ArcGIS Field Maps vs SW Maps
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
SW Maps
This app allows users to collect, present, and share geographic information. It supports recording points, lines, polygons, and associated data like photos and audio. High-accuracy GPS surveys are possible with external receivers, and data can be shared in various standard formats.
- Collect points, lines, and polygons
- Attach custom attributes (text, photo, audio, video)
- High-accuracy GPS surveys with external receivers
- Offline map support
- Export data in multiple formats (Shapefile, GeoPackage, CSV)
- Create and share project templates
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SW Maps is a free GIS and mobile mapping app for collecting, presenting and sharing geographic information. Whether you are conducting a full scale GNSS survey with high precision instruments, need to collect large amount of location based data using nothing but your phone, or just need to view a few shapefiles with labels over a background map on the go, SW Maps has it all covered. Record points, lines, polygons and even photos and have them displayed over your choice of background map, and attach custom attribute data to any feature. Attribute types include text, numbers, an option from a predefined set of choices, photos, audio clips and videos. Conduct high accuracy GPS surveys using external RTK capable receivers over Bluetooth LE. Draw features on the map by adding markers, and measure distance and area. Reuse the layers and attributes of a previous project for another survey, or create templates and share them with other users. Share the collected data with other users as Geopackages, KMZ or shapefiles, or export them to your device storage. Also share and export recorded data as Spreadsheets or CSV files. All data is recorded and exported in the standard WGS84 Geographic coordinate system (EPSG:4326). Features -Online Base maps: Apple Maps or Open Street Map -Support for multiple mbtiles and KML overlays -Shapefile and Geopackage layers, with attribute categorized styling. View shapefiles in any coordinate system supported by the PROJ.4 library. -Add multiple online WMTS, TMS, XYZ or WMS layers and cache tiles for offline use. -Connect to external GPS receivers using Bluetooth for high accuracy surveying using RTK with built-in NTRIP client. Also record data from external receiver for post processing. -Define multiple number of feature layers, each with a set of custom attributes Feature Types: Point, Line, Polygon Attribute Types:Text, Numeric, Drop down Options, Photos, Audio, Video Save as Template for re-use or sharing -Record GPS tracks, with distance measurement -Label features based on attribute values. -Import feature layers from templates or existing projects. -Share or export collected data as KMZ (with embedded photographs) , shapefiles, GeoJSON, Geopackage (GPKG), XLS/ODS spreadsheets or csv files. -Share templates or projects with other users -Supports use of GTX geoid files. To use custom geoids, prepare a GTX file with offsets in meters from WGS84. This product is made in Nepal and is FREE (no Ads). If you find this useful, please let your friends know that you have used a product from Nepal. Spare sometime to visit this wonderful country and know the Nepali people.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: SW Maps at 3.8 against ArcGIS Field Maps's 2.2. SW Maps also leads on review sentiment (30% vs 11%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.5). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SW Maps holds the better App Store score, 3.8 against 2.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 45 and 25 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 11% of ArcGIS Field Maps's written reviews are positive against 30% of SW Maps's.
ArcGIS Field Maps ships an update monthly, SW Maps every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ArcGIS Field Maps | SW Maps |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.2 (45 ratings) | 3.8 (25 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 11.4% of reviews | 30.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 45 — better | 25 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.5 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 161 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ESRI | Aviyaan Tech |
Customer experience
ArcGIS Field Maps
SW Maps
Bugs and requests
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 moreShow fewer
- 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 moreShow fewer
- 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
SW Maps
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ArcGIS Field Maps
No in-app purchases
SW Maps
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is ArcGIS Field Maps free?
Is SW Maps free?
Which has better reviews, ArcGIS Field Maps or SW Maps?
Do ArcGIS Field Maps or SW Maps have ads?
Which is updated more often, ArcGIS Field Maps or SW Maps?
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