Best Free GIS Apps for iPad and iPhone

I own an iPad and have been downloading free GIS apps. There are not so many GIS apps available, to be honest. Most of those I encountered were from ESRI.

Here are free GIS application that may be worth downloading unto your iPad (and in some cases, iPhone).

1. ArcGIS - ESRI App
ArcGIS is a great way to discover and use maps. Maps come to life in ArcGIS. Tap on the map or use your current location and discover information about what you see. You can query the map, search and find interesting information, measure distances and areas of interest and share maps with others. Find community hosted maps from ArcGIS Online – ESRI’s online GIS. Alternatively you can use the authoring tools on ArcGIS.com to create your own maps that can be used in ArcGIS.

If you are an existing ESRI customer this application is part of your ArcGIS system. You can share your corporate maps and extend the reach of your GIS to your iOS devices within your enterprise using ArcGIS Server.

2. UC 2011 App
It is based on Esri International User Conference (Esri UC) in San Diego. You can have immediate access to full conference details, activities, sessions and training information on your iPhone, if you are among the 14,000 GIS professionals who are going to attend the conference in this July. With this app, you can get important times & dates for events, access to content of sponsor and exhibitor and use Esri’s own maps to navigate the conference center and exhibit halls. Save paper products by supporting Esri’s green initiatives via downloading this app.

3. Terrapad App
Meet Terrapad, your Mobile Geographic Information Manager.
Terrapad gives you the flexibility to enter, query, modify and export your geographic data, all from within your iDevice. Driven by a powerful database engine, a unique and simple user interface, and flexible extensions, Terrapad can meet your most demanding needs.

4. iGIS App
iGIS represents a new era in mobile GIS solutions by enabling users to load, view, investigate, create and export their own data over a background of Google maps satellite imagery.

Importing data is easy with our unique data import facility using the USB cable or wirelessly on your Mac, PC and Linux. Raster data in many formats (pre-processing required) and ESRI Shapefiles (.shp) are supported at the moment.

5. GISRoam – iPad Mobile Professional GIS App
With GISRoam mobile GIS, take your Raster and ESRI Shapefiles with you everywhere. GISRoam is an easy to use and powerful mobile GIS app that enables Shapefile viewing, editing, colorization, and collection over user loaded imagery. With GISRoam you can now go where no 3G or Wi-Fi network exists since the vector and raster data can be pre-load onto the iPad/iPhone before you head out and updated when you return.

6. WolfGIS App
WolfGIS can perform the following tasks:
•Load and display Shapefiles and MapInfo vectors
•Load and display Elevation, Imagery, and Maps rasters
•Import, export, and Share vectors using WolfGIS Web Server
•Import rasters and import/export vectors using iTunes
•Take pictures within the application and associate them with parcels. Easily access the picture catalog associated with parcels.
.... and more

7. SHP Viewer App
It is a simple shapefile viewer. The Esri Shapefile or simply a shapefile is a popular geospatial vector data format for geographic information systems (GIS). A shapefile is a digital vector storage format for storing geometric location and associated attribute information. This format lacks the capacity to store topological information.

8. Mapworkspace App
It is a SaaS solution developed for MapInfo Professional users to allow them to easily publish and share their maps on the Web. Developed by Korem, Mapworkspace is truly unique for its accessibility and ease-of-use. Although solutions currently exist allowing users to add simple geographic information to free online map services, Mapworkspace stands out by providing the mapping professional with complete latitude to create maps. Public or private access allows non-GIS professionals to view published information and interact with the authors in a user-friendly environment.

Find these iPad apps from the Apple app store.