13 Free GIS Software Options: Map the World in Open Source
13 Free GIS Software Options: Map the World in Open Source
A LIST OF FREE OPEN SOURCE MAPPING SOFTWARE

Your search for free GIS software is now over
You don’t have to pay a king’s ransom to map the world.
This is because you can do it all with free GIS software.
The best part is:
These free GIS software give you the firepower to get the job done as if you’re working withcommercial GIS software.
We’ve mapped out the GIS software landscape, but these 13 (out of 30) reign supreme forfree mapping software.
1 QGIS – Formerly Quantum GIS
Highlights: Community All-in-one Cartography Plugins GISGeography Favorite
After running the most epic GIS Software battle in GIS history of ArcGIS vs QGIS, we illustrated with 27 differences why QGIS is undoubtedly the #1 free GIS software package.
QGIS is jam-packed with hidden gems at your fingertips. Automate map production, process geospatial data, and generate drool-worthy cartographic figures.
There’s no other free mapping software on this list that lets you map like a rock star than QGIS.
QGIS Plugins boost this mapping software into a state of epicness. If the tool doesn’t exist, search for plugin developed by the QGIS community.
Volunteer effort is key to its success. The QGIS Stack Exchangesupport is impressively great.
You’d be insane not to download the free GIS software QGIS. Here’s your beginner’s guide to QGIS to get your feet wet.
2 gVSIG
Highlights: 3D Tools Compatibility CAD Tools Data Management
In 2004, the gvSIG project emerged as a free, open source GIS software option in Spain.
We illustrate in this gvSIG guide and review why we like it SO much:
gvSIG really outperforms QGIS for 3D. It really is the best 3D visualization available in open source GIS.
The NavTable is agile in that it allows you to see records one-by-one vertically.
The CAD tools are impressive on gvSIG. Thanks to the OpenCAD Tools, you can trace geometries, edit vertices, snap and split lines and polygons.
gvSIG Mobile brings GIS to your mobile phone. This extension is perfect for field work because of its interface and GPS tools.
3 Whitebox GAT
Highlights: LiDAR Tools Hydrology GISGeography Favorite
Yes, Whitebox GAT (Geospatial Analysis Toolbox) is #3 on the list of open source, free GIS software.
Unbelievably, Whitebox GAT has only been around since 2009 because it feels so fine-tuned when you see it in action.
There’s a hydrology theme around Whitebox GAT. It actually replaced Terrain Analysis System (TAS) – a tool for hydro-geomorphic applications.
Whitebox GAT is really a full-blown open-access GIS and remote sensing software package.
Where it shines is LIDAR!
With no barriers, Whitebox GAT is the swiss-army knife of LiDAR data.
The LiDAR toolbox is a life-saver. LAS to shapefile is an insanely useful tool. You may need a Java update to go in full throttle though.
The cartographic mapping software tools are primitive compared to QGIS.
But overall Whitebox GAT is solid with over 410 tools to clip, convert, analyze, manage, buffer and extract geospatial information.
I find it amazing this free GIS software almost goes unheard of in the GIS industry.
Get more useful knowledge from the Whitebox GAT Open Source Blog.
4 SAGA GIS
Highlights: Geoscientific Tools Ease of Use GISGeography Favorite
SAGA GIS (System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses) is one of the classics in the world of free GIS software.
It started out primarily for terrain analysis such as hillshading, watershed extraction and visibility analysis.
Now, SAGA GIS is a powerhouse because it delivers a fast growing set of geoscientific methods to the geoscientific community.
Enable multiple windows to lay out all your analysis (map, histograms, scatter plots, attributes, etc). It provides both a user-friendly GUI and API.
It’s not particularly useful in cartography but it’s a lifesaver in terrain analysis.
Closing gaps in raster data sets is easy. The morphometry tools are unique including the SAGA topographic wetness index and topographic position classification. If you have a DEM, and don’t know what to do with it – you NEED to look at SAGA GIS.
Overall, it’s quick, reliable and accurate. Consider SAGA GIS a prime choice for environmental modeling and other applications.
Read More: SAGA GIS (System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses) Review and Guide
5 GRASS GIS
Highlights: Research Community Analysis Tools
GRASS GIS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) was developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers as a tool for land management and environmental planning.
It has evolved into a free GIS software option for different areas of study.
Academia, environment consultants and government agencies (NASA, NOAA, USDA and USGS) use GRASS GIS because of its intuitive GUI and its reliability.
It has over 350 rock-solid vector and raster manipulation tools.
Not awfully useful in cartographic design, GRASS GIS excels primarily as a free GIS software option for analysis, image processing, digital terrain manipulation and statistics.
6 MapWindow
Highlights: Hydrology Plugins Programmer Tools
MapWindow GIS
With MapWindow, you can do GIS without the dependency of commercial GIS software.
Once commercial GIS software in 2000… since 2004 it’s become open source GIS through a contract with the US EPA called ‘Basins’. The source code was released to the public.
MapWindow does about 90% of what GIS users need – map viewer, identify features, processing tools and print layout.
It has some higher level tools such as TauDEM for automatic watershed delineation.
Sometimes, it’s unstable, unsmooth…
When you start separating the winners from the losers, MapWindow surprisingly has some serious punch.
It’s being re-architected with a model builder tool, tiling, table editing and a ribbon style menu for version 5.
7 ILWIS
Highlights: Open Source Ease of Use
Free GIS software users rejoice.
Once commercial GIS software, now turned into open source GIS.
ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information Management) is an oldie but a goodie.
The extinction-proof ILWIS is free GIS software for planners, biologists, water managers and geospatial users.
ILWIS is good at the basics – digitizing, editing, displaying geographic data.
It’s also used for remote sensing with tools for image classification, enhancements and spectral band manipulation.
8 GeoDa
Highlights: Open Source Geostatistics
GeoDa Software
GeoDa is a free GIS software program primarily used to introduce new users into spatial data analysis.
It’s main functionality is geostatistics.
Perform autocorrelation, descriptive and regression statistics with GeoDa. See GeoDa’s complete list of features for everything.
It’s an exciting analytical tool which includes lab users from Harvard, MIT and Cornell universities.
This free GIS sifted serves as a gentle introduction to spatial analysis for non-GIS users.
It’s used in a range of areas such as economic development health and real estate.
9 uDig
Highlights: Open Source Ease of Use Basic Mapping
uDIG is an acronym to help get a better understanding what this Free GIS software is all about.
- u stands for user-friendly interface
- D stands for desktop (Windows, Mac or Linux). You can run uDIG on a Mac.
- I stand for internet oriented consuming standard (WMS, WFS or WPS)
- G stands for GIS-ready for complex analytical capabilities.
When you start digging into uDig, it’s a nice open source GIS software option for basic mapping.
uDig’s Mapnik lets you import basemaps with the same tune as ArcGIS
Easy-to-use, the catalog, symbology and Mac OS functionality are some of the strong points.
But the limited tools and the bugs bog it down.
10 OpenJump
Highlights: Open Source Conflation
Formerly JUMP GIS, OpenJump GIS (JAVA Unified Mapping Platform) started as a first class conflation project.
It succeeded. But eventually grew into something much bigger.
A large community effort grew OpenJUMP into a more complete free GIS software package.
It handles large data sets well. Rendering is above-grade with a whole slew of mapping options like pie charts, plotting and choropleth maps.
OpenJUMP GIS Plugins enhance its capabilities. There are plugins for editing, raster, printing, web-processing, spatial analysis, GPS and databases.
Conflate data and do a whole lot more.
11 Diva GIS
Highlights: Open Source Biology Data
Biologists using GIS unite!
Diva GIS is another free GIS software package for mapping and analyzing data.
This one specializes in mapping biological richness and diversity distribution including DNA data.
It’s possible to extract climate data for all locations on the land.
From here, there are statistical analysis and modeling techniques to work with.
Diva GIS also delivers useful, every day free GIS data for your mapping needs.
It’s worth a long look for biologists around the world.
12 FalconView
Highlights: Open Source Fly-throughs
The initial purpose of FalconView is to be a free and open source GIS software.
Most of FalconView’s users are from the US Department of Defense and other National Geospatial Intelligence Agencies. This is because it can be used for combat flight planning.
In SkyView mode, you can fly-through even using MXD files.
Georgia Tech built this open software for displaying various types of maps and geographically referenced overlays.
It supports various types of display like elevation, satellite, LiDAR, KMZ and MrSID.
13 OrbisGIS
Highlights: Open Source
OrbisGIS is a work-in-progress.
Its goal is to be a cross-platform open source GIS software package designed by and for research.
It provides some GIS techniques to manage and share spatial data. OrbisGIS is able to process vector and raster data models.
It can execute processes like noise maps or hydrology process without any add-ons. Orbis GIS Plug-ins are available but are very limited for the time-being.
The developers are still working on the documentation. You may want to look elsewhere until this project gets sturdy up on its feet.
13 Free GIS Software Options: Map the World in Open Source的更多相关文章
- Free GIS Software
Refer to There are lots of free gis software listed in the website: http://www.freegis.org/ http://w ...
- Java 13天基础 06天map集合小练习(黑马程序员) 统计字符串中每个字符出现的次数 (经典面试题)
import java.util.HashMap; import java.util.Map; import java.util.Scanner; /** * 目标 : 输出一个字符串中每个字符出现的 ...
- spark连数据库
DataFrame提供了一条联结所有主流数据源并自动转化为可并行处理格式的渠道,通过它Spark能取悦大数据生态链上的所有玩家,无论是善用R的数据科学家,惯用SQL的商业分析师,还是在意效率和实时性的 ...
- JS 循环遍历JSON数据 分类: JS技术 JS JQuery 2010-12-01 13:56 43646人阅读 评论(5) 收藏 举报 jsonc JSON数据如:{"options":"[{
JS 循环遍历JSON数据 分类: JS技术 JS JQuery2010-12-01 13:56 43646人阅读 评论(5) 收藏 举报 jsonc JSON数据如:{"options&q ...
- 如何在Google Map中处理大量标记(ASP.NET)(转)
如何在Google Map中处理大量标记(ASP.NET)(原创-翻译) Posted on 2010-07-29 22:04 Happy Coding 阅读(8827) 评论(8) 编辑 收藏 在你 ...
- 读书笔记-Software Testing(By Ron Patton)
Software Testing Part I:The Big Picture 1.Software Testing Background Bug's formal definition 1.The ...
- 【Leafletjs】4.L.Map 中文API
L.Map API各种类中的核心部分,用来在页面中创建地图并操纵地图. 使用 example // initialize the map on the "map" div with ...
- TWaver GIS制作穹顶之下的雾霾地图
“我不满意,我不想等待,我也不再推诿,我要站出来做一点什么.我要做的事,就在此时,就在此刻,就在此地,就在此生”.自离职央视后,沉寂许久的知名记者.主持人柴静昨日携个人视频新作 <穹顶之下> ...
- Open Source GIS and Freeware GIS Applications
Open Source GIS and Freeware GIS Applications An open source application by definition is software ...
随机推荐
- 2019-2-14-VisualStudio-通过外部调试方法快速调试库代码
title author date CreateTime categories VisualStudio 通过外部调试方法快速调试库代码 lindexi 2019-2-14 22:1:37 +0800 ...
- linux实时系统监控工具mpstat
mpstat (RHEL5默认不安装) mpstat是MultiProcessor Statistics的缩写,是实时系统监控工具.其报告与CPU的一些统计信息,这些信息存放在/proc/stat文件 ...
- LINUX配置文件介绍
每个 Linux 程序都是一个可执行文件,它含有操作码列表,CPU 将执行这些操作码来完成特定的操作.例如,ls 命令是由 /bin/ls 文件提供的,该文件含有机器指令的列表,在屏幕上显示当前目录中 ...
- Leetcode48. Rotate Image旋转图像
给定一个 n × n 的二维矩阵表示一个图像. 将图像顺时针旋转 90 度. 说明: 你必须在原地旋转图像,这意味着你需要直接修改输入的二维矩阵.请不要使用另一个矩阵来旋转图像. 示例 1: 给定 m ...
- Sublime Text Version 3.2.1(Build 3207)注册
Sublime Text Version 3.2.1, Build 3207 一. host添加地址 C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts 127.0.0.1 l ...
- 使用JSONObject进行序列化时,避开定义get或set为开头的方法名称
从结果中可以看到,JSONObject对Test对象进行序列化时,把fileName也当做属性了. 原因:涉及到JavaBean规范(参考:https://www.cnblogs.com/yusimi ...
- 【笔记】LR配置ODBC连接数据库进行参数化(mysql )未完待续
很多时候我们需要大量的参数数据,但是光光靠手填写是非常麻烦的,既然被测对象的数据都在数据库,那么我们直接读取数据库回来就轻松简便很多. data wizard 提供了一个从ODBC的连接获得数据转化 ...
- Python中输入和输出(打印)数据
一个程序要进行交互,就需要进行输入,进行输入→处理→输出的过程.所以就需要用到输入和输出功能.同样的,在Python中,怎么实现输入和输出? Python3中的输入方式: Python提供了 inpu ...
- 求x!在k进制下后缀零的个数(洛谷月赛T1)
求x!在k进制下后缀和的个数 20分: 求十进制下的x!后缀和的个数 40分: 高精求阶乘,直接模拟过程 (我不管反正我不打,本蒟蒻最讨厌高精了) 60分 利用一个定理(网上有求x!在 ...
- 【风马一族_php】数组函数
原文来自:http://www.cnblogs.com/sows/p/6045699.html (博客园的)风马一族 侵犯版本,后果自负 2016-11-09 15:56:26 数组 函数 php- ...