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Maps · head to head

Felt vs SAGA GIS

Felt logo

Felt

Maps

Collaborative browser mapping with a free non-commercial tier and annual-only paid contracts

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
SAGA GIS logo

SAGA GIS

Maps

Open source terrain and geoscientific analysis with no vendor and no support contract available

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Felt felt publishes no prices for Professional or Enterprise, so buyers cannot compare against ArcGIS Online or QGIS with hosting without entering a sales process; SAGA GIS there is no commercial support contract available from anyone, so a procurement process that requires a named supplier with a service level cannot be satisfied and the organisation carries the whole operational risk itself
  • They diverge on capability: Felt covers Real-time collaboration, SAGA GIS covers Terrain morphometry.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Felt and SAGA GIS actually diverge.

Attributes where Felt and SAGA GIS differ
AttributeFeltSAGA GIS
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWindows, Linux, macOS

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Maps).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Felt

  • Real-time collaboration
  • Drag and drop data
  • Unlimited viewers
  • Field app with offline support
  • Dashboards
  • Live cloud sources
  • API and SDK

Only in SAGA GIS

  • Terrain morphometry
  • Hydrological modelling
  • Geostatistics
  • Image analysis
  • Module library
  • QGIS integration
  • Python and R bindings

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Felt

  • An environmental consultancy that needs a client to view and comment on survey results without installing GIS softwarenot SAGA GIS
  • A utility field crew collecting asset condition offline and syncing to the same map the office is looking atnot SAGA GIS
  • A planning department sharing a proposal map with the public where the viewer count is unpredictable and viewer seats would be uncostednot SAGA GIS
  • A team of analysts who each hold data in different formats and want one map assembled in an afternoon rather than a weeknot SAGA GIS

SAGA GIS

  • A hydrologist deriving catchment boundaries and flow networks from a national elevation model at a resolution commercial tools slow down onnot Felt
  • A soil science team producing interpolated property surfaces with documented geostatistical methods for a peer-reviewed papernot Felt
  • A government environmental analyst who needs a terrain index that no commercial GIS implements and does not want to write it from scratchnot Felt
  • A QGIS user who has hit the limits of the native toolbox and needs the SAGA algorithms already exposed in the processing frameworknot Felt

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Felt

  • Felt publishes no prices for Professional or Enterprise, so buyers cannot compare against ArcGIS Online or QGIS with hosting without entering a sales process
  • Paid tiers are annual contract only with no monthly option, which excludes consultancies that need a tool for a single short engagement and forces them to the free non-commercial tier they are not licensed to use for client work
  • The API, JavaScript SDK and live warehouse connections are enterprise-only, so a mid-sized team that wants programmatic access has to buy the top tier rather than pay for one capability
  • Analytical depth is limited: there is no meaningful geoprocessing, topology checking or model building, so Felt sits beside a real GIS rather than replacing one
  • The Professional tier caps data processing at 25 GB a month and map views at 100,000 a month, which are easy to exceed with raster imagery or a public-facing map, and the overage terms are not published either

SAGA GIS

  • There is no commercial support contract available from anyone, so a procurement process that requires a named supplier with a service level cannot be satisfied and the organisation carries the whole operational risk itself
  • The project explicitly states that everyone working on it has another job and that answers may take a while, which means an urgent production failure has no escalation path
  • The interface is dated and inconsistent across modules, and cartographic output is poor, so most users treat it as an analysis engine and produce maps somewhere else
  • Documentation for many of the several hundred modules is a parameter list without explanation of method or expected input, so choosing the right algorithm often requires reading the source or a published paper
  • Development is concentrated in a small group, which creates real key-person risk: a change in the circumstances of a handful of maintainers would slow or stop releases, and there is no organisation obliged to continue them

Pricing, plan by plan

Felt

Free
  • PersonalFree
    • Free forever for non-commercial mapping
    • Map creation, upload and sharing
    • Not licensed for commercial use
  • Professional$undefined/year
    • 10 full-access seats with unlimited viewers
    • 25 GB of data processing per month
    • 100,000 map views per month
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Live cloud sources including Postgres, Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks and S3
    • REST API and JavaScript SDK
    • AI features

SAGA GIS

Free
  • SAGA GISFree
    • GNU General Public Licence
    • No licence fee and no usage limits
    • No commercial support contract exists

Which should you pick?

Choose Felt if

  • You need real-time collaboration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want drag and drop data.
Felt review

Choose SAGA GIS if

  • You need terrain morphometry.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Windows, Linux, macOS.
  • You also want hydrological modelling.
SAGA GIS review

Questions people ask

Is Felt or SAGA GIS better?
Neither clearly leads. Felt starts at Free and SAGA GIS at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Felt or SAGA GIS?
Felt starts at Free and SAGA GIS at Free.
Does Felt or SAGA GIS run on more platforms?
Felt runs on Web, iOS, Android. SAGA GIS runs on Windows, Linux, macOS.
Can I use Felt for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Felt best used for?
Felt is most often used for an environmental consultancy that needs a client to view and comment on survey results without installing gis software, a utility field crew collecting asset condition offline and syncing to the same map the office is looking at, a planning department sharing a proposal map with the public where the viewer count is unpredictable and viewer seats would be uncosted, a team of analysts who each hold data in different formats and want one map assembled in an afternoon rather than a week. Of those, an environmental consultancy that needs a client to view and comment on survey results without installing gis software and a utility field crew collecting asset condition offline and syncing to the same map the office is looking at are not what SAGA GIS is typically brought in for.
What can Felt do that SAGA GIS cannot?
Felt covers Real-time collaboration, Drag and drop data, Unlimited viewers, Field app with offline support. SAGA GIS covers Terrain morphometry, Hydrological modelling, Geostatistics, Image analysis.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Felt: What does Felt cost?

Felt does not publish prices for Professional or Enterprise. Personal is free but licensed for non-commercial use only.

SAGA GIS: Who maintains SAGA GIS?

A small international developer community, originating from physical geography departments at the universities of Göttingen and Hamburg. It is hosted on SourceForge and releases continue in the 9.x line.

Felt: Can I pay monthly?

No. Paid plans are annual contracts. There is a 7 day trial of Professional.

SAGA GIS: Can I buy support?

No. There is no vendor and no commercial support contract. The project itself states there is no hotline and no guaranteed support.

Felt: Do viewers cost anything?

No. Viewer access is unlimited on the paid plans, which is the main reason organisations with large map audiences choose it.

SAGA GIS: Do I need SAGA if I already run QGIS?

Often not, because many SAGA algorithms are available through the QGIS processing toolbox. Install SAGA directly when you need modules QGIS does not expose or want to script them independently.

Felt: Is there a nonprofit discount?

Yes, 30 per cent for verified United States nonprofits, and free access for verified students and classrooms.

SAGA GIS: What licence is it under?

The GNU General Public Licence, so you can modify and redistribute it under the same terms.

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