ArcGIS vs. Grade.us vs. Mapbox

I'm very grateful to be able to use it, and I have a master's degree with a focus in Geospatial Analysis. There can be a bit of a learning curve, and I try to build user-friendly ways for volunteers to see & collect data. Meanwhile, if a colleague is less confident with building such a system, it may be more difficult for them to implement.

Incentivized

Grade.us is a great way to implement a process/system for continuously garnering a steady stream of reviews from your clients.

Incentivized

For services that require maps and basic geo-functionality in production, Mapbox is one of the greatest choices out there. They're free, provide much more refined/modern productions compared to Google maps, and have very good support on different platforms. For services that require higher-computation products, like matrix routing, optimization, etc..., the prices can get quite high very quickly, and you should consider moving those services to an on-premise server at that point.

Incentivized

• Enterprise GIS - multi-user, multi-versioned geodatabase access through a host of apps and web tools really help people stay connected to data.
• Cartography - fantastic control and customization available with the ability to automate workflows.
• Training - tons of training videos, seminars, and other learning materials are easily accessed. The help documentation is superb.
• Ability to manage an organization through dashboards is extremely helpful.

Incentivized

• Automates review requests.
• Makes review monitoring across sites easy.
• Makes reporting on review progress simple.

Incentivized

• Documentation is clean, easy to read, and very well organized which makes it easy to get going or learn something new
• The online user interface makes it quick and easy to edit maps, upload new datasets, view analytics, or get API keys
• Great integrations with Tableau and easy to develop for Android, iOS, or Web

Incentivized

• There is a steep learning curve for ArcGIS users.
• It takes a lot of computing power for ArcGIS, as it can't be installed on every computer.
• At times, tools can be outdated and there are many similar competitors making more web-based tools that can replace ArcGIS.

Incentivized

• Video support could be a little more granular.
• The nomenclature used in the dashboard is a little unclear to a new user.
• The password assignment system is a bit over-engineered making it harder to use.

Incentivized

• The product is not always that easy to use, aimed at professionals understanding colors and palettes etc.
• Being a full cloud product it can be complicated working with the interface when your connectivity is not great.
• Tutorials and samples could be more visual and could cover more ideas on how to use Mapbox.

Incentivized

Simply because the program deserves it. It seems to me that it is a fundamental tool for the storage, analysis, and interpretation of medium and large-scale phenomena, unmanageable with traditional engineering software. Its versatility in the handling of the different "layers" with which the data is handled and interpolation tools, make this software a powerful ally both for companies and for the educational part of the universities.

Once set up, the tools are extremely easy to use. I had a staff member develop a tool for field data collection, that included an external and internal dashboards to monitor progress in days. The field workers that collected the data, barely knew how to use a computer, and within minutes they could use the application that was configured for them.

Incentivized

It is a good tool to use. We can perform various customisations; I always end up exploring and finding a new feature that can be used in my work somewhere. And one good thing is that is actually quite reasonable in terms of cost, with the free tier being quite adequate

Incentivized

Unlike other platforms (ex: EMSI), there is no "help desk" new users can easily call into for troubleshooting or errors, and so you have to spend LOTS of time trying workarounds. This is also because the help center blog posts are usually pretty confusing, and many times do not include images or videos to help you along. Any such changes would be immensely useful!

They are very prompt when we send an inquiry and very helpful with fixing issues.

Incentivized

My students love the "drop" feature in Google Maps, but besides that it truly doesn't compare. I love that you can add, delete, or change layers to this map to better understand its larger affect. There are many more ways to manipulate maps on ArcGIS than on Google Maps. I can also add personal details and information if I want to create a specific map, something that I am unable to do with Google

Incentivized

Different scopes in total, but G.us does a far better job in review management and social proof growth.

Incentivized

One feature that made me go in favor of Mapbox was its stellar documentation. Google Maps and Bing Maps are the other alternatives I considered, but the learning curve with both of them is steeper than it is with Mapbox. Also, Mapbox Studio gives newbies a very simple, clean and easy to use environment to make and store maps online

Incentivized

• ArcGIS saves us countless hours of manual paperwork by allowing us to conduct inspections in the field.
• Due to the high upfront costs, the ROI will definitely take longer than other competing products
• The PDF export feature allows us to share our maps with the public while maintaining control of the data associated with the map.

Incentivized

• Grade.us has allowed us to bring a valuable service to the table for our clients as well as a solid source of recurring revenue. A win win!

Incentivized

• Mapbox is the only service that has all the products we need to release our product to the market. Without Mapbox, we would've spent far more time integrating multiple different map/geo services like Mapbox and HERE maps together.
• Mapbox was sometimes expensive in the testing period, and we would've definitely moved some of the services on-premise to save money if we had the time.
• Mapbox has functionality for traffic-aware routing in many countries, as well as matrix-structured routing data, which is what enables our service to function. Having all of this integrated within an API allows us to easily scale our service to multiple different cities/countries in a matter of days.

Incentivized