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Maps · head to head

Felt vs WhiteboxTools

Felt logo

Felt

Maps

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
WhiteboxTools logo

WhiteboxTools

Maps

Open source geospatial analysis engine with several hundred raster, LiDAR and hydrological tools

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; WhiteboxTools there is no vendor and no commercial support contract, so an organisation whose regulatory or client obligations require an answerable supplier cannot use it for that work no matter how good the algorithms are.
  • They diverge on capability: Felt covers Real-time collaboration, WhiteboxTools covers Hydrological analysis.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Felt and WhiteboxTools actually diverge.

Attributes where Felt and WhiteboxTools differ
AttributeFeltWhiteboxTools
Pricing modelquoteOpen source, no licence fee
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWindows, macOS, Linux

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 WhiteboxTools

  • Hydrological analysis
  • LiDAR processing
  • Terrain derivatives
  • Raster analysis
  • Image processing
  • Python and R front ends
  • QGIS plugin
  • MIT licence

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 WhiteboxTools
  • A utility field crew collecting asset condition offline and syncing to the same map the office is looking atnot WhiteboxTools
  • A planning department sharing a proposal map with the public where the viewer count is unpredictable and viewer seats would be uncostednot WhiteboxTools
  • A team of analysts who each hold data in different formats and want one map assembled in an afternoon rather than a weeknot WhiteboxTools

WhiteboxTools

  • A hydrologist who needs depression breaching rather than filling on a large DEM, because filling destroys the drainage structure the model depends onnot Felt
  • A forestry or environmental team processing airborne LiDAR into canopy height and terrain models without buying a point cloud licence per analystnot Felt
  • A GIS developer embedding terrain analysis into a commercial product, where the MIT licence avoids the copyleft obligations of GRASS or SAGAnot Felt
  • A university teaching geomorphometry where every student needs the full toolset on their own laptop at zero costnot 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

WhiteboxTools

  • There is no vendor and no commercial support contract, so an organisation whose regulatory or client obligations require an answerable supplier cannot use it for that work no matter how good the algorithms are.
  • Maintenance depends on a single academic research group and effectively on one professor, which is a real continuity risk for anything embedded in a production pipeline for a decade.
  • It is command line first; the QGIS plugin and Python bindings help, but analysts who expect a graphical workflow with previews and undo find it unforgiving.
  • Documentation is a reference manual rather than a set of worked workflows, so knowing which of 450 tools to chain for a given problem requires domain knowledge the software does not supply.
  • Naming and behaviour overlap confusingly with the older Whitebox GAT, a separate GPL-licensed desktop GIS from the same group, and adopters regularly install or cite the wrong one.

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

WhiteboxTools

Free
  • WhiteboxTools open coreFree
    • MIT licence
    • Over 450 geospatial tools
    • Python, R and QGIS front ends

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 WhiteboxTools if

  • You need hydrological analysis.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, Linux.
  • You also want lidar processing.
WhiteboxTools review

Questions people ask

Is Felt or WhiteboxTools better?
Neither clearly leads. Felt starts at Free and WhiteboxTools at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Felt or WhiteboxTools?
Felt starts at Free and WhiteboxTools at Free.
Does Felt or WhiteboxTools run on more platforms?
Felt runs on Web, iOS, Android. WhiteboxTools runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
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 WhiteboxTools is typically brought in for.
What can Felt do that WhiteboxTools cannot?
Felt covers Real-time collaboration, Drag and drop data, Unlimited viewers, Field app with offline support. WhiteboxTools covers Hydrological analysis, LiDAR processing, Terrain derivatives, Raster 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.

WhiteboxTools: Is WhiteboxTools free for commercial use?

Yes. It is MIT licensed, which permits commercial use and embedding without a copyleft obligation.

Felt: Can I pay monthly?

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

WhiteboxTools: Is there paid support?

No general commercial support contract is offered. Support is GitHub issues and community forums. Budget internal expertise instead.

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.

WhiteboxTools: Who maintains it?

Professor John Lindsay and the Geomorphometry and Hydrogeomatics Research Group at the University of Guelph, Canada.

Felt: Is there a nonprofit discount?

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

WhiteboxTools: How is it different from Whitebox GAT?

Whitebox GAT is an older GPL-licensed desktop GIS from the same group. WhiteboxTools is the newer Rust command line engine with a permissive licence. They are not the same product.

WhiteboxTools: Can I use it from QGIS?

Yes, through a plugin, and also from Python and R.

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