Comparison

Bluebeam vs ArcGIS Field Maps

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Bluebeam

Access and collaborate on PDF documents directly from your mobile device. Communicate project updates with markups and work offline by syncing files. Seamlessly join live collaboration sessions and manage document revisions from the field.

Highlights
  • Real-time PDF collaboration
  • Markup and annotation tools
  • Offline file access
  • Document syncing
  • Studio Project management
  • Live session joining
Features
Read full description

Bluebeam for iOS keeps you connected to your teams and documents, so you can quickly access the information you need in the field and capture what matters for the office. - Communicate with markups using tools like callouts, text, clouds, and status indicators - Import your team's custom Tool Sets from Revu, so your standardized markups are ready to go in the field, even offline - Attach photos captured in the field directly to a markup, so supporting documentation stays organized without cluttering your drawings - Open your files stored on your device, Studio Projects, or Studio Sessions - Join Studio Sessions for live collaboration. If your connection drops, your changes sync when you're back online - Check out files in Studio Projects to make edits, then check them back in when you're ready - Work offline by syncing Project files ahead of time or opening PDFs stored on your device Whether you’re reviewing submittals, placing markups in the field, or tracking revisions with your team, Bluebeam gives you the flexibility to get the job done from anywhere.

About

ArcGIS Field Maps

This app provides mobile workers with interactive digital maps to understand their surroundings, locate assets, and collect data. It features smart forms for efficient data entry, offline capabilities, and location sharing for coordination and safety. Designed for organizational use, it supports fieldwork for various teams.

Highlights
  • Interactive digital maps
  • Smart forms for data collection
  • Offline map capabilities
  • Location sharing and tracking
  • Geofence alerts
  • Asset scanning and annotation
  • Data editing and syncing
Features
Read full description

ArcGIS is available on your desktop, in a browser, and now on your iPhone or iPad. ArcGIS Field Maps is Esri’s premier maps app on mobile devices. Field Maps helps mobile workers understand their surroundings, find assets, collect data, and perform inspections, leveraging interactive digital maps that contain up-to-date GIS data from their organization. It includes powerful features like location sharing, smart forms for efficient data collection, geofence alerts, and the ability to complete fieldwork even when offline. Whether you're part of a utility crew, a conservation team, or a city inspection unit,Field Mapsis designed to support the work you do on the ground. Note about permissions:Field Maps is designed for organizational use. This app requires you to have an ArcGIS organizational account to collect and update data. Public maps shared by organizations can be viewed without signing in. Understand your surroundings: - View assets and surrounding landmarks or places on GPS-enabled maps. - Search for assets and access important information about them. - Use compass guidance to lead you directly to assets and locations. - Scan barcodes or QR codes to pull up asset records instantly. - Annotate directly on the map with your finger or stylus to create personal notes. - Leverage integration with voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation apps to get to your assets. - Stay safe with geofence alerts as you enter fire zones, wildlife habitats, work areas, etc. - Measure distances and areas in the map. - Gain advanced understanding by viewing and tracing utility networks. - View stationing information along linear assets. - View assets and locations in floor-aware indoor maps. Perform data capture and inspections: - Create new or edit existing asset data. - Connect to external GNSS receivers for high-accuracy data. - Digitally document inspection records. - Capture photos, videos, and other attachments. - Speed up data capture with smart forms and reduce manual entry by automatically filling in fields like date or inspector name and making automated calculations. - Share your updates instantly with your organization when using an online map and automatically sync stored updates to offline maps when connected. - Collect assets and perform inspections indoors. Share your location for coordination & safety: - Share your location with supervisors and teammates (when enabled). - View teammate locations to coordinate efforts and ensure safety (when enabled). - Tracks show where you’ve been so you can visually see what area you’ve covered. Work offline in remote or disconnected areas: - Download offline map areas created for you. - Create your own offline map areas on device (if enabled). - Sync edits automatically or manually when connected. Coordination and collaboration: - View edits and contributions from others as they are synced with your map. - Use tasks to view and complete field assignments from a to-do list. - Stakeholders can view fieldwork progress in the office and make data-informed decisions. Note: Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life.

Screenshots

Bluebeam4 screens
ArcGIS Field Maps4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: ArcGIS Field Maps at 2.1 against Bluebeam's 1.5. ArcGIS Field Maps also leads on review sentiment (11% vs 3%). Bluebeam's advantage is ratings volume (410 vs 58). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ArcGIS Field Maps holds the better App Store score, 2.1 against 1.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Bluebeam has 410 ratings behind it against 58, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 3% of Bluebeam's written reviews are positive against 11% of ArcGIS Field Maps's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Bluebeam versus ArcGIS Field Maps: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBluebeamArcGIS Field Maps
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.5 (410 ratings)2.1 (58 ratings) — better
Positive reviews2.9% of reviews11.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings410 — better58
Update frequencyMonthlyMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.0 — better18.5
Further details — not scored
Size295 MB161 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBluebeam, Inc.ESRI

Customer experience

Bluebeam

All ratings406 ratings
Positive9.9%
Neutral2.0%
Negative88.2%
Written reviews245 reviews
Positive2.9%
Neutral2.9%
Negative94.3%

ArcGIS Field Maps

All ratings45 ratings
Positive24.4%
Neutral8.9%
Negative66.7%
Written reviews114 reviews
Positive11.4%
Neutral19.3%
Negative69.3%

User reviews

Bluebeam

From 410 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ✅ Automatic saving functionality works well
  • 📱 Useful for viewing PDFs on the go
  • 🔄 Good for accessing Studio sessions
  • 📊 Desktop version is powerful and feature-rich
  • 🎯 Cleaner, more modern interface design

Room to improve

  • ❌ Massive feature loss compared to Revu for iPad
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezing issues
  • 📉 Severely limited markup tools and capabilities
  • 🖊️ Apple Pencil input is unresponsive and laggy
  • 💾 Data loss and corruption issues

ArcGIS Field Maps

From 58 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🗺️ Comprehensive mapping capabilities when functioning
  • 📊 Powerful data collection features for field work
  • 🔄 Integration with ArcGIS ecosystem
  • 📍 Useful for basic map information and POI lookup
  • 🎯 Improved form calculations and contingent values

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
  • ⚠️ Unreliable offline map functionality
  • 🔄 Constant need to delete and reinstall app
  • 📥 Offline download failures and incomplete syncing
  • ⏱️ Slow performance and lag

Bugs and requests

Bluebeam

Reported bugs

28 issues
  • Markups fail to load or display correctly
  • App deletes markups instead of saving them
  • Documents wipe clean when reopened
  • Files uploaded disappear from app
  • Corrupted file errors when opening PDFs
Show 23 more
  • Keyboard disappears during login
  • Selection boundaries too large, preventing precise markup selection
  • Apple Pencil input stops working intermittently
  • Pen tool produces no line output despite input
  • App crashes when opening large file sets
  • Session documents fail to load
  • Blank PDF pages displayed
  • Scaling doesn't work properly
  • Blue screen errors
  • Markups missing after checkout and checkin
  • Incomplete markups syncing between devices
  • App freezes during document checkin
  • Unable to add users to sessions
  • Projects not showing up in app
  • App crashes when opening Studio sessions
  • Drawings won't load or open
  • Markup placement doesn't correspond to tap location
  • PDF goes blank when inserting callouts
  • Constant logout requiring re-authentication
  • Links to details don't work
  • App crashes on older iOS versions
  • Audio communication issues
  • File synchronization failures

Requested features

25 requests
  • Restore measurement and scaling tools
  • Add custom toolsets and tool libraries
  • Implement bookmarks for document navigation
  • Enable image embedding in callouts
  • Add undo/redo functionality
Show 20 more
  • Support multiple PDF tabs simultaneously
  • Create stamp library with standardized markups
  • Add dimension markup capabilities
  • Allow local PDF file access and import
  • Full Studio session integration
  • Improve Apple Pencil responsiveness and precision
  • Add eraser tool for pen markups
  • Enable photo capture and attachment to markups
  • Support Dropbox and cloud storage integration
  • Add form field editing capabilities
  • Implement punch list and defect tracking
  • Add RFI creation functionality
  • Support for custom columns and data fields
  • Reset viewpoints feature
  • Pen width and cloud shape customization
  • Settings menu for preferences
  • Better pen and drawing mechanics like Notability
  • Ability to download session documents to device
  • Support for opening PDF attachments from desktop
  • Batch file upload capability

ArcGIS Field Maps

Reported bugs

20 issues
  • App crashes on startup and during use
  • Layers fail to load intermittently
  • Offline map downloads fail or hang indefinitely
  • Authentication errors and keyboard not appearing on login
  • Maps load only 30% of the time
Show 15 more
  • Search functionality broken
  • Markup files lost after updates
  • Multiple markup layers no longer supported
  • Touch/tap detection inaccurate requiring multiple attempts
  • Photo EXIF direction data captured at wrong time
  • Location tracking bounces around map
  • App freezes when rotating screen
  • Syncing issues with offline edits
  • Feature class save errors
  • Arcade expression errors in feature classes
  • Raster layer display issues
  • Text rendering problems
  • Battery drain up to 10% per minute
  • Required token errors appearing randomly
  • Cooldown period between POI data entry updates

Requested features

13 requests
  • Stylus support for drawing features
  • Landscape mode for iPhone devices
  • Apple Watch integration and capabilities
  • Export functionality (GPX, KMZ formats)
  • Improved offline area size and quality selection
Show 8 more
  • Better cone of vision visibility
  • Attribute table visibility in field
  • CarPlay compatibility
  • Share individual features, not just map center
  • Notification when position collection completes
  • Permanent UI customization options
  • More markup colors and customization
  • Improved search functionality

In-app purchases

None

Bluebeam

No in-app purchases

None

ArcGIS Field Maps

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bluebeam free?
Bluebeam is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ArcGIS Field Maps free?
ArcGIS Field Maps is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bluebeam or ArcGIS Field Maps?
ArcGIS Field Maps is rated higher. Bluebeam averages 1.5 out of 5 from 410 ratings, while ArcGIS Field Maps averages 2.1 from 58 ratings.
Do Bluebeam or ArcGIS Field Maps have ads?
Neither Bluebeam nor ArcGIS Field Maps shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bluebeam or ArcGIS Field Maps?
Bluebeam ships an update monthly, and ArcGIS Field Maps monthly. Most recently, Bluebeam was updated on November 3, 2026 and ArcGIS Field Maps on November 5, 2026.

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