We build Mapit GIS for people doing real work in the field. So it's genuinely rewarding to find that researchers, with no prompting from us, have chosen Mapit for their studies and published the results. Quietly, since 2016, Mapit has appeared in more than 60 peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, theses, and reports across 34 countries and six continents.

Here's a short tour.

Trusted for land administration - by the people who define the field​

The deepest evidence is in cadastre and fit-for-purpose land administration (FFPLA) - and it includes some of the discipline's most authoritative voices:

• In Nepal, Mapit was used to collect parcel boundaries for a cadastral-map validation study co-authored by Christiaan Lemmen, co-author of the international LADM land-administration standard (University of Twente ITC / FIG).
• In Greece and Romania, Mapit was the open-source field collector for crowdsourced cadastral surveys led by a former President of FIG, the International Federation of Surveyors (ISPRS Int. J. of Geo-Information, 2020).
• In Namibia, a TU Munich team used Mapit to measure plot boundaries for the country's Flexible Land Tenure System (Survey Review, 2022); and across Ghana, Kenya and Namibia it was the core para-surveyor parcel-mapping tool in three FFPLA case studies (Land, 2021).
• In Indonesia, several studies of the national PTSL land-registration programme rated Mapit "very effective" against the ISO/IEC 9126 software-quality standard - and the national geospatial agency used it as the field controller for centimetre-grade RTK cadastral survey.

Given that only about 30% of the world has formal land records, that's a meaningful pattern.

Environmental and marine science​

On a coral-reef island in French Polynesia, a team monitoring long-term coastline change called the Mapit-based method "fast, precise, and very inexpensive," with "repeatability and transferability" (Ocean & Coastal Management, 2019). A peer-reviewed state-of-the-art review of mobile GIS apps for environmental surveys featured Mapit Spatial among the leading tools (Global Ecology & Conservation, 2020). And in the forests around Mexico City, capturing coordinates with Mapit's device GPS prevented data-entry errors in a participatory ozone-damage study (Conservation Biology, 2023).

The reach keeps going: wetland remote sensing (Poland), coastal-flood vulnerability (Cameroon), an endemic-macroalga climate-risk study (Canary Islands), landslide and disaster-risk surveys (Mexico, Serbia, Gabon, Italy), irrigated-area and crop ground-reference mapping (Italy, Mexico), UAV tree-height-growth and breeding-bird surveys (Germany), and urban tree inventories and tree-health mapping (Brazil, Guatemala, Poland).

Public health, infrastructure, and beyond​

A connected international neglected-tropical-disease network (NLR, NHR, Erasmus MC) uses Mapit to map leprosy, tuberculosis and COVID-19 cases across Bangladesh, India and Brazil - in journals like PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and BMC Infectious Diseases. Elsewhere it's mapped pedestrian lighting for a US Department of Transportation pilot, water-supply networks (India, Cameroon), waste-collection routes (Malaysia), and archaeological fieldwork from contemporary-heritage recording in Norway to a palm-garden rescue survey in the United Arab Emirates.

What keeps coming up​

Across these very different projects, researchers value the same things: it's easy to use for non-specialists and para-surveyors, it works offline, it stores data in open formats (GeoPackage, with one-tap export to QGIS), it captures points, lines, polygons, attributes and photos together, and it's affordable and fast to deploy. Recent releases add advanced editing, GeoPDF and GeoTIFF support, new export formats including GeoParquet, and high-accuracy positioning in Mapit Pro+.

You can browse the full, growing list - grouped by field, with links - on our Mapit in Research page.

We'd like to support researchers​

If you're using Mapit GIS in your research, or planning to, we want to help, and we'd love to hear what you're building and what would make Mapit better for fieldwork. Get in touch or send us feedback.

The studies mentioned here were conducted independently by their authors; we cite their published work and make no claim of endorsement or affiliation.

Every surveyor knows the quiet little lie in a hand-digitised parcel layer: the boundaries don't quite line up. Trace a new plot next to an existing one and you either leave a hairline gap or, more often, a sliver of overlap. The overlap gets counted twice, the parcel areas stop adding up, and the "clean" dataset you hand over isn't.

Vertex Snapping got you onto the existing vertices. Avoid Overlaps finishes the job: a topology rule that makes sure the polygon you just drew never overlaps the ones already there - on the phone, in the field, fully offline.

Draw sloppy, save clean​

This is the part that changes how you capture. You no longer trace a shared boundary by hand. You draw your polygon so it deliberately crosses over the neighbour - be generous - and finish the edit. Mapit detects the overlap and offers to clip your shape back to the neighbour's real edge:

Overlap detected - This polygon overlaps 1 existing feature. Clip to the shared boundary?

A preview shows your shape in red and the clipped result in green. Tap Apply and your polygon stops exactly on the neighbour's boundary, inheriting its vertices along the shared edge - so the two features share one mathematically identical line. No gap. No overlap. No re-tracing.

Enclaves get a hole​

Drew a parcel that completely surrounds an easement or a building footprint? Clipping would leave nothing, so Mapit offers the other move:

This polygon fully covers 1 existing feature. Cut a matching hole so both features coexist?

Apply, and you get a clean donut - the outer parcel with an interior ring around the enclosed feature. Both coexist, neither overlaps.

It works across layers​

Avoid Overlaps is set per layer. Flag your parcels layer, your buildings layer, your zoning layer (up to three), and editing any one of them clips against the whole set. Keep your themes separate, keep them mutually exclusive.

Why it matters​

For cadastral and professional capture this is the difference between data that looks right and data that is right - parcels that tile an area with no gaps and no double-counted slivers, ready for area calculation, registration, and any serious GIS downstream. The geometry runs on JTS (Android) and GEOSwift (iOS), both wrapping the same GEOS engine QGIS uses, so the result matches the desktop.

Avoid Overlaps joins Split, Merge, Buffer and Vertex Snapping in the Pro+ Advanced Editing toolkit. Piece by piece, the field app is closing the gap on the desktop - and on this one, it arrives on Android and iOS together.

Read the full guide, with the step-by-step on both platforms: Avoid Overlaps (Topology).

For over a decade, the answer to "I need to split this polygon" or "I need to buffer that line" has been the same: stop what you're doing, walk back to the truck, transfer the file to a laptop, and open QGIS. Not any more.

The latest Mapit GIS Android release brings a full Advanced Editing toolkit straight to the map. The four operations you used to fire up a desktop GIS for now ship in your pocket: Split, Merge, Buffer, and proper Vertex Snapping. All running on-device, fully offline, against native GeoPackage.

The four tools, in one minute​

Split - cut a feature in two​

Tap a polygon or polyline, open the Tools sheet, draw a single cut line across it. The line tints orange while you draw, green when the cut is valid, red if it isn't. Apply, then pick which of the two pieces keeps the original feature ID and attributes. The other becomes a new row.

Behind the scenes the geometry split is computed by JTS (Java Topology Suite), the same library QGIS uses. Inner rings (polygon holes) are handled automatically; Z values are interpolated along the cut. Read the full guide: Split Operation.

Merge - combine two adjacent features​

Pick a polygon or polyline, open Tools > Merge, tap a second feature on the same layer. Mapit draws the merged shape in purple with A and B labels at each input's centroid, and you choose which side's row survives the operation. Apply, and the kept row's geometry is updated to the union while the other row is deleted, all in one atomic write.

The tool refuses to silently produce degenerate topology: disjoint polygons on a single-polygon table, bowtie corner touches, and T-junction polylines are all caught and named in plain English. Full guide: Merge Tool.

Buffer - generate a stand-off zone​

Tap any feature - point, polyline, or polygon - open Tools > Buffer, and drag the slider. A live preview of the buffer renders on the map as you change the radius. Apply, and the result is inserted as a new polygon into your active polygon layer.

Common uses: a 50 m proximity zone around a monitoring well, a stand-off along a pipeline, a 10 m growth area around a parcel, or a donut ring around an existing polygon. Negative radii (inward buffers) are supported with a single setting toggle. Full guide: Buffer Tool.

Vertex Snapping - topologically clean digitising​

The quiet hero of the release. Turn on Vertex Snapping and every new or dragged vertex automatically pulls onto the nearest existing vertex or edge within a radius you configure. No more hairline gaps between adjacent parcels. No more two coordinates that are nearly the same but not quite. Snapping respects all three vertex input modes (tap on map, crosshair, drag) and works across all visible layers, the active layer only, or a specific layer of your choosing.

A small orange indicator on the map confirms which target the next vertex will land on, and a circular loupe floats above your finger during a drag so you can see exactly what is in range. Snap radius and edge-snap are configurable in Snapping Settings.

Why this matters​

This release is not about adding more features for the sake of a longer changelog. It's about closing the loop on a workflow that has been broken since Mapit started in 2013: collect in the field, edit in the office, sync back, repeat. That round trip cost time, risked data loss, and meant the person who collected the geometry was rarely the person who cleaned it up.

With Split, Merge, Buffer, and Snapping running natively against a GeoPackage on the device, the loop closes. You can subdivide a parcel, merge two adjacent forestry stands, buffer a hazard around an infrastructure point, or fix a topology hairline gap, all while standing on site, without a data connection, and without leaving the file you were already working on.

The result file is still a vanilla OGC GeoPackage. Open it in QGIS, ArcGIS, FME, or any other tool that speaks the standard, and every edit is there. No vendor format. No conversion step. That commitment to open standards is part of the platform story and is not changing.

Where it fits​

If you've been following along since the 3.0 announcement in January, this release builds directly on the foundation that landed then: edit sessions reworked around Jetpack Compose, long-press to start editing, inner-ring support, redesigned vertex styling. Advanced Editing is the next layer on top of that foundation, and the snapping engine is already plumbed through every vertex input mode in the app.

For Mapit GIS on iOS, Advanced Editing is on the roadmap. The vertex input + snapping stack needs to land on iOS first. Same GeoPackage schema, same JTS-equivalent operations, just behind a slightly longer build queue.

Pricing​

Advanced Editing and Vertex Snapping are Mapit Pro Plus features. The master toggles are visible to Free and Pro users in Settings > Advanced Editing and Settings > Snapping, so you can see what is on offer; turning them on opens the paywall.

Existing Pro Plus subscribers get the entire toolkit at no extra cost.

Try it​

Update to the latest version on Google Play, open any project with a polygon or polyline feature, long-press to start editing, and look for the Tools chip on the right-hand toolbar.

If you've ever found yourself muttering "I'll fix this in QGIS later" - this release is for you. The "later" is now "now".

Mapit GIS is a professional Android and iOS GIS app used by surveyors, foresters, ecologists, utilities, and field crews worldwide. Fully offline, native GeoPackage, open standards throughout. Learn more.

More Than a Decade in the Field​

Every piece of software has an origin story. Some start in garages, others in boardrooms. Mapit GIS started in a field - quite literally. The need was simple: measure an area on a phone, export the result, and get back to work. No desktop GIS required. No subscriptions. No complexity.

That idea became MapPad in 2013. Over the next decade, it evolved through four distinct product generations - each one shaped by the same principle: build what field professionals actually need, and get out of their way.

The MapPad Years: 2013-2015​

MapPad launched on Android in March 2013 as a measurement tool. Tap a few points on a map, get an area and perimeter. Use your phone's GPS to walk a boundary. Export the result as KML and email it to a colleague. That was the entire feature set - and for a lot of users, it was exactly enough.

What made MapPad stick was how well it worked offline. Base maps could be cached. GPS worked without a data connection. In rural areas with patchy signal - which is most of where land surveying happens - this mattered more than any feature list.

The app grew to support nine different base map providers, multiple coordinate systems including UTM and British National Grid, and a range of export formats that let users move data into whatever desktop tool they preferred. Over time, MapPad was downloaded more than 770,000 times - a number that, for a niche mapping app, demonstrated just how underserved this market was.

Mapit Pro: When Users Outgrew Simplicity​

By 2015, the feedback was clear. Users weren't just measuring fields - they were conducting professional surveys, cataloguing assets, and managing spatial data in ways that MapPad was never designed for. They needed layers. They needed attribute forms. They needed to connect their own WMS services and work with external GNSS receivers for centimetre-level accuracy.

Mapit Pro was the response. It wasn't just MapPad with more features bolted on - it was a rethinking of what a mobile GIS data collector should be. Custom survey forms allowed structured data entry in the field. Layer management gave professionals a way to organise complex projects. External GNSS support opened the door to high-accuracy workflows that had previously required equipment costing tens of thousands.

The user base shifted. Where MapPad had attracted hobbyists and farmers, Mapit Pro brought in forestry companies, road construction firms, geological survey teams, and solar energy installers. The app was finding its professional identity.

Mapit Spatial: Betting on Open Standards​

In 2019, a pivotal decision was made: rebuild the data layer around OGC GeoPackage. This wasn't a minor format change - it was a philosophical commitment. GeoPackage is an open, standards-based format built on SQLite. A file collected in the field could be plugged directly into QGIS, ArcGIS, or any OGC-compliant tool without conversion, translation, or data loss.

Mapit Spatial shipped 28 releases in its first two years. Each one pushed the boundaries: WMTS support for high-resolution imagery services, PostgreSQL export for enterprise database workflows, Google Drive integration for cloud backup, and barcode scanning for asset inventories. The pace was relentless.

But the real impact was more subtle. By choosing GeoPackage, Mapit committed to interoperability. A survey collected on an Android phone in a Scottish forest could be opened on a laptop in a Brazilian office five minutes later - with geometry, attributes, and styling all intact. No vendor lock-in. No format wars. Just data that flows.

Mapit NTRIP Client: The Precision Problem​

Surveying isn't just about where you collect data - it's about how accurately. Standard phone GPS gives you 3-5 metres of accuracy. For a farm boundary, that might be fine. For a construction site, it's useless.

RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) positioning solves this by using correction data from a nearby base station, delivered via the NTRIP protocol. The result: centimetre-level accuracy from a receiver that fits in your pocket.

The Mapit NTRIP Client, built on the battle-tested open-source RTKLIB engine, brought this capability to Android. Connect a compatible GNSS receiver via USB or Bluetooth, configure an NTRIP caster for correction data, and watch the solution converge from FLOAT to FIX - the moment your position locks to centimetre precision.

This was released as a standalone app because the processing requirements are significant and the configuration is specialised. But separation created friction: users had to switch between apps, manage two connections, and keep both in sync. The solution was obvious - and it's now happening.

Mapit GIS 3.0: Everything, Unified​

In January 2026, we announced Mapit GIS 3.0 - a complete ground-up rebuild of the Android app using Jetpack Compose. In February, we launched on iOS with a native Swift application. These weren't incremental updates. They represented the convergence of everything we'd learned across four product generations.

What's different this time:

• One app, not four. The functionality of MapPad, Mapit Pro, Mapit Spatial, and the NTRIP Client is being consolidated into a single application. NTRIP client capabilities are being integrated directly - no more switching between apps for RTK corrections.

• Two platforms, same data. The iOS and Android apps share the identical GeoPackage schema. Collect data on an iPhone, open it on an Android tablet, edit it in QGIS. The file is the same.

• Built for the field. Glass-styled navigation designed for one-handed use. Large touch targets for gloved fingers. High-contrast overlays for direct sunlight. Every design decision optimised for the people who use this app standing in mud, not sitting at a desk.

• Cloud on the horizon. We're building cloud infrastructure for project sync, team collaboration, and web-based GeoPackage management. A QGIS plugin will connect desktop workflows to field data collection. The goal is a complete ecosystem - from field to cloud to desktop and back.

What Stayed the Same​

Across four products and thirteen years, some things never changed:

Offline-first. Every version of every app works without a data connection. Cloud features are additive, never required. When you're in a remote forest or an underground tunnel, the app works.

Open standards. From KML exports in MapPad to GeoPackage-native storage in Mapit GIS, we've consistently chosen open formats over proprietary lock-in. Your data is yours.

Field-tested, not lab-designed. Features come from real feedback from real users doing real work. The barcode scanner exists because an arborist needed it. PostgreSQL export exists because a utilities company asked for it. RTK integration exists because surveyors demanded it.

The Road Ahead​

Mapit GIS started as one person writing code to solve a problem in a field. Today it's a platform spanning iOS, Android, cloud services, coordinate transformation tools, and desktop GIS integration - and we're just getting started.

The next chapters include:

• Built-in NTRIP client for both Android and iOS, eliminating the need for a separate app
• Mapit GIS Cloud for project sync, team management, and web-based data viewing
• QGIS plugin for seamless desktop-to-field workflows
• High-accuracy coordinate transformations supporting OSTN15, RDNAPTRANS, and custom grids

From a measurement tool in 2013 to an enterprise GIS platform in 2026 - the journey has been long, but the foundation has never been stronger.

If you've been with us since the MapPad days, thank you. If you're discovering Mapit GIS for the first time, welcome.

Mapit GIS is available on Android and iOS. Try it free.

Why iOS, and why now?​

We've had requests for an iOS version for as long as the Android app has existed. The honest answer for why it took this long is that we wanted to do it properly. Wrapping the Android app in a cross-platform framework was never an option. GIS applications are too performance-sensitive and too tightly coupled to platform APIs for that to work well.

The iOS app is written entirely in Swift 6 and SwiftUI, with Mapbox for rendering. It shares the same GeoPackage format as Android, so your data moves between platforms without conversion.

What's included​

The iOS release ships with the core feature set that Mapit GIS users expect:

• Data collection - points, lines, polygons, and multi-part geometries via GPS or manual placement
• GeoPackage native - create, open, and edit OGC GeoPackage files directly
• Offline maps - load MBTiles packages for fieldwork without connectivity
• Map services - connect to WMS, WMTS, WFS, and XYZ tile endpoints
• Custom attribute forms - dropdowns, multi-select, dates, and barcode scanning
• Export - GeoPackage, GeoJSON, Shapefile, KML, GPX, CSV, and DXF
• External GNSS - TCP/IP connection to external receivers with RTK support
• GPS tracking - continuous path recording with configurable intervals

Feature parity with Android​

The goal is full feature parity between platforms. The iOS app at launch covers the most-used workflows, but there are features from the Android app that are still being brought across. PostgreSQL export and Dropbox integration are among the items on the roadmap.

If you're an existing Android user, you can open the same GeoPackage files on both platforms. The schema is identical.

Documentation​

We're still putting together iOS-specific user guides. That said, we've made a deliberate effort to keep the iOS app as close to Android as possible in terms of features and workflows. If you're familiar with the Android documentation, the instructions apply to iOS in most cases.

External GNSS devices​

External GNSS on iOS works over TCP/IP, same as Android. We're also in talks with major GNSS receiver manufacturers to get Apple MFi certification for direct Bluetooth integration. More on this as it develops.

Built for the field​

The interface is designed for one-handed use with gloves, in direct sunlight, and on unstable footing. Large touch targets, high-contrast map overlays, and minimal navigation depth. The same principles that guided the Android app apply here.

Pricing​

The iOS app follows the same subscription model as Android. A free tier covers basic GIS functionality. Pro unlocks the full feature set including high-accuracy GNSS, advanced export formats, and custom styling.

We're also working on Mapit GIS Cloud, a web platform for managing projects, team collaboration, and sync across devices. Stay tuned for more on that.

Get it​

Mapit GIS for iOS is available now on the App Store.

Why Now?​

For the past several months we've been working on bringing Mapit GIS to iOS - a completely native Swift application built from the ground up. That process forced us to rethink how the app should work: the navigation, the editing workflows, how features are presented on the map.

Rather than let the Android app fall behind, we decided to rebuild it in parallel. The iOS work gave us a chance to step back and reconsider things we'd lived with for years. Version 3 brings those lessons back to Android.

The iOS app is coming soon. More on that shortly.

Redesigned Screens​

The following sections have been completely rebuilt:

• Projects and layers - cleaner project management with quick access to layers
• Add/Edit features - streamlined data entry with feature name prefixes and smart defaults that remember your last-added values
• Settings - every settings section (Survey, External GNSS etc.) rebuilt from scratch
• Style management - easier symbology editing with a refreshed style picker
• Online services - WMS, WMTS, WFS, XYZ and now GeoJSON layers can be brought as context information
• Offline maps - improved stability, including a fix for crashes with larger MBTiles files (500MB+)
• Attachment gallery - a new gallery view with metadata info panels
• Billing and licensing - cleaner subscription and license screens

Glass-Styled Navigation​

The app now features a glass-styled bottom navigation bar with quick access to GPS, search, and the main menu. The search experience introduces categorised tabs for Places and Documents. Selected features appear in a polished bottom sheet, and the entire navigation overlay has been rethought for one-handed field use.

Smarter Editing​

Editing geometry has been significantly improved:

• Long press to edit – tap and hold on any line or polygon to start an edit session instantly
• Inner ring editing – full support for editing polygon holes, including vertex dragging and midpoint insertion, all constraint-aware
• Improved symbology - edit session vertex styling has been redesigned

External GNSS Improvements​

Connection reliability for external GNSS receivers has been a focus:

• Bluetooth stability - fewer disconnections, no duplicate status toasts, better UI feedback during pairing
• TCP GNSS fixes - resolved timeout issues after extended use and disconnection problems on Android 14+
• Foreground service improvements - Android can no longer silently kill your GNSS connection in the background (enable notifications for Mapit GIS to enhance this)
• GPS info sheet - completely rebuilt with a cleaner layout and better organisation of GNSS stats
• Position averaging - a new averaging sheet for high-accuracy point collection

Note: If you are using external GNSS receivers via Bluetooth or TCP and experiencing disconnections, the foreground service changes should help significantly. For enhanced user experience ensure the notifications are switched on for Mapit GIS app in Android Settings.

Additional Changes​

• Save GeoJSON layers to GeoPackage - online GeoJSON sources can now be saved directly into your project
• Cluster tap expansion - tapping a map cluster now expands to show individual features in a bottom sheet
• Test connection buttons - verify PostgreSQL and FTP/SFTP connections directly from settings
• Dynamic documentation - in-app help now loads a live table of contents from the docs site
• Field editing improvements - edit layer fields with a better UI; columns can now be renamed and dynamically changed to required fields
• Translation updates - new strings for search, GPS, attachments, projects, and offline maps

Where Mapit GIS is Heading​

Version 3 is the foundation for something bigger. We're working on cloud infrastructure that will let you manage and create GeoPackages from the web - no device required. Team collaboration, project sharing, and sync across devices are all part of the plan.

We're also exploring tighter integration with desktop GIS tools. The ability to prepare projects in QGIS and push them directly to Mapit GIS in the field (and back again) is something we've wanted for a long time. Early days, but it's on the roadmap.

More details on the iOS release in the coming weeks. If you've been waiting for Mapit GIS on iPhone and iPad - it's nearly here.

Mapit GIS 3.0 will be available on Google Play soon.