ArcGIS

Score7.9 out of 10

148 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for ArcGIS are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Versatile Tool: Users have found ArcGIS to be a versatile tool for planning and promoting organized development in various territories. It allows for the visualization, management, editing, calculation, and analysis of georeferenced entities and attributes. Many reviewers appreciate its wide range of possibilities with geographic data.

Intuitive Interface: ArcGIS is praised for its easy-to-use interface and intuitive menus. Users find it easy to learn, with localized tools that make navigation straightforward. The intuitive user interface has been mentioned by multiple reviewers as a positive aspect of using ArcGIS.

Powerful Integration: Reviewers highly value ArcGIS's powerful integration with other systems. They appreciate the continuous enhancement and upgrades that keep the software up-to-date. Additionally, the rock-solid ArcGIS.com cloud technology has been commended by users for its reliability and convenience.

Reviews

40 Reviews

ESRI review (ArcGIS)

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 25, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I work at a Land Trust. I use the ESRI mobile app (FieldMaps) all the time to record photos, notes, and locations of infringements, maintenance tasks, manmade items, signage, and boundary pins. I record new / updated trail locations using FieldMaps, and sync it with my trail data layers organized by parcel in the appropriate desktop line layer. Then I sync it with the online layer with all parcels' trails consolidated, which automatically syncs into the web and mobile maps. I use ArcGIS Pro (desktop) to make trail maps and Town permit proposal maps for boardwalks on wetland areas. I created a polygon layer for all of the protected areas, with fields noting the year protected, the deed acreage, the survey acreage (if measured), and the book/page number of its recorded legal protection (e.g., deed restriction, conservation easement, trail easement, etc.).

Pros

Gives a way for me to see existing data and my current location, to find very specific locations when bushwhacking in the field.
Allows for web layers that once edited, sync with updated data everywhere they're displayed.
Can hold a lot of data: many photos attached to many points, all stored in an online point layer that can be accessed from multiple devices.

Cons

Let me edit an online data layer's fields without having to re-create a brand new layer and copy the previous data into it.
Save past copies of online data layers somewhere, to backtrack if need be (address the current need to save layers offline on a regular basis via ArcGIS Pro as backup)
Let symbology incorporate 2 fields. E.g., colors for one field (Town vs. Land Trust as the owner) and pattern for another field (leashes required or not). Right now, I just have to create a 3rd field that spells it out and has different symbology for each different option. Would love if the attribute table could stay more clean and simple, and if the symbology feature could incorporate 2+ fields.

Likelihood to Recommend

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.

Ardath Dixon

Stewardship Manager at Cape Elizabeth Land Trust (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

View profile

ArcGIS insight

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 25, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use ArcGIS in different ways to map different facilities and help our sales teams drive efforts in finding new leads. They find it helpful in terms of geography to where and how they can get products to potential customers and value to win contracts. It is beneficial with the multiple tools within the application that help this effort.

Pros

Mapping
Analysis
Detailed Charting

Cons

Training
So much functionality can be overwhelming
Sales process took a while

Likelihood to Recommend

ArcGIS is well suited for many different needs. It is well suited for us as we use this space to help mapping our facilities and different USDA statistics that we can overlay and see the production of different crops and fields. I wish they had more useful cases of training during the sales process or some help in creating a vision with ideas.

Verified User

Analyst in Finance and Accounting (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Trusted Leader

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 22, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

ArcGIS integrates with mapping and staking platform provided by NISC and is used to map services and is used in multiple iVUE applications such as CIS, OMS, Map Viewer, AppSuite and iVUE Connect. ArcGIS Server helps to optimize our operations and day-to-day workflow.

Pros

Tight integration with NISC and other commercial systems
Helps to make better informed decisions and improve service
Planning new infrastructure and locating existing underground infrastructure

Cons

Building in more help tools into the application itself
Less restrictions on the licensing
Price could be lower but you really do get a lot of capability

Likelihood to Recommend

There's not really a downside to the product. It meets every need that we have for performing staking and mapping functions. If you had to pick a scenario the only one would be for personal use. It is intended for organizations.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

ArcGIS Review

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 30, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use ArcGIS for asset management of municipal infrastructure and updating their and our databases. I also use it for catchment delineation and analysis. Drawing up localities and flood line drawings. We use ArcGIS for identifying areas and infrastructure present in an area in a preliminary way prior to starting a project so we can determine how much information we have and what may be outstanding and the extent of the projects.

Pros

Easy to operate
Assigning information regarding shapefiles on the attribute tables
Creation of layouts
Ease of drawings catchments, etc. by means of shapefile

Cons

Automation of some functions or features

Likelihood to Recommend

It is extremely useful for the creation of databases of information and storing specific attributes to those particular features. It is not that useful for actual analysis and design projects.

Deveshan Govender

Civil Engineering Technician in Engineering at THE BMK GROUP (SA) (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

9 years of experience

View profile

ArcGIS is teacher approved!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 25, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a middle school history teacher, I often use ArcGIS in my classroom with my students. I often use the Geo-inquiries as a lesson with my students for them to get a broader understanding of our current unit's geography and it's larger affect on the world. Other teachers use it in their prospective classes for science, math, and even language arts. We have also utilized it to create surveys among our students to put on a mapping system. By allowing my students to manipulate maps, they get a much better understanding of geography in general.

Pros

Geo-inquiry lessons are already made and easy to integrate in the classroom.
Map manipulation allows students to fully understand geographical relationships.
Story maps are extremely easy for students to use and create their own.

Cons

PD training for me to better utilize and understand.
User friendly videos for my students to watch to better understand.
General training since some are difficult to implement.

Likelihood to Recommend

We utilize ArcGIS for each of our units. For example, we just completed our unit on the Middle Ages and are starting our unit on the Renaissance. There is a GeoInquiry that has students manipulate a map to not only see but understand the spread of the plague. They can toggle on and off different layers and icons to see how deadly the plague truly was, and how it led to the rebirth of Europe.

Rachel Piper

Middle School Humanities Teacher at San Diego Unified School District (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

ArcGIS, I couldn't live without it. Best product in the world

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

November 13, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have been a user of ArcGIS Desktop since the initial release of 8.0, and I manage a team of people that use it. It's currently used by pretty much every department at my municipality, from Emergency Operations, field data collection, internally mapping requests to name a few. The tools are used daily by staff that need to create report maps, determining if an planning application is viable. Our staff have also developed 3D models and are served up through web services to internal and external parties. We have also taken advantage of their portal technology for the publishing of Open Data. The tools have streamlined our business processes, and we can not function with out them.

Pros

Easy to use and learn
Extremely powerful for integration with other systems
Always being enhanced and upgraded
The ArcGIS.com cloud technology is rock solid

Cons

If your not on an Enterprise License Agreement, it can be expensive
If you are migrating to, this can be difficult. Use a consultant to assist

Likelihood to Recommend

The application is best for organizations that need an enterprise GIS system. All students that are graduating from School that took GIS classes will have learned ArcGIS. If you need a GIS to do high end analytics, data science, or down to basic mapping, this is the tool for you. If you need to integrate your GIS with systems such as SalesForce, SharePoint, or virtually any other system, this is the tool that you should use. My organization can not survive with out ArcGIS

Frank Goehner

Supervisor- Business Solutions and Analytics in Research & Development at Town of Oakville (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

20 years of experience

Not for small business!

Rating: 3 out of 10

April 14, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Territory development.

Pros

Powerful.
Intuitive.
User friendly.
GIS software for big or specialized business.

Cons

Expensive.
Weak service.
Weak and slow technical support.
Complex method to licensing (6 months later, we don't have access to all purchases).
Dependence on technical support.

Likelihood to Recommend

Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst are very powerful and easy to use. I'm learning QGIS and it can make up to 90% of my needs. I think that this software is for big business; for smaller ones, I recommend taking QGIS and saving money to do complex analyses by a specialized company. In our case, it's more cash efficient.
Licensing methods are very complex and technical support is very slow. Dependent on technical support but it is hard to work with in low communication service territories.

Charles Tremblay

Biologist at Mrc des Basques and more (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

View profile

Great software package with many uses

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

February 25, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My organization uses ArcGIS for many different applications across the firm, ranging from uses in our 3D models to design and structural drawings. More specific uses include extracting exact coordinates for purposes of surveying, geophysical modeling, AutoCAD drafting, digitizing old construction drawings into 3D using LiDAR data, and geo-processing functions in ArcGIS. It has proved to be the go-to software package for anything involving mapping or coordinate calculation/extraction.

Pros

Digitization of 2D data into 3D
Multi-functional

Cons

ArcMap has a very old/cluttered interface
Can be a bit complex to learn

Likelihood to Recommend

ArcGIS (ArcMap and ArcPro) is extremely useful in the engineering industry, especially in construction, subsurface geology determinations (for my case), utility locating, natural gas industry, 3D modeling (for working with shapefiles), georeferencing, the list goes on. There are better software packages out there for more specifics (such as with the 3D modeling), but I find ArcGIS to be great at many different things, rather the being the best at one task.

Verified User

Engineer in Engineering (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

ArcGIS does geography better than anyone else, but not always the fastest or easiest

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 13, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

ArcGIS is used by our organization to accomplish many geographic modeling tasks. The tasks include geocoding, building interactive web maps, creating analytical models to answer business questions, and for other advanced geographic analyses. The software is used across the organization by IT professionals as well as professional analysts with the technical know-how to address geographic questions.

Pros

ArcGIS is world-class with geographic analyses.
ArcGIS works well with web applications.

Cons

ArcGIS takes forever to open, and it seems to be getting slower with every new release.
The creators of the ArcGIS software make it more difficult to create add-ins for the product than what could be done with an open-source solution.

Likelihood to Recommend

ArcGIS is well-suited for firms that need the most advanced geographic modeling capabilities. ArcGIS is capable of accomplishing most anything, and if the method is not programmed into the point-and-click interface, ArcGIS allows for custom programming extensions from professionals that know languages such as Python. The software is not for beginning geographers.

Thomas Young

Economist in Information Technology at Greengate Plans (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

ArcGIS offers seamless geocoding on premises for PHI with Open Streetmap Premium

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

November 27, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have one named user license with ArcGIS as well as Open Streetmap Premium to enable us to geocode addresses for what is otherwise considered to be protected health information. This geocoded data is then plotted on map visualizations usually outside of ArcGIS where we can asses visual and geographic distance between our clinic sites and where our patients live.

Pros

Geocoding is very fast with StreetMap Premium.
Easy to use interface good for novices and experts alike.
Allows for geocoding to building location vs. mapping address which is useful for several of our applications.

Cons

Exporting data into excel as a CSV is a little clunky there should be a more intuitive way to do this.
License configuration is impossible to do for the end user. I needed customer support to walk me through every step is was much too complicated.
Updating street maps is confusing I would prefer a more intuitive interface that launches directly from ArcGIS to do this.

Likelihood to Recommend

Geocoding addresses locally without sending PHI over unsecured internet this tool is very good to use. Map functionalities are intuitive and easy to implement, Also the process to export latitude and longitude from the tool into a data extract is easy to do once you do it a few times but the first couple of times might be tricky. I had to ask customer support to show me how to do all of these things the first time around.

Yoni Dvorkis

Lead Data Scientist in Information Technology at Atrius Health (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Loading Reviews List....

ESRI review (ArcGIS)

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 25, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Gives a way for me to see existing data and my current location, to find very specific locations when bushwhacking in the field.
Allows for web layers that once edited, sync with updated data everywhere they're displayed.
Can hold a lot of data: many photos attached to many points, all stored in an online point layer that can be accessed from multiple devices.

Cons

Let me edit an online data layer's fields without having to re-create a brand new layer and copy the previous data into it.
Save past copies of online data layers somewhere, to backtrack if need be (address the current need to save layers offline on a regular basis via ArcGIS Pro as backup)
Let symbology incorporate 2 fields. E.g., colors for one field (Town vs. Land Trust as the owner) and pattern for another field (leashes required or not). Right now, I just have to create a 3rd field that spells it out and has different symbology for each different option. Would love if the attribute table could stay more clean and simple, and if the symbology feature could incorporate 2+ fields.

Likelihood to Recommend

Ardath Dixon

Stewardship Manager at Cape Elizabeth Land Trust (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

View profile