Low Cost and No Cost GIS Software


Get the Solution You Need at a Price You Can Afford
by David B. Davis


Do you use coupons at the grocery store, drive an extra mile or two to get a better deal, or buy your clothes from the clearance rack? Maybe you are just a little frugal or even down right cheap. Whatever the case, almost everyone makes it a point to get the best value for every dollar spent. This can even be done now with GIS.

Many of you can surely remember the not too distant days when only large corporations, universities, and government agencies could afford a GIS. Fortunately not only have we seen the price of computer hardware drop dramatically over the last decade, the same has been happening with software. This is especially true over the last three to four years with the introduction of no cost viewers offered by several GIS, CAD, and image processing companies.

A small organization or even a typical individual can now obtain a GIS that is drastically easier to use and more powerful than most anything that was available previously to these large organizations. On top of this it can now be done at a fraction of the price of the earlier systems. Some of the lower cost GIS programs are able to run on older equipment, even as "ancient" as a 486 PC. Obviously any program, whether high or low cost will run better on a newer, faster computer. If you are just beginning to use or looking into acquiring a GIS there is a good chance that you can put together a usable system with older hardware and some low cost software. Whether you are a graduate student that needs a GIS for research, a small business owner, a government agency trying to modernize, or someone who just likes to make maps, there are various means of getting the software you need. Many of these relatively inexpensive or no cost programs, where to find them, and some of their uses will be covered here in the following pages.

When trying to decide which program or combination of programs best fit your needs the key is in finding a happy medium. Rarely will all of the factors such as price, capabilities, file formats, service, or compatibility come up in your favor. If for example, price is your number one factor you will probably have to sacrifice on some key feature you need or possibly expect less help from the service department. Before purchasing any GIS software it is important to carefully evaluate what it is that you will need the software to do. With this list of requirements you can then begin comparing the many programs on the market. This is so much easier to do now. All you need do is go to the Internet and get the majority of the information you need right from the company website.

The typical definition of a complete GIS includes the hardware and software capable of data input, data storage, data manipulation, data output, data updating, and someone with the ability to operate the system. The no cost viewers discussed here are not a full or complete GIS. For the most part none of them are able to create new data. They can do limited queries, display raster and vector data, create fairly good maps, and save the existing data as a project, but do not allow for additions to or changes in the existing data. This however can be a good thing. You may want a supervisor or someone in another department to be able to view and use your data without the danger of them changing or causing other problems to the original data. A definite win/win situation.

First we will start off with the low cost GIS programs that have robust functionality such as spatial analysis, routing, DBMS, and image processing capabilities in addition to mapping and viewing functionality. Obviously low cost is a relative term, what is low cost to one person may be out of reach to another. For this evaluation we will classify low cost as up to $1,500. Some of the programs are geared more towards the classical vector style of GIS while others are more raster and image processing oriented.

Low-Cost GIS Programs that Pack a Punch

In the December issue of GISVision the results of GIS Favorites for the Year 2000 Survey were presented. Readers were able to vote from a list for their favorite software released in 2000 (or new releases of old favorites) in a number of different categories. Under the category of Full GIS Software the winner was Idrisi32, a write in candidate! This software is produced by Clark Labs, a not for profit organization at Clark University in Worcester, MA. The price for commercial users is $1,500 but only $250 for full-time students. The downloadable version is $75 less than the regular price. This raster-based program has very powerful image processing and GIS features, including 3D orthographic display, surface cost analysis, viewshed creation, raster/vector conversions, complex statistical and image classification, and map creation features. It can be found in use throughout the world not only because of its power, ease of use, and reasonable price but also because it is available in Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and English.

In the previously mentioned survey ArcInfo 8 from ESRI received the second highest number of votes, however this software is definitely not in the low cost category. ArcView however can be obtained for about $1,200, placing it in the low cost column. While ArcView started out as basically just a viewer, since version 3 it has definitely become a very useful GIS tool. New data can be added using on screen digitizing with attribute data created with easy to use query building functions. Data sets can be quickly joined or rearranged with the new tables and graphics easily displayed. Additional optional extensions such as ArcView Spatial Analyst or ArcView Network Analyst bring even greater functionality to this program. With such an enormous base of ArcInfo users it was an easy transition for many of these people to move to ArcView as either a companion to ArcInfo or sometimes as a replacement, especially with its much friendlier GUI interface. Having used ArcView as well as the English and Spanish versions of Idrisi in my graduate research I found both programs to be easy to use and quite affordable. Clark Labs and ESRI both give major discounts to full-time students on software purchases. (See "Implementing GIS in Developing Countries" white paper.)



Space does not allow for a detailed description of all of the low cost GIS programs available but a brief description or listing of the majority of them will be attempted. MapSheets from ERDAS is designed to integrate with Microsoft Office. It allows for data input, data query, and has good map creating capabilities. Being that it comes from ERDAS it also has some image processing features such as the ability to set transparency levels. This is especially helpful when working with imagery. Another program designed to work closely with Microsoft Office is MapPoint2001 from Microsoft. This program has many GIS features such as route determination, data query, DBMS functions, and map creation capabilities. Also included in the $249 price is a large amount of U.S. and world data from several sources, including U.S. census data.

Intergraph offers the GeoMedia program . This was one of the first low cost programs available that was designed specifically to work with nearly any type of data format. It is able to read the data while leaving the data in its original format. In the past most programs required the conversion of data from other sources to first be converted to a vendor specific format before it could be used. This not only required extra time and effort to run the data conversion but also used up precious disk space because of the need to have the same data stored in several different formats. Fortunately more and more programs are now able to directly read other data formats.

Geomatica, which comes to us from PCI Geomatics offers a unique twist on the low cost GIS format. This program is actually a compilation of different capabilities and features from their other programs: EASI/PACE, SPANS, PAMAP, ACE, and OrthoEngine. This is a competitive new offering for the lower to mid level consumer. In the past it may have been necessary to buy several different programs to get the features you needed. For people or organizations on a very tight budget this would not be possible. Now however with this compilation software you can get all or at least the majority of the features you need and still stay in your budget.





The GIS software available in the most languages would have to be TNT from Microimages. At last count this software was available in 22 different languages, including Bengali, Hindi, Korean, and Slovakian.

Other prominent low cost GIS programs include: MapInfo , Maptitude , and Vertical Mapper . GIS related products are also available from Autodesk. As with all of the above mentioned programs each offers various capabilities and price ranges.