ArcGIS vs. Maptitude vs. QGIS

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

In logistics it is great for allocating customers to their nearest warehouse through a process called tagging. For marketing, you can prioritise sales leads and carry out competitor adjacency analysis. For field-based roles it's useful for calculating work content, and for membership organisations and similar situations, it can be used to look for clusters with similar interests.

Well suited:

• To build beautiful and dynamic maps quickly.
• To conduct quantitative and qualitative analyses.
• To work cross-platform, as both the Windows version and the Linux version are identical in appearance and available resources.

Less appropriate:

• To use and import files from proprietary software such as ArcGIS and AutoCAD.

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

• Integrates data from disparate sources.
• Easy to use GIS functions including drive time analysis, territory analysis, buffer and density analysis and data aggregation, geo coding.

Incentivized

• Styling: the styling engine is fantastic with raster styling features that I recognize from apps like Photoshop.
• Print layouts: I can set up custom print layouts, and even do automated multi-page atlas style reports that I use for cycling through detailed areas when providing my clients with pdf reports.
• Extendable: the plugins are fantastic, and almost anything I need that isn't provided natively with QGIS is available as a plugin.
• Community: the QGIS community is passionate about GIS, and are always ready to help. There are great training resources available online.

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

• Some functions are not intuitive and require training.
• More graphics options.
• More charting options.

Incentivized

• Making maps in QGIS is a bit clunky. I also find it to be extremely unintuitive. For basic GIS, it is great, but I would much rather make maps (for publication purposes) in ArcGIS.
• Editing and adding feature layers is not very intuitive. Changing colors of added point or line features is a rather convoluted process.
• ArcGIS has a huge selection of online courses, and if you have the appropriate license, you can access most for free. I found these to be very helpful when dealing with map projections and other issues. However, QGIS does not have a large library of courses specifically made for that program.

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

I wasn't a GIS user at all when I started using QGIS, nor did I have any background working with data in anything other than Excel, and as a result, I struggled quite a lot in the beginning (it's not quite Google Maps). But having said that, I haven't come across anything that I couldn't do with a little help from the online community. I've done complex spatial analyses on large datasets of metropolitan cities, designed custom multi-page pdf reports that automatically cycle through different areas of an area, etc.

And the GIS staff that I've appointed, after their initial resistance, took to the tool like a fish to water, and I haven't heard them complain after starting to use the tool for a week or two.

But if you're new to GIS, be patient and invest some time to learn how to use the tool. It is absolutely worth it.

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!

Customer support has always been top-notch.

Even though there is a no dedicated support team for QGIS (or at least we are not aware of it), there is a huge online community and a large number of forums catering to every question you may have regarding any particular functionality of QGIS. So, you have a lot of help available but you will have to sift through it on the web.

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

Maptitude is far superior to this API. It provides the ability to utilize your data in many different ways. The only program that came close to this was Microsoft Maps, and that program is no longer supported. If you are looking for a great program to map your sales data, with several tools to help not only see and understand your data in a graphical format, Maptitude is a winner!

Incentivized

QGIS is open source and freely available for Windows and Mac iOS Geographic Information System Software. QGIS is highly customizable as per project requirements and different application usage. QGIS has ample tools and plugins that are useful for the analysis of raster and vector data. It also supports GRASS, GDAL, and SAGA tools.

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

• I used to use ultra low cost MapPoint. Maptitude, while being at a slightly higher price point, is just streets ahead of what MapPoint could do and but at a price where I don't need to charge my clients any extra for using it.

• QGIS gives us more impactful data on children and maternal health issues, which in turn has helped us establish more programs, relationships, and funding opportunities because of the excellent data presentations we can give.
• QGIS has allowed our staff to improve their data analysis skills, improving our workforce across the board, with or without the direct use of geographic data.
• QGIS has required a lot of staff time to learn, but the ROI on time spent vs the reports we produced afterward has been well worth it.

Incentivized