Euro price for up to three devices.
• Deliberately choose nothing immediately, if you are unsure: Fly the same route, for example Straubing (EDMS) to Augsburg (EDMA), twice with two apps. After two flights, you will know more than after ten comparison tables.

What no app can do, regardless of the manufacturer: It replaces neither the mandatory flight preparation, regulated in Europe by SERA.2010 of Implementing Regulation (EU) No 923/2012, see EASA, nor your decision as the pilot in command.

Where our aeronautical data comes from

The data set primarily comes from KEYVAN Aviation via a commercial ARINC-424 license, supplemented by openAIP and open flightmaps. KEYVAN is one of eight eight companies that hold a certificate for data services (DAT) in the EASA list of approved ATM/ANS organizations ; the list is current as of September 4, 2026, KEYVAN's certificate is EASA.AOA.DAT.033 as Type 1. According to KEYVAN, they evaluate AIP, AIC and NOTAM from 195 countries, cover over 32,000 aerodromes and 42,000 runways, and deliver in ARINC-424 format in AIRAC rhythm.

Two sentences for classification, so that no wrong impression arises. The certificate applies to the data provider and its process data provider and its process, not our app: EuroPilot Connect is not an approved avionics system and does not replace certified onboard equipment. And Type 1 means that the database meets data quality requirements without compatibility with a specific approved onboard application being determined.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a ForeFlight alternative specifically for Europe? Yes, there are several providers. EuroPilot Connect is one of them and is specifically built for European VFR airspace. Other names you will encounter in your search are SkyDemon, EasyVFR, Air Navigation Pro, and Garmin Pilot. We do not have verified data on their functionality, distribution, and prices, and therefore make no claims. Please inform yourself directly with the respective provider.

Do I need my own ICAO chart for Germany in the app? You need a representation that closely resembles the official VFR chart. EuroPilot Connect renders its own ICAO chart mode from its aeronautical databases for this purpose. The official basis remains the AIP VFR of the DFS.

Are traffic patterns for DACH airfields included? Yes. For German airfields, official DFS visual flight chart geometry is used where available; otherwise, a rectangular traffic pattern is calculated. The official publication of the airfield always remains authoritative.

Does EuroPilot Connect work offline? Yes. You download entire countries including base map, terrain, airspaces, airfields, reporting points, and traffic patterns. The data remains available after app restarts.

What does EuroPilot Connect cost? €99 per year for up to three devices, with a 30-day free trial. Purchase is made via the website; in the app, you log in via email, Apple, or Google login.

On which devices does EuroPilot Connect run? EuroPilot Connect is a native iOS app (SwiftUI), available in German and English, and built for seamless use in the cockpit. Your license is valid for up to three devices.

Does the app replace the NOTAM briefing? No. NOTAMs are displayed in the app along your route, but they appear at short notice and continuously, unlike AIRAC data which is updated every 28 days. The official briefing before the flight remains mandatory.

Conclusion

The most honest answer to "ForeFlight alternative for Europe" is not a critique of a competitor, but a checklist: European chart display, local details like traffic patterns, AIRAC currency plus separate NOTAM briefing, and true offline capability. If your app answers these four points cleanly for your airspace, it is the right one, regardless of the logo.

EuroPilot Connect is built for exactly this airspace: its own European aeronautical chart on a self-hosted base map covering 25 countries, traffic patterns for DACH airfields, in Germany from DFS VFR chart geometry where available, otherwise calculated, offline packages per country, and a clear price of €99 per year for up to three devices.

Try EuroPilot Connect for 30 days free