airplanes.live
Shares rank 4 of 6 flight trackers by recommenders
Free live map of nearby aircraft with an open API that can be polled once per second, fed by volunteer receivers.
Free live map of nearby aircraft with an open API that can be polled once per second, fed by volunteer receivers.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 75%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good live service and a place to start
“Airplanes.live is a good place to start.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “An LED panel that shows the aviation around you” “That is a great live service.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “An LED panel that shows the aviation around you”
Other flight trackers people recommend
The four most recommended other flight trackers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flighty | 42 | 16 | 72% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Airloom | 34 | 4 | 89% | 4 | — | Approved |
| ADS-B Exchange | 8 | 5 | 62% | 7 | — | — |
| airplanes.liveThis page | 6 | 2 | 75% | 4 | — | — |
| Flightradar24 | 6 | 5 | 55% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“They're asking for $25/month + a feed now”
“Coverage is very important - the more feeders the better data everyone will have.”
“a free no-authentication needed API that lets you poll it 1 time per second”
“The airplanes.live one doesn't have as many feeders”
“Everyone has moved to https://globe.airplanes.live/ and https://app.airframes.io/flights now.”
“you would almost certainly get better data with higher reliability and no effort and no money spent”
“That is a great live service.”
“Airplanes.live is a good place to start.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.