What is the Best Online Ground School in 2025?

General Notes:

Every online ground school in the comparison is both meant to teach you the content required of a student pilot from the FAA as well as preparing the students to take and pass the FAA Knowledge Exam (written test). Some of these sites offer test prep only or online ground school only options but I am a firm believer that a student pilot is only hurting themselves if they are only doing test prep for ground school. It makes flight training more difficult, mistakes more prone to occurring and adds stress and cost. 

Every online ground school in the comparison offers an FAA Knowledge Exam endorsement following the completion of the course. 

I MAKE MISTAKES. They are not intentional. So if you are an owner of one of these ground schools or if you are a student of one of them and you know for a fact there is an error in the chart… please show me the feature I missed by contacting us with the contact form at the bottom of this page and I will update the comparison!

Color Coding:

Colors are meant to mean the following:

• Green: If a school has the feature the info will be in green. Or, if it has the preferred feature by students it will be in green. For example, lifetime access is shown in green over a monthly subscription.
• Black: Black either represents the school has a feature but it isn’t the most ideal when compared to other ground schools or I couldn’t find a policy or info on the feature.
• Red: If a school does NOT have the feature the info will be red. Or, if it does not have the preferred feature by students it will be red. For example, tech support after 5 days is not ideal and is red. 

Where’s the info on Rod Machado’s course?:

Rod Machado’s eLearning ground school is not listed because 2 years ago he contacted us upset about some of the data we had in our chart for his course. I asked him what error we made & where we could find the features he wants us to add and he asked that his course just be completely taken off the chart completely. I only leave his course on here because I know someone will ask why I didn’t compare his course… Well, that is why. 

Prices:

Prices are subject to change and are representative of the time I made the chart. It does not account for any deals or promotions that may be occurring. 

I highly recommend choosing an Online Ground School with lifetime access. I can’t keep track of the times students had to take breaks during training or training didn’t exactly go as quickly as planned. Plus, a certificated pilot is required to review ground knowledge at LEAST once every two years and a lifetime access course means you’ll have the content and tools to do so and stay safe, proficient and current. 

Part Time Pilot, King’s, Pilot Institute, Sporty’s, Gold Seal, Fly8MA, Angle of Attack, Flight Insight and WifiCFI all have lifetime access options. 

Reviews:

I would recommend putting the most stock into this one feature because these are what ACTUAL verified students of the course think about the course and there could be no better recommendation than a student pilot who has already been through it.

Reviews are based off of averages and rounded to the nearest tenth. Reviews are only counted if they are from verified sellers or independent review websites such as Google, TrustPilot, Amazon, etc.. I do NOT count reviews if they are on the online ground school’s website because there is no way for me to know if they made them up or not. 

I couldn’t find independent reviews for Angle of Attack, Jeppesen, Flight Insight, WifiCFI and MZeroA. On the other hand, all of Part Time Pilot, Pilot Institute, FinerPoints and Gold Seal tired for the best reviewed average at 4.9 out of 5 stars. But, if you want to know who is first and you do the math of all the 5 stars, 4 stars, 3 stars, 2 stars and 1 stars… which I did… then Part Time Pilot comes out on top with an average rating of 4.94 out of 5 stars.

Written Lessons:

Written lessons are marked green for an online ground school if the course reads like a book and explains concepts in full sentences with context, step by step examples, scenarios and added insights. 

Online ground schools with an asterisk * on their written lesson (Sporty’s and WifiCFI) have more of a study guide vibe. For example, Sporty’s written lessons are bullet point summaries of concepts and WifiCFI is a deconstructed version of the PHAK and other FAA documents with their own annotations. I’m not saying this is necessarily bad, some may prefer this, but I believe the preferrable option is a ground school with full written lessons AND a test prep summary/study guide.

Video Lessons:

It was requested that I have a subset of the Video feature to explain what sort of videos each ground school has. Turns out most of the ground schools have very similar styles of videos (except for Gleim which I could not find videos in their course). Most videos are a mix of slides with images & bulleted items, someone talking in front of a screen or image, animations, in-flight video from the cockpit, Microsoft Flight Sim recordings or other screen recordings, or digital and real life whiteboards. 

So instead I thought I would rank the online ground school videos in tiers from best to worst the best I can using a tier system that gives added weight to courses that have a variety of video types, lots of videos and high quality videos that are engaging. NOTE: This does not judge the content of the videos but just the quality, quantity, variety and engaging nature of the videos. Tier 1 has all lessons with high quality videos with a good mix of whiteboard, slides, in-flight and animated video (Sporty’s,  Gold Seal, FlightInsight, MZeroA). Tier 2 has the vast majority of lessons with high quality video but is missing either in-flight video or animation (Part Time Pilot, King’s, Pilot Institute, Fly8MA, FinerPoints, Angle of Attack). Tier 3 has either a lot fewer videos, low quality videos or lacks in variety of video such as all death-by-powerpoint, all lecture style or all in-flight video (ASA, Jeppesen, WifiCFI). Tier 4 is no video (Gleim). 

Audio Lessons:

An online ground school is green for audio lessons if it has stand alone audio lessons. I do not count the audio in a video because when audio lessons are created with the intent to be audio only, there is more descriptive language and examples used due to the need to illustrate images in the listeners mind. 

Part Time Pilot & WifiCFI are the only online ground schools with Audio lessons. 

Interactive Level:

It was requested that I include a feature row about interactive learning. There are varying levels of interactive learning so I looked up the definition… it said:

Interactive (adjective): Allowing a two-way flow of information between a computer & a computer & a computer user; responding to a users input.

So with that in mind I came up with 3 tiers of interactive online ground schools; Low, Mid & High. 

• Low: Lesson content (written, audio or video) only + quizzes
• Mid: Lesson content (written, audio or video) + quizzes AND either an instant chat or AI features, quizzes with image selection or rearranging,  scenario/story type quizzes, live lesson or Q&A opportunities or interactive simulators.
• High: Lesson content (written, audio or video) + quizzes AND either an instant chat or AI features, quizzes with image selections or rearranging,  scenario/story type quizzes, live lesson or Q&A opportunities AND interactive simulators or 3D/VR scenarios.

The only online ground schools that I found to have interactive features were Pilot Institute, Sporty’s, ASA and Part Time Pilot with Pilot Institute having the highest level because of a VOR simulator, flight control simulator and Cessna 3D walk around.

Access:

Access is either lifetime or yearly or monthly. Some online ground schools have multiple options but in this case I chose their lifetime option to put in the chart for a fair comparison to the others. As mentioned previously, I highly recommend choosing an Online Ground School that has lifetime access. Life happens, and a good pilot is always learning.

Part Time Pilot, King’s, Pilot Institute, Sporty’s, Gold Seal, Fly8MA, Angle of Attack, Flight Insight and WifiCFI all have lifetime access options. 

Refunds & Guarantees:

A refund is considered a situation where you don’t like the course, it isn’t working for you, you failed your medical or whatever reason brings you to wanting your money back. A guarantee is the online ground school will give you your money back if you fail your FAA exam. 

Most online ground schools have stipulations to their refund policy that I tried to portray in the chart but will summarize below:

• Part Time Pilot – Refund & Guarantee. No stipulation on refund except customers can’t use more than 50% of the course and then ask for a refund.
• King’s – Refund & Guarantee. Refunds are only available 30 days after purchase.
• Gleim – Refund  & Guarantee. Refunds are only available 30 days after purchase AND if the customer has only accessed 2 or less lesson units.
• Pilot Institute – Refund & Guarantee. Refunds are only available 30 days after purchase. 
• Sporty’s – Refund & Guarantee. Refunds are only available 30 days after purchase. 
• FinerPoints – NO Refund & NO Guarantee. 
• Gold Seal – Refund & Guarantee. Refunds are available 90 days after purchase. 
• Fly8MA – Refund & Guarantee. Refunds are only available 5 days after purchase.
• Angle of Attack – Refund & Guarantee. Refunds are only available 30 days after purchase. 
• ASA – NO Refund & NO Guarantee. 
• Jeppesen – Refund but NO Guarantee. Refunds are only available 30 days after purchase AND if customer has accessed only 2 lessons or less. 
• Flight Insight – Refund but NO Guarantee. Refunds are only available 30 days after purchase.
• WifiCFI – NO Refund & NO Guarantee.
• MZeroA – Refund & Guarantee. Refunds only available 30 days after purchase. 

Study Groups or Communities:

A study group or community is an online place where members of the course can go to ask questions, meet other like-minded students, form study groups, post wins, encourage others and more. Part Time Pilot, Pilot Institute, Sporty’s, Gold Seal and WifiCFI have study communities. Fly8MA has links to one, but the link does not work and I could not find anyway to access it. 

Content Support & Customer Support:

This used to be one row and just titled “support”, but I thought it would be good to distinguish between the types of supports. As you see in the chart, some ground schools only offer support for technical issues with your account and don’t have Instructors you can ask pilot/training-related questions to. 

Content Support refers to support you get on the online ground school content from an actual FAA certified instructor.

Tech Support refers to support you get from someone who can help you access your account, change your password, etc..

Each online ground school has support available at different times throughout the day and week. The online ground schools highlighted in green are the best of the bunch in terms of the times they have support available. I will detail each ground school’s support below and what I learned:

• Part Time Pilot – Instructor level content support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Tech support from 8 AM to 10 PM local, 7 days a week.
• King’s – Instructor level content support & tech support from 8 AM to 5 PM local, Monday through Friday. 
• Gleim – NO instructor level or any level of content support. Tech support from 9 AM to 6 PM local, Monday through Friday.
• Pilot Institute – Instructor level content support & tech support  from 9 AM to 5 PM local, Monday through Saturday.
• Sporty’s – Instructor level content support within 24 hours. Tech support within 24 hours. 
• FinerPoints – Has no support times advertised. However, I emailed them during working hours (9 AM to 5 PM local, Monday to Friday) and received a response within 2 hours.
• Gold Seal – Instructor level content support & tech support from 9 AM to 6 PM local, Monday through Friday. 
• Fly8MA – Has no support times advertised. However, I emailed them during working hours (9 AM to 5 PM local, Monday to Friday) and received a response within 2 hours.
• Angle of Attack – Has no support times advertised. However, I emailed them during working hours (9 AM to 5 PM local, Monday to Friday) and received a response within 2 hours.
• ASA – NO instructor level or any level of content support. Tech support from 8 AM to 4 PM local, Monday through Friday.
• Jeppesen – NO instructor level or any level of content support. No tech support advertised but I emailed them a question and received an answer 5 days later.
• Flight Insight – Has no support times advertised. However, I emailed them during working hours (9 AM to 5 PM local, Monday to Friday) and received a response 2 days later.
• WifiCFI – NO instructor level or any level of content support. Tech support from 8 AM to 4 PM local, Monday through Friday. 
• MZeroA – Instructor level content support & tech support from 9 AM to 5 PM local, Monday through Friday.

Mobile App:

Online Ground Schools are listed as green for the mobile app feature if they have a mobile app that all students can access. If a mobile app is only available on certain devices (like Apple devices only) the feature is listed in black. If it has no mobile app, it is listed in red. 

Part Time Pilot, King’s, Sporty’s, Angle of Attack, Flight Insight and WifiCFI are the online ground schools with apps accessible on any type of mobile device. WifiCFI has an * asterisk because when you click on their lesson content in the app, it sends you to the browser. However, you are able to access the podcasts in their app. Pilot Institute and FinerPoints are for Apple devices only. 

Downloads & Offline Content:

There are several students who spend much of their day without an internet connection or one good enough to load videos, images or audio. Therefore, having content in an online ground school that can be downloaded for offline consumption is very valuable to these students. Even I love being able to download content for when I fly commercial and don’t have to pay for the spotty wifi on the flight. 

Part Time Pilot, Pilot Institute, Sporty’s, Gold Seal, Angle of Attack, Flight Insight and MZeroA have content available for downloading and accessing offline. 

Flight Instructor Access:

An online ground school will be green for Flight Instructor (CFI) Access if it allows for flight instructors of students enrolled in the ground school to get free access to the content and be able to see and monitor their students progress and grades through the course. Some courses have CFI content they provide or free CFI access to the course but they do NOT have the ability for the CFI to monitor their students progress & grades. 

Only Part Time Pilot, King’s, Sporty’s, and Gold Seal have this feature. Fly8MA advertises the feature but the link does not work.

Flash Cards/Practice FAA Written Questions:

We could call this section test prep. As I mentioned before, all of the ground school pricing options listed in the chart have both ground school lessons and test prep material. However, some of the ground schools only provide the test prep material in quizzes and practice tests that unlock after you finish the lessons. Sometimes, students want to practice the questions early or are may just looking for good test prep material. 

Part Time Pilot, King’s, Pilot Institute, Sporty’s, FinerPoints, Gold Seal, ASA, WifiCFI & MZeroA all have some sort of Flash Cards or practice question generator for students to access at any time. 

Free Trial:

This is a classic example of why I still build this comparison chart even though I now have an Online Ground School of my own. When I first started this comparison chart I did it simply to provide students the information but now I get the added bonus of getting the research on my competition and understanding where I need to step up my game. When I was creating this version of the comparison chart I realized Part Time Pilot was one of the only ones to not have a Free Trial… so I made one! 

An online ground school is green for Free Trial if they allow FREE (no credit card required) trial access to a course or part of a course with private pilot ground training subjects that is meant to give students an idea of what they will get in the full course. For example, King’s has a free mini course but they don’t advertise it as a free trial… I still counted that because the content gives students a good glimpse at everything they’ll get. 

Part Time Pilot, King’s, Gleim, Pilot Institute, Sporty’s, FinerPoints, Gold Seal, Fly8MA, WifiCFI and MZeroA all offer Free Trials. 

Sport Pilot:

The second most common entry pilot certificate is the Sport Pilot certificate because it allows people to become a pilot without getting a medical certificate (and fly with certain limitations you can learn about here). Sport Pilot online ground school is very similar to private pilot online ground school with about a 10% difference. Because of the small difference a lot of online ground schools only provide a private pilot course. But it is nice to not have to think about studying anything unnecessary or some regulation that doesn’t apply to sport pilot. 

The only ground schools with a dedicated sport pilot online ground school or a combined sport pilot & private pilot online ground school are Part Time Pilot, King’s, Gleim, Sporty’s and Fly8MA.

Military Discount:

This question gets asked a lot in online forums and there are a lot of our military friends who are interested in getting their pilot license. 

Turns out, there are only 4 online ground schools that offer/advertise military discounts (a shame, in my opinion)… and those are Part Time Pilot which has a 33% discount, King’s which has a 20% discount, Pilot Institute which has a 33% discount and Fly8MA which has a 10% discount. 

WINGS Credits:

What is WINGS? The FAA describes their WINGS program with the objective to address the primary accident causal factors that continue to plague the aviation community. The WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program is based on the premise that pilots who maintain currency and proficiency of flight & knowledge will enjoy a safer and more stress-free flying experience. There are a bunch of trainings and courses listed in WINGS and a training provider that has had their course approved can give WINGS credits to students who complete their course. Some employers may even look at WINGS credits when deciding between pilot candidates. 

The following online ground schools can provide WINGS credits to its users when they complete the course: Part Time Pilot, King’s, Gleim, Pilot Institute, Sporty’s, Gold Seal and ASA. 

Scholarships:

A school is listed as green in this category if they provide scholarships to either their members or student pilots in general. King’s used to be green on this list but it looks like, from what I could find, their scholarships are only for flight instructors. 

The only online ground school that offers scholarships to its students is Part Time Pilot which offers four $1000 scholarships per year with runner ups getting free online ground school.