European Alternatives to Esri ArcGIS
Looking for a European alternative to Esri ArcGIS? Esri's privacy statement names Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. of Redlands, California as the operating company, and access is sold as annual user types, with ArcGIS Pro split into Basic, Standard and Advanced license levels and extra credits bought on top. That structure ties cost to the number and type of users, and ties your maps to one vendor's formats and hosted services.
The European tools below cover the desktop, web and field layers separately, and several of them are open source or contracted with companies in the EU, the UK or Switzerland.
How we rank these tools — 4-step process
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1
European ownership, verified
The company is headquartered and incorporated in the EU, EEA, the UK, Switzerland or Israel, and processes customer data in Europe or Israel. A US parent company disqualifies a tool from this page regardless of where its servers are.
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2
Category fit and hands-on review
What the tool actually does, who it suits, and where it falls short — checked against the vendor’s own documentation, changelog and pricing page rather than its marketing copy.
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Compliance and pricing check
GDPR posture, hosting location and the prices quoted on this page are verified against the vendor’s public pricing before publication, and re-checked when we revisit the category.
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Position on this page
Placement on this page can be paid, and that can affect which tools appear here and the order they appear in. It never buys a good review: a tool that fails the checks above is not here at any price, and payment does not change the shortcomings we write about. A vendor can ask us to correct a factual error — not to remove a criticism.
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11 European Alternatives to Esri ArcGIS
GeoSolutions
Support and web mapping software around GeoServer and MapStore
Mapbender
MIT-licensed WebGIS that publishes maps from one installation
disy Cadenza
Reporting, analytics and map views for public-sector data
QGIS
Open-source desktop GIS run by a Swiss association
MapTiler
Swiss map hosting, tiles and SDKs, with an on-prem option
Lizmap
Publishes QGIS projects as web maps, hosted in France
QField
Mobile field data collection built directly on QGIS projects
Mergin Maps
Field survey app that syncs with QGIS through a cloud service
Cadcorp SIS
UK desktop, web and server GIS now owned by NEC Software Solutions
UP42
Berlin platform for ordering and streaming Earth observation data
GeoCat
Dutch open-source spatial data infrastructure and catalogue vendor
Key takeaways
- Esri ArcGIS is operated by Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. of Redlands, California, according to its own privacy statement.
- ArcGIS Pro is bought through annual user types, and its Basic, Standard and Advanced license levels correspond to the three core types.
- QGIS replaces the ArcGIS Pro desktop at no licence cost, with optional sustaining memberships from €500 per year.
- Mapbender (MIT) and MapStore from GeoSolutions (BSD) publish web maps without per-user fees, at the price of running or contracting the server side.
- QField and Mergin Maps replace the field apps, and both work from QGIS projects, so they only make sense after a QGIS decision.
Why people leave Esri ArcGIS
Esri ArcGIS is the reference point for professional GIS. The privacy statement on esri.com names Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. of Redlands, California as the operating company, and the product line runs from ArcGIS Pro on the analyst desktop to ArcGIS Online as a hosted service and ArcGIS Enterprise as the self-hosted variant. A municipality, a water board or a forestry agency can buy all three layers from the same supplier and expect them to fit together.
That fit is also the reason people start looking elsewhere. Esri sells access as annual user types, and the ArcGIS Pro buy page says Pro is included in the user types of both ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise. Your cost follows head count and role: a viewer, a creator and a person who needs advanced cartography are different line items, and every new collaborator has to be fitted into one of them.
For a European buyer there is a second layer. The contracting party is a Californian company, so questions about jurisdiction, procurement preferences for EU suppliers and long-term control over map data come up in tenders more often than they did a few years ago. Most of the tools on this page answer part of that question, not all of it, and each one covers a different slice of the Esri stack.
- Licensing follows users and roles, not the work Esri describes a user type as an annual license and the main way to buy access. There are six of them, from Viewer up to Professional Plus, and ArcGIS Pro comes in Basic, Standard and Advanced levels that line up with the three core types. A department with a few analysts and many occasional map readers pays by role. Against that, QGIS, Mapbender and MapStore carry no seat fee, so adding a thirtieth reader changes nothing on the invoice.
- Premium services are paid in credits on top The buy page explains that credits are the currency in ArcGIS Online for premium services such as feature storage, analysis tools and premium data, and that credits are included in each user type. How far the included amount stretches depends on what you run, which makes the yearly cost harder to forecast than a flat plan. Lizmap Cloud (from €50 a month) and UP42 (100 credits to the euro) publish their prices, so a budget can be drawn before the first call.
- One vendor holds desktop, portal and hosted data Because Pro, Online and Enterprise belong together, leaving one layer tends to raise questions about the others. Projects, web maps and hosted layers are managed in Esri formats and services. The European landscape is the reverse: QGIS for the desktop, Mapbender or MapStore for the portal, QField or Mergin Maps for the field, each replaceable on its own and mostly built on OGC services, which cuts the cost of the next change of supplier.
- The contracting entity sits in California Esri names Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. in Redlands as the operating company. That is a US legal entity, and a buyer who needs an EU, UK or Swiss counterparty cannot get one from this product line. The tools here are contracted with companies in Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, with Disy, UP42 and GeoSolutions (Italian SRL) giving the clearest EU contract. Switzerland and the UK are covered by adequacy decisions, not EU law.
What you have to replace, not just match
A move away from ArcGIS is a replacement of layers, not of one product.
The analyst desktop is the easy part to name: QGIS covers digitizing, the layout designer and the processing toolbox, and Cadcorp SIS is the commercial option for teams that want a vendor to phone. What needs a separate decision is the portal. ArcGIS Online and Enterprise combine web maps, apps and hosted layers, whereas a European setup splits this over a publishing server (GeoServer with MapStore, Mapbender, or QGIS Server with Lizmap) and whoever administers it.
Then there are the parts that are easy to forget until the first week after cut-over: dashboards and reports that managers open every Monday, the field forms that surveyors fill in offline, the imagery that arrives through a subscription, and the catalogue that tells colleagues which dataset is current.
Disy Cadenza answers the reporting question, QField and Mergin Maps the field one, UP42 the imagery one and GeoCat the catalogue one. Write down which of these your organisation uses before comparing prices, because the list decides how many European products you end up contracting.
Last, the human layer. Scripts, models and styling built around Esri tools do not move by themselves, and staff trained on the Esri interface need time on QGIS or a web builder. Plan the replacement as a programme with a pilot area, not as an export button, and keep the Esri licences for the layers you have not yet moved.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | GeoSolutions | Camaiore (Lucca), Italy | Pricing on request; the software itself is open source | EU (Italy) |
| #2 | Mapbender | Bonn, Germany | Free software (MIT); commercial support and maintenance from WhereGroup on request | EU (Germany) |
| #3 | disy Cadenza | Karlsruhe, Germany | Pricing on request | EU (Germany) |
| #4 | QGIS | Laax, Switzerland | Free; optional sustaining memberships from €500 per year | Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #5 | MapTiler | Unterägeri, Switzerland | Free tier / from €25 per month | Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #6 | Lizmap | Montpellier, France | Lizmap Cloud: Starter €50 excl. tax per month, Starter+ €75, Basic from €90 | EU (France) |
| #7 | QField | Laax, Switzerland | QFieldCloud Community free (100 MB sync); Flat from €18 per user per month; Flex €28 per user per month | Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #8 | Mergin Maps | England, United Kingdom | Premium €15.8 per contributor per month billed annually (€19.5 monthly); 14-day free trial; Enterprise on request | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #9 | Cadcorp SIS | Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom | Pricing on request | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #10 | UP42 | Berlin, Germany | Prepaid credits, 100 credits = €1, minimum purchase €100; Enterprise monthly invoicing | EU (Germany) |
| #11 | GeoCat | Wageningen, Netherlands | Pricing on request (quote form) | EU (Netherlands) |
How each alternative compares to Esri ArcGIS
GeoSolutions
Italian support partner for an open-source replacement of the Esri server and portal layer
Best for: Public bodies that want a contracted supplier behind GeoServer and MapStore instead of ArcGIS Enterprise.
Against ArcGIS Enterprise, GeoSolutions offers no boxed product. It develops MapStore under a BSD licence and sells support, subscription services and training for GeoServer, GeoNetwork and GeoNode. The pieces together publish data, catalogue it, run a portal and draw maps and dashboards from OGC services, which is the ground Enterprise and Hub cover for Esri customers.
The commercial relationship is also different: you pay for expertise, with the software itself costing nothing. GeoSolutions states ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 27001 on its own site. Check which entity signs, because the company also lists a US subsidiary in Brooklyn for North America, next to the Italian SRL in Camaiore.
What GeoSolutions does better than Esri ArcGIS
- No licence fee for MapStore or the supported servers
- Data and deployment stay wherever you place the stack
- Standards-first approach (OGC, INSPIRE) that eases supplier changes
- Italian SRL as a named European contracting party
Where GeoSolutions is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- No desktop GIS and no hosted analysis tools
- No published price list, so a quote comes first
- You need people who can run servers, or a support contract
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. It is the only supplier here that supports the whole open-source server chain from one contract.
Best for: Municipalities and utilities that publish many web map applications and want no seat fees.
Mapbender treats a web map like a page in a content management system. An administrator registers services, assembles an application from elements in the browser and assigns groups, and one installation hosts any number of applications. That resembles the app-builder side of ArcGIS Online and Enterprise, but without a user-type structure around it. The MIT licence puts the source on GitHub.
WhereGroup in Bonn maintains the project and sells support, maintenance and custom development. The feature table separates standard, planned and individually developed functions, so some wishes need paid work. LDAP connection, rights management, data capture, routing and large-format printing are listed, and a QGIS2Mapbender plugin lets GIS staff push desktop projects into it.
What Mapbender does better than Esri ArcGIS
- No per-seat or per-application fees under the MIT licence
- Unlimited applications from a single installation
- LDAP sign-on and group rights managed in the browser
- German maintainer with commercial support available
Where Mapbender is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- Not a desktop tool for editing or deep analysis
- No hosted data, imagery or credits as in ArcGIS Online
- Support prices are not published by WhereGroup
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. One MIT-licensed installation serves as many map applications as you build.
Best for: German-speaking authorities that report on spatial data to people who never open a GIS.
Compared with ArcGIS Dashboards, Insights and reporting extensions, disy Cadenza begins at the database. Analysts query and filter, view results as tables, charts or map layers, and publish them as automated reports. Its geo analytics view has scale-dependent layers, spatial filters and a time axis for animations, so the map is one output among several.
Disy Informationssysteme in Karlsruhe describes about 150 employees and customers that are mostly federal and state authorities. Authorisation uses privileges and roles, sign-on connects to LDAP and OpenID Connect, and user actions go to an audit log. Deployment is on-premises or in the cloud, and the product is not described as open source.
What disy Cadenza does better than Esri ArcGIS
- On-premises or cloud choice for sensitive public-sector data
- Audit logging and fine-grained roles in one governed platform
- Reports and dashboards for non-GIS colleagues
- German contracting party (HRB 107964, Amtsgericht Mannheim)
Where disy Cadenza is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- No price list and no open-source option
- Little for digitizing or print cartography
- Pitched at the public sector in German-speaking countries
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. It puts reporting on top of enterprise databases first and draws the map second.
Best for: Analysts and cartographers who want a desktop GIS without licence fees and can arrange their own support.
QGIS is the project most organisations name first when they plan to leave ArcGIS Pro. It is licensed under GPLv2+, owned by its contributors and governed by QGIS.ORG, a Swiss association with an address in Laax. Digitizing, the layout designer, atlases and a toolbox for chained analysis steps are all part of the program, and plugins extend it further.
The money works differently from Esri: nothing is charged for use, while sustaining memberships start at €500 per year for small organisations and rise to €27,000 for the flagship level. There is no single vendor to call, but the project lists commercial support providers, among them 3Liz in France. Switzerland sits outside the EEA, which only matters for strict EU-only rules.
What QGIS does better than Esri ArcGIS
- No licence cost for any number of installations
- Runs on Windows, macOS and Linux
- Plugin ecosystem and open file formats avoid lock-in
- QGIS Server feeds Lizmap and other web publishing
Where QGIS is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- No vendor help desk by default, only community and contractors
- No hosted portal or credits as in ArcGIS Online
- Web and mobile layers must be added from other projects
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. The desktop at the center of this whole page, and the only entry with sustaining memberships instead of prices.
Best for: Developers who need hosted or self-hosted base maps behind their own applications.
MapTiler sits at the developer end of the Esri comparison. It hosts vector and raster tiles, offers a style editor, geocoding and SDKs built on MapLibre GL JS, and lists georeferencing of scanned maps. The site lists Google Maps API and Mapbox as the products it replaces, which makes it a partial match for Esri location services and not for the GIS itself.
Its terms name a Swiss company with an address in Unterageri, under Swiss law with courts in Zug. A free tier covers 100,000 map tile requests per month on the site, with paid plans from about €25 a month. MapTiler Server lets organisations serve tiles from their own infrastructure, which matters for regulated settings.
What MapTiler does better than Esri ArcGIS
- Self-hosted MapTiler Server removes dependence on a cloud service
- Standards-based tiles (TileJSON, XYZ, WMTS) and open SDKs
- Free tier without a credit card
- Swiss contracting party under Swiss law
Where MapTiler is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- Not a GIS: no editing, analysis or desktop tool
- Not open source
- Switzerland is outside the EEA
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. It is the entry to look at when the Esri part you use is the base map and the API around it.
Best for: Municipalities and associations whose staff already style their maps in QGIS.
Lizmap keeps authoring on the desktop. Staff style layers and configure forms in a QGIS project, and Lizmap with QGIS Server renders it as a web application. Against ArcGIS Online web maps there is no separate design step, but there is also no separate hosted editor: QGIS remains the tool where changes happen.
3Liz in Montpellier says it has developed Lizmap as open source since 2011 and offered hosting since 2016. Lizmap Cloud runs on OVH servers in France with daily backups kept at least seven days in another city. Starter is €50 per month excluding tax with 200 MB, Starter+ €75 with 2 GB, and Basic from €90 adds a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database for editing.
What Lizmap does better than Esri ArcGIS
- Published entry prices from €50 per month excluding tax
- French hosting with backups, or a dedicated server abroad
- Web client under MPL-2.0
- No trackers or advertising stated on its pages
Where Lizmap is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- Depends on QGIS and is not a standalone GIS
- Small storage on the Starter plans
- Modules such as SAML cost extra, and the vendor is small
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. The shortest path from a finished QGIS project to a web map under French hosting.
Best for: Survey teams who design forms in QGIS and collect on phones and tablets.
QField runs the same QGIS project in the field, with the symbology and forms you built on the desktop. It captures photos, video and audio, scans QR codes and NFC tags, works with high-precision receivers and can be extended with plugins in QML or JavaScript. The app is GPL-2.0 open source, developed by OPENGIS.ch.
QFieldCloud GmbH in Laax, Switzerland runs the sync service. The Community plan is free with 100 MB of sync space, Flat starts at €18 per user per month, and Flex is €28 per active user. The pricing page shows several figures for Flat, so the exact cost varies with billing period and team size. Its success stories include the National Land Survey of Finland.
What QField does better than Esri ArcGIS
- Free Community plan for small projects
- Open-source app, not tied to a hosted account
- Photo, NFC and GNSS capture in one app
- Data processing agreement available
Where QField is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- Needs a QGIS workflow, so it replaces no desktop
- Only 100 MB of sync space on the free plan
- Swiss service company, outside the EEA
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. Field forms and symbology come straight from the QGIS project, with no second design environment.
Best for: Utilities, forestry and ecology teams that want clear per-contributor prices and project history.
Mergin Maps treats field work like version control. Colleagues edit the same layers offline, the system merges the changes, and project history shows who changed what. A QGIS plugin links the desktop, and a newer feature publishes a project online through a simple URL.
Lutra Consulting Limited, registered in England and Wales, is the contracting party, so UK law applies. Premium is €15.8 per contributor per month billed annually or €19.5 monthly, with 1 GB per contributor, extra storage at €2.5 per GB and unlimited read-only members. Enterprise customers choose data residency, and a 14-day trial is listed. The default cloud region is not stated.
What Mergin Maps does better than Esri ArcGIS
- Per-contributor price with free read-only members
- Project history and automatic merging of offline edits
- Self-hosted service and Community Edition listed
- Mobile app on GitHub under GPL-2.0
Where Mergin Maps is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- UK, not EU, contract law
- Cost grows with each contributor
- Built around QGIS projects only
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. Project history shows who changed which feature, a field-app feature the others here do not describe.
Best for: UK public safety, local government and utilities that want a vendor-supported desktop GIS.
Cadcorp is the commercial desktop alternative on this page. SIS Desktop works somewhat like Microsoft Office, SIS WebMap delivers maps in the browser and GeognoSIS provides web services. The vendor says SIS Desktop reaches more than 300 formats, including PostGIS, Oracle and SQL Server, and supports Ordnance Survey data.
The analysis list covers buffering, Thiessen polygons, contouring, routing networks and export of time series to video. Cadcorp pages now redirect to NEC Software Solutions, which announced the acquisition, so the contracting party is NEC Software Solutions UK Limited of Hemel Hempstead. No prices or open-source licence are mentioned, and our review covers vendor pages only.
What Cadcorp SIS does better than Esri ArcGIS
- A single commercial vendor for desktop, web and server
- Wide format and database support out of the box
- No cloud account needed, with customer-chosen deployment
- UK-registered supplier with Ordnance Survey support
Where Cadcorp SIS is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- No published prices, as with Esri, and no open-source option
- Owned by NEC since the acquisition, not independent
- UK entity, outside the EU
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. It is the one commercial desktop GIS here that keeps the Esri model of a vendor-supported product.
Best for: Organisations that buy imagery regularly and want one German contracting party for several providers.
UP42 supplies imagery, not maps. It lets you search an archive, order a new capture over your area and receive the result in a GIS, through the API or as a WMTS stream. Data covers multispectral, SAR, elevation, lidar and hyperspectral sources from several providers, and the platform is priced in prepaid credits.
A hundred credits equal €1, with a minimum purchase of €100, five percent bonus credits from one million credits, and quotes shown before purchase. The Platform Services Agreement names UP42 GmbH of Berlin, applies German law with Berlin courts, and says content is stored in Germany. Provider licences for the imagery apply on top.
What UP42 does better than Esri ArcGIS
- Euro credits with a stated minimum and visible quotes
- Several imagery providers under one German contract
- WMTS streaming straight into QGIS or another GIS
- German law, Berlin courts and German storage
Where UP42 is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- No GIS editing or analysis of its own
- Costs swing with area, resolution and tasking priority
- No self-hosting
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. It sells data with the supplier relationship in Germany, which no software tool here does.
Best for: Public bodies with metadata and open-data duties that want standards-based publishing.
GeoCat covers what comes after the map is drawn: describing datasets, making them findable and publishing them. Find is its catalogue, Map publishes spatial information with industry standards, Live hosts basic infrastructure, and Bridge is an extension for ArcGIS Desktop and QGIS Desktop. That makes it a gentle first step, since staff can keep their current tool.
GeoCat BV is based in Wageningen in the Netherlands, and the company says it has followed the free and open-source philosophy since its founding in 2007. It also has offices in Canada and Spain and offers consulting and training. Prices are on request through a quote form, and the pages we read give limited technical detail.
What GeoCat does better than Esri ArcGIS
- Works alongside ArcGIS Desktop during a gradual migration
- Catalogue and publishing built on open standards
- Dutch headquarters and an EU contracting base
- Consulting and training available
Where GeoCat is a step down from Esri ArcGIS
- Not a general GIS, so analysts still need another tool
- No public pricing
- Offices in Canada and Spain raise the question of which entity contracts
Standout against Esri ArcGIS. It is the entry that works with ArcGIS Desktop today and with QGIS tomorrow.
What actually breaks when you switch
The first things to break are the Esri-shaped files and habits. Projects, styles and web maps built in ArcGIS Pro or Online do not open as such in QGIS, Mapbender or MapStore, so symbology, popups and layouts have to be rebuilt, and geoprocessing models need rewriting as QGIS workflows. Data in open formats and OGC services moves best, so start with a data inventory that separates what is stored in standard formats from what lives only inside Esri services.
Contracts and integrations come next. User types and credits are annual, so line up the end date of each Esri subscription with the pilot schedule to avoid paying twice for longer than necessary.
Single sign-on, field apps and dashboards that other departments depend on need a replacement before the old service is switched off, and open-source tools shift tasks to you: updates, backups and monitoring unless a support contract covers them. Train a small group first and let them teach the rest.
Can QGIS really take over from ArcGIS Pro for daily analyst work?
For editing, symbology, print layouts and repeatable geoprocessing, the QGIS pages describe digitizing tools, a layout designer, atlases and a processing toolbox that chains steps into visual workflows. Analysts who work on vector data, surveys and cartography tend to find the core steps available. The gaps show up around Esri specifics: geodatabase-centred workflows, add-ons from the Esri ecosystem and tools that depend on credits in ArcGIS Online have no direct counterpart.
Run a two-week pilot with the three most common jobs of your team, measure how long each takes in both programs, and write down every plugin you needed. QGIS is also supported by contractors, and its project lists commercial support providers, so a help desk can be bought if the community route feels too thin for a production unit.
Which tools in this list can I install on my own servers?
Mapbender, MapStore (through GeoSolutions), Lizmap and QGIS Server are open-source software you can run yourself, and QField and Mergin Maps list open-source apps next to their cloud services. Disy Cadenza says it can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud, and Cadcorp offers desktop and server products. UP42 is a hosted data service with no self-hosting, and the platform stores content in Germany according to its Platform Services Agreement.
Self-hosting moves responsibility to you: updates, backups, certificates and monitoring. If your IT team is small, the managed route is closer to what you have with ArcGIS Online. Lizmap Cloud runs on OVH servers in France with daily backups, and GeoSolutions sells support and subscription services for the open-source stack.
Which one to pick
If the heaviest use is the analyst desktop, start with QGIS and add Cadcorp SIS only if the organisation wants a commercial vendor and accepts a UK contract. If the heaviest use is the web portal, compare Mapbender (many applications, MIT, browser administration), MapStore through GeoSolutions (OGC services, with a support contract) and Lizmap (QGIS projects, hosted in France). Disy Cadenza fits when reporting and audit requirements outweigh cartography.
For field work, QField and Mergin Maps both assume QGIS projects, so pick them after the desktop decision: QField for a free tier and open-source app, Mergin Maps for per-contributor pricing and project history. Add UP42 only if you buy imagery, GeoCat if you must catalogue and publish metadata, and MapTiler if your need is a base map for your own application. Keep the Esri licences for any layer you have not yet replaced.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on which layer you replace. QGIS is the usual choice for the desktop, Mapbender and GeoSolutions (MapStore) for web portals, Lizmap for publishing QGIS projects, QField or Mergin Maps for field collection, and Disy Cadenza for reporting with maps. No single European product mirrors the whole Esri stack, so most organisations combine two or three of them.
Not as one product. MapStore from GeoSolutions builds maps, dashboards and stories from OGC services, Mapbender assembles map applications in a browser admin, and Lizmap turns QGIS projects into web maps. None bundles hosted analysis and premium data credits the way ArcGIS Online does, so check which of those you actually use before you count them as gaps.
Esri prices are not quoted here, because the pages we read did not list them. On the European side, QGIS is free, Mapbender is MIT-licensed, Lizmap Cloud starts at €50 per month excluding tax, Mergin Maps Premium at €15.8 per contributor per month on annual billing, and QField Flat from €18 per user per month. Count migration hours, training and support contracts as well.
Maps need data as well as software. UP42 in Berlin sells archive and newly tasked satellite imagery from several providers on prepaid credits, and MapTiler offers hosted base maps with an option to self-host. Provider licences still apply to the imagery itself, so read those terms next to the platform contract.
Yes, and it is often the safest first step. GeoCat Bridge is an extension for ArcGIS Desktop and QGIS Desktop that publishes to a catalogue and map service, and UP42 streams imagery to a GIS over WMTS. Cadenza, Mapbender and MapStore read OGC services, so they can sit on data that is still edited in Esri software.
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