Geospatial & location analytics · PostGIS Project
PostGIS
Open-source spatial extension for PostgreSQL adding geographic objects, spatial indexing and GIS query functions.
PostGIS extends PostgreSQL with spatial data types for points, lines, polygons and rasters, GiST-based spatial indexing, and hundreds of SQL functions covering distance, intersection, buffering, topology and coordinate-system transformation. It turns an ordinary PostgreSQL database into a full spatial database that can be queried directly with SQL, which is why it is the standard backend that desktop tools such as QGIS, and cloud platforms, query against. PostGIS is open source and maintained by community contributors, with several vendors, including managed PostgreSQL providers, offering commercial hosting and support on top of the free core extension.
At a glance
| Vendor | PostGIS Project |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | Open source + paid options |
| Free tier | — |
| Deployment | Self-hosted, Cloud |
| Open source | Yes (GPL-2.0) |
| Best for | Teams that want spatial analysis expressed as SQL directly inside their existing PostgreSQL database. |
Pricing
Free and open source; costs come only from hosting PostgreSQL itself or from managed-database vendors.
Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.
Features
- Spatial data types for points, lines, polygons and rasters
- GiST-based spatial indexing for fast queries
- Hundreds of SQL functions for spatial analysis
- Coordinate reference system transformations
- Topology and raster analysis extensions
- Works with standard PostgreSQL tooling and backups
Integrations
Profile last reviewed September 21, 2026