SkyTrace - Live Flight Tracker with 3D Map (Laravel PHP Script)

SkyTrace - real flights on a 3D globe

SkyTrace is a complete live flight tracker website you run under your own name. Thousands of real aircraft move smoothly over a 3D globe, in one colour or coloured by altitude, with 3D buildings when you zoom into a city. Visitors open any plane to see its photo, altitude and speed, follow it, look up airports and airlines, search by flight number or registration and measure the distance between two airports - no account and no app needed.

It works out of the box without any API key: live positions from the open ADS-B network adsb.lol (OpenSky as the fallback), maps from OpenFreeMap. Add your own keys whenever you want airport boards, schedules and delays (AeroDataBox, AviationStack, FlightAware AeroAPI) or premium maps (MapTiler, Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles, Cesium ion). You earn from ads and from Pro - alerts by e-mail and web push, 90-day history, no ads - paid per month or year with Stripe, PayPal, Paystack, PayHere, Razorpay or bank transfer. Nothing renews automatically. Light theme by default with a full dark mode, installable as an app (PWA), and every text, price, limit and colour is an admin setting.

Live demo

• Live map (no login): https://skytrace.anowhosting.com/
• Airport page (no login): https://skytrace.anowhosting.com/airport/jfk
• Pro member area (one click): https://skytrace.anowhosting.com/demo-login/pro
• Free member area (one click): https://skytrace.anowhosting.com/demo-login/user
• Admin panel (one click): https://skytrace.anowhosting.com/demo-login/admin
• Demo overview: https://skytrace.anowhosting.com/codester/index.html
• Documentation: https://skytrace.anowhosting.com/codester/docs/index.html
• Pro member login: ethan.walker@example.com / password
• Free member login: liam.chen@example.com / password
• Admin login: grace.miller@example.com / password

Every flight, one tap away

• Real live traffic on a 3D globe - thousands of aircraft drawn on the graphics card, smooth motion between updates
• Click a plane: aircraft photo with photographer credit, altitude, speed, heading, vertical rate, squawk, position, altitude & speed chart
• Route line from origin to destination, follow mode with trail, add to watchlist, flight page, share link
• Filters: passenger, cargo, below / above an altitude, long-haul, one airline; 2D / 3D switch remembered

Fly into the city in 3D

• 3D globe and extruded 3D buildings for free (MapLibre GL + OpenFreeMap)
• Optional MapTiler 3D terrain, Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles or Cesium ion with your own key
• 3D city view with city presets; light and dark map styles that follow the site theme
• Map keys encrypted in the admin, attribution shown automatically

Airport pages with boards and weather

• 5,359 airports (OurAirports) and 1,034 airlines (OpenFlights) imported by the installer
• Airport page: local time, traffic around it, arrivals / departures board (with a schedules provider), live map, METAR weather
• Airline pages with the fleet on the map; smart search by flight, callsign, airline, airport or registration
• Airline logos: upload, ZIP by code or a licensed logo URL template - a neat monogram until then

Distance, flight time and CO2

• Great-circle distance between two airports or cities in mi, km and nm
• The path drawn on the 3D globe
• Estimated flight time for each aircraft type and CO2 per passenger
• Popular routes as one-click links - all estimates are admin settings

Know when they take off and land

• Watchlist of flights, registrations and airports with live progress
• Pro alerts: departed, landed and delayed - by e-mail and web push (built-in VAPID, no outside service)
• Embed widget: a live map, one flight or an airport board on any website
• Recent searches, profile with mi / km units, notification topics

Free + Pro, verified on the server

• Free plan with ads and limits, Pro monthly ($6.99) or yearly ($59) - every price and limit is a setting
• Stripe, PayPal, Paystack, PayHere, Razorpay and bank transfer with receipt approval
• Amount and currency checked on the server, signed webhooks that fail closed, one completion per transaction
• US sales tax by state, receipts, reminders with a pay link - no auto-renew
• Ad slots for Free members and visitors: your own banners or Google AdSense

One panel for data, maps and money

• Dashboard: active users, Pro members, revenue, cache hit rate, API usage per provider, members online
• Users with plan periods, orders & payments, bank transfers to approve, CSV exports
• Plans & limits, ad slots, airports & airlines, aircraft photos, pages and website texts
• Team roles, activity log, global search, backups, one-click update

Start free, upgrade any time

• Free: adsb.lol (open data) and OpenSky Network for live positions - no key needed
• Paid with your key: AeroDataBox, AviationStack, FlightAware AeroAPI for boards, schedules and delays
• Priority and fallback per task, answers cached on your server and shared by all visitors
• API usage log, monthly quota meters, test buttons, keys encrypted and masked

What you get

• The complete script with the vendor folder and a browser installer (MySQL / MariaDB or SQLite)
• Reference data: 5,359 airports, 1,034 airlines and 62 aircraft types, imported in short steps
• Optional demo data: a Pro and a Free member with watchlists and alerts, about 2,400 members with a year of Pro orders, API usage and a few labelled demo flights, plus one-click demo logins
• Illustrated HTML documentation: installation (cPanel, VPS, Windows), cron, the free stack, every data provider and map key, airport weather, logos, photos, plans, payments with webhook URLs, every settings area, PWA, demo mode and updates

Good to know

• One installation runs one flight-tracking website with one currency (USD by default) - every price and limit is an admin setting.
• Live positions come from open ADS-B data and routes from a free route lookup; schedules, airport boards and delays come from a paid provider of your choice with your own key.
• Airline logos are trademarks and are not included - upload your own, a ZIP by code or use a licensed logo service.
• Pro is paid per period - nothing renews or charges automatically. Online payments need your own merchant accounts.
• English is bundled; other languages are added in the admin with optional auto-translate.
• All people, demo airlines and numbers of the demo data are fictional sample content.

Requirements at a glance

PHP 8.3+, MySQL 5.7+ / MariaDB 10.3+ (or SQLite), Apache, LiteSpeed or Nginx, outgoing HTTPS and a cron job. Full list below.

Support and updates

Support covers installation questions and bugs. Updates come as a full package and a small update zip with a one-click update in the admin.

• PHP 8.3 or newer (8.3, 8.4)
• MySQL 5.7+ / 8.x or MariaDB 10.3+ (SQLite 3 for small sites and local tests)
• PHP extensions: pdo (pdo_mysql or pdo_sqlite), mbstring, openssl, tokenizer, xml, ctype, json, fileinfo, curl, gd, zip
• Apache with mod_rewrite (cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin), LiteSpeed or Nginx
• Outgoing HTTPS from the server (flight data is fetched and cached by your server)
• One cron job every minute
• No Composer, Node or SSH needed - the vendor folder is included
• Optional: your own keys for paid flight data or premium maps; SMTP for e-mails; merchant accounts for online payments
• HTTPS recommended (needed for the installable app, web push and the payment gateways)

Install

1. Create an empty MySQL / MariaDB database and user in your hosting panel and select PHP 8.3 or newer.
2. Upload the skytrace folder and point your domain to its public folder - or upload its contents straight into public_html (with the included .htaccess files).
3. Open your domain: the installer checks the server, connects the database, creates your owner account, imports airports and airlines and can import the demo data.
4. Sign in and set Settings > General, Colours, Map settings, Plans & limits, Payment gateways and Email. The live map works at once without keys.
5. Add one cron job: * * * * * cd /path/to/skytrace && php artisan schedule:run

Update

Back up, upload the update zip in Settings > Update (or copy the files by FTP) and click Run update.

Documentation

documentation/index.html in the download - also online on the demo.

1.0.3 - November 2026

• Initial release.
• Live 3D map with real traffic (adsb.lol, OpenSky fallback), instant bundled world map, aircraft in one colour or by altitude, route line, flight panel with photos, follow mode, filters, 2D / 3D, 3D buildings, light and dark.
• Flight, airport (boards + METAR weather) and airline pages, search, distance calculator, 3D city view.
• Watchlist, Pro alerts by e-mail and web push, embed widget.
• Free + Pro (monthly / yearly, no auto-renew), US sales tax, Stripe, PayPal, Paystack, PayHere, Razorpay and bank transfer, verified on the server.
• Optional paid providers and premium maps, admin panel, ad slots, colour presets, PWA, languages with auto-translate, installer, update, backups and demo mode.