GIS Cloud vs QGIS
GIS Cloud
giscloud.com
QGIS
qgis.orgSide by side
| Figure | GIS Cloud | QGIS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $5/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 7 | 1 |
| Spec score · GIS Software | 8.7 (#3) | 7.9 (#24) |
| Spec score · Geographic Information Systems | 8.6 (#2) | 7.8 (#11) |
| Audience | GIS Cloud describes solutions for water and pipeline management, electric utilities, telecommunications, roadworks, tree inventory and inspection, retail, smart cities, natural resources, and public city maps. | QGIS describes itself as a tool for everyone and invites organizations to find local user groups and support providers. |
| Founded | 2007 | 2002 |
| Purpose | GIS Cloud provides web and mobile apps for managing and collecting data, with maps that teams can share privately, with collaborators, or publicly. | QGIS provides spatial visualization and decision-making tools, including tools to create, edit, analyze, and publish geospatial information. |
| Security | GIS Cloud says it has been ISO 27001 certified since November 2025 and encrypts data in transit with role-based permissions. | QGIS says desktop and server are written to limit SQL injections and other known security vectors, and QGIS Server has been hardened against SQL injections. |
| Support | GIS Cloud says its solution consultants reply to demo, question, or project inquiries within one business day. | QGIS provides community support through its Discourse forum, GIS StackExchange, chat channels, and local user groups. |
Plans
GIS Cloud
- Publisher pluginsFree
- Track$5 a month
- Map Viewer$12 a month
- Mobile Data Collection$25 a month
- Map Editor$75 a month
- Map Portal$79 a month
- On-premises & CrowdsourcingPriced on request
In their own words
GIS Cloud
GIS Cloud provides web and mobile tools for mapping, data management and field collection, with maps that teams can share privately, with collaborators or publicly. Map Editor supports vector and raster formats, multiple layers and basemaps, and drawing points, lines and polygons. Listed data sources include WMS, WFS, WMTS, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Excel, CSV, Bing, OpenStreetMap and Mapbox. Mobile Data Collection uses custom forms to gather points, lines and polygons online or offline on Android and iOS; offline records stay on the device and sync when connectivity returns. QGIS and ArcMap publisher plugins, REST and JavaScript APIs provide additional connections. AI Form Fill can suggest form values from photos or voice, which users can review, edit or revert before saving. GIS Cloud says data is hosted on AWS in the US by default, with EU and Australia regions and on-premises deployment available. Plans include Track at $5 a month per asset, Map Viewer at $12 a month billed annually, Mobile Data Collection at $25 a month billed annually, Map Editor at $75 a month billed annually and Map Portal at $79 a month billed annually. The Geocoder is in beta for beta customers only.
QGIS
QGIS is free, open-source software for creating, editing, analyzing, visualizing, and publishing geospatial information. Its layout designer produces print maps, while reporting tools can assemble atlases and reports containing maps and tabular material. It includes hundreds of analysis tools and supports visual workflows that can be reproduced. QGIS works with many data sources and formats and can use or create web services based on industry standards. More than 2,000 community-developed plugins add capabilities. QGIS Server publishes projects and layers through OGC-compatible WMS, WMTS, WFS, and WCS services. The download page offers a Long Term Release for users who prefer stability over the latest features. The project lists third-party mobile field apps, including QField, Mergin Maps, and IntraMaps Roam; these are separate from QGIS mobile apps. QGIS is licensed under GNU GPL version 2 or later and has community support through forums, GIS StackExchange, chat channels, and local user groups. The free plan costs nothing.