What Are Add-Ons in Flight Simulators and How Do You Find Them?
Add-ons are third-party or user-created content that extends a base flight simulator beyond what shipped with it. In Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) 2020 and 2024, they typically take the form of new aircraft, scenery, airports, liveries, and tweaks, and a large share of them are distributed as freeware. You find them on community sites such as Flightsim.to, then check that each file matches your simulator version before installing it into the sim's Community folder.
The main types of flight simulator add-ons
Add-ons are usually grouped by what they change in the simulator:
| Type | What it adds | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Aircraft | New flyable planes, from airliners to gliders | Flying something the base sim does not include |
| Scenery | Terrain, landmarks, city and region enhancements | Improving how the world looks from the air |
| Airports | Detailed renditions of specific airfields | Realistic departures and arrivals at a known field |
| Liveries | Paint schemes applied to existing aircraft | Recreating a real airline or a personal design |
| Tweaks | Adjustments to visuals, performance, or systems | Fixing or refining how the sim behaves |
A single add-on can overlap categories — an airport package often includes custom buildings, ground textures, and sometimes static aircraft — but the label tells you what to expect before you download.
Where to find free add-ons
Flightsim.to is a community library for MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 content. Its catalog covers aircraft, liveries, airports, scenery, and tweaks, and it presents itself as offering these at no cost. That makes it a practical starting point when you want to browse by category or by simulator version rather than hunting across scattered forum threads.
When evaluating any add-on source, including a large library, check:
- Simulator version — does the listing say MSFS 2020, MSFS 2024, or both?
- Last update date — older files may predate a sim update that changed how content loads.
- User feedback — comments and ratings often flag broken installs or visual bugs faster than the description does.
- File contents — a legitimate package normally contains a folder with a
manifest.jsonandlayout.json, not an installer that asks for unrelated permissions.
Checking compatibility before you install
Compatibility is the step most people skip, and it is the most common reason an add-on does not work.
- Confirm the add-on lists your simulator (MSFS 2020 or MSFS 2024). Content built for one version is not guaranteed to load correctly in the other.
- Check the required sim update level if the listing mentions one. An add-on built for an older build may still work, but features can break after major updates.
- Read whether the add-on depends on other packages — some scenery requires a separate library to display correctly.
- Note the download size and whether the file is a ready-to-drop folder or an archive you need to extract first.
Basic installation steps
Most MSFS add-ons follow the same pattern. The exact menu names vary by sim version, so treat these as the general flow:
- Download the add-on and, if it arrives as a
.zipor.rar, extract it. - Locate the folder that contains
manifest.jsonandlayout.json. That folder is the add-on itself — not its parent directory. - Move or copy that folder into your simulator's Community folder.
- Start the simulator and check the relevant menu: new aircraft appear in aircraft selection, liveries under the aircraft's livery options, and scenery or airports at their location in the world.
The expected result is that the new content shows up as a selectable option or is visible in the sim. If nothing changes, the add-on is usually in the wrong folder depth or built for the other simulator version.
Troubleshooting add-ons that do not appear
- Wrong folder depth — a common mistake is placing the outer download folder into Community instead of the inner folder containing the manifest files.
- Version mismatch — content made for MSFS 2020 may not load in MSFS 2024, and vice versa.
- Conflicting packages — two add-ons covering the same airport or region can override each other; remove one to test.
- Missing dependency — some scenery needs a separate object library installed alongside it.
- Stale cache — restarting the sim, or clearing rolling cache if your version offers it, resolves some cases where new content is not detected.
Choosing what to install
Start with one add-on in the category you care about most — a single aircraft or your home airport — and confirm it loads before adding more. This keeps troubleshooting simple and shows you how a correctly installed package looks in your Community folder. From there, use simulator version, update date, and user feedback as your filters, and prefer sources that state clearly what each file contains.