ArcGIS to QGIS/PostGIS migration costs in Colombia (2026)
How to calculate the total cost of moving from ArcGIS to QGIS/PostGIS in Colombia, including support, infrastructure, training and documented cases.
The short answer is that there is no single price for migrating from ArcGIS to QGIS and PostGIS. QGIS, PostgreSQL and PostGIS do not charge per-user license fees, but an institutional migration still costs money: workflows must be inventoried, data converted, automations rebuilt, teams trained, infrastructure operated, backups maintained and any Esri licenses that remain necessary kept in the budget.
The correct comparison is not “an ArcGIS license versus a QGIS license.” It is the total cost of staying as-is for five years versus the cost of migrating and operating over the same period, with equivalent functional scope and a comparable service level.
This guide explains how to build that comparison for a Colombian public agency or company, how to interpret GeoSAT's migration calculator, and what six migrations published by the organizations involved do — and do not — prove.
How much does ArcGIS cost in Colombia?
ArcGIS does not have one institutional price. A renewal may combine user types, ArcGIS Pro levels, ArcGIS Enterprise or Online, extensions, credits, storage, support and customer-specific commercial terms. A generic number found online will therefore rarely match an organization's actual invoice.
Public procurement orders provide observable amounts, but they are not a universal price list either. Colombia Compra Eficiente records these totals in 2025 purchases:
| Organization or reference | Order total | Observation date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cormacarena | COP 81,602,204 | July 14, 2025 | Purchase order 148930 |
| IDPC | COP 59,331,616 | December 22, 2025 | Purchase order 158535 |
| DADEP | COP 204,135,678 | August 12, 2025 | Purchase order 150119 |
Those amounts are evidence of specific purchases, not a quote for another organization. Scope, quantities and products differ across contracts. The only defensible starting point for estimating a potential migration is the annual total on the organization's own invoice or renewal proposal.
What still costs money when the software is open source
“No license fee” does not mean “no cost.” An open production stack can reduce recurring vendor payments, but shifts part of the investment toward capabilities the organization controls directly.
1. Discovery and functional inventory
Before touching data, the organization must know what it is replacing. The inventory should cover users, extensions, geodatabases, maps, layouts, geoprocessing models, ArcPy scripts, services, dashboards, field forms, integrations, SLAs and owners.
Counting licenses is not enough. Two ArcGIS Pro users can represent radically different workloads if one performs basic editing while the other runs networks, specialist analysis or mission-critical automation.
2. Data migration and validation
Geometry and attributes are usually the most direct part. Complexity appears in domains, subtypes, relationships, topology, annotation, symbology, metadata, business rules and permissions. Each dataset needs acceptance criteria: feature counts, valid geometry, accuracy, coordinate reference system, attributes and preserved relationships.
For multi-user work, PostgreSQL/PostGIS may become the central repository. That requires schema, role, index, audit, backup and recovery design; installing the database is only the first step.
3. Workflow and application replacement
An .aprx project does not automatically become an equivalent QGIS project. ArcPy does not convert itself into PyQGIS, SQL or GDAL tools either. ModelBuilder, ArcGIS Dashboards, Survey123, Field Maps, Experience Builder and ArcGIS Enterprise services must be assessed individually.
Some workflows may temporarily remain on Esri. Others can be rebuilt with QGIS, QField, PostGIS, GeoServer or custom software. The budget follows that functional matrix, not the number of computers.
4. Infrastructure and annual operations
Desktop QGIS can run locally, but an institutional platform normally needs servers or cloud services, test and production environments, monitoring, upgrades, storage, certificates, backups, disaster recovery and security.
Those costs also exist in a proprietary stack. The analysis should include only the difference between alternatives rather than charging the migration for expenses the organization would incur either way.
5. Support, training and change management
The team needs training on its own data and tasks, not a generic course. It also needs an accountable support path: internal staff, a specialist supplier or a managed service with an SLA.
Productivity may fall during transition. Budgeting for parallel operations, assistance and corrections prevents projected savings from becoming service interruptions.
6. Retained Esri licenses
A serious migration does not assume everything can be retired on day one. It may be sensible to retain specialist seats, ArcGIS Online, a contractual integration or an application that has not yet passed equivalence testing.
Licenses should be retired at renewal after replacement workflows are validated. Hybrid coexistence is a risk-control tool, not a failed migration.
The total-cost-of-ownership formula
For a five-year horizon, the minimum structure is:
Stay with Esri = annual Esri spend × 5
Migrate and operate = one-time migration investment + 5 × (annual open-stack operations + retained Esri licenses)
Estimated net savings = stay with Esri − migrate and operate
A contractual assessment should add inflation, taxes, financing, a discount rate and current costs not included in the Esri invoice. The web calculator uses nominal pesos and constant annual costs to keep the initial assessment understandable.
Sunk costs — licenses or development already paid for and impossible to recover — should not be mixed with avoidable future expenditure. A license that will remain active for technical or contractual reasons should not be counted as savings either.
How the one-input calculator works
The ArcGIS → QGIS/PostGIS calculator asks only what the organization currently pays Esri per year. It does not ask users to estimate open-source costs because, before an inventory, they reasonably do not know that figure.
The tool calculates three planning scenarios internally:
| Scenario | Initial migration | Annual open-stack operations | Annual retained Esri |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 75% of one Esri year | 30% | 25% |
| Middle | 50% of one Esri year | 25% | 15% |
| Favorable | 35% of one Esri year | 20% | 10% |
These percentages are GeoSAT's internal assumptions for a preliminary assessment. They are not Colombian market averages, published prices or a quote. Their purpose is to answer an initial question: does the opportunity appear large enough to justify a real assessment?
Example with COP 100 million per year
If an organization enters annual Esri spending of COP 100 million:
- Staying as-is for five years totals COP 500 million.
- The conservative scenario estimates COP 350 million to migrate and operate, leaving a COP 150 million difference.
- The middle scenario estimates COP 250 million to migrate and operate, leaving a COP 250 million difference.
- The favorable scenario estimates COP 185 million to migrate and operate, leaving a COP 315 million difference.
That is why the main output shows COP 250 million in middle-case savings and a COP 150–315 million range. It does not mean GeoSAT is quoting the migration at COP 50 million or guaranteeing savings. It means the calculator applied the three disclosed assumptions to the figure entered.
The model may overstate a small opportunity when migration has high fixed costs. It may also understate a large platform with complex integrations. The next step is always to replace percentages with a real inventory, quantities and prices.
Full, staged or hybrid migration
Not every organization should switch ArcGIS off. There are three reasonable paths.
Full migration
This makes sense when critical workflows have been reproduced and accepted, formats are interoperable and no specialist application requires Esri to remain. It offers the greatest license-retirement potential, but demands more validation before cutover.
Staged migration by layer
One bounded function moves first: basic desktop users, a PostGIS database, a catalog or an OGC service. Further groups follow. Each phase has an acceptance test and a corresponding renewal decision.
This approach limits risk and allows the organization to measure real operating cost before expanding the change.
Hybrid architecture
QGIS and PostGIS can coexist with ArcGIS Enterprise, Online or specialist seats. An agency might centralize data in PostGIS, broaden access through QGIS and retain ArcGIS for imagery, networks or a publishing workflow that still delivers value.
The objective is not an ideological percentage of open source. It is to retain only what has a cost justified by a verifiable function.
What six documented cases teach us
Published cases help define questions, not prices. Each number has a different scope.
Cornare: Colombian evidence without measured savings
Cornare's 2024 Management Report documents database migration to PostgreSQL and a move from ArcGIS to QGIS, associated with the expectation of lower licensing costs and wider access. It also records COP 291,252,500 for a contract bundling support, evolution, geoportal, integration and other products.
That amount is not “the price of migrating to QGIS,” and the source does not publish before-and-after savings. Our Cornare case analysis separates demonstrated facts from missing measurements.
St. Joseph County: annual licensing savings
The county's 2021 GIS summary reported QGIS as its standard GIS software and USD 7,500–10,000 in annual savings compared with its previous ArcGIS licensing. It did not disclose seats, training, support or complete TCO. See the St. Joseph County analysis.
Barrow: savings in publishing and catalog services
Barrow reported GBP 26,000 per year in software and licensing savings after implementing GeoServer and GeoNetwork for INSPIRE services. This was not an ArcGIS desktop-to-QGIS replacement, and existing server infrastructure was available. The Barrow case illustrates why migration by architectural layer can work.
Surrey Heath: managed service, not free operations
Surrey Heath reported GBP 13,000 in first-year license savings after adopting XMAP Cloud GIS. The solution has a subscription and uses open components; it is not self-managed QGIS/PostGIS. The Surrey Heath case shows that a managed service can be a third option.
Malaysia: a projection, not audited savings
The Malaysian federal case calculated RM 3.2 million by multiplying 320 planned installations by an assumed RM 10,000 proprietary license. Both variables were prospective and PostGIS remained under study. Read our Malaysia analysis as an adoption and training example, not a financial benchmark.
Solothurn: reinvesting in the open stack
Solothurn replaced ArcInfo and ArcView3 with QGIS/GRASS, moved data to PostGIS and reported investing approximately $30,000 per year in QGIS. That number represented investment in development, not savings or complete TCO. Our Solothurn analysis shows that sustainable open source still receives a budget.
How to produce a defensible figure
A complete assessment should end with four deliverables:
- Economic inventory: annual invoice, renewal dates, quantities, extensions, credits, support and related contracts.
- Functional matrix: process by process, with alternative, gap, owner, test and acceptance criterion.
- Five-year TCO model: initial investment, operations, retained licenses, scenarios and sensitivity.
- Retirement plan: pilot, coexistence, training, cutover and license cancellation only after acceptance.
The most important figure is not maximum savings. It is the savings that remain after support, infrastructure, transition and risk are included.
Frequently asked questions
Are QGIS and PostGIS free?
They do not charge per-user or per-server license fees under their open-source licenses. Professional implementation and operations still incur people, infrastructure, support, security, training and evolution costs.
How much can I save by migrating from ArcGIS?
It cannot be determined rigorously without the real renewal and a functional inventory. The calculator presents a planning range to decide whether the case deserves investigation; it does not guarantee savings or functional equivalence.
Must I abandon every Esri license?
No. A hybrid strategy can retain specialist products while QGIS and PostGIS cover validated workflows. Retiring licenses before testing creates operational risk and can produce false savings.
How long does a migration take?
It depends on data, automation, applications, users and integrations. A bounded pilot may be validated quickly, while an institutional platform requires stages. Timelines from external cases should not be copied without comparing scope.
Is the calculator a GeoSAT quote?
No. It uses three internal assumptions, constant costs over five years and the annual spending entered by the user. It excludes inflation, taxes, financing and the technical inventory required for a quote.
Next step
Start with the ArcGIS-to-QGIS/PostGIS migration calculator. If the range warrants further work, GeoSAT can turn that preliminary result into a functional inventory, pilot and TCO model based on real contracts. You can also review the complete methodology and every documented case.