How We Saved $250K/Year by Ditching ESRI for Open-Source GIS
(And You Can Too)
The $250,000 Question
If you're a GIS manager, you've probably had this conversation with your CFO:
"Why are we spending $250,000 per year on ESRI licenses when there's free software that does the same thing?"
Until recently, the answer was simple: "Because ArcGIS is the industry standard, and we don't have time to retrain our team."
But in 2024, we made the switch. Our 10-person GIS team migrated from ArcGIS to a 100% open-source stack. Not only did we save $250K/year in licensing costs, but we actually increased our capabilities.
Here's how we did it—and how you can too.
Our ESRI Stack (The $250K Problem)
Before the migration, our annual ESRI costs looked like this:
| Product | Licenses | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|
| ArcGIS Pro (Named User) | 10 | $15,000 |
| Spatial Analyst Extension | 10 | $30,000 |
| 3D Analyst Extension | 5 | $15,000 |
| Network Analyst Extension | 5 | $15,000 |
| Image Analyst Extension | 3 | $9,000 |
| ArcGIS Server (Enterprise) | 2 cores | $50,000 |
| ArcGIS Online (Creator accounts) | 10 | $25,000 |
| Portal for ArcGIS | 1 | $15,000 |
| Support & Maintenance (20%) | - | $35,000 |
| TOTAL | $209,000 |
Add in training costs, upgrade cycles, and "hidden" expenses like hardware requirements for running ArcGIS Server, and we were easily hitting $250,000/year.
And that's for a mid-size team. Enterprise customers with 50+ analysts? Try $1M+/year.
The Breaking Point: When ESRI's Pricing Model Broke Us
The final straw came in Q4 2023. Our solar development clients were asking us to screen 10,000+ parcels per month for utility-scale projects. With ArcGIS, this meant:
- Manual labor: Each parcel took 30 minutes to analyze (slope, flood zones, solar irradiance, distance to transmission).
- Licensing bottlenecks: We only had 10 ArcGIS Pro licenses. Queue times were killing us.
- Server costs: Running ArcGIS Server for web services? $50K/year + $10K in AWS hosting.
We did the math:
- 10,000 parcels/month × 30 minutes = 5,000 hours/month
- 5,000 hours ÷ 160 hours/analyst = 31 full-time analysts needed
- 31 analysts × $20,900/year (ArcGIS Pro + extensions) = $648,000/year just for software!
That's when we knew: ESRI's pricing model doesn't scale with automation.
The Open-Source Alternative (Our New Stack)
We replaced the entire ESRI stack with free, open-source tools. Here's the mapping:
| ESRI Product | Open-Source Replacement | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|
| ArcGIS Pro | QGIS 3.38 | $0 |
| Spatial Analyst | GRASS GIS / SAGA GIS | $0 |
| 3D Analyst | QGIS 3D / Cesium | $0 |
| Network Analyst | pgRouting (PostGIS extension) | $0 |
| Image Analyst | Orfeo Toolbox / GDAL | $0 |
| ArcGIS Server | GeoServer + MapServer | $0 |
| ArcGIS Online | MapLibre GL JS + Leaflet | $0 |
| Portal for ArcGIS | GeoNode | $0 |
| Database | PostGIS (PostgreSQL extension) | $0 |
| TOTAL | $0 |
Hosting costs: $144/year (DigitalOcean $12/month droplet)
Annual savings: $249,856
Want the Full 4000-Word Guide?
Download the complete migration guide including 90-day timeline, lessons learned, when NOT to switch, and detailed feature comparisons.
Download Full Guide (Markdown)Key Takeaways
- Cost Savings: $250K/year → $144/year (99.94% reduction)
- Migration Time: 90 days for full production deployment
- Team Productivity: Increased after migration (automation + no license limits)
- Best For: Teams doing bulk analysis, automation, or web mapping
- Not For: Enterprise GIS with heavy ArcGIS Server dependencies, teams requiring ESRI enterprise support
Ready to Migrate?
We help GIS teams migrate from ESRI to open-source stacks. Our 90-day migration includes:
- Complete cost/benefit analysis for your team
- Custom migration plan
- Team training (QGIS, PostGIS, GeoServer)
- Data migration assistance
- Workflow automation setup
- 3 months of post-migration support
Save $250K/Year on Your GIS Stack
Schedule a free 30-minute consultation to see if open-source GIS is right for your team
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