Recently, the hottest open-source GIS software is undoubtedly RustGIS. On October 12, Qiusheng Wu released the first version of RustGIS. By the time I am writing this article, the project has reached 1.8K stars on GitHub. Another reason the project is popular is that it has sparked considerable controversy on social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Reddit. Today I will briefly discuss this software.

About RustGIS

The official GitHub describes it as follows: "A fast, free and open-source GIS in pure Rust for mapping, analyzing and sharing geospatial data." It is an open-source GIS written in pure Rust.

https://github.com/opengeos/RustGIS

It has both a desktop version and a web version. The desktop version covers Windows, macOS, and Linux, with installers of about 18 to 30 MB, and it does not bundle Python, Qt, or GDAL. The web version is compiled to WebAssembly. You can try it here:

https://web.rustgis.app/

Compared with GIS software at the level of QGIS and ArcGIS, its size is even smaller than one of their plugins, yet what it can do covers a large part of the functionality of ArcGIS and QGIS. Small as it is, it is fully featured. It currently supports Shapefile, GeoPackage, GeoTIFF, as well as WMS, WFS, ArcGIS REST, and other data formats. The desktop version can also read PostGIS. Functionally, it supports basic mapping, data editing, spatial analysis, and automation. The software is still iterating rapidly, and more features will be updated later. Those interested can follow it.

PS: As an aside, the author, Qiusheng Wu, is an associate professor in the Department of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Tennessee and an Amazon Scholar. In the open-source community, he is better known for geemap, leafmap, and GeoLibre. Many students in China know him from his Earth Engine tutorials.

RustGIS vs ArcGIS/QGIS

So, now that we have such a compact RustGIS, do we no longer need ArcGIS or QGIS? The current official response is: "RustGIS is not trying to replace any of these."

Of course, if your daily needs are limited to the simple tasks described above, such as viewing maps and editing data, it is indeed sufficient. It is even smaller than many lightweight GIS programs while offering more complete functionality. Let us look at the official feature comparison:

  • Platform: RustGIS is the only one that supports Windows, macOS, Linux, and Web. ArcGIS only supports Windows, and QGIS has no official browser version.
  • Cost: RustGIS and QGIS are free, while ArcGIS Pro requires a subscription.
  • Data: RustGIS supports common vector formats and GeoTIFF. File Geodatabase, DWG, and NetCDF require separate installation of GDAL. At present, it does not have a complete PROJ implementation, and PostGIS is read-only in the desktop version.
  • Analysis: This is ArcGIS's core strength. Even QGIS currently struggles to match it. RustGIS mainly draws on GeoLibre and Whitebox. Terrain, hydrology, and point cloud are relatively strong, while spatial joins, intersections, unions, and road networks are relatively weak.
  • Cartography: RustGIS can produce simple maps, but compared with QGIS's detailed symbology and ArcGIS's strong productivity, its capabilities are still considerably behind.
  • Extensions: Every button in RustGIS is a command, and plugins are WebAssembly. QGIS has thousands of Python plugins. ArcGIS, needless to say, has unique arcpy and extension support for other languages.

PS: The above is only RustGIS's own account. On r/gis, someone tried it and felt that data of about 100 MB was already slow, and someone else tested opening a 1.7 GB GeoPackage but did not open it smoothly. However, RustGIS is still very young at present, and these issues will be fixed in the future.

Controversy

RustGIS has caused considerable controversy on LinkedIn and Reddit. I have roughly summarized it, mainly in the following aspects.

First, why build another one when QGIS already exists. One camp thinks QGIS is good enough and there is no need to switch; another camp believes that one more option has value.

Second, whether the interface copies ArcGIS Pro. Someone from Esri Canada said that at first glance they thought they had opened Pro, and the author replied that the interface had been changed to look less similar. Of course, some people think the Ribbon interface originally came from Office, so attacking RustGIS on this basis does not hold up.

Third, whether the code was written by AI, or even implemented by reverse-engineering commercial GIS software. Some compare it to news about rewriting Adobe around the same time. I previously wrote about similar controversy in "QGIS Officially Bans AI-Generated Code Contributions...", but unlike QGIS, RustGIS openly welcomes AI-written code. The author believes the criteria are whether the code is usable and maintainable, not who generated it.

Fourth, controversy over attribution and acknowledgements. The author says he never claimed that every line of code and every underlying technology came from him. If a dependency should be included in the acknowledgements, people can tell him directly. He also points out that after agents write code, it is actually very difficult to trace which influences each function has received, and he believes it is more appropriate to ask Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and other companies that train models on public code.

Summary

Of course, I support RustGIS, and I am pleased to see the current AI world rewriting all desktop software in Rust. After all, Rust's speed is close to C++, and it offers memory safety, small installers, and low memory usage. Amid the current storage price increases, this is truly a great blessing.

However, for professional GIS software applications, RustGIS is still very young. It is currently suitable for trial use and lightweight mapping, but not for replacing surveying operations, formal editing, or production analysis. But as adults, there is really no need to make too many choices; just use all of them. After all, it is very small and can even run in a browser. No one wants to open various large professional software programs just to view a map, right...

References

  1. RustGIS official website: https://rustgis.app/
  2. RustGIS web version: https://web.rustgis.app/
  3. RustGIS feature comparison with other GIS: https://rustgis.app/comparison/
  4. RustGIS vs QGIS: https://rustgis.app/comparison/qgis/
  5. GitHub repository: https://github.com/opengeos/RustGIS
  6. RustGIS AI policy: https://github.com/opengeos/RustGIS/discussions/203
  7. Discussion on replacing self-written WKT, GeoKey, and Zarr with existing Rust libraries: https://github.com/opengeos/RustGIS/discussions/247
  8. r/gis main thread on RustGIS: https://www.reddit.com/r/gis/comments/1x4bv2c/rustgis/
  9. r/gis interface controversy thread "Cringe": https://www.reddit.com/r/gis/comments/1x4u8kf/cringe/
  10. Author's response to the Reddit discussion: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/giswqs_from-the-gis-community-on-reddit-activity-7516187106923180032-lCQE
  11. Author's explanation of the naming: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/giswqs_rustgis-activity-7516585256607649792-WFHV
  12. geoObserver's introduction to RustGIS: https://geoobserver.de/2026/10/15/tools-des-monats-rustgis-ein-neues-open-source-gis/
  13. Author's October 21 response to attribution criticism: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-response-criticisms-recent-open-source-projects-qiusheng-wu-6tyie/
  14. 1.7 GB GeoPackage opening test: https://sixtycarlton.com/blog/cloning-comes-to-gis-rustgis/