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Maps · head to head

ArcGIS Field Maps vs Lonboard

ArcGIS Field Maps logo

ArcGIS Field Maps

Maps

Esri field data collection that cannot be bought on its own, only with an ArcGIS user type

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Lonboard logo

Lonboard

Maps

Python map rendering in Jupyter that skips GeoJSON and moves millions of features without choking

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Lonboard has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: ArcGIS Field Maps field Maps has no price of its own, so a project budget built from the product page misses the Creator seats, the Mobile Worker seats and the ArcGIS Online credits or Enterprise infrastructure that actually cost money; Lonboard it is a notebook visualisation library, not a mapping application, so there is no editing, no layout, no map export for print and no sharing beyond distributing the notebook or an HTML file
  • They diverge on capability: ArcGIS Field Maps covers Offline map areas, Lonboard covers GeoArrow binary transfer.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which ArcGIS Field Maps and Lonboard actually diverge.

Attributes where ArcGIS Field Maps and Lonboard differ
AttributeArcGIS Field MapsLonboard
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelIncluded with an ArcGIS user type licenceOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsiOS, Android, WebLinux, macOS, Windows

Identical on both: 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 ArcGIS Field Maps

  • Offline map areas
  • Smart forms
  • High-accuracy GNSS
  • Location sharing
  • Assignment dispatch
  • Indoor positioning
  • Direct editing of authoritative data

Only in Lonboard

  • GeoArrow binary transfer
  • GeoPandas input
  • deck.gl layers
  • Jupyter widget
  • Large dataset handling
  • Styling by attribute
  • Open source licence

What people use each for

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

ArcGIS Field Maps

  • A water utility whose inspectors update the same asset feature service the office GIS runs on, rather than filling in forms that someone re-keysnot Lonboard
  • A county carrying out a sign inventory where crews work in areas without mobile coverage and need offline maps that sync laternot Lonboard
  • An environmental team needing sub-metre positions from an external GNSS receiver recorded directly against the authoritative datasetnot Lonboard
  • An organisation consolidating from Collector, Explorer, Tracker and Workforce onto a single app after Esri retired themnot Lonboard

Lonboard

  • An analyst exploring a national road or parcel dataset in a notebook where pydeck or ipyleaflet becomes unusable at that sizenot ArcGIS Field Maps
  • A researcher publishing a reproducible analysis where the visualisation must run from the same script as the processingnot ArcGIS Field Maps
  • A data scientist joining spatial data to model outputs in pandas and needing to see the result immediately without exporting to a GISnot ArcGIS Field Maps
  • A team building an internal analysis pipeline on GeoParquet that wants rendering without a serialisation step in the middlenot ArcGIS Field Maps

Where each one falls short

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

ArcGIS Field Maps

  • Field Maps has no price of its own, so a project budget built from the product page misses the Creator seats, the Mobile Worker seats and the ArcGIS Online credits or Enterprise infrastructure that actually cost money
  • It only works against Esri feature services, so an organisation whose data is in PostGIS or a database without an ArcGIS layer must publish through Esri first, which is a platform decision rather than an app choice
  • Named user licensing means occasional or seasonal field staff still consume a full annual seat, and organisations with a large pool of infrequent collectors pay for capacity they use a few weeks a year
  • As a forms tool alone it is more rigid and more expensive than dedicated mobile forms products, so its value collapses if you are not already committed to ArcGIS
  • The consolidation of four apps into one changed established workflows, and organisations that had built processes around Collector or Workforce have had to rework them on Esri's timetable rather than their own

Lonboard

  • It is a notebook visualisation library, not a mapping application, so there is no editing, no layout, no map export for print and no sharing beyond distributing the notebook or an HTML file
  • Maintenance sits with Development Seed as an open source side output of a consultancy, so roadmap priorities follow client projects and there is no support contract to buy
  • Layer coverage is a subset of deck.gl, so an analyst needing a less common layer type has to drop to pydeck or write JavaScript rather than staying in Python
  • It expects data already in GeoPandas or Arrow form, which means the performance benefit depends on the rest of your pipeline being Arrow-friendly; reading a large Shapefile is still the slow step
  • Rendering happens in the browser, so very large datasets are ultimately limited by the client machine's memory and GPU rather than by the server, and a laptop will still fail on data a workstation handles

Pricing, plan by plan

ArcGIS Field Maps

On request
  • Mobile Worker user type$undefined/year
    • Field editing in Field Maps included with no additional purchase
    • Cannot author maps; requires a Creator seat elsewhere in the organisation
    • Priced per named user per year
  • Creator user type$undefined/year
    • Required to author and publish the maps that field workers use
    • At least one Creator needed before Field Maps can be deployed
    • Includes Field Maps editing as well as authoring
  • ArcGIS Enterprise deployment$undefined/year
    • Field Maps against self-hosted ArcGIS Enterprise instead of ArcGIS Online
    • Server licensing and infrastructure priced separately
    • Quoted through Esri or a distributor

Lonboard

Free
  • LonboardFree
    • Open source, no licence fee
    • No usage limits
    • Installed from PyPI or conda

Which should you pick?

Choose ArcGIS Field Maps if

  • You need offline map areas.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Web.
  • You also want smart forms.
ArcGIS Field Maps review

Choose Lonboard if

  • You need geoarrow binary transfer.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want geopandas input.
Lonboard review

Questions people ask

Is ArcGIS Field Maps or Lonboard better?
Neither clearly leads. ArcGIS Field Maps starts at On request and Lonboard at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, ArcGIS Field Maps or Lonboard?
Lonboard has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for ArcGIS Field Maps and Free for Lonboard.
Does ArcGIS Field Maps or Lonboard run on more platforms?
ArcGIS Field Maps runs on iOS, Android, Web. Lonboard runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Lonboard for free?
Yes. Lonboard has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. ArcGIS Field Maps starts at On request.
What is ArcGIS Field Maps best used for?
ArcGIS Field Maps is most often used for a water utility whose inspectors update the same asset feature service the office gis runs on, rather than filling in forms that someone re-keys, a county carrying out a sign inventory where crews work in areas without mobile coverage and need offline maps that sync later, an environmental team needing sub-metre positions from an external gnss receiver recorded directly against the authoritative dataset, an organisation consolidating from collector, explorer, tracker and workforce onto a single app after esri retired them. Of those, a water utility whose inspectors update the same asset feature service the office gis runs on, rather than filling in forms that someone re-keys and a county carrying out a sign inventory where crews work in areas without mobile coverage and need offline maps that sync later are not what Lonboard is typically brought in for.
What can ArcGIS Field Maps do that Lonboard cannot?
ArcGIS Field Maps covers Offline map areas, Smart forms, High-accuracy GNSS, Location sharing. Lonboard covers GeoArrow binary transfer, GeoPandas input, deck.gl layers, Jupyter widget.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

ArcGIS Field Maps: Can I buy Field Maps on its own?

No. It is included with the Mobile Worker, Creator and GIS Professional user types, and you need at least one Creator in the organisation to author maps.

Lonboard: Why not just use pydeck?

pydeck serialises geometry to GeoJSON to reach the browser. Lonboard uses a binary GeoArrow pipeline, which is the reason it handles far larger datasets in the same notebook.

ArcGIS Field Maps: What replaced Collector and Workforce?

Field Maps. Esri merged Collector, Explorer, Tracker and Workforce into it and retired the separate apps.

Lonboard: Who maintains it?

Development Seed, a geospatial engineering consultancy, as an open source project. There is no commercial support offering.

ArcGIS Field Maps: Does it work offline?

Yes. Map areas are downloaded in advance and edits synchronise when connectivity returns.

Lonboard: Does it work outside Jupyter?

It is built as a Jupyter widget. Exporting to standalone HTML is possible, but the intended environment is a notebook.

ArcGIS Field Maps: Can it write to a non-Esri database?

Not directly. The data must be published as an ArcGIS feature service, which may sit over an enterprise geodatabase you already run.

Lonboard: Is it free for commercial use?

Yes, it is open source with no licence fee.

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