QGIS Reviews

QGIS is the go-to tool for us to work with the spatial files. It is being used to create and modify shapefiles, generate spatial data, and create maps. We have been using it to add or remove layers in the shapefiles and extract data to and from SQL Server.

We use QGIS to visualize US election data sets. We are focused on Florida, and Congressional District 17. We publish maps of registered voter demographic data such as age groups, race, gender, and turnout. We also use QGIS for strategic mapping of voter precincts to better target volunteers and canvassing. The majority of our maps are proprietary.

Within my department, we do a lot of GIS. About half of my coworkers use ArcGIS and half use QGIS. QGIS addresses the problems associated with licensing. It is open source software, so no licensing is required. It is also much easier to install than ArcGIS and (in my experience) crashes less often than ArcGIS. Less crashing and faster install times result in more efficiency and productivity.

QGIS was used by select researchers who utilized the mapping software for social and economic data visualization in line with our organization's mission and views on children and adolescent health. This is a low cost/free option for us to create reports and tools for grantors and funders, as well as legislators.

QGIS is a very complete tool for spatial analysis as well as the elaboration of topographic and thematic cartography. It seems to me an excellent advantage that QGIS allows the connection with R, which is also open source statistical software, allowing to directly relate the data of the various variables with their spatial location.

QGIS has helped us to make all the cartography and maps to do the spatial analysis or urban areas, with the tools for edit, create, customize and print, we have build maps of the entire city emphasizing the maintenance of the highways, sidewalks, and recreational spaces. The software is used only in the planning area with some implications in others spaces like administration or any office who needs gathering information some particular place or of a specific category of urban space. Qgis it is a really good tool to makes plans, organizes information, manages spatial data, makes maps, and for explaining the people who work in the company or general public which are the places where we need to act and how these are distributed in the city.

Well, geospatial analytics is a part of my duties. As long as we are developing software, which strongly uses geospatial analytics - we have to prove some kind of research visually, using maps and schemes. QGIS ideally fits us, because it contains all instruments under one suite. Also, it is highly customizable, (using Python scripts and other powerful tools, such as a models designer and the ability to use algorithms from other external GIS software).

I have been visiting and re-vising QGIS periodically since I began working with GIS softwares in 2005, comparing it always to the commercial products I was learning to use in school (ArcGIS, IDRISI, ENVI, ERDAS). Every software I have listed above has evolved greatly over that period of time, but none quite as much as QGIS.

Part of the continual growth of QGIS is in terms of UI refinement and improvements to ease-of-use and workflow. Steadily, the GUI has improved along with the underlying toolset. I feel that now QGIS is certainly the premiere free GIS software, as well as a strong contender in its own right, with lower barriers to entry than any other GIS software, making it my pick for what GIS students and professionals should be trained on first.

After graduating college, I transitioned all of my previous work to QGIS so that I would still have access to my data, maps, analyses, and work despite no longer having access to the various commercial tools I used while at university. The value of being able to "keep" my work with open formats and free tools cannot be understated.