My Jeppesen Experience

The last time I renewed, I don't believe that Jepp plates were available on Foreflight, as they are now. Since I added charts to my 540 bundle solely to get them on the iPad/Foreflight, my last subscription (USA) was $1012.00 including obstacles and terrain. That included Jepp plates only for my home area, USA Northeast.

Foreflight now will add Jepp plates for the entire USA for $199.00, so a price comparison was in order. 

Long story short, I dropped obstacles and terrain from the 540 and put the Jepps on Foreflight. Total cost is now $491.00 annually for the Navdata and $199.00 annually for the full USA Jepps, a savings of roughly $300.00.  

I can do a one-time update of terrain or obstacles anytime for a relatively low cost.

As always, since it is Jepp, YMMV.

Rolfe

As you say, terrain rarely changes (I think the current data is from 2015). Terrain also takes forever to load on the IFD. Obstacles change more often. 

A Jepp rep also recommended I get the ForeFlight charts from ForeFlight, because then I could load them on the same number of devices you can use ForeFlight on (3 devices). If you get the mobile subscription from Jepp, you can only load the charts on one device. 

Certified navdata is much more expensive than iPad data. Even Garmin charges more for it than for the Garmin Pilot app. Keeping a certified GPS up to date is indeed a significant yearly expense. For VFR work, you might be able to buy one-time updates from time to time. For IFR work, you really do have to have a subscription as data change often.

+1

I prefer Jepp, due to the consistent look-and-feel across the many countries here in Europe, and have the Jepp charts on ForeFlight. I've also dropped them from the IFDs though, because it doesn't make any sense to pay Jepp >$700 just for that when I already have the charts on FF.