QGIS Reviews

Unlike MapInfo v16 that I use, QGIS 2.18.16 doesn't require premium/advanced license to access satellite Bing imageries. There is an openlayer plugin that enables web access to satellite imageries. QGIS can perform most Vector&Raster analytical algorithms that ArcGIS does.

I tried opening tabfiles manipulated using mapinfo v16 in QGIS and it was prompting errors saying invalid data source. I think the tabfile has restrictions because the same file can't be opened with older versions of mapinfo. Other than that QGIS has been the most flexible software I employ to perform variety of GIS tasks which I was limited to perform in the other GIS softwares

QGIS functions are flexible, the interoperability is not restricted however compatible to operate with different platforms of softwares such as mapinfo, arcgis, autocad etc. Easy user interaction with the interface. License free.

Just recently QGIS has helped me perform terrain analysis using DEM to generate hydrological datasets for the HCV mapping of our plantations prior preparing for the our annual RSPO audit.

Is there an alternate to costly ArcGIS software performing GIS analysis? yes, and the best is QGIS. The best part is availability of wide range of plugins and tools that can be customized to perform all the GIS actions. Being on open source software, availability to students, graduate engineers and non engineering professional makes this most friendly GIS software. GDAL and OGR libraries come with handy command-line tools. These tools are quite powerful and can save you a lot of effort if you know how to use them.

very few dislikes like handling huge files and output not 90% of what ArcGIS produces.

The ease of exploring customized tools and plugins to create your own GIS output is not offered by any other GIS tool. UTM converter, GeoPDF is a unique data format that brings the portability of PDF to geospatial data. A GeoPDF document can present raster and vector data and preserve the georeference information. This can be a useful format for non-GIS folks to consume GIS data without needing GIS-software. While GeoPDF is a proprietary format, we have a close alternative in the open Geospatial PDF format. GDAL has added support for creating Geospatial PDF documents from version 1.10 onwards.

We use QGIS for producing flood maps, schemes, maintain the asset data, produce thematic maps to represent overland flooding etc. It is widely used in UK water industry. Also being open source software reduces cost burden of procurement and train the graduates.

En lo que llevo usando el programa, me parece que posee muchas ventajas. Es un programa gratuito, muy sencillo de descargar e instalar. En caso de dudas sobre las herramientas, puedes encontrar orientaciones de otros usuarios en la comunidad en lìnea. Tiene una amplia gama de herramientas, desde las más sencillas hasta las más avanzadas. Presenta facilidades para vincular bases de datos de postGIS.

Es un buen software, pero tiene muchas debilidades con respecto a su estabilidad. Presenta cierres repentinos. Además, resulta tedioso que cada complemento deba descargarse de forma individual. Para nuevos usuarios su interfazno resulta tan intuitiva.

Invito a que prueben esta poderosa y útil herramienta que potenciará sus análisis. Si presenta alguna dificultad sobre su uso, en la red se consiguen numerosos tutoriales al respecto y además la comunidad de usuarios en línea siempre está dispuesta a compartir su conocimiento.

Me ha permitido la realización de análisis estadísticos más integrales y darle un valor agregado a mis investigaciones a través de la espacialización de los datos y la representación cartográfica de las distintas variables de estudio.

Lo que me más me gusta del Qgis, es que es un software libre en crecimiento y desarrollo rápido, que le está haciendo la competencia a grandes programas líderes del mundo SIG. Además, posee características amigables al usuario en su plataforma, para gestionar y manipular data geográfica para los usuarios y administradores de un SIG.

Por otro lado, hay elementos interesantes en este software como es la herramienta de complementos, en la cual se puede descargar aplicaciones de un repositorio de herramientas pre existentes o desarrolladas por otros usuarios, mediante la conexión a internet. Este tipo de ventajas del software me parece una maravilla para crear y seguir motivando a la innovación en este campo.

A pesar que es un programa SIG muy competitivo, presenta ciertas inestabilidades si se satura de mucha información a la plataforma. Para ello es preferible trabajar una cantidad de entidades y atributos acorde a las características del ordenado donde está instalado.

Para todos los amantes de los SIG y especialmente a los desarrolladores, les recomiendo ampliamente el Qgis, ya que es un programa bajo plataforma de software libre, que va creciendo exponencialmente gracias a los aporte de la comunidad de este mundo de la geotecnologia

Este programa presenta menor complicación para la convertibilidad entre formatos shp a kml y viceversa. Por otro lado, presenta la ventaja de instalación de complementos o plugins, a través de la conexión con repositorios de herramientas, que sirven para distintos objetivos como son la edición, análisis de data geográfica, visualizador de imágenes satelitales y base cartográfica de servidores online entre otras herramientas poderosas. Entre esos plugin o complementos están: auto trace, quick map service, go2streetview y muchos más que sirven para distintas e innovadoras funciones que puede hacer el Qgis

QGIS es una excelente herramienta SIG que ha venido fortaleciéndose con el paso de los años. No es necesario pagar una costosa licencia para utilizar todas las opciones que nos ofrece y que resultan de gran provecho, en especial a los profesionales que nos valemos del uso de los SIG para el desarrollo de nuestros trabajos e investigaciones. Además es amigable, es decir, es muy fácil de usar, sobretodo si ya previamente has manejado una herramienta SIG. También me gusta la gran variedad de complementos que nos ofrece y que nos permite resolver casi cualquier problema.

Este software lamentablemente tiende a ser inestable, pues en ocasiones se presentan cierres inesperados. En algunos momentos he tenido problemas porque no ejecuta determinadas acciones y debo reiniciar el programa para poder ejecutar la acción satisfactoriamente. Por otra parte, la calidad de la salida cartográfica es débil en comparación con otros software.

No duden en probar esta herramienta, ofrece una gran cantidad de ventajas en relación a las desventajas que pueda presentar. Ademas es fácil de usar, hay numerosos tutoriales que pueden ayudarlos y el soporte técnico es excelente.

QGIS es una herramienta muy completa para realizar análisis espacial así como la elaboración de cartografía topográfica y temática. Me parece un excelente beneficio que QGIS permita la vinculación con R, que es un software estadístico también de código abierto, permitiendo relacionar directamente los datos de las diversas variables con su localización espacial.

La posibilidad de utilizar un SIG robusto, con múltiples aplicaciones y opciones la presenta Qgis. Este se ha convertido en la principal herramienta de análisis espacial para todos aquellos que no pueden optar a un SIG de pago. Qgis soporta casi cualquier tipo de archivo geoespacial, como un shapefile, .tab, raster file, entre otros, además de ello cuenta con múltiples extensiones que producen que el usuario pueda adaptar la herramienta a su estilo de trabajo. Qgis puede vincularse con las base de datos de GRASS, lo cual enriquece enormemente la capacidad de realizar análisis de imágenes satelitales y de radar con este software libre, aunado a esto se tiene la posibilidad de manipular la interfase, dado que es de código abierto y gestionar las herramientas del programa según las necesidades de cada persona o empresa.

Como todo software gratuito tiene sus desventajas, la principal es la inestabilidad del programa en muchos procesos, puede que los realice incompletos, deje de procesarlos sin causa aparente o ocurran cierres repentinos de los cuales el usuario no puede escapar y que ralentizan su trabajo. Otro inconveniente son las continuas actualizaciones, que producen que existan muchísimas versiones del programa, con cambios mínimos y sin mejoras muy significativas.

La recomendación es que prueben QGIS, le den una oportunidad y se den cuenta que es una herramienta muy útil para muchos procesos geoespaciales, y que no está limitada de ninguna forma por el costo, dado que todos sus modulos son totalmente gratuitos, además de ello ofrece las posibilidades de añadir herramientas propias, lo cual puede ser muy útil si se desean modelar aspectos espaciales muy particulares.

Qgis nos ha permitido crear nuestra propia herramienta de gestión de rutas y estimación de costos, a través de uno de sus módulos y con unos pequeños cambios introducidos por nuestro departamento de programación, fuimos capaces de modelar y optimizar las rutas de distribución, garantizando una utilización mas eficiente de nuestros recursos y mayor puntualidad en la entrega.

Qgis la principal opción que tenemos los usuarios de software SIG (GIS) para el desarrollo de nuestras actividades laborales diarias. Qgis ofrece una gran gama de herramientas y opciones para la generación de cartografía temática, el análisis espacial y el análisis de imagen proveniente de sensores remotos. Qgis por ser un programa GNU permite generar vínculos con muchísimos software, de manera tal que la información puede ser generada en un software distinto y luego ser vinculada y visualizada con Qgis. Las herramientas son bastante intuitivas y además de eso el software permite la utilización de múltiples formatos como shapefile, prj, mapinfo layers, binary coverage, raster, texto delimitado por tabulaciones y muchísimos más, lo que amplia considerablemente el espectro de información que puede manejarse con esta herramienta.

El software tiene una gran desventaja y es que en muchos casos puede ser muy inestable, es decir, puede cerrarse repentinamente, generar errores en los procesos o sencillamente no desarrollar los problemas de manera adecuada. Además de eso, la apertura inicial del programa puede ser un poco impactante, dado que todas las herramientas aparecen desplegadas, y eso puede ser un poco perturbador, dado que no necesariamente un usuario las requiere todas las herramientas que el programa presenta. Algunas herramientas como el Open Layer son excesivamente pesadas y requieren una conexión internet de mucha velocidad para poder utilizarlas.

Esta es una muy buena herramienta para el analisis espacial y para la construccion de cartografia tematica, la licencia GNU permite ampliar el ya de por sé enorme marco de herramientas que posee el programa, e inclusive ofrece la oportunidad de integrar herramientas creadas por el usuario, para que las mismas sean compartidas y utilizadas por otras personas. Por otra parte, siempre deben tener en cuenta que se trata de un software libre y en que en muchos procesos puede ser un poco inestable para el desarrollo de ciertas actividades.

Qgis me ha permitido realizar actualizaciones cartográficas de distintas partes del país, dado que las herramientas de digitalización son muy útiles para este tipo de trabajos, además de eso he generado distintos mapas temáticos vinculados a características tan distintas como el entorno urbano y planes de inversión.

Professional GIS system without high costs.

QGIS is a flexible GIS software. Plug-ins solve many tasks.

This is free software.

The program is being developed all the time.

You can get free community support.

The possibility of modeling groundwater using MODFLOW and related programs.

QGIS works only on one core of the processor, which slows down its operation.

Sometimes the program freezes during complicated calculations.

Czasami pojawiają się problemy przy instalowaniu wtyczek.

Not all plugins have documentation.

Try this software, it's worth your time.

This is professional GIS software.

The QGIS program is a good alternative to commercial software.

QGIS allows you to analyze data from various sources and in different formats.

QGIS allows you to manage maps in a simple way.

QGIS enables building models of groundwater flow using modflow

The use of spatial data from WMS and WFS sources.

I love this software. It took me a little while to move from using ESRI's product to this, but once you get used to it, it works great. Plus my favorite thing is that I don't have to dual boot operating systems because QGIS runs on OSX.

There are some functions that will crash my program. Anything with clustering (knn) with a lot of data points won't play well with my setup.

If you need a great GIS software that's open source and supports Python, you've come to the right place.

Media targeting based on models. We can upload our modeled audience based on lat lon and visually see where large clusters of target customers are, this helps us to plan our media budgets and locations.

I like it since it is the perfect tool to make your maps in a fast and very visual way because you are creating your own layers on top of the map (downloaded from openstreet map or your own maps) and can create and paint to show what you want all on a map with your legend for any project.

You have at your disposal all this gallery of maps to download with plugin QuickMapServices.

OpenStreetMaps (Topographic, Cycle Map, Landscape and Public Transportation)

Google (Physical, Streets, Hybrid and Satellite)

Bing (Road, Aerial and Aerial with Labels)

MapQuest (Open Aerial)

Stamen (Toner, Watercolor and Terrain)

Apple iPhotos (IPhotos Map)

I do not like it because it is not intuitive at all, I had to learn from tutorials or explanations from my classmates because it has many menus and more complex things can be done than simply creating .shp layers on a map.

Qgis is free and is a tool for geographers indispensable, and for our work as a consultant is very useful because you can generate maps in a professional way without many complications.

In my work I agreed with your maps of google maps or google earth in .kmz that I can insert them and in turn once convert to .sph to touch up if necessary. The maps thus are much more professional.

Also, keep in mind that you have every time you save a project in a route because if you modify it later you may lose the rest of the associated layers, and the amount of files it generates and the Gb of the hard disk that you consume. foresee them before using it.

Open source, Open source, Open source.! When a product this good is free, it definitely qualifies to be called as the best available. With almost all the capabilities of the competitive proprietary option out there, QGIS, in my opinion has more, if not equal amount of tools and plugins to do effective GIS analysis. Plenty of resources are available online in the form of tutorials and videos to get one started, if you are new. It is extraordinarily simple to download and install, especially a great resource from a developing countries' point of view. Imagine having the capacity to run GIS indefinitely without having to worry about paying thousands of dollars and trying to budget in!. The applications that could be developed are limitless, from agriculture to water resource to disaster management. There is a great online community available to provide near real time support if you run into any problems.

Graphical User Interface could be improved slightly, but does not in any way hinder the usage of this software. Handling remote sensing imageries can be further improved and made more image analysis friendly (although the new versions have already incorporated few tools). More easy to use web gis application will add plenty of value to the existing stand alone version.

Please opt for a open source option when available, and more the users' demand, better the product will be in the future.

Disaster Risk Reduction, Health mapping, Environmental mapping

It is free and of high quality, apart from the great contributions that the community has made in such important areas for tele-detection and other satellite image management tools. Another important aspect, is the breadth that it has for managing private and free extensions, you can use projects from ArcGis to SAGA Gis, it has no limits and is constantly updated. It's a marvel.

I could improve the final presentation of the maps, it's my main annoyance at work. Other software such as ArcGis offers a very high level of expertise when preparing the project for printing, it is the only thing that should be improved because in short it is a great working tool for those of us who love geomatics. It is unfair to identify something negative but it needs to follow its path of growth as it has done all these years. My respects to QGIS.

If you have been working with Esri for years, you will not suffer from knowing this software, it has everything you are looking for and more, every day you will be surprised at what it is capable of doing for your work and research interests, the best part of all of this is that it is a free license, so you will save a lot of money that you can easily donate to the community that maintains this excellent initiative called Quantum GIS.

Much of my research or work that I do, I do with Quantum GIS, the free tools, is the best you can find in the market. You don't have to pay a license fee to use it and it has as many or equal benefits as ArcGis. It has come a long way and makes me proud to have used it since its inception. Among the benefits I have found, the freedom, the monetary savings and the diversity of formats compatible with the software.

The Open Source Geographical Information System that has evolved the most, has more compatibility, adaptability and better output design.

GRASS, SAGA, OPENLAYER and OPENSTREETMAP are compatible with QGIS

QGIS presents a set of very complete vector and raster analysis tools and gives identical results to the analysis packages of the private software, with the difference that QGIS allows to see and manipulate the mathematical models that support these formulas.

You can do TIM, program in Phyton, create a web map, link GRASS or SAGA processes

In some opportunities, the software can hang by managing localized databases with many records

Test QGIS without any risk, the tool works perfectly and you may learn a bit of the theoretical basis that supports the GIS.

Today, many companies or institutions that impart knowledge on GIS in the network, base their courses on the modules offered by QGIS, NASA and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy are examples of institutions that used QGIS

With QGIS solvent a problem with the previous software that required the update of the license and download QGIS along with other open source GIS, when testing them, we are left with the most complete.

Qgis tiene la capacidad de utilizar prácticamente cualquier formato de datos con el que pueda manipularse data espacial, el programa permite utilizar shapefiles, tab files, cad files, raster files, y muchas otras extensiones de archivos que le permiten tener compatibilidad con cualquier software que exista en el mercado, y permite al usuario realizar tareas en Qgis y poder manipularlas o modificarías en otros programas. Qgis tiene una gran capacidad de adaptación, dado que cuenta con licencia GNU es posible manipular el funcionamiento del programa y adaptarlo a las necesidades de cada empresa o usuario, de manera tal que cada una de las personas que utiliza QGIS pueda manipular la interfase y poner en marcha las herramientas que le son realmente útiles y descartar las que no sean necesarias, ademas de eso, el usuario puede agregar herramientas propias que pueden ser muy útiles para sus tareas cotidianas.

Ser un software libre tiene muchas ventajas, pero también una gran cantidad de desventajas, la principal es la inestabilidad del programa en muchas ocasiones este puede cerrarse o dejar de funcionar de manera repentina lo cual puede ser bastante molesto y puede también ralentizar mucho el trabajo, además de ello no se cuenta con un soporte técnico directo, sino más bien con colaboradores que hacen que el programa funcione y se mantenga en funcionamiento, pero muchas dudas el usuario debe resolverlas por cuenta propia, lo cual puede ser en algunos casos bastante complicado.

La primera recomendación es que le otorguen una oportunidad, es un programa abierto con infinidad de herramientas que están en continuo crecimiento y evolución, muchos procesos que se hacen con software privados pueden realizarse con QGIS en simples pasos, también es ideal tener un poco de conocimiento de lenguaje de programación para poder crear herramientas propias o manejar la interfase de manera que solo estén presente en el software las herramientas que realmente necesitamos. Y recordar que es un software libre y los imprevistos y limitaciones pueden presentarse en cualquier momento.

La gran cantidad de formatos que permite QGIS junto con la interfase sencilla, nos ha permitido actualizar gran parte de la cartografía de la ciudad, las herramientas de digitalización son muy sencillas de utilizar y la lectura de imágenes raster el programa la realiza con fluidez, con estas dos condiciones juntas ha sido posible actualizar gran parte de la trama urbana de la ciudad que ha sufrido grandes cambios en los últimos diez años y con este software libre hemos podido observar donde ocurrieron los cambios y que problemas se produjeron con dichas modificaciones del entorno urbano.

Unlike more expensive competitors, q (standing for Quantum) GIS is an excellent open-source mapping software! New plugins are being added all the time, making this software incredibly robust and pliable to the ever changing demands of spatial analysts.

The user interface at first feels a little sparse. It takes a while to get the hand of things and figure out where things are, especially if you have previous training in other mapping software. Some tasks are so simply to execute, but take quite a while to complete when you're getting to know the software.

In my opinion, open-source software is the future of data viz and analysis. Software like qGIS and R (an open source statistical analysis software) are heavy hitters in advancing the open science movement.

qGIS has helped us visualize and analyze our geo-coded data to identify trends in resilience post-disaster. The benefit for us is quite obvious, being that we can understand and predict how communities will respond to future disturbances,.

There are two things that make QGIS my go-to GIS tool. First, the community that surrounds QGIS is absolutely fantastic. I've done some fairly advanced work with GIS software, mainly consisting of mapping sales territories across Canada for a Fortune 500 company. Not used to this particular style of GIS application, I needed a lot of help to get me off the ground and familiar with the tools. There is an incredible amount of support online, in the form of forums and tutorials. If feeling uneasy about picking up a new piece of software, this is the one for you. Second, I really appreciate the software itself. Open source applications can often suffer from feature glut, but QGIS does a great job of balancing a ton of features with a clean and understandable interface. Now that I am familiar with it, I find that it still has many of the advanced features of expensive solutions.

One issue that I ran across was with the French language. When working with words that contained French characters, specifically exporting said characters, the characters were lost. This might be an issue for other languages, but I never investigated. It might be a concern for those who will be using this tool with languages other than English.

If you are looking for a solid GIS product to get your feet wet in, this is the product for you. It has enough features so as not to limit you in the future, but enough support from the online community so as not to swamp you with excessive information at the beginning.

We have used QGIS to manipulate Canadian sales territories for our company. This can get difficult in the remote regions of northern Canada as municipal records are scant and require much work to get them presentable. The data was later exported to a data visualization product.

QGIS can do just about any spatial analysis or processing that you may need. If something isn't build into the core functionality there's probably a plugin for it. The large community of developers and users means that there are a multitude of tutorials and forum posts that can help you troubleshoot when you run into problems.

On multiple occasions I've had it vastly outperform proprietary GIS software when running computational intensive analyses.

With every subsequent release of QGIS, I find that I'm using other proprietary GIS software less and less.

The print composer is probably the functionality that I need most often but is also (in my opinion) one of the weakest features. Exporting to a vector format (i.e. for use in Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator) for additional polishing and cleanup can be buggy and difficult to get working correctly. However, I've not been particularly impressed with any print composer built directly into a GIS.

Sometimes to get certain features to work correctly you need the right combination of settings selected. It's not always very intuitive and require some frustrated web-searching to find a description of the errors you're encountering and the solution.

Switching to QGIS can be difficult for people who have been trained on and only ever used a single proprietary GIS software. But the effort you put in to switching will be well worth it.

We sometimes conduct GIS trainings and when we are able to introduce the users to QGIS instead of a proprietary GIS software we really appreciate the zero leave behind cost. Just because a project has budget for software licenses, doesn't mean that money will be available for future renewals or scaling.

When we have volunteers or interns, we can quickly bring them into our workflows without encountering licensing issues or costs.

QGIS is a highly professional GIS software offering an intelligent solution for all kinds of needs. What I appreciate the most are 1) easy access to databases 2) high performance raster tools 3) excellent print composer - almost any result can be achieved 4) the support community - just google and there's an answer 5) one annual stable release 6) various plugins with great user-defined features 7) the use of transparency 8) released thematic maps and labeling 9) and the low cost of course

Nothing in particular, but missing more user-friendly network analysis tools. I love the support community and you are able to find answers or get help for almost anything, but wanting to get in touch with the core development team isn't obvious to the "normal" user.

Go for it, you'll not regret it. Having used ArcGIS before the shift will be easy, but having used MapInfo before you'll find users sometimes frustrated since the user interface is very different - it's a matter of adaption or readiness for adaption.

Visualizing and analyzing data in the public administration of a community: producing really nice and illustrating maps, doing great analysis within environmental public administration, analyzing and visualizing health care data, refugee data, climate chance sea rise analysis, demographic distribution etc.

I feel the best part of QGIS is the open source nature of this software. Not only is there no cost to the user to download and run this program, but the online community and support for this software is great. I am always able to easily find how to complete tasks and troubleshoot if I run into difficulties.

I also really like the ability to add R (an open source statistical software) into QGIS. This is a benefit that QGIS has over ArcGIS. By adding the R plug in, QGIS is a lot more flexible in the spatial statistical that can be preformed. It makes doing spatial analyses much easier as the spatial information is already incorporated into the data and does not have to be set up separately (via a spatial data frame).

Sometimes QGIS can be unintuitive and it is not automatically obvious how to perform certain spatial analyses. However, this is not too much of an issue as the online community is very well developed and questions/ problems can be easily solved with a quick google search.

It can be a steep learning curve to learn QGIS, but there are many resources such as tutorial available to aid in learning this software. Keep with it- it will be well worth it in the end.

Inherently everything is spatial and the sheer ability to look at data in a spatial context is very valuable. By using a geographic information system such as QGIS it allows the user to for spatial patterns, for example, looking at patterns of customer usable of a product spatially. It also allow for more in-depth analyses that look at relationships between spatial patterns, for example, determining an optimal location for a new facility. Additionally the creation of maps is a very intuitive way to communicate information, whether it be to company executives, business patterns, or stakeholders.

The best thing about QGIS is that it is so easy to use. It can read most geographic and many non-geographic data formats that you wish to throw at it; it has a wonderfully intuitive user interface; it renders everything quickly and in good quality; and for our customers it is very easy to guide them through how to use it with our data.

It is great for cartography.

One of the product's strengths is also arguably its biggest annoyance, that is the number of releases. They just come out to fast and too often for businesses to keep up with, thankfully the key release idea has eased this issue slightly but it is still a significant problem for us, our partners and our customers.

For processing tasks I still find licenced competitors to be significantly better.

There are many other GIS and general GI tools out there and some do things better than others. At work I use a mixture of several such softwares for an optimised workflow. However for entry level or pure cartographic work, QGIS has all you need. Suggest you definitely look at the others but QGIS is a very good product which I would highly recommend.

In the UK there are various QGIS user group events and a Google+ page which may be helpful. I and many others from the industry share our knowledge at the events.

Sharing data and add-ons such as stylesheets to a market that can only afford outdated software was very frustrating. QGIS has allowed us to work far more productively with a previously alienated group of customers.

QGIS is a great alternative to similar license-based programs on the market today. It's integration with MSSQL, PostGIS, as well as ArcGIS platforms have made it an invaluable tool for me. It doesn't hurt that I'm able to take my work home with me and use it on my macbook, either. It had become one of my go-to GIS programs, from generating simplistic mapping data, to analyzing spatial patterns in transportation studies. I have the found the learning curve for QGIS is relatively small when compared to similar programs such as ArcGIS.

The breadth of functionality has yet to reach that of similar (although licensed) programs. As easy as the program is to use, its "help" features lack some finesse and could use a cleaner interface.

QGIS is a great place to go if you are a novice in GIS, or are looking to add something new to your work.

As a research analyst focusing on transportation, the main problems I face include poor data accuracy and filling in the unknowns. QGIS has helped greatly with not only being able aid in the creation of deliverable-level reports, but it has taken steps in avoiding a complete "black-box" approach and has helped me understand better the internal processes of tasks I complete every day.

QGIS is a hugely feature-rich, incredible powerful piece of GIS software. It's also very easy to use, with an extremely well thought out interface that keeps things simple for new users or those with lesser needs, while still allowing for lots of customization and power for advanced users. There are very few things you can't do in QGIS, including raster and vector geoprocessing, amazing cartography, and in-depth analysis. The huge amount of plugins solve almost any problem imaginable, and if you can't find what you need, the open nature of the project means you can create it yourself, either via a plugin, or by directly contributing code to the core project.

Some of the 'core' geoprocessing tools tend to be of lower performance than expected. However, the Processing Toolbox contains other modules (SAGA, GRASS, etc.) that are more than capable.

If you're using Windows, I recommend you install via the OSGEO4W installer--this will make sure you have the proper environment set up, and also install a bunch of other useful open source GIS software and tools.

QGIS can act as a full GIS for almost any organization. From its seamless integration with PostGIS, MSSQL Server Spatial, and GeoServer integration, you can build an entire stack of open-source GIS Software, with QGIS wonderfully filling the desktop role. The benefit of this is obvious--no more software purchase, licensing, or maintenance fees, and a full-featured stack!

The best thing about QGis is the fact that it is an Open Source GI software, that can tackle down most spatial challenges with ease and high speed.

QGis offers a very wide set of tools that someone would need for spatial data management and analysis, as well as very good visualisation techniques. Most of these functions run faster than any other GI software (excluding the ones that have no/low UI, e.g. PostGIS). The visualization teqchniques are very handy and professional, and hardly exist in other GI software (such as drop shadows).

The thing that I like a lot is the spatial data management. It makes everything very easy to handle.

Another benefit are the plugins, which extends the software capabilities to infinite.

What I don't like is the exporting to CAD. It has no way of adding CAD elements, such as ELEVATION. Also, the capabilities of svg exporting is limited.

Also, there is no network analysis in the package. There is a way by running it through Grass (which is integrated) but the options are limited.

The business problems I am solving are around spatial data management (creation, editing), geoprocessing data management (buffers, intersections etc.), analysis and final visualizations.

Fairly user-friendly software for businesses to visualize their data. For my colleagues with no previous experience in GIS it can be a bit of a learning curve, but still easy to use and there are a lot of tutorials online.

Can be a little bit cumbersome, especially with the final output of the map/editing the final touches. However, I think that is the trade-off for having a powerful software that is free and open-source. Don't get frustrated if something isn't very intuitive!

Go for it! I see no drawbacks, especially if you're only going to be using GIS for occasional needs. We aren't processing too much information with it, so this review maybe isn't the best if you're looking for a real workhorse. But from what I have seen there's nothing to indicate that it couldn't handle it.

We use it to both create infographics for our funders and sponsors, as well as internally to visualize which communities are responding to our programming and where we have gaps in our programming.

QGIS is simple to download and open source which is of great benefit to small businesses. It is a highly useful tool in my archaeological career, GIS allows me to produce site maps and plans, analysis historic mapping resources as well as georeference aerial photographs and the production of shapefiles. The ability to analysis landscapes in 3D is of further benefit, particularly when using Light Detection and Ranging (Lidar) data, or when creating a viewshed. This tool allows me to analysis a multitude of data sources which can contribute to site specific investigations whether it is a field survey, excavation or in aid of a management plan.

I feel that manuals in regards to how to use the programme for different tasks could be improved. I have spent a lot of time trawling online videos in order to understand how to create a view shed and proccess Lidar data.

If you are employed in the heritage and environmental sectors and require GIS software that is easy to use, open source software for the analysis of landscape wide resources such as OS mapping, historic mapping LiDAR then you can't go wrong with QGIS.

QGIS allows me, on a tight deadline to analyse and produce mapping data to a professional standard. This is particularly important when employed to produce a desk based assessment or management plan. The results can be passed onto the client quickly and used to guide the decision making process.

QGIS is a robust, reliable and full featured desktop GIS freely available under the GNU GPL. It offers us a fully customisable and flexible interface that is easy to learn and use. As it can read and write to multiple different formats it is useful in sharing data between different applications.

Trying to keep up-to-date with all the new developments and features. Intermittent lack of plugin documentation.

Take into account the learning and training costs of switching users. Consider deploying using System Centre or similar or even deploying in a virtual environment. Get involved with the user community and think about ways of giving back to the product through sponsoring feature development or helping through the online community.

We use QGIS to create, maintain and update a lot of our core business data which is stored in a central spatial data warehouse. This in turn is shared with the whole business. QGIS helps us streamline the data management workflow. It has helped improve the accuracy and quality of our data as well as confidence in using the information to help inform business decision making processes.

QGIS is great because it's free where other GIS solutions cost thousands. In many ways it is not as refined, but again, it's free! The multitude of useful available plugins are a huge help. It's very easy to quickly load in data and a basemap to get quick overview of any type of GIS data.

I dislike that some tools don't work as well as in programs such as ArcGIS Desktop. There is not always imperial unit options too,

Check out the plugins!

QGIS is a low-cost solution to some GIS problems that might cost thousands to solve with ArcGIS.

Free/open source, lot of GIS analysis tools, easy to learn for GIS professionals who are already familiar with ArcGIS, useful add-ins such as downloading shapefiles from ArcGIS rest services, can be easily customized with add-ins.

Not as user friendly and feature rich as ESRI products, interface to create a map is less refined than ESRI, would only use daily if did not have access to ESRI software.

Best open-source GIS software out there, but not as good as ESRI.

Use QGIS to download features, using the ogr2shp addin, from rest service endpoints that publish GIS information to the web

The ability to complete mapping work that is at a level comparable to ARCGIS is great.

I dislike that there is issues with compatibility between files created in ARCGIS and QGIS. Some of the functions are also not intuitive as well.

I am creating maps, as well as extrapolating information in order to analyze it for environmental monitoring. I have realized that that there are other features that are beneficial other than just making maps, such as being able to delineate watersheds.

1) The GUI, ease of use and the high quality look of the maps that are created.

2) The volume of tools available, from the simple to the highly advanced, in a manner that are easy to use and provide quick solutions to GIS problems.

3) The community and the support provided.

Honestly, there is nothing major that I dislike about QGIS

There is a incredible variety of plugins and toolboxes available that will allow the user to fulfill their tasks - start looking into them.

We work with a variety of clients producing maps and infographics based on databases of information. Allowing a straightforward connection to PostGIS allows us to provide a more advanced geospatial analysis in the fields of social and environmental mapping.

The open source aspect, and the fact that it's free!

Because of the fact that it's open source, it has a little less support, and crashes a bit more than ArcMap.

Mapping, helping clients view problems in an illustrated fashion

Its free, built largely on top of gdal and osgeo libraries that are exactly what the commercial ArcMap software builds on. Has a few automation tools that users may find a little more intuitive and flexible than model builder, but with more limited functionality.

The user interface of Qgis is not nearly as clean and refined as the paid alternatives. Online mapping is also becoming a bigger player in the GIS world and Qgis has slim offerings in this area.

If you can program with python at at least a basic level, much of what can be done in QGIS can be done with gdal and osgeo for python. QGIS is a great free alternative to professional software offerings by ESRI, so I recommend it for students or casual users without any money to spend. However, it is not sufficiently developed to completely replace ArcMap at even a small enterprise level without some significant struggling.

Simple heads up geospatial analysis.

QGIS is more user-friendly than its map making competitors. It's much easier to learn and navigate and allows for the creation of complex maps. I opted to use QGIS for my final project instead of the popular GIS software even though I had to learn most of the features on my own.

The one thing I dislike about QGIS is not the software itself but the fact that I had to learn much of it on my own. Because it's not the popular map making software, courses do not focus too much time on it.

It's user-friendly and creates clear, compelling maps without requiring much time invested in learning the more conventional map making software.

QGIS is the most powerful free and open source geospatial platform out there. You have the ability to analyze and dissect geospatial patterns similar to ArcGIS. The best part is that if you need to be able to create your own custom plugin, you can do that.

The search features for tools are pretty stellar. You can view what tool you need by keyword under the help menu.

I am super impressed with QGIS. However, every once in a while you might it thinking for a longer period than you would live. But that is the difficulty with geospatial data-- sometimes it is just too much.

Read the docs and dive in. There are a number of online resources for looking up plugins and the proper ways to handle certain tools.

QGIS can solve a range of problems from data cleaning and manipulation to buffering points. There are so many advantages to using QGIS. Dive in!

The flexibility and the tools available to better present data.

Package being free major benefit for me as my department wouldn't have funded a software license

Mass following so help is always present on forums

Not having a comprehensive training manual saying that there are hints and tips that do appear to help. Other than that the package does what I require it to do.

Since I am a novice at using the system I tend to use forums for the issues that I am having so a built in FAQ?

Great tool for mapping your service users, your buildings and key landmarks.

With additional layers you can add multiple data sources and join them together to get a fuller picture on things.

Showing attendance figures across the borough from different superoutput areas to children's centres.

Benefits were we are now able to better understand where our service users are coming from. Whether or not they are using their local centre, which is the most popular centre, most popular area they are attending from, are schools influencing their decision to attend and if they come from a deprived area.

First off, I'll start by saying I am not by any means a GIS expert, I specialize in engineering not GIS. I do have to work with vector and raster data on occasion and QGIS has been able to fill the void as a complete replacement to ArcGIS (for me anyway). I was able to self teach myself as required through the large user groups available with this product. For free, it can't be beat!

There isn't too much that dislike about the program, again through I'm not too experienced in ArcGIS or any GIS applications. As a heavy user of HEC-RAS and similar hydraulic/hydrologic programs it would be nice to have the same integration as ArcGIS has with those software packages.

I usually use the product for viewing and editing vector and raster data. Post processing of floodplain maps created with HEC-RAS, preparing digital elevation models for use in RASMapper. Significant cost savings are achieved since we do not require additional ArcGIS licenses for my occasional use, and I am not bothering our GIS Technician with tasks that I can now do independently in QGIS.

Adding different data types with different extensions is very easy. QGIS provides various basemaps with the OpenLayers plugin.

Vector analysis tools processing takes very long compared to other GIS softwares. On

If you haven't use QGIS until now, you are missing lots of opportunities.

Spatial database manipulation related projects. Working with attribute table and variables is very easy. Also processing toolbox has a batch processing capability which is quite awesome.

Complete replacement for ArcMap. You can duplicate all of your workflows and do this while using both products - since QGIS is free.

User interface is a bit clunky at times and there is definitely room to be improved on the PDF and Illustrator export side. But considering you can do everything from simple vector maps to raster analysis this is really a complete product.

Great free product so check it out. You can transition at your own pace which is fantastic.

I think the ability to analyze data in QGIS is great and it has all the functionality of ArcMap and can really be a true replacement. The PDF export could be improved for print design and the UI can be tricky at times. There is great community support for the product too which makes solving issues much easier. You can easily connect to CartoDB too and really do a lot of analysis and bring that into your visualizations.

Qgis is similar to the ArcGis software, however, qgis is totally free. The fact that it is free is overall the best part to it. There is a slight learning curve to using the software, but the maps you can make with qgis are absolutely amazing and it is surprising that they are created from free software.

The learning curve for the software can be steep at times. This is usually when you want to go deeper into more complicated mapping components. I wish there was more online help or courses do things when you are stuck. Other than that, this product was great.

Make sure to take the time to learn how to use it and be patient.

Google can help a bit, but having another person who knows how to use it can also help.

I am usually making maps based on watersheds that I am researching or examining. Using Qgis helps me make custom maps based on things I am looking at. The benefits I have realized is that this free software can make amazing maps that can easily be published or used in books. Did i also mention it is free? The fact that Qgis is free also allows me and the other people i work with to save money on other forms of equipment.

The Q has a number of features I like and find it robust enough to do pretty much everything I need it to. The add ins and extensions are most useful, in addition to it's capability.

The interface is simple to use and tools are easy to locate and the dock is easily customizable. The Q also makes it easy using different data formats.

Big fan of the print composer as well.

The GIS toolbox and utilities is also extremely useful for geoprocessing and building workflows.

Lastly, can't beat the price. There is a ton of support available on forums and having this open software has really changed the game.

I find thbe Q's ability to categorize data a tad daunting.

I would also like to see increased information / support for the plugins. Though there are many of them, some of the "how-to" is missing.

There is no bashing Arc. Arc gets the job done too. But I find the Q quick and easy and obviously affordable.

Can't say I'm solving problems per se, but the benefits of the Q have really made geoprocessing more efficient for me and for business., and at cost. After a little time to learn it, as you would with Arc too, I have a robust and open source program that can handle what I need it to. It helps breach the gap between some lesser known CAD programs and other software as well.

Its free! I've been able to use it at home without the huge costs of competitor licences. We've been able to give staff in the authority a GIS package with no additional costs. In comparison to MapInfo for me I love the styling options and the ability to mass produce maps using the atlas in the composer window. I also find it fantastic due to its ability to open a high number of file formats and the ease in being able to export it to another format to be used on other systems.

I have no immediate dislikes although one problem we have encountered is the way tasks can slightly change across version updates. None technical users seem to struggle with this.

We're currently looking to reduce licence costs for our GIS products across the authority and the role out of QGIS is proving to be a huge saving to us. Its providing key spatial functions for staff but without the huge costs.

The fact that it is free and I find it easier to use than the market leading software. The lack of having to get a licence makes it so much more convenient to use when on the move. Travelling between locations it is always an issue to get online and logged into a licence server,

That the product isn't widely advertised, I speak to a lot of people who have never heard of it before. Some tutorial data and exercises would be great as well

Just dive right in there and get stuck in with using the software, it's free and easy to use. You will be pleasantly surprised.

I generally carry out training with graduate members of staff, QGIS allows me to teach them all about GIS and spatial data without the hassle of licencing. The benefits that I have realized are that it is a simple, easy to use product that could come in handy and help more people become more involved with the data types.

I like the simplicity of basic geoprocessing in QGIS and how similar the platform is to ArcGIS. The former makes hands-on teaching very easy in developing countries where language barriers already exist. The latter makes teaching easy in America where the primary program is ArcGIS, therefore students are able to use their prior knowledge and readily apply it to QGIS. Plus, I think QGIS is even easier to navigate and use! I also really like the online community and free available resources online when trying to solve a complicated problem.

While many professionals would export there data into illustrator or photoshop to create the final product, many students here and abroad use the programs to create maps. With that being said, I think one of the weaknesses of QGIS is the ability to create a decent looking map inside of the program. When I use this product I don't have this problem.

Jump in and don't look back

I'm mainly doing research involving public health and the built environment. I have huge datasets that require a lot of processing time and have realized if I break them into smaller pieces, I am happier with my results from QGIS when compared to other programs.

QGIS is Open Source and therefore there are no limitations to make geographic information available to all user in the organisation, even to user that only need ad-hoc maps a few times a year; large number of plug-ins developed by the community; reads virtually every spatial and tabular format in the market; extendable with python; 64bit architecture; great improvement in the analysis tools available in the last few years

plug-ins are some time unstable and not thoroughly tested even after passing beta stage; use of WMS is a bit flaky; searching for tools via help is not always easy

think about cost vs benefits and you'll probably realize that commercial packages are not cost effective; consultancy and support contracts can help overcome the risk of adopting a non-supported open source solution and still allow massive savings

finding addresses within areas; validating locations; exploring new data sources

In my opinion, i'ts the best free GIS on the market. Not as powerful as ESRI tools but very useful and with a variety of tools and processes.

Its working environment looks a little childish, what can make your work looks similar.

I use QGIS in order to make simple GIS processing and rendering as other softwares are very uncomfortable to use.

The way that you can just drag and drop files into QGIS and it will just open them for you, especially GML files. I work with GML files a lot and find QGIS simple to use unlike another in ArcGIS.

Also the fact that you can easily connect to databases is a major plus for me.

The intuitive nature isn't really there, it took a while for me to work out how to add data and do all of the things that i want to do. this area could be improved a fair bit.

Give it a go, you will probably find it does everything you need and maybe even more.

I develop lots of different products in my role, QGIS allows me to test these products mid production. the native GML reading has been a big bonus in keeping the development swift.

Free, easy to use if you've already used ArcGIS before

Not always stable, sometimes shuts down suddenly for no apparent reason. It's a lot quicker to create maps in Tableau if you have it.

It can do most of what ArcGIS does but it's free so definitely worth using if you don't need any special functionality of ArcGIS

Mapping of survey data collected in developing countries

Open source and free! Plugins are easy to install and upload and it can accept .shp files.

Querying and manipulating the data is trickier and isn't as intuitive as I would like.

It's free! And is a powerful tool

Networking road network. It's connection with GRASS is helpful as is the easy connection to Postgres.

-Software is free

-There is a large community within online forums that answer many questions

- very easy to download

Software is prone to crashing

- many plugins that you can download as an add-on simply do not function

- When you download a plugin it is not always easy to locate, it does not automatically fall under the plugins menu

- spatial analysis of regions in Canada, focus on immigration patterns from foreign countries into Canada

- Benefits are that spreadsheet data is very easily manipulated

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User interface is intruitive and familiar. Wide selection of useful add-ons from the developer community. Thriving online developer community willing to share knowledge. Integration with databases such as pgAdmin/postGIS is easy and powerful.

Whilst this QGIS is a powerful tool for spatial analysis, I have found the functionality to export professional looking maps with sleek borders/legends more complicated than in paid rival software.

Well worth downloading to explore functionality. I would highly recommend joining the online community of users.

I have been using the pgRouting add-on in QGIS to assess drivetime catchments to key infrastructure. I was able to turn to the online development community to help me develop SQL code to automate this process for multiple sites, allowing me to work out the population within set drivetimes.