The seat map tool SeatGuru should have been.

Best for: Technical accuracy & precise cabin diagrams

AeroLOPA gathers what it can find on a cabin and recreates the LOPA (Layout of Passenger Accommodations) as a scale drawing, in its own words distilling the information rather than republishing an airline's internal document. The result is unmatched accuracy on window alignment, exit row geometry, bassinet positions, and crew rest placement. It rates seats as well, on a Good, Be Aware or Avoid scale, and a free account gets alerts when a map changes. Their ExpertFlyer partnership (March 2026) brought those diagrams into ExpertFlyer's platform as native seat maps with pitch, recline, and attribute tags.

Coverage: Major US, European, Middle Eastern, and Asia-Pacific carriers

Best for: Closest direct SeatGuru replacement

SeatMaps.com is the lookalike replacement — colour-coded layouts, seat dimensions, 360-degree cabin panoramas, and in-flight reviews. London- and Munich-based team updates the catalogue weekly. The breadth is staggering: their own pages quote several airline counts, from 739 to more than 800. Seat-specific data is often generic, and the site lists several versions of some aircraft, so check which one your flight uses.

Coverage: Several hundred airlines (SeatMaps.com's own figures vary, checked September 2026)

Best for: Frequent flyers watching for a seat to open up

Power-user tool for serious frequent flyers, and not the paywall the roundups describe: a permanent free plan carries seat maps for 400+ airlines and one active seat-availability alert, no card required. Its seat maps now open in a Detailed view, a rendered cabin powered by AeroLOPA, and Elite and Premium members see seat type, pitch, exit position and known limitations for each seat, alongside a systemwide upgrade search for American Airlines on the Elite tier.

Best for: AI-generated, flight-specific seat recommendations

Newer entrant taking an AI angle. Enter a flight number and date, and SeatCompare returns the best and worst seats for that specific aircraft and configuration. Also offers aircraft swap alerts: a notification if your aircraft is changed between booking and departure, which can mean a different cabin. Useful, though an aircraft-change alert now ships with ExpertFlyer Premium, FlightSeatmap's paid plan and SeatMap.app as well.

Coverage: 100+ airlines and 1,000+ cabin layouts, by its own count (seatcompare.ai, checked September 2026)

Best for: Live seat tracking without a rolling subscription

Static maps are free. Live seat tracking comes either as a Trip Pass, $4.99 as one payment for a single flight and valid until departure, or Frequent Flyer at $8.99 a month or $79 a year. Checks run more often as departure approaches, in FlightSeatmap's words, rather than at a flat interval. It also links out to sister sites for airport wait-time estimates and award availability search. Its homepage puts the catalogue at 105 airlines and 812 cabin layouts, by its own count.

Coverage: 105 airlines and 812 cabin layouts, by its own count (flightseatmap.com, checked September 2026)

Best for: Live seat availability for a specific flight

AwardFares' free live seat map shows real-time occupancy for most major carriers — enter origin, destination, date, cabin and flight number to see which seats are currently taken (red), available (green), or blocked (yellow). Best first stop when you want to know how full your flight actually is, before drilling into per-seat detail.

Best for: Crowdsourced seat ratings from travellers

Review-driven platform where flyers rate specific seats on legroom, recline, width, power, bin space, entertainment, wifi, comfort and privacy. The crowd-sourced angle is its strength — a rating from someone who sat there tells you what no diagram can. Quality depends entirely on who has flown what; many seats have no data, but where coverage exists it's gold.

Best for: Older aircraft and backup reference

Long-standing site that, like SeatGuru, leans on user reviews and photos. Suffers from outdated information on newer cabins but its deep archive sometimes holds details on older aircraft layouts other modern tools have dropped. Useful as a backup reference, not a primary source.

Best for: Comparing legroom across flights while booking

Free Chrome extension that overlays seat pitch, amenity, and carry-on data directly onto Google Flights search results. Not a standalone seat map — it answers a different question: when you're choosing between two flights on the same route, which one has the better cabin?