The financial pressure on UK local government has forced many planning authorities to re-examine their technology expenditure. Esri ArcGIS licences represent a significant recurring cost — often running to six figures annually for a mid-sized authority — and the arrival of the PSED (Public Sector Equality Duty) and open data requirements has further focused minds on platform transparency and vendor independence.

Why QGIS now?

QGIS has matured enormously since its early versions. The 3.x release series introduced a level of analytical capability, plugin support, and stability that now matches — and in several respects exceeds — ArcGIS Desktop. Critically, QGIS reads and writes Esri shapefiles, GeoPackage, and PostGIS natively, meaning data migration is rarely a barrier.

“We found that 90% of what our planners needed day to day was directly replicated in QGIS. The remaining 10% was addressed through plugins or modest Python scripting.” — GIS Manager, South East Planning Authority

The Migration Pathway

Successful migrations typically follow a phased approach. In phase one, QGIS is deployed alongside ArcGIS, allowing staff to familiarise themselves without operational disruption. Routine tasks — polygon digitising, basic spatial queries, map production for reports — are transferred first. ArcGIS is retained for any workflows that genuinely require it.

Phase two concentrates on the back-end: replacing ArcGIS Server or SDE with PostGIS and GeoServer. This is often where the largest savings are realised, as Esri server licences are considerably more expensive than desktop licences. PostGIS, running on PostgreSQL, provides full spatial database capability at no licence cost.

Phase three is training and culture change. Planning officers who have used ArcGIS for many years need structured support. Authorities that have invested in QGIS training — typically two to three days of guided instruction per user — have reported high satisfaction and faster adoption than anticipated.

Case Study: A South East Authority

One South East authority completed its full migration over 18 months, retiring ArcGIS Desktop and Server licences for its 14-person GIS team. First-year savings exceeded £85,000 in licence costs alone, with ongoing savings of around £60,000 annually. The authority now uses QGIS, PostGIS, GeoServer, and QGIS Server — all open source — and has contributed several plugins back to the community.

Common Challenges

The most frequently cited challenge is not technical but organisational: overcoming the perception that open source is somehow less reliable or less professional than proprietary software. Sharing the experience of other authorities, and inviting staff to explore the QGIS user conference proceedings, tends to address this effectively. Technical challenges — particularly around migrating complex ModelBuilder workflows to QGIS Processing — are real but solvable, often through QGIS’s excellent Python API.

Stuart Planner is a Chartered Surveyor with a strong interest in this field who can offer informal guidance and signpost authorities to the right implementation professionals. Get in touch with Stuart to discuss your authority’s situation.