App builders comparison

How Esri's Experience Builder, Web AppBuilder, and Dashboard Designer concepts map onto the GratisGIS Web app and Dashboard items.

basic

If you're used to building apps in Esri's tooling, here's where the equivalents live in GratisGIS.

Esri Web AppBuilder → GratisGIS Custom Web App

The closest one-for-one. AGO's Web AppBuilder is a drag-and-drop widget builder bound to a web map. GratisGIS's Custom web app template is the same shape: pick a layout, drag widgets in, bind them to a map, configure each widget's options, save.

Widget catalog overlap (incomplete, growing): map, layer list, basemap gallery, search, attribute table, legend, print, measure, draw, splash, swipe, edit, layer effects. Several Esri-specific widgets (Smart Editor with detailed editing config, Near Me, Coordinate) don't have direct equivalents and are tracked as follow-up work.

Esri Experience Builder → GratisGIS Custom Web App

Experience Builder is more flexible than Web AppBuilder (full-page layouts, multi-page apps, data injection between widgets). The GratisGIS Custom template handles single-page widget composition; multi-page custom apps are tracked as future scope. For now, if you'd build an Experience with two pages, build two GratisGIS web app items and link between them.

If you're recreating an Experience that was just "a map with widgets" (most are), the Custom template covers that today.

AGO Operations Dashboard → GratisGIS Dashboard

Same item type, same shape. A grid of widgets, each bound to a layer or query, refreshing on a configurable interval. Differences:

  • Layout. Both are grid-based; GratisGIS uses a row/column grid with explicit widget sizes (Esri's dashboard uses a flexible row/column with optional grouping). The result is visually similar; the editor feels slightly different.
  • Filters. GratisGIS's "filter chip" widget covers the selector / category-filter pattern; cross-widget filtering is by shared layer + field binding.
  • Data sources. GratisGIS dashboard widgets source from data layers, derived layers, or ArcGIS service items. There's no separate "data expression" concept; if you need a computed series, build a derived layer first and bind to it.

AGO Instant Apps → GratisGIS Web app (Viewer / Editor)

Esri's Instant Apps are templated single-purpose apps (Sidebar, Media Map, Compare, etc.). GratisGIS has two templated single- purpose web app variants today: Viewer (read-only map) and Editor (read + edit on permitted layers). The other Instant App patterns (Compare, Story-style) are tracked as future scope.

AGO Survey123 web app → GratisGIS Web app (Survey response)

The Survey123 default web app for taking a survey corresponds to the GratisGIS Survey response web app template: a single form, no surrounding map, public-friendly URL.

What's missing today

Honest list of Esri concepts that don't have an equivalent right now:

  • StoryMaps. The narrative-with-embedded-maps format. Tracked as future scope.
  • Workforce / Field Maps configuration. The GratisGIS field PWA is the field-facing surface; the configuration concepts (assignments, dispatcher) are simpler today.
  • GeoForm (the older AGO survey app). Use Form with a Survey response template instead.

See also

  • Web app. The item type docs.
  • Dashboard. The item type docs.
  • Custom Web App. The drag-and-drop builder.