# Surfer Reviews **Vendor:** Golden Software **Category:** [Geology and Seismic Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/geology-and-seismic) **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 126 ## About Surfer Surfer® is a full-function 2D and 3D mapping, modeling, and analysis software package for scientists and engineers. Surfer's sophisticated interpolation engine quickly transforms XYZ and XYZC data into publication-quality maps. Virtually every aspect of the map is customizable. Enhance maps with profiles, legends, titles and labels, faults and breaklines, or external maps from any web mapping service. Surfer is used extensively by geologists, geophysicists, hydrologists, archaeologists, oceanographers, biologists, consultants, engineers, and many others across the globe. ## Surfer Reviews ### 1. Best experience **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** John P. | Mechanical engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 21, 2022 **What do you like best about Surfer?** I find surfer to be the most powerful and easy to use software for contouring gridding and surface mapping It is so accurate and helps you designing the best presantable map using grids Task can be automated using the golden software's scripture program It has more map types including vector, wireframe and base unlike other applications Regarded of how powerful it is it doesn't require high performing machines **What do you dislike about Surfer?** I actually did find nothing bad about this software everything works properly **Recommendations to others considering Surfer:** For all your 3D mapping solutions I really recommend surfer because it is easy to use **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been using surfer to create 3D map visualizations of a place where we would want to perfom our next project and it has been very helpful because it helped me to present my work so easily and I find this to be the best mapping purposes because it has helped me save time on creating all the 3d mappings as it is easy to use ### 2. Most powerful data visualization software a researcher and an engineer may ever need **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Igor Y. | research scientist, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 28, 2021 **What do you like best about Surfer?** Surfer has a wide selection of mapping methods and tools, including all known and tested gridding algorithms, a wide range of preset line and symbol styles as well as ability to build your own. Add scripting that you can manage through VBA (fully supported and Surfer library extensively documented) or other programming languages. Many more features, including geo projections, management of layers and overlays, ability to digitize an imported contour or an image, etc., etc. **What do you dislike about Surfer?** Not much at all. Over many years active and enthusiastic users (including the author of this review) kept sending bug reports and suggestions for improvements and new features to the Surfer support team (should mention Kari Dickenson as one of the leads). Once a new feature gets implemented, you receive a notification email. After so many years and releases on the market, there is not much to complain about or suggest. As of now, they had nearly everything I ever suggested in my messages. Although, I would like to see plotting on spherical surfaces to make images on Earth or other realistic globes and not just in flat projections ;). One change in overall release arrangement made innovations challenging to follow - but this is strictly my personal opinion - at some point, they switched from release-version-make notation, like Surfer 12.XXX.YYY, to a linear version numbering, like Surfer 24.XXX. Personally, I liked when they were separating major and significant advancements (release) from bug fixes and minor improvements (version). However, I understand, the liner numbering is easier to follow for development and continual improvement. **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** A wide and deep range of problems involving visualization of data and results, multilayer plots and overlays, 3D plots, automation of high quality plot generation, preparing maps in geo projections, etc., etc. ### 3. Long time user **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Scott H. | Hydrogeologist, Environmental Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 15, 2021 **What do you like best about Surfer?** This is a great product for the price. It is easier to use with so many options for calculating surfaces and each new update has useful improvements. Surfer has come a long way from version 3 when I first started using it. **What do you dislike about Surfer?** I wish it had a more direct integration with ESRI. I understand it competes with spatial analyst, but Surfer is a far superior product for spatial and 3D analysis. **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Surfer mainly for topographic analysis. ### 4. Clearly the Best **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ernest B. | President, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Surfer?** The use of Golden Software products increases the quality and clarity of my reports and presentations. Their software is at the top of the class because it is continually updated based on user input. Plus, when I have a problem, in a matter of minutes, I can get friendly service from a competent professional on the phone. Their level of support is unmatched and greatly appreciated! **What do you dislike about Surfer?** There is really nothing I dislike about Golden Software products. **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** As a Consultant my reports and presentations have to be the best. So I use the Best software available. ### 5. Very useful and easy to collaborate with other softwares **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** John Marie A. | Technical Staff, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 11, 2021 **What do you like best about Surfer?** Most of my work using Surfer are creating topographic maps and simple 3D map. Easy to learn. **What do you dislike about Surfer?** Hope it will add more tools and software should be available to anyone with little cost **Recommendations to others considering Surfer:** Please try to use Surfer. Very easy to use and you will be delighted with the results you made. **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Before I used only Autodesk software but later on I was able to collaborate my work with Surfer and was able to create good results. I realized that I can still enhanced my work using Surfer. ### 6. In our organization we are going to buy it, because we need it for surface and subsurface modelling. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tesfay G. | Associate geospatial Information Officer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 17, 2021 **What do you like best about Surfer?** Map tools, grids and plot. contour generation from DEM, cut and fill calculation. **What do you dislike about Surfer?** No, I don't have. surfer is the full software but for the future, it should be supplemented by python and R. **Recommendations to others considering Surfer:** I would say Surfer should be supplemented with Python and R for ease of automation. **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** to calculate the volume of any given area, and volume of contaminated soil, surface and subsurface 3D Modeling etc. ### 7. My work which is all map-related can be easily handled using surfer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** muhammad a. | Geophysicist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2021 **What do you like best about Surfer?** interpolation capabilities in contour map creation, many methods that can be selected according to needs **What do you dislike about Surfer?** I have not used all of the surfer's features in their entirety, so none of them have stuck with me due to surfer **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** 2d and 3d contour map creation, base map creation, digitization, and global coordinate transformation. these features make my job easier and faster in conducting various projects ### 8. Surfer Review **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Zaheer A. | Geophysicist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2021 **What do you like best about Surfer?** I used Surfer for the Mapping seismic 2D and 3D data, I find this very useful for coordinate conversion, loading data and fully customizating tools for contours maps. **What do you dislike about Surfer?** Maps resolutions are not up to best level. **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Customization of Contour maps ### 9. Generated contours with simulation data directly imported from matlab code was easiest with surfer **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 21, 2021 **What do you like best about Surfer?** The customizable quality of graphs and the integration with matlab code made my work much faster and presentable. I got best results for heat transfer profile. **What do you dislike about Surfer?** Sometimes interpolation was not very accurate. It created lines out of the concentration area which I had to clear for better visualization. **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I worked on a project for analysis of heat transfer rate through annular fins and I found surfer to be very useful for result graphy creation. ### 10. Great software package to enter the GIS world **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 04, 2019 **What do you like best about Surfer?** The software is very powerful and user-friendly. Most everything is intuitive. It is simple enough that I was able to pick it up as an undergrad with little guidance, and powerful enough that I used it during my Ph.D. studies. **What do you dislike about Surfer?** It does seem to always be playing catch up with other, more expensive geospatial softwares. This requires learning workarounds that can decrease the efficiency of finishing projects. **Recommendations to others considering Surfer:** If it is available at your company, go ahead and try it. Do the tutorial! It is quick and easy to pick up. If it is not available, ask for a free trial to try it out. **What problems is Surfer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Coming from Academia, the most important things were on-ramping speed for new users and price point. Surfer is something that undergraduate students can pick up very easily, and can also afford if they need to purchase geospatial/GIS software for their career right out of school. ## Surfer Discussions - [What technical resources are available to me?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/technical-resources) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [What license options are available?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/license-options) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [How much does Surfer cost? Are there ongoing maintenance and support fees?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/surfer-pricing) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [Do you offer a trial version of Surfer?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/1827-do-you-offer-a-trial-version-of-surfer) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View Surfer pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/surfer/reviews/surfer-review-629848?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-14+12%3A38%3A51+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=bbeea63b-f4f4-4861-8121-e677146a20c9&secure%5Btoken%5D=b55fb13c0c1b82b2d0486c89c0c900dd33546aea63d9c438e4e82e99ffe8d2dc&format=llm_user) ## Surfer Features **Data Management** - Data Capture - Data Storage - Data Manipulation - Data Visualization **Agentic AI - Geology and Seismic** - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration - Adaptive Learning - Decision Making **Agentic AI - Oil and Gas Engineering** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration - Adaptive Learning - Decision Making **Agentic AI - Oil and Gas Simulation and Modeling** - Adaptive Learning - Decision Making **Map Creation** - Geocoding - Buffer Zone Query - Overlaying - Publishing **Analysis** - Spatial Analysis ## Top Surfer Alternatives - [Esri ArcGIS](https://www.g2.com/products/esri-arcgis/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (515 reviews) - [GEOVIA Surpac](https://www.g2.com/products/geovia-surpac/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (22 reviews) - [Petrel E&P Software Platform](https://www.g2.com/products/schlumberger-petrel-e-p-software-platform/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (17 reviews)