ARCGIS · ESRI · QGIS · POSTGIS · COLOMBIA
Reduce GIS cost without compromising critical workflows
We inventory every license, dataset, service, automation and application. We test equivalence with your data, migrate what makes sense and keep a hybrid architecture where it still delivers more value.
30
years in geotechnology
61
GIS projects
24
software projects
1 by 1
workflow validation
Migration is not replacing one icon with another
GIS platform cost goes beyond licensing. It also includes credits, extensions, databases, infrastructure, support, training and renewal risk. Open software has no license fee, but still needs architecture, security, maintenance and support. We therefore compare total cost of ownership and real functionality, not slogans.
TCO CALCULATOR · COP
Compare real cost, not only licensing
Use your renewal or estimate Esri cost from Colombian public purchases. Then add migration, open-source operations and any licenses you would retain.
Include user types, extensions, credits, Enterprise, maintenance and support from your invoice or proposal.
Alternative-stack costs
QGIS, PostgreSQL, PostGIS and GeoServer charge no license fee. Professional operation still costs money: enter the budget you would actually assign.
Infrastructure, backups, security, support and improvements.
Inventory, pilot, data, development and training.
Specialist licenses or hybrid architecture. This can be 0.
Scenario result
Enter your current Esri cost to establish the baseline.
The calculation runs in this browser. Your figures are not sent to GeoSAT.
Public references are historical observations from 2025 contracts, not an official price list or current quote. Results depend on your quantities and costs and do not guarantee functional equivalence. Validate every workflow before retiring licenses.
Validate the scenario →COST RESEARCH · JULY 2026
What public purchases and published rates actually show
We reviewed Colombia Compra Eficiente orders, official open-source licenses, published infrastructure and support rates, and identifiable institutional cases. Every figure retains its source, date, currency and limitation.
Observed ArcGIS references in Colombia
Unit values from 2025 public orders; monthly lines are annualized where applicable. They are not an official Esri Colombia price list or current quote: actual prices vary by volume, discounts, exchange rates, taxes, term, contract model and configuration.
Swipe horizontally to view the full table.
| Component | COP reference | Order and date |
|---|---|---|
| Creator · user/year | $3,707,364 | Order 148930 · 2025-07-14 ↗ |
| Professional · user/year | $11,651,640 | Order 148930 · 2025-07-14 ↗ |
| Professional Plus · user/year | $23,804,544 | Order 158535 · 2025-12-22 ↗ |
| Spatial Analyst add-on · Creator/Professional only; included with Professional Plus | $3,442,380 | Order 148930 · 2025-07-14 ↗ |
| 1,000 additional credits · block | $651,842 | Order 148930 · 2025-07-14 ↗ |
| Perpetual Enterprise Standard · 4-core update/maintenance per year | $35,527,072 | Order 158535 · 2025-12-22 ↗ |
What three organizations purchased
Totals illustrate the scale of real contracts; they are not comparable without reviewing quantities, services and contract model.
Order 148930 · 2025-07-14
$81,602,204
Cormacarena
10 Creator, 2 Professional, 2 Spatial Analyst and 22 blocks of 1,000 credits.
Order 158535 · 2025-12-22
$59,331,616
IDPC
Professional Plus and update/maintenance for an existing perpetual ArcGIS Enterprise Standard entitlement up to 4 cores.
Order 150119 · 2025-08-12
$204,135,678
DADEP · Bogotá
Enterprise Standard, Professional and Professional Plus for license renewal and support.
Open licensing does not mean free operation
QGIS, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, GeoServer and MapLibre can be used without license fees. TCO must still include infrastructure, backups, monitoring, security, basemaps, geocoding, support, upgrades and internal labor.
Published operating references
EUR 780/year
QGIS Cloud Pro
QGIS Server and up to 10 PostGIS databases; 500 MB total and up to 20 connections. Additional storage costs extra.
Rate checked July 16, 2026
USD 1,013.40/year
Illustrative modular web stack
2 GiB managed PostgreSQL + 4 GiB VM for GeoServer + MapTiler Flex. Excludes backups, HA, support, taxes and human operations.
USD 84.45/month · rates checked July 16, 2026
EUR 2,500–14,500/year
Commercial QGIS support
Published plans from a provider recognized in the QGIS ecosystem. This is one provider reference, not a market average.
Basic through Premium support · rates checked July 16, 2026
Open-source services contracted in Colombia
These contracts size professional work, not licenses or a universal migration price.
COP 37.5M
DANE · 2023
PostgreSQL loading and a 75-day QGIS/Kart concurrent-editing proof of concept.
COP 100M
DAGMA · 2025
Technical support and migration of geodatabases and alphanumeric databases to PostgreSQL over 109 days.
COP 107.5M
Colombian Geological Service · 2025
Open-source tooling and QGIS training over nine months.
DOCUMENTED CASES
Savings, investment and migration in documented cases
We do not mix realized savings, projected savings and investment. We also do not convert old foreign currencies to COP as if they were comparable with a Colombian organization today.
REPORTED RECURRING SAVINGS
USD 7,500–10,000/year
St. Joseph County · Michigan
The county annual report says adopting QGIS as its standard GIS saves this annual licensing range versus ArcGIS. Seat count and migration cost are not disclosed.
Primary source · 2021 report · issued Jan 7, 2022 ↗REPORTED RECURRING SAVINGS
GBP 26,000/year
Barrow Borough Council · UK
GeoServer and GeoNetwork replaced proprietary publishing and catalog systems. The case also warns that specialist knowledge was required.
Primary source · 2011 case · updated Feb 2012 ↗FIRST-YEAR SAVINGS
GBP 13,000
Surrey Heath · UK
It consolidated several GIS systems into XMAP Cloud, a paid managed service built with open components. This was not a pure QGIS/PostGIS migration.
Primary source · Aug 19, 2020 ↗ESTIMATED AVOIDED PURCHASE
RM 3.2 million
Federal planning department · Malaysia
The QGIS case projected 320 seats by the end of 2012 × RM 10,000 per proprietary license. This is estimated avoided purchase, not audited net savings.
Primary source · Jan 2012 ↗MIGRATION · SAVINGS UNDISCLOSED
ArcGIS → QGIS + PostgreSQL
Cornare · Colombia
Cornare documented the change to lower licensing costs and widen access, but did not publish savings. Its contract bundled multiple services and is not the isolated migration cost.
Primary source · 2024 management report ↗OPEN-SOURCE INVESTMENT
≈ USD 30,000/year
Canton of Solothurn · Switzerland
It replaced ArcInfo/ArcView with QGIS/GRASS and PostGIS. In 2009 it reported investing this annual amount in QGIS since 2007: a sustainability cost, not current savings.
Primary source · May 2009 ↗REPLACEMENT MATRIX
What can be replaced and what must be validated
The candidate technology is selected after workflow discovery. These routes are starting points, not automatic equivalences.
Swipe horizontally to view the full table.
| Current capability | Candidate route | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| ArcGIS Pro / ArcMap: editing, maps, layouts and analysis | QGIS + Processing + GDAL/GRASS | Direct migration + adjustments |
| Enterprise Geodatabase, File GDB, Oracle or SQL Server | PostgreSQL + PostGIS + GeoPackage | Migrate data and rebuild rules |
| ArcGIS Server / Enterprise web services | GeoServer or QGIS Server with OGC standards | Republish and test consumers |
| Web AppBuilder, Experience Builder and dashboards | MapLibre, OpenLayers, Next.js and custom APIs | Controlled redevelopment |
| Field Maps, Survey123 and offline sync | QField, custom forms or a hybrid architecture | Mandatory pilot |
| ArcPy, ModelBuilder, extensions and add-ins | Python, PyQGIS, GDAL and specialized services | Validate workflow by workflow |
Capabilities we audit before retiring a license
Utility Network, Parcel Fabric, branch versioning, attribute rules, domains and subtypes, Arcade, Network/Spatial/Image Analyst, 3D, Living Atlas, geocoding, routing, corporate identity, field apps, printing, offline synchronization and every ERP or mission-system integration.
If a capability has no suitable replacement, we do not force migration: we design a hybrid architecture and retire only the cost that can actually be removed.
GEOSPATIAL DEVELOPMENT
We do not only migrate licenses: we build the replacement
We design PostGIS databases, geospatial APIs, data portals, web maps, field applications, automation and OGC services. The customer controls the code, infrastructure and data.
View custom geospatial software development →Geospatial APIs and microservices
Web maps and portals with MapLibre or OpenLayers
Online and offline field workflows
Automation with Python, GDAL and PyQGIS
PostGIS, GeoServer, QGIS Server and GeoNode
ERP, cadastre, asset and identity integration
GRADUAL MIGRATION
Six steps before switching off a license
Inventory
Licenses, users, data, maps, services, scripts, apps, integrations and SLA.
Functional matrix
Each workflow is classified: direct, adapt, rebuild, retain hybrid or retire.
Proof with real data
We build a pilot using the organization’s data, volume and use cases.
Migration and development
We convert prioritized data, rules, automation, services and applications.
Parallel operation
We compare outputs, performance, security and user experience before cutover.
Cutover and transfer
We retire only validated items, train the team and provide SLA-backed support.
Experience building, operating and migrating
SGVIAL · Medellín
Road-management software developed and maintained by GeoSAT since 2006.
Terraes · 9 municipalities
Cadastral platform built on open technologies and the LADM-COL standard.
ISAGEN · 15 contracts
Operation and evolution of a critical corporate GIS for more than two decades.
Frequently asked questions
How much does ArcGIS cost in Colombia?+
There is no single institutional rate. The cited 2025 public orders show, for example, Creator near COP 3.7 million per user/year, Professional near COP 11.7 million, Professional Plus near COP 23.8 million and update/maintenance for an existing perpetual 4-core Enterprise Standard entitlement at COP 35.5 million. Term subscriptions already include maintenance while active. These are historical references, not an official list; your invoice or renewal remains the best input.
Are QGIS and PostGIS really free?+
The core software has no license fee. Implementation, infrastructure, security, backups, support, training and maintenance still cost money and belong in the TCO.
Can every ArcGIS function be replaced?+
Not automatically. Many editing, analysis, database and publishing workflows have mature alternatives. Advanced proprietary capabilities, configured apps and automation require testing, redevelopment or a hybrid architecture.
What happens to .gdb, MXD, APRX, ModelBuilder and ArcPy?+
File Geodatabase data can be extracted with tools such as GDAL, but rules, symbology, layouts, models and scripts must be inventoried and validated. Geometry is only one part of the system.
Can we migrate in stages?+
Yes, and it is usually the lowest-risk path. Start with high-cost data and workflows that have strong equivalence, run both systems in parallel and temporarily retain anything that still depends on the Esri ecosystem.
Technical reference sources
The calculator separates baseline, operations, migration investment and retained Esri cost. Public references can be replaced through invoice mode, and every external figure retains a verifiable link.
- Colombia Compra · Order 148930 ↗
- Colombia Compra · Order 158535 ↗
- Colombia Compra · Order 150119 ↗
- ArcGIS Online user types and credits ↗
- Official Esri maintenance ↗
- QGIS license ↗
- PostgreSQL license ↗
- PostGIS licensing ↗
- GeoServer license ↗
- QGIS Cloud plans ↗
- DigitalOcean · managed database ↗
- DigitalOcean · VM ↗
- MapTiler Cloud pricing ↗
- Commercial QGIS support ↗
- JNCC · QGIS TCO assessment ↗
- St. Joseph County · QGIS savings ↗
- Barrow · GeoServer and GeoNetwork ↗
- Cornare · 2024 management report ↗
Get a workflow replacement matrix, not a generic demo
We review your renewal, classify critical capabilities and design a pilot with acceptance criteria before recommending what to retire, rebuild or retain.
Request a technical assessment →