Before I dive too deeply into either app, the overview is that they're both capable applications with their own strong points and quirks. Overall, I tested ease of use from a general aviation, single pilot operation perspective. That's not to say they can't be used for aviation of a more professional order, but when you're flying a smaller aircraft on your own, the easier things are to accomplish, the better. In order to avoid taking up extra space tagging the pictures from ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot, I'll use the convention of placing ForeFlight images on the left, and Garmin Pilot images on the right.
General Interface Points
General Interface Points
My first reaction to the Garmin Pilot interface was that it was slightly less organized and slightly more casual-looking than ForeFlight. After digging around, though, you get the hang of where they put things and why they put them there. The "more casual-looking" comment comes from the fact that Garmin Pilot's buttons are huge, but when you're bouncing around in turbulence, or trying to otherwise fly the plane, the last thing you need to worry about is fat-fingering a button. Each button is clearly labeled, both textually and graphically. In the end, I can't fault them for that. They're just different approaches.
The Maps Interface
Both apps are equally capable with maps and overlays, but in the functionality arena, I give ForeFlight the edge. While Garmin Pilot displays a prominent direct-to button, it lacks the route capabilities that ForeFlight has from this screen. ForeFlight has a route and nav log right from this interface, whereas with the exception of the direct-to button, Garmin Pilot's route planning is textually accomplished on a separate page. You can, however, graphically plan using Tools > Graphically Edit Route, and just tap on the airports and VORs that you want, though fixes can be tougher, and you don't have the ability to specify airways.
The Flight Planning Interface
The flight planning interface allows you to add your flight plan into the app in order to display it on the map, or file it using the filing features. Both applications allow you to type in your route, or create your route by tapping on the individual waypoints on the map, however ForeFlight is the only one that allows you to do it on the same page. Both apps will also parse V and J airways, which helps immensely in entering longer routes. As ForeFlight allows you to manage this all from the same page, along with providing the user guidance on altitude with wind data, my vote is for ForeFlight here.
The Airports Interface
The airports interface for both apps gets you all the information you'll need for any airport in the database. As they both generally have the same information, and the same amount of information, I'll call it even data-wise. You can see in the pictures, though, each app has its own approach to data display. ForeFlight offers more of a filtered view, while Garmin Pilot gives you all of the data on larger screens. Despite the very logically-organized and filtered view offered by ForeFlight, I'll give the interface edge to Garmin Pilot. While you can see all of the frequency information is dumped into one page, it doesn't require me to click around the various frequency types to get the data I need. It's just a matter of scrolling. The buttons for this information are also larger, making them easier to hit.
The Charts Interface
The charts interface of both apps allows you to find charts and store them in binders with relative ease and organization. ForeFlight's search feature seemed easier to use and more organized than Garmin Pilot, as its search feature shows airports you've selected from the airport, maps, and file and brief pages, along with charts from your favorite airports. The Garmin Pilot search feature simply gives you a search box, though it does have buttons at the top right to filter down by chart type, and a history of what you have searched and viewed before. In binder view, however, Garmin Pilot automatically adds in temporary binders for your origin and destination airports if you've entered a flight plan. As they both display the same data, and each have minor strong points, I'll call this one relatively even.
The Imagery Interface
The imagery interface allows you to get access to weather. Both products have a significant amount of weather data available. I'd argue ForeFlight did a better job of segmenting the data by country, but that's not to say Garmin Pilot's interface isn't just as capable. I'll call this one even as well.
The Flight Plan Filing and Briefing Interface
The flight plan filing and briefing interface allows you to brief yourself and file your flight plan through CSC DUATS (and in the case of Garmin Pilot, DTC DUAT as well). It's tough to compare these two apps in this category, because they both allow you to do the same thing, but they both use the pages slightly differently. As you can see, ForeFlight is primarily aimed at setting your flight plan up and getting you on your way to a flight brief and file. Garmin Pilot's interface is slightly more of a review with a flight summary and nav log, with the flight brief and filing option as well. I will say, though, that the Garmin Pilot interface does have a nifty feature of knowing when to, and when not to offer the SFRA flight plan option, whereas it is always available in ForeFlight. This page, on both applications, is heavily enhanced through adding your pilot and aircraft information in the settings panels. While the interfaces are vastly different, I can't say either one is better than the other.
The Scratch Pad
The scratch pad is where you write reminders for yourself. I used this extensively on my flight a month ago to keep track of how many landings I had done. There's not much to say other than each one has its own advantages. With the ForeFlight scratch pad, you can either draw or type. If you mess up while drawing, however, your only option is to clear the whole sheet. While you'd otherwise likely writing with pen on paper and just crossing it out anyway, it's worth mentioning. Garmin Pilot allows you to draw, with no option for typing, though it does have an eraser and a clear option for when you mess up.
The Settings Interface
The settings interface for both applications allows you to set your preferences and store user information about yourself (or other pilots who may be using this application), and the aircraft you fly. Both are predominantly the same, although the Garmin Pilot app does have a few advantages in showing you pictures of your aircraft icon selection, filter search criteria for map view, and the ability to connect to various Garmin hardware. While ForeFlight allows you to manage your downloads without having to go to a separate page, Garmin Pilot's download page also shows you the app's memory footprint, as you make you decisions on what to and not to download. Based on some of the more granular options, and the ability to connect up to all kinds of hardware, I'll hand the win here to Garmin Pilot.
The Larger Differences
One of the main benefits of Garmin Pilot is its ability to tie in nicely with various hardware, to include weather and traffic. This hardware includes the Garmin GDL 39, which provides both ADS-B traffic and weather, and the Baron Mobile Link, which provides XM satellite weather. ForeFlight is against the display of traffic in its app, for reasons I can only partially agree with, so no matter what you use it seems weather is the most you'll get. ForeFlight does, on the other hand, include various publications in its download options, such as the FAR/AIM. While that's seemingly small, consider the fact that you now have an always-up-to-date version of the FAR/AIM, without having to go buy a new one (about $12) yearly. If you're ever flying around wondering about cloud clearances or communications requirements, you can easily pull it up to double check. ForeFlight has also released a new version of the app including terrain data and associated warnings.
Conclusion
Based on the numbers, the Garmin Pilot app takes it based on total categories won, but it's not like you can go wrong with ForeFlight. I use ForeFlight, and I doubt I'll switch to Garmin Pilot. Unless I get the equipment to take advantage of some of Garmin Pilot's features, I don't see the advantage for me to give up some of the features I do like about ForeFlight over the Garmin Pilot app. In the end, your decision may come down to price, as Garmin Pilot is less expensive across the board than ForeFlight, shown below. Both applications allow you to try the app out for 30 days, so try both of them out and see how you like them.
Here is the breakdown for pricing:
Yearly Subscription
ForeFlight: $74.99 (includes runway proximity advisories, even without purchase of geo-referenced charts)
Garmin Pilot: $49.99 (add $29.99 for SafeTaxi, which adds geo-referenced ground charts)
Geo-referencing:
ForeFlight: +$75.00 (for a total price of $149.99 per year)
Garmin Pilot: +$49.99 (and +$29.99 if you would like SafeTaxi, for a total of $129.97 per year)
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Good luck in your decision making.
