--- title: "QGIS Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of QGIS. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if QGIS is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/cafm/qgis-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [GIS Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/cafm/gis-comparison/) / [QGIS](https://www.softwareadvice.com/cafm/qgis-profile/) / QGIS Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/cafm/qgis-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/cafm/qgis-profile/alternatives/) # QGIS User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.5/5 - Total reviews: 101 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.2/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Value for money: 4.6/5 - Functionality: 4.4/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 60 reviews (59%) - 4 stars: 35 reviews (35%) - 3 stars: 4 reviews (4%) - 2 stars: 0 reviews (0%) - 1 star: 2 reviews (2%) ### Most mentioned pros - The map creation allows a variety of possibilities of layout and every kind of user can quickly have a grasp on. - It supports a wide range of data formats and has robust plugins that extend its functionality. - I appreciate that is free software and it can be used on PCs and MACs alike, without having the bother of having different software depending on the machines. ### Most mentioned cons - All I got was a bunch of files that did not want to open on my computer and took unnecessary space. - The interface can be a bit overwhelming for beginners, and there can be a steep learning curve. - The software lacks tools that are available in competitive products such as ArcGIS Pro. ## QGIS customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 101 (page 1). ### Ótima interface visual - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Market Research - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · monthly - Reviewed: November 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Ótima, apesar de pontos a melhorar na visualização dos relatórios. O software é intuitivo e visual. É o que se espera de um app usado principalmente para geoprocessamento. Funcionalidades claras permitindo a manipulação de camadas geográficas. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros A interface é ótima. Consigo encontrar os comandos facilmente, é muito visual e intuitivo comparado aos demais softwares de geoprocessamento. Além de me permitir anexar vários tipos de arquivos. Logo após a inicialização os últimos projetos ficam visualmente expostos o que ajuda o usuário a relembrar o que foi feito recentemente. #### Cons Acredito que a seção "gerar relatório" e "Layout de impressão" ainda precisa melhorar. O painel com a "composição" e "propriedades do item" adicionado é confuso e se sobrepõe visualmente a outras funções. Para fazer alterações simples como tamanho da fonte é uma busca entre setas e letras minúsculas dentro do menu de opções, não é nada intuitivo. --- ### Student - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewed: November 2026 - Industry: Research - Company size: 11-50 employees As a GIS student, the reviewer finds this tool very user-friendly and appreciates its versatile features and plugins. Despite its advantages, the frequent crashes pose a challenge during use. Full review available after login on Software Advice --- ### Operations Manager - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewed: November 2026 - Company size: 1001-5000 employees The reviewer appreciates QGIS for its ease of setup and ability to create repeatable data processing workflows, which are essential for their work. They note that while QGIS excels in certain areas, some plugins may not always be available or functional. Full review available after login on Software Advice --- ### Excellent GIS tool - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Environmental Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: February 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered a positive experience is easy to use and the elements are available to the user #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros a quality software and it is also free for all users #### Cons which is available to all users for free and has a large number of tools to work with --- ### Review of QGIS - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: CHANCY S. - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: June 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. QGIS is very useful software in the Geoinformatics field. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros QGIS is free and open-source software. QGIS supports all possible formats such as raster, vector, point clouds of GIS, and Remote Sensing. QGIS is highly customizable and the Developer can develop various plugins as per requirements. #### Cons QGIS sometimes encounters a bug and immediate Support is not available. QGIS needs more tools for raster data processing. --- ### Not user friendly and extremely difficult to download - Overall rating: 1/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: E-Learning - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: a free trial · monthly - Reviewed: March 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered It was unfortunately a complete waste of time. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 1/5 - Value for money: 1/5 - Customer support: 1/5 - Functionality: 1/5 #### Pros There are sadly no pros. I will not be using this product under any circumstances ever again. #### Cons It was extremely difficult to download. I am a newbie to GIS. All I got was a bunch of files that did not want to open on my computer and took unnecessary space. I cannot waste my time in this way. --- ### Free and easy to use - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: February 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Qgis is one of the most complete geographic information processing software out there today. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It is an open access software with regular updates available to everyone. Its compatibility with various graphic and semantic information input formats make it a powerful tool for managing geographic information. The management of information in raster and vector formats make Qgis a versatile system, suitable for applications in many themes. The possibility of using web maps as a base or in the representation of the results allows a better visualization of the information. #### Cons Some initial training is needed, once the first steps are taken it is easy to use. --- ### Best GIS software for beginners - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: July 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. A great GIS software that is available to download free of cost. It provides large number of third party tools and plugins for faster data manipulation and analysis. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Best software for beginners and easy to install. QGIS is a powerful tool for custom geoprocessing to identify trends within the spatial dataset and create professional looking maps, free of cost. Able to handle complicated datasets easily. Allows easy task automation to schedule jobs on a daily basis. #### Cons The software can be a bit unstable and slow while performing heavy tasks, and fails to efficiently manage raster data unlike other GIS software available. --- ### Powerful, reliable, easy to use, extendable... and free (as in free beer and free speech) - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Architecture & Planning - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: August 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It is extremely powerful: it has plenty of built-in algorithms that range from data analysis, visualization, vector, raster... and it has thousands of 3rd party plug-ins that extend their base functionallities. Furthermore, if everything fails, it can be extended through python scripting. As result it can be used for any purpose that include geospatial data. Furthermore, it is reliable, meaning that it does not hang when working with large datasets or doing complex calculations. The fact that can be used in any major Operating System (GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac, Android) and can read and write a number of file formats (including, but not limited to, all open standards) makes it excellent for sharing your work with others, preventing any kind of platform lock-in. #### Cons It might be not well-known as Arcgis, even though it can do everything Arcgis can do plus more, at a fraction of its cost (0). --- ### Great software in what it proposes - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Renewables & Environment - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: April 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I have been using the program for more than 6 months and even then I have no interest in changing software, as it perfectly meets my map creation demands. I can create everything from less complex maps for personal use, to maps for professional use. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The main benefit of QGIS in relation to competitors is related to cost-benefit. The software is compatible with the most popular operating systems such as Windowns, Linux and Mac. A few months ago I started a course to become professional and 4 months ago I got a new job opportunity thanks to my knowledge and skill with the tool. In addition, QGIS support is very complete, where I can solve problems in a short time. It is possible to download different versions of the program, depending on each demand. #### Cons Comparing QGIS with some similar but paid programs, it is possible to notice that some problems happen more frequently, where the software proves to be more unstable and sometimes the program closes for no apparent reason, however, these are quite sporadic situations and do not affect my Yield. --- ### new user 6 month - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Civil Engineering - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: November 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. My somewhat recent experience with the program is to solve the problems of the layers that I used to export to and from other expensive programs, which I am doing now with the free program #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros The program is completely free, light and easy to handle with features #### Cons The permanent development of the program and keep abreast of the development that occurs with all programs and devices, and it is free --- ### Still the best Open Source GIS Software - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Environmental Services - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: February 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. IT has most features on it for GeoSpatial use along with added Geoprocessing tools and plugins, surprisingly found it a first choice for maybe handling with rasters imagery for simpler work. QGIS does everything I need for professional mapping & analysis. The software is updated on time and regularly. easily connectable to other applications even including hardware GPS devices through plugins and has an easy integration with Excel Databases and supports most Excel Database formats. User Friendly GIS option. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Its pretty useful options if you want to convert from on format to another such as GDAL files having formats of Raster imagery such as converting grid files, image files to ASCII files etc including numerous other formats. Budget friendly option for Geospatial professionals plus easy to use tools for other professionals in the field of Environment or planning for their mapping work. Add on's are another useful feature, recently used and add on for adding surveys for data point collection of reviewing of data points, many developers are able to make add on plugins for QGIS. #### Cons There can arise issues such as lag or time taken for some geoprocessing tools, installation loading times, time taken for bulk tasks, in general using ArcGIS is more easier and better. Tool bar graphics can be out of date. --- ### A fantastic open source replacement for expensive proprietary solutions - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Computer Software - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: October 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros If you need a GIS Desktop tool, QGIS is the way to go. It is rich of features, open source, and easily customizable using Python. And has a vibrant community! #### Cons I like everything from this fantastic software --- ### Exploring QGIS: A Comprehensive Overview - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Raju L. - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: February 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. There are a variety of plugins available that can extend the functionality of the software and allow users to perform more advanced analysis. Try it as it is open source. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros 1. QGIS is a free and open-source geographic information system that allows users to visualize, manage, edit and analyze spatial data.2. QGIS offers a wide range of features including support for various data formats, geoprocessing tools, and plugins that can extend the functionality of the software.3. QGIS has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for new users to get started with minimal training.4. QGIS is available for various operating systems, including Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it a versatile tool for a wide range of users.5. QGIS can handle large datasets and perform complex analyses, but users may need to ensure they have sufficient hardware resources to run the software smoothly. #### Cons QGIS may have a steeper learning curve for users who are not familiar with GIS concepts and terminology, but the software's extensive documentation and online resources can help mitigate this issue. --- ### Easy to Use Powerful Mapping Program - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Environmental Services - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: April 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall I am very satisfied with what I am able to produce using QGIS. With this program I can assemble great visuals for inclusion in my reports in a short amount of time. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros This program offers an easy to use and effective mapping software. The capabilities of this software are above and beyond what I would have expected from a free program. I use QGIS at least once a day for various mapping projects whether it be preparing a site map, a tax map, or topographic maps. It makes mapping sample points, or integrating various graphical project data simple. I had no previous formal GIS training and I found this program easy to understand a pick up quickly. #### Cons Some file formats are not accepted as imports into QGIS so they may require a conversion before uploading. Additionally, the buffer function was removed from newer versions of the program. --- ### Why give your money to ESRI - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Airlines/ Aviation - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: May 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros QGIS is the leader in open-source desktop GIS applications. If you need work done in a GIS ecosystem, this is the choice to make. I cannot stress this enough; due to the fact that QGIS is open source, you have the full support of anybody within GIS capabilities on your side. The barrier of entry is nil, therefore anybody can contribute and learn. #### Cons Opening QGIS for the first time may be intimidating for users. However, as you learn, the software becomes more intuitive and you can customize how your QGIS is laid out for maximum efficiency. --- ### the best mapping software - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Consumer Goods - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · monthly - Reviewed: June 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros this software is extremely important in the design of location maps, improving work efficiency. It is easy to use and allows the creation of maps in a short period of time. I use it in my work mainly to locate an area where a new company building is intended to be established in order to know the access spans to the site and the water availability . #### Cons I think that QGIS is simple to use and efficient in map making, but it is more difficult to install and use on computers with 32-bit capacity, thus making it difficult for many individuals to use it. in the company where i work most of those using computer with 32bit capability are unable to use QGIS due to this incompatibility. --- ### Best Software Available in Market to Fulfill Your Mapping Needs - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · daily - Reviewed: November 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. This is being used to prepare maps with info-graphics. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros This is the best software I used in my life which fulfill all your day today mapping works.this software has a vast plugin library, which contains thousands of plugins, specially cater for your requirement. For example there is a plunging which import satellite imaginary into your project. So that you can produce high quality geographical info-graphics with the use of satellite imaginary. This is a only one small feature in this open source software among hundred of other features and wonder is all of this are supplied to you free of charge. #### Cons As I described about QGIS equipped with everything. Therefor nothing to dislike --- ### QGIS is a must have - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Condrae R. - Industry: Civil Engineering - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: April 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I use QGIS to create and display mainly shapefiles and line work on maps for our design company. Working near the sea, its a great way to visualize shoreline changes over time and to plan for future changes. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros QGIS is a must have for anyone doing spatial analysis or GIS related work. Its free and comes with a lot of capabilities similar to other products like ARC-GIS. Adding various types of layers to your map and changing the display properties are all helpful in getting you the right output. Having the ability to integrate many different file types is a great feature that makes this software awesome. The support community is also great making it easy to get solutions to any issues you may have. #### Cons There aren't any notable drawbacks to using this software. As a beginner it will take a couple days to remember everything however after that its just a breeze. --- ### makes life easier - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Civil Engineering - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: August 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered The software is very good to use. It is easy to install and implement plugins because it is open source and does not restrict its usability at all. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The software presents the user with an enormous ease in using its tools! Simplicity is given even in data processing requiring little installed computer hardware #### Cons It presents some translation errors in its other pre-defined languages, but it does not get in the way of using it! --- ### An innexpensive GIS software ready for everyday use - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Research - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · monthly - Reviewed: December 2023 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered It's a tool that can be easily learnt by anyone and be integrated in workflow. The base maps are very good. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I appreciate that is free software and it can be used on PCs and MACs alike, without having the bother of having different software depending on the machines. It's straightforward to learn how to use. The map creation allows a variety of possibilities of layout and every kind of user can quickly have a grasp on. #### Cons The design of the software is rough around the edges and not as appealing as other GIS software. It's like a out dated version of previous ArcGIS versions. In computers where the user doesn't have power over custom downloads it can be a hassle. 3D can make the software a little slow. --- ### Pretty easy if you know Arc - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Environmental Services - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: March 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Multiple ESRI licences were prohibitively expensive. Can now keep those for niche applications. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Free to install and will load all ESRI shapefiles. Not very familiar yet with full range of tools etc. Can do everything that Arc GIS can, some things better than Arc. Layouts are easy to do neatly, and to save. Always available, no waiting for an organisational licence. Free for all employees to use, so we can save our ESRI licences for applications that really can't use anything else. #### Cons Some dialogue windows open with tiny font. Not always intuitive to find the tools you need. Not keen on having to switch from Arc but that isn't really the fault of QGIS. --- ### Open source software that serves better than paid ones - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · weekly - Reviewed: November 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. This is being used to create maps with data that facilitate the analysis process. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros This is the greatest software that I have come across in my life to do GIS jobs. Even the software is freely available, it performs way better than most of the paid products in the market. #### Cons There is actually nothing to dislike about this software. Everything is strategically placed and tons of third-party plugins are available to make your work easier. --- ### Free and trusted Geolocalization tool - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Renewables & Environment - Company size: 1001-5000 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · monthly - Reviewed: March 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The most loved things, QGIS is a free Software which can be used with a less performante computer or laptop #### Cons At least QGis can be accessible to students and useful to training company --- ### If you need to work professionally on geospatial data - QGIS is a great choice - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Information Technology and Services - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · monthly - Reviewed: April 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I was introduced to QGIS through a colleague of mine, so I had someone to show me around, which was very helpful since it can be intimidating at times. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The fact that it's free, very powerful, can work on any type of data size you put at it and that it's also cross-platform. #### Cons QGIS can be very slow and resource-intensive, it is packed with features and often has a steep learning curve ---