Best GIS Software
A geographic information system (GIS) lets users visualize, question, analyze, and interpret geographical data to help them understand and problem-solve relationships, patterns, and trends. Companies use GIS to manage geographical data in order to improve operations in many geoscience industries as well as land-centric enterprises (e.g. sales territory management, field service dispatching, asset maintenance, transportation or construction). The best GIS software collects, incorporates and manipulates attribute data from maps to a business’ reporting systems to analyze and assess real-world problems. GIS data usually displays different kinds of data on one map, to facilitate deep analysis and efficiently use as much data as possible. GIS software usually focuses on gathering, analyzing, and displaying geographical data to manage business operations. GIS can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud. Typical implementations can result in a savings in operational expenses. GIS often integrates with CAD, BIM, and other drafting and design software to enhance its analytics capabilities.
To qualify for inclusion in the Geographic Information System (GIS) category, a product must:
Best GIS Software At A Glance
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Get advanced business tools in addition to all the easy-to-use features and imagery of Google Earth.
- Project Manager
- Project Engineer
- Civil Engineering
- Construction
- 42% Small-Business
- 42% Mid-Market
31,716,915 Twitter followers
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ArcGIS is a comprehensive suite of mapping and location intelligence tools and capabilities. ArcGIS can be deployed on local machines (ArcGIS Pro), on your remote or on-premises servers (ArcGIS Enterp
- GIS Analyst
- GIS Specialist
- Government Administration
- Environmental Services
- 39% Mid-Market
- 32% Enterprise
189,178 Twitter followers
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Google Maps API is a mapping platform that includes driving directions, Street View imagery and others.
- Information Technology and Services
- 58% Small-Business
- 26% Mid-Market
31,716,915 Twitter followers
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Sell efficiently with CRM-based sales mapping software. Make smarter prospecting decisions with customer record visualization. Streamline account planning while in the field, optimize field routes, an
- Salesforce Administrator
- Salesforce Developer
- Information Technology and Services
- Computer Software
- 43% Mid-Market
- 34% Enterprise
580,231 Twitter followers
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Subscribe to Autodesk® AutoCAD® including specialized toolsets and get access to industry-specific functionality, greater mobility with the new web and mobile apps, and the latest feature updates. Spe
- Architect
- Designer
- Architecture & Planning
- Civil Engineering
- 46% Small-Business
- 35% Mid-Market
277,726 Twitter followers
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ArcGIS Pro is Esri’s powerful, single desktop GIS application. Technologically ahead of everything else on the market, ArcGIS Pro supports data visualization, advanced analysis and authoritative data
- GIS Analyst
- GIS Specialist
- Government Administration
- Environmental Services
- 38% Mid-Market
- 37% Enterprise
189,178 Twitter followers
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Connect people, locations, and data using interactive maps created with ArcGIS Online. Quickly create maps by dropping in your spreadsheet and mashing it up with other location data included in ArcGIS
- GIS Specialist
- GIS Analyst
- Government Administration
- Civil Engineering
- 40% Mid-Market
- 32% Enterprise
189,178 Twitter followers
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- User Satisfaction
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BatchGeo is the easiest way to get your list of addresses on a map. Since 2006 BatchGeo has hosted millions of maps for Fortune 50 companies, non-profits, and individuals. The idea behind BatchGeo is
- Manager
- Analyst
- Real Estate
- Marketing and Advertising
- 59% Small-Business
- 27% Mid-Market
556 Twitter followers
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Your complete field sales tool kit– Badger Maps is the top rated mobile app for B2B reps in the field and a total territory management for your entire field team. With Badger, outside sales & f
- Territory Manager
- President
- Medical Devices
- Construction
- 65% Small-Business
- 24% Mid-Market
2,123 Twitter followers
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Fulcrum is a field-first SaaS platform designed to transform how organizations manage field data collection and inspections for mission-critical operations. Built specifically for the challenges of fi
- Project Manager
- Environmental Services
- Utilities
- 52% Small-Business
- 30% Mid-Market
2,791 Twitter followers
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Mergin Maps is a field data collection tool built on the free and open-source QGIS which allows you to collect, store and synchronise your data with your team. It removes the pain of writing down pape
- Environmental Services
- 70% Small-Business
- 30% Mid-Market
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- User Satisfaction
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Smarty offers global address verification, address validation, and geocoding via API, bulk upload, and a collection of 3rd party integrations that transform how organizations handle address data.
- CTO
- CEO
- Computer Software
- Financial Services
- 51% Small-Business
- 38% Mid-Market
1,257 Twitter followers
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Maptitude is the best mapping software to: • Optimize sales territories, vehicle routes, and site locations • Visualize, analyze, and present mission-critical data • Maximize profits, time, and resou
- Owner
- President
- Higher Education
- Hospital & Health Care
- 54% Small-Business
- 26% Enterprise
1,212 Twitter followers
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Trusted for over 15 years by hobbyists and professionals, Scribble Maps offers an intuitive online platform for web mapping and data visualization. Users can annotate maps, plot territories, filter an
- Construction
- Real Estate
- 70% Small-Business
- 24% Mid-Market
3,910 Twitter followers
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ArcGIS Earth is a simple, lightweight, easy-to-use desktop application that allows you to display and explore a variety of 3D and 2D map data for any part of the world.
- Government Administration
- 52% Mid-Market
- 41% Small-Business
189,582 Twitter followers
Learn More About GIS Software
What is GIS Software?
Geographic information systems, better known as GIS software, are tools that capture, analyze, and display geospatial data to make 2D or 3D maps. These tools act as asset management platforms for the geographic data they capture, meaning GIS technology has the ability to understand patterns and improve operations in land-based operations.
A GIS is a technology rooted in geographic information science that allows users to dig into geospatial data. The first step in this mapping technology is capturing data. These data types include cartographic, photographic, and digital data to provide a complete picture. GIS programs require both hardware and software, such as the desktop needed to display information.
Cartographic data is already in map form and includes information such as the location of rivers, roads, valleys, hills, and more. Data from photographic interpretation analyzes aerial shots of a site. Digital data is collected from satellites that show land use.
All varieties of data can be inputted into GIS mapping tools through data capture. As long as it has been digitized, it can be inputted into a GIS program. Once that data has been inputted, GIS technology can transform it into a map.
Who Uses GIS software?
GIS tools power location-based services. This technology is prevalent in a number of other professions:
GIS Specialist – A GIS specialist is an expert in geographic information systems. They analyze the spatial data stored in the geodatabases within these tools to solve problems related to a specific site or area. For example, a GIS specialist can assess the geospatial data of a region to determine the best escape route and then have the responsibility of mapping out an estimate time needed during a natural disaster. These specialists can create maps of certain areas using GIS technology and use that information to perform duties such as locating special features within a landscape.
A GIS specialist can be a full-time career, as a person in this role can act as a consultant to organizations who can benefit from the data extracted from GIS software. While the majority of this work can be conducted remotely from a computer, GIS specialists are sometimes required to visit a site in order to compare the landscape to the data in the GIS system. Those seeking this career path can obtain a GIS certificate from an accredited program; many universities offer GIS degrees as well.
Urban Planner – An urban planner develops procedures and programs for the use of land. The outcomes are typically mapping out plans to build communities, accommodate growth, revamp local physical facilities, and more. For example, an urban planner might approve plans for a new school to ensure it meets the needs of a growing population. As a community grows and changes, urban planners are there to help manage economic, social, and environmental changes that may arise. Urban planners can be utilized for communities of any size—small towns, large cities, and entire counties.
A great deal of data is needed for an urban planner to make an informed decision. They must stay up-to-date on zoning codes, environment regulations, and legal issues. Urban planners must also stay attuned to the landscape in their area and can utilize GIS technology to analyze and manipulate data. GIS software can be used to overlay a land map with population density indicators, which could show the best use for a piece of land. While an urban planner likely needs to perform site visits, they may also utilize a desktop GIS to analyze this data from their own office.
Environmental Scientist – An environmental scientist assesses the health and stability of a given landscape. This includes a great deal of fieldwork tests and surveys to gather geospatial data, like soil, water, and air samples. The data collected is then analyzed for negative indicators, such as pollution. An environmental scientist’s findings can be collected into an official report that may be presented to policymakers or other organizations concerned about environmental issues.
Environmental scientists rely heavily on GIS applications to succeed in their work. These tools capture the geographic information necessary to effectively map out the health of a physical area. This mapping technology has the ability to capture data from all aspects of a landscape—aerial, water, land—and then display as a variety of different maps. These solutions can also map changes in a specific area, which is hugely beneficial to an environmental scientist as it can fuel a course of action or anticipate future land conditions.
Public Health Professionals – Public health professionals are dedicated to protecting and improving the health of communities. Those in this field are focused more on preventing disease and injury rather than treating it. Public health intersects with a number of more specific fields to improve the health of the community. Epidemiology tracks the distribution and severity of diseases, along with how to prevent them from spreading. Biostatistics applies statistical and mathematical methods to the analysis of public health issues.
Environmental health is concerned with the quality of food supply, water and air pollution, and disease prevention. This is where GIS tools come into play. The use of a GIS and the spatial data it captures can help public health professionals come to decisions as well as predict outcomes. For example, public health officials can use GIS technology to map out potential risk from a contaminated water source. A desktop GIS program can also display information such as drug usage in a certain area.
Law Enforcement – Law enforcement officers can track crime trends within GIS software using crime mapping, which maps, visualizes, and analyzes crime incident patterns within their jurisdictions. These crime hot spots can be identified through the usage of GIS programs. Crime analysts can use a desktop GIS to overlay data sets such as census demographics. With this information, police officers are able to identify physical locations and potentially understand the underlying cause of crime in a certain area. GIS mapping software can also be useful for allocating police officers during emergency situations.
Why Use GIS software?
GIS software is vital for creating maps, but that is not the only application for this technology. These tools capture data that can be utilized by small, mid-sized or enterprise businesses in many fields.
A GIS helps users make more informed decisions. When working with a physical location, you need to understand every aspect of it—air, land, water, surrounding area, and more. A GIS captures this array of data, detailing various aspects of a landscape, and stores it all within one platform. Visualizing this data aids in identifying areas of opportunity and potential issues, such as the best route for an evacuation during an impending hurricane.
The geospatial data stored within these platforms even helps provide answers about things other than the physical landscape itself. Demographics of the surrounding population, social, real-world business problems, and political information can be gathered using a GIS. Features such as overlaying and data visualization connect the dots and create relationships between seemingly unconnected qualities, such populations with geographic features. For example, if a business needs to open up a new storefront, GIS software can be used to find a site of land near a highly populated area. Data can then be manipulated to account for inevitable population change in the surrounding area.
GIS software is specifically designed to visualize data. Reading and understanding statistics and data can be incredibly challenging. Data visualization is a key component of GIS technology, which means that the inputted data will be presented in a clear and comprehensive manner. Using a GIS solution, you can layer your datasets into one image and find the connections between each dataset. Bringing this data to life also allows you to view it from a different perspective, which can provide a fresh insight on a potential problem needing to be solved. You can create multiple maps within GIS platforms, which enables you to track and visualize the change in a certain area over time.
GIS technology can assist in conserving natural resources. GIS software has the ability to manage and maintain agricultural, water, and forest resources. These tools easily manage data on forest conditions as well. The geographic distribution of water resources can be analyzed through GIS technology. These two resources are also connected—as tree cover tends to decrease stormwater runoff.
GIS software allows for better geographic information record keeping. Many organizations are required to maintain thorough geographic records, such government and environmental science agencies. GIS systems are at the foundation of creating policies such as zoning laws, population censuses, and land ownership. Record keeping is vital when creating and upholding these laws, and GIS technology can store the geographic information necessary.
GIS technology can also track the spread of infectious diseases. On top of mapping trends in geographic features, GIS technology is used to follow trends that relate to the spread of disease. Users can leverage desktop GIS solutions to compare geography with other relevant variables and predict where an infectious disease might spread next. This data enables on-the-ground personnel to quickly work to save lives of local residents.
GIS software helps automate previously tedious geographic tasks. Before this technology, gathering data needed for any land, environment, map, pipeline, or city planning could be incredibly time consuming, due to the fact that one platform was unable to capture and store data from various sources. In addition, each data sample was collected and stored individually. However, GIS programs act as a repository for this data and convert it into the correct format, if necessary. GIS technology then takes this one step further and allows users to also design, update, and edit in the same platform where their geographic data is stored. These solutions also provide analysis tools, which gives organizations more time to focus on other urgent and critical tasks.
Governments can use GIS software to plan more cost-effective communities. Governments rely on thorough planning when it comes to building and expanding their communities. However, government organizations, especially smaller municipal ones, can face difficulty when it comes to the economy. Expanding a community while sources are diminishing gets expensive. GIS technology provides a way for government organizations to expand their communities in the most cost-efficient ways possible, as the data provided by GIS software allows them to make more informed choices about decisions such as land usage and locations of physical facilities. Governments can utilize a free GIS solution to continue to drive costs down.
Districts can create more efficient schools with GIS technology. A common issue within communities is needing to redistrict school boundaries as the local population ebbs and flows. GIS programs capture and store addresses for all students at the school. Using feature-based proximity tools, you can manipulate the borders of these zones and a GIS relates the student counts by grade of this proposed boundary. Even after school district zones have been nailed down, these programs can continue to benefit schools. School administrators use GIS technology to analyze the distance students walk to school. If a student lives a certain distance away, GIS tools continue to analyze the data to determine which students are eligible to take school buses. As schools may not a lot of budget dedicated to non-essential technology, they can utilize a free GIS platform for these tasks.
Planning for for natural disasters can be done using GIS technology. One of the main uses of this software is protecting the environment. The flip side of that is protecting citizens from potential dangers of their local environment. GIS tools help with risk management by assessing which areas are at risk for natural or man-made disasters. Communities can then take this data and develop preventive measures. And when natural disasters are unavoidable, GIS technology can still help. These tools aid in the planning of emergency evacuation routes and help estimate the damage from floods. In addition, GIS helps local governments document the needs for federal disaster relief funds.
GIS Software Features
While specific features may vary across different GIS solutions, the following features are typically found in geographic information systems:
Data Capture – This is simply the act of inputting data into a GIS. Relevant data can be grabbed from a number of sources. The software should be able to convert your data to a raster or vector file that will be compatible with your tool.
Remote Sensing Integration – Remote sensing is making measurements of a specific location on the earth through airplanes or satellites. These sensors have the ability to collect data in the form of images. As part of its data capture functionality, remote sensed imagery should easily integrate with a GIS.
Data Warehouse – GIS software stores the data on geographical features and their characteristics. It uses that data to publish maps. Just as GIS solutions capture data in multiple formats, said data is stored in multiple formats as well. Map city data can be stored as points, road data formatted as lines, boundaries as areas, and so on. Storing this information is what allows a GIS to identify features located in a map.
Buffer Zone Querying – Buffer zone querying is the ability to select a point on a map and display any given data within a certain radius. These buffers are used to show an area of influence around a location. For example, a buffer can be used to section off a radius around a school to plan for the transportation of students who live farther away. Some GIS tools may refer to buffer zone querying by other names, such as feature-based proximity tools.
Editing Data – The features of the landscapes you study change, which means your data will change as well. A GIS will enable you to keep up with these changes by allowing you to edit your data. Specific revision features and processes will vary in each tool, but they should all offer the ability to edit your data.
Data Visualization – The data visualization component of a GIS is what brings your data to life, in either a 2D or 3D format. A GIS displays the data you input as an easy-to-read map right on your desktop. This function may allow for additional features, such as adding pop-ups, charts, and infographics to maps.
Geocoding – This feature assigns locations to the addresses you need to keep track of so they may be placed as points on a map. It can be thought of as a interactive digital version of putting a pin on a location on a physical map. Some tools may refer to this feature as address-matching.
Spatial Analysis – Spatial analysis is at the core of publishing a map, and may be one of the key features of a GIS. This ability allows users to dig into their data and make informed decisions, predict patterns, and more.
Overlaying – Overlaying makes it possible to visualize many different forms of data in one image. This function superimposes multiple datasets into one image to identify the relationships between them. Most GIS software provides overlaying capabilities for both vector and raster data.
Publishing Maps – Creating maps is the end goal of GIS software. All of these features, such as overlaying and data editing, contribute to the creation of a map. Once your data is set, you can simply print the map out on a corresponding printer. Some GIS tools may run one final analysis of your data before printing the final map.
Potential Issues with GIS Software
With its wide range of capabilities and applications, GIS technology offers a plethora of benefits. But that does not mean this software does not come without its challenges.
While the data captured and stored in GIS platforms is incredibly beneficial to users, integrating with traditional maps is extremely complex. It can prove difficult to integrate a traditional map with GIS technology. It may not be possible to grab meaningful geospatial information from a GIS, as many only store and analyze the data collected from the platform itself. Reach out to the GIS vendor you select to determine if this integration is possible.
GIS software is expensive. These tools are hugely beneficial to users, as it collects a massive amount of data from various points. It can cost a lot to gather, input, and connect all of this data. Corresponding hardware, along with potentially needing to hire an expert in GIS, continues to drive those expenses up. While they may have some limited features, budget-conscious users can leverage a free GIS for their business.
Data management can be difficult. It’s great that GIS technology allows users to capture and store large amounts of data, but someone has to comb through all that information. Because there is so much data, this could lead to data generalization, which means you may be at risk for losing information. Large amounts of data also require massive storage space, which increases the cost and manpower required to run your GIS.
