Aloft alternatives for large drone programmes in 2026
These are the tools that come up beside Aloft, as each company described itself in October 2026.
FlybyOps
The programme's record: projects, jobs and flights, a risk register with owners and review dates, incidents taken to closure and an append-only audit log. Professional is $999 per workspace a month for up to 15 users, and Enterprise has unlimited users.
AirData
Describes itself as a system of record for flights, aircraft, pilots, maintenance and compliance. A free plan covers 100 active flights, paid plans start at $2.99 a month, and Enterprise is tailored.
DroneLogbook
Drone operations compliance and fleet management, with personnel currency, mission planning and more than 80 flight log types.
DJI FlightHub 2
DJI's cloud platform for running drone operations: remote control, flight scheduling and route management. A free Standard plan, with paid Business and Enterprise plans.
FlytBase
A drone autonomy platform for large sites that brings drones, docks, robots and sensors together, priced by a tailored estimate.
Two jobs: authorising a flight and keeping the record
Drone pilots planning to fly below 400 feet in controlled airspace around airports need an FAA airspace authorisation first. LAANC handles those requests in near real time, through apps from FAA-approved UAS Service Suppliers. Aloft is one of them. Its app handles LAANC requests, further coordination included, and it's free for individual Part 107 pilots. Paid accounts add requests on behalf of other pilots on a team, plus full team compliance reporting and alerting.
The record is the other job. It's what an auditor, an insurer or a client asks for weeks later: which job a flight belonged to, which risks were open and who owned them, what went wrong and how it was closed, and whether anyone has changed the record since. That's the job FlybyOps does. The authorisation goes on the flight plan it covers, next to the permits and the risk assessment.
The two tools also handle risk differently. Aloft scores weighted risk assessments against a threshold. FlybyOps keeps one register for the whole programme, scored on the SORA 5×5 matrix, with owners and review dates, and pilots and ground staff can raise flags from the field.
So a team that needs LAANC can keep requesting it pilot by pilot through an approved supplier's app, and keep the programme's record in FlybyOps.
FlybyOps and Aloft Air Control, side by side
Aloft's column comes from its own site and help centre, and FlybyOps' from its pricing page, as of October 2026. "Not stated" means Aloft's site and help centre don't say.
| Compared on | FlybyOpsPlans from $999 a month | Aloft Air ControlEnterprise through sales |
|---|---|---|
| LAANC and airspace | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthNot part of FlybyOps. Each authorisation is attached to the flight plan it covers | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesFAA-approved LAANC supplier, further coordination included. B4UFLY in its Air Aware apps, and airspace advisories such as TFRs and heliports on the map |
| Approving and filing for a team | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthFlight approval workflows on Business and up | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesMissions can be self-approved or wait for an admin. Paid accounts can request LAANC on behalf of other pilots |
| How work is organised | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthProjects hold jobs, and each flight sits under its job with the aircraft that flew it | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesThe mission is the central object, with checklists, risk assessments, documents and authorisations attached to it |
| Risk | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthOne risk register for the programme: SORA 5×5 scoring, mitigations, owners and review dates, and flags from pilots and ground staff in the field. Each flight plan can carry its risk assessment as a document | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesWeighted risk assessments, scored against a threshold. A high score means a change is needed before the mission can continue. A risk profile for each pilot, built from flight history |
| Incidents | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthFiled against a flight, job or aircraft and taken from report through root cause to closure. Admins and the project's managers are notified. Anonymous reporting on Business | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesIncident reporting in the app, per Aloft's Air Control 3.3 release notes, with comments on incident records |
| Changing and deleting records | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthEvery change and sensitive read goes to an append-only log, attributed and timestamped. A deletion leaves an entry too, and no entry can be edited | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesAdmins can delete any flight log. Files keep an audit trail of uploads, edits and deletions, and Aloft lists granular activity and data logging. Whether a deleted flight log is kept: not stated |
| Pilot certificates | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthPilot currency tracking on Business and up | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesPart 107 certificates in each pilot's profile, with expiry alerts to pilots, admins and outside contacts |
| Flight imports | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthFlight Sync records flights from DJI Pilot 2 controllers as they happen. DJI flight logs can be uploaded, and other aircraft are entered by hand | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesImports from Skydio, Autel, DJI and Dronelink, set up as an Enterprise feature. DJI log upload is Enterprise only, and Aloft notes DJI's own cloud sync is off for US users |
| Roles and access | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthFive roles, from Admin to Ground Staff. Pilots and ground crew see only the jobs they're assigned to | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesCustom roles, as many as an account needs. The default pilot role sees only the pilot's own data and logs |
| Price for a large programme | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a monthProfessional is $999 per workspace a month for up to 15 users and Business starts at $2,500. Enterprise is custom, with unlimited users, SSO and SCIM | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesNo published prices. The sales form asks how many employees will fly, from 2-10 to 100+, and there are public safety and bulk licence discounts |
| Free tier or trial | FlybyOps · Plans from $999 a month14-day free trial with full Professional access, no credit card | Aloft Air Control · Enterprise through salesFree for individual pilots: LAANC, airspace advisories and missions with checklists and risk assessments. Team features are on Enterprise |
Prices are in US dollars, as FlybyOps publishes them.
Leaving Aloft's paid plan: what you keep and what changes
There's no Aloft importer. You set up projects, people and equipment in FlybyOps, then log new flights there. Connecting a DJI Pilot 2 controller to Flight Sync takes about two minutes, and it records flights from that day on. Past DJI flights can be added by uploading their flight logs, and flights on other aircraft are entered by hand.
Your Aloft history doesn't have to move. Aloft says enterprise accounts can export their data at any time, and its public safety page lists account activity, logs, documents and team history as exportable in the interface or through its API.
Questions about Aloft and FlybyOps
- Is Aloft free?
- For individual pilots, yes. Aloft's app requests LAANC, checks airspace advisories and plans missions at no cost. Team features such as user management, reporting and flight imports are on Enterprise, which Aloft prices through its sales team. FlybyOps has no free plan; every plan starts with a 14-day free trial, no credit card needed.
- Is Aloft the same as Kittyhawk?
- Yes. Kittyhawk was renamed Aloft Technologies in June 2021, and parts of Aloft's help centre still say "formerly Kittyhawk". Its platform is called Air Control, and Aloft's home page now says it is part of Versaterm.
- How hard is it to switch from Aloft to FlybyOps?
- Most of the work is setup, not moving data. There's no importer, so projects, people and equipment are created in FlybyOps and new flights are logged there from the start. Your Aloft history can stay where it is, and pilots keep requesting LAANC through the approved supplier's app they already use.
- Which drones does FlybyOps record automatically?
- Flight Sync records flights from DJI Pilot 2 controllers on the M300 RTK, M350 RTK and M400, the M30 and M30T, the Mavic 3 Enterprise and Thermal, and the Matrice 4E and 4T.