Best Digital Pilot Logbook Apps

The best pilot logbook app depends on what you already pay for and where your flying is going. ForeFlight Logbook is the obvious pick if you already have a ForeFlight plan, LogTen is built for airline and career pilots on Apple devices, MyFlightbook is free and surprisingly complete, and Safelog runs on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the web with one subscription. All four meet the FAA’s requirements for an electronic logbook when used properly.

FAA rules for electronic pilot logbooks

Under 14 CFR 61.51, you must log the training and aeronautical experience you use to meet the requirements for a certificate, rating or flight review, plus the flights that keep you current. The rule asks for records “in a manner acceptable to the Administrator” and does not require paper. You do not have to log every flight, though most pilots do.

The FAA’s guidance on electronic records is Advisory Circular 120-78B, Electronic Signatures, Electronic Recordkeeping, and Electronic Manuals, which replaced AC 120-78A in December 2024. In short, an electronic signature has to be unique to the signer, identify that person, and make tampering detectable after signing. That is what allows instructors to sign your entries and endorsements digitally.

• Endorsements: digital endorsements from your CFI are acceptable when the app’s signature process meets the AC’s criteria. All four apps here support some form of signed entries.
• Student solo cross-country: 61.51(i) requires student pilots to carry their logbook and endorsements on solo cross-country flights. Many students keep a paper logbook for that period anyway.
• Backups: the record is yours to produce on request, years later. Export regularly.

Currency tracking: the feature that pays for itself

A good digital logbook reads your entries and tells you where you stand on every FAA currency rule:

• Passenger currency (61.57): three takeoffs and landings in the past 90 days in the same category, class and type if a type rating is required. Night currency requires three to a full stop, between one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise.
• Instrument currency: six approaches, holding procedures and intercepting and tracking courses within the past six calendar months.
• Flight review (61.56): every 24 calendar months.
• Medical: expiration based on class and age.

I get more value from that one dashboard than from all the charts and totals combined. Seeing “night passenger currency expires in 9 days” in yellow is a strong nudge to go fly.

Columns to set up from your first entry

Whatever app you pick, the future you will thank the present you for logging a few details consistently. Each later rating asks for specific totals, and digging them out of vague entries years afterwards is painful.

• Cross-country time, with the distance of the longest leg. The instrument rating and the commercial certificate both count it, with different distance rules.
• Night time and night landings separately, since currency and certificate requirements count them apart.
• Actual vs simulated instrument, plus the approaches flown and the airport for each.
• Complex, high-performance and technically advanced airplane time, which the commercial certificate and insurance companies both ask about.
• Remarks naming the maneuvers, the instructor and anything unusual. A remark like “short-field and soft-field landings, crosswind 12 knots” helps when a checkride examiner flips through the record.

ForeFlight Logbook: built into the EFB

If you fly with ForeFlight, the logbook is already in the app, included in individual plans starting with Starter at $130 a year. Its best trick is the link with track logs: every recorded flight can create a draft logbook entry with times, airports and route filled in, so you only confirm and add remarks.

Color-coded recency tracking covers IFR and night passenger currency, type ratings, medical and CFI renewals. Instructors can send digital endorsements and sign entries remotely, students accept them in the app, and non-ForeFlight students receive a PDF. The 8710 report formats your totals like the FAA’s airman certificate application, ready to copy into IACRA before a checkride. Bulk import handles most formats, and the logbook is also on ForeFlight Web.

The limit is lock-in. If you leave ForeFlight, you export your data and move it elsewhere, so keep a recent export.

LogTen: the professional pilot’s logbook

LogTen comes from Coradine and lives entirely in the Apple world: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and, on the Pro plan, Mac. It is the logbook many airline pilot users swear by, because LogTen Pro imports schedules from more than 100 airlines and tracks duty and rest limits under FAR 117 and EASA rules in real time.

Pricing is simple. LogTen Basic costs $79.99 a year and covers logging, analytics, reports and backup. LogTen Pro at $129.99 a year adds the Mac app, airline schedule import, batch editing and custom reports. New users log their first 50 hours free, and student pilots use it free until they earn the private certificate. More than 100 report formats include checkride and Jeppesen-style layouts, and the career section matches your hours with job openings.

Android users and anyone on Windows should look elsewhere.

MyFlightbook: the free option that does not feel free

MyFlightbook is free on the web, iOS and Android, with cloud sync between all three. It tracks FAA and EASA currency, flight reviews, instrument proficiency, medical expiration and night currency, and it lets you build custom currency rules for anything the defaults miss.

Instructors can sign flights digitally and issue endorsements, and you can send batch signature requests after a busy training week. Printing and PDF layouts mimic Jeppesen or EASA logbooks, signatures included. MyFlightbook also pushes flights to CloudAhoy or FlySto for debriefing and backs up to cloud storage.

The interface is functional rather than pretty, and the mobile apps take some setup. For a student pilot who does not want another subscription, it is hard to beat.

Safelog: every platform, one subscription

Safelog, from Dauntless Aviation, is the logbook for pilots who switch between a Windows desktop, a Mac, an Android phone and an iPad. One subscription covers the Windows and Mac programs, the iOS and Android apps and SafelogWeb.com, with no per-device fees.

A one-year subscription costs $59.99 with automatic renewal, or $69.99 without; three years cost $189.99 and a lifetime license $999.99. Currency Control covers Part 91, 121 and 135 rules, the FAA Form 8710 and IACRA reports include versions for instructors and examiners, and airline application totals help when it is time to apply.

Prices, platforms and exports

App	Price	Platforms	8710 / IACRA report
ForeFlight Logbook	Included from $130/yr	iPad, iPhone, web	Yes
LogTen	$79.99 or $129.99/yr	iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac (Pro)	Checkride reports
MyFlightbook	Free	Web, iOS, Android	Totals and printable reports
Safelog	From $59.99/yr	Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, web	Yes

Whatever you choose, export to CSV or PDF every few months and store the file outside the app. Companies change hands and apps get discontinued, but a pilot logbook has to last a whole flying career.

If you track your own flights with an ADS-B tracker or Garmin Pilot, the recorded files also make good attachments to logbook entries, which helps when a question comes up about a flight years later. I keep track logs of every cross-country for that reason.

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