Although initially available for free, only five initial locations are available without the purchase of a monthly subscription.

On December 9, 2019, X-Plane Mobile Global, a major update for the mobile port, was released. In September 2020, Update 11.50 introduced support for Vulkan and Metal. The official release of X-Plane 11 took place on March 30, 2017. The company released a second public beta on December 6, 2016, which addressed some significant issues. In November 2016, Laminar Research released the public beta of their latest simulator version, X-Plane 11, to the general public. This is further enhanced by the X-Plane forums, where users can share aircraft, scenery, plugins, and the Scenery Gateway website, which allows users to share airports with other users, which can be eventually integrated into the base product. X-Plane also has a plugin architecture that allows users to create their modules, extending the software's functionality by letting users create their worlds or replicas of places on Earth.

X-Plane is pre-packaged with several commercial and military aircraft and global scenery, which covers most of the Earth. A mobile version has been available for Android, iOS, and webOS since 2009 as well. In addition, Laminar Research also distributes FAA-certified versions for professional use. X-Plane is the only flight simulator suitable for Windows and macOS, with commercial desktop versions sold for macOS, Windows, and Linux. X-Plane is a flight simulation engine series developed and published by Laminar Research in 1995.

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