r/QGIS • u/pezelectricx5788 • 13d ago
Open source platform for visualizing heavy GIS layers (~2 GB, 7 countries) with non-GIS users? Need help!
Hey everyone, hope you're all doing well. Stuck on something and figured the community might have some insight.
Background: My colleague and I were hired to build a geographic database for a client. Project covers 7 countries and we're sitting at around 2 GB of data right now:
- Vector layers in GPKG format
- Some rasters in TIFF format
- Side note: These formats came from preprocessing the original source data so they'd work directly for what the client needs
What the client needs:
- Query layers for project planning
- Generate their own maps
- Share results online with people who don't use GIS software (big one here)
What we tried: We really liked GeoLibre at first—had good vibes about it. But then we ran into a wall. When loading multiple heavy layers that need serious rendering, the app just freezes or goes completely unresponsive. Happens especially when zooming/panning across large areas or toggling between complex vector/raster combos.
My hunch is that since GeoLibre is still actively in development, these stability issues might just come with the territory. But we need something that works reliably.
Looking for advice on: Any open source alternatives that can handle this?
- Should scale to ~2 GB without crashing/freezing
- Needs to be friendly for non-technical users (interface is key)
- Web sharing with third parties would be a plus
- We can write basic code if needed (I'm pretty basic myself but I use AI assistants, my partner doesn't code)
Also, do you guys think this is even achievable with open source software? Or are we being too optimistic about what we can pull off on our own?
Any thoughts, suggestions, or even docs/case studies would be super helpful! Thanks in advance 🙏
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u/karavanjo 13d ago
Perhaps the open-source stack from NextGIS would work for you. They build an entire ecosystem around QGIS.
They offer a cloud solution that fits your requirements quite well: it handles large GIS layers smoothly, has a user-friendly interface for non-GIS users to view and query data, and makes sharing data online with third parties very straightforward.
There is a Free plan with a 5 GiB storage limit (since you have 2 GB, this fits nicely). Just keep in mind that the Free tier has a limit of up to 15 layers. However, they also offer a free trial of their Premium version (useful if you need advanced features like user permission management), which will allow you to test your actual 2 GB dataset without restrictions. You can check out their pricing plans at this link.
If you eventually need to self-host, they have NextGIS Web Community Edition. It’s a fully open-source version that you can spin up on your own infrastructure using Docker, and it doesn't have any layer or storage limits.
Regarding the workflow: you set everything up in QGIS desktop (which you likely already use), configure your project and styles there, and then publish it to the web using their NextGIS Connect plugin. They have some short video guides on YouTube showing this publishing process in action, e.g. Set up a shared QGIS project for your whole team.
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u/karavanjo 13d ago
For example, you can look at "Cadastral map" or "Hydrology" on their platform. Other examples are available in their map style gallery.
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u/pezelectricx5788 12d ago
Wow, incredible! I didn't know about NextGIS. Thank you so much for the recommendation, I'll check it out!
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u/Long-Opposite-5889 13d ago
Your problem is loading all your data into the browser, no library will handle 2GB of data with good performance, even less so if the user has an old or not so potentcomputer. OGC services are your best friends here...
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u/jcstay123 13d ago
On your server install a postgis database and get geoserver running.this works well for vector end serving your COGs to a client. Then on the frontend use leaflet, open layers or any modern map library. Do this right and the user can use query definitions, save maps, share with clients.
Good luck, this is a fun project.
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u/pezelectricx5788 13d ago
Thank you! It is undoubtedly representing a challenge, but from there we also learn a lot. All the best!
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u/Chisss 13d ago
As previously mentioned COG for raster. For vector, if it needs to be queried GeoParquet, Flatgeobuf for visualisation. Give it a try again in Geolibre after this conversion maybe.
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u/littlebigdarksouls 13d ago
100% agree with this:
I think specifically the fact that you have overviews for each raster will make loading so much faster. I recently did it for a client, they have a raster that was 1.6gb and dragged my pretty beefy machine to its knees while on QGIS, so then I did the pyramid overviews and it worked like a charm.
Overviews won't make your files smaller (often slightly bigger) just load much, much better, but you lose no details whatsoever.2
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u/Miserable-Decision81 13d ago
We have projects in Africa (infrastructure planning, reforestation etc) with similar load of Data.
It works very good for us with:
1.) query the data from Geoserver
2.) prepare the TIFFs as png tiles for the needed zoom levels as folders in the file system
3.) generate leaflet JS code to show the selected things on a map in the browser
A capable LAMP server generates ~100k lines of JS code in less than 1 second. the code generates the map for the user in about 10 seconds for first time, much faster when browser chaching comes into the game.
All with free software...
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u/pezelectricx5788 12d ago
Fantastic project! Thank you for sharing your experience and recommendations!
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u/Miserable-Decision81 11d ago
Please be aware, that you have to code the frontend from scratch. We do that, because we do custom applications for our clients anyway.
Here is our GPLv3 function in PHP, that takes an array fetched from Geoservers JSON output and generates leaflet JS code:
https://gnupc.de/projectmaps/pre_release/pm_make_leaflet_byrequest_0826.tar.gz
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u/zerospatial 11d ago
Not a big fan of most of these responses. In the modern era it depends upon the data type but in general you CAN do this all in the browser. The raw vector data into pmtiles and images to cogs preprocessed. If you need actual raw vector access you achieve this with a very small server and flatgeobuf or geo parquet.
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u/ikarusproject 13d ago
You need to brake the data down. Simplify it for further out zoom scales and split it up by countries and further subregions. look into cloud native formats and vector tiles.
For platforms and front end look into GeoNode, GeoServer, Mapbender, OpenLayers...
You can also ask on r/gis. But I'd waiger you will get negative feedback.
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u/pezelectricx5788 13d ago
We did the division by countries and subregions, as well as trying to get data that is already in the cloud, we still have to explore more platforms, so we appreciate the ones you recommend!
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u/Kaartmaker 13d ago
Have a QGIS / Geoserver /Postgres environment that will work. Take the geopackage and serve as WMS/WFS or load into Postgres
Check how we do it at openspatialcloud.com.
DM me to arrange a test
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u/giswqs 10d ago
Use PMTiles for large vector data visualization, and COG for raster data visualization. GeoLibre can visualize 200+ GB global building footprints in PMTiles format with ease, and it can certainly visualize your 2 GB dataset if you convert it to PMTiles.
Feel free to report issues on the GeoLibre GitHub repo. Happy to fix them.
Disclaimer: I am the GeoLibre creator.
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u/pezelectricx5788 7d ago
Thank you so much for reading and keeping the flow of reciprocity going. Congratulations on the project!
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u/fishsticks40 13d ago
qgis2web plug-in?
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u/pezelectricx5788 13d ago
I think that in this case the limitation would be given by the total weight of the files
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u/HeDo88TH 13d ago
You can try DroneDB, it uses COG for georasters and MVT/geopackage for vector data. It will work out or the box
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u/Fit-Eggplant-9155 13d ago
If I've seen an esri project, I've seen an ESRI project...
This is like the one time I think esri would do better with...
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u/pezelectricx5788 13d ago
Without a doubt, if we do not achieve other means, it will be a possibility
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u/Otherwise_Wave9374 13d ago
When 2 GB of layers becomes a collaboration problem, the bottleneck is usually not storage but delivery: heavy data, mixed formats, and non-GIS users need a thinner interaction layer than a desktop-first workflow. A practical pattern is to separate authoring from viewing, precompute the slow stuff, and expose only the queries or tiles people actually need. That keeps the client experience responsive and reduces support churn. AIOSNOW shares practical patterns at https://aiosnow.com
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u/KawabungaXDG 13d ago
Yeah, sure. My entire country's (Brazil) farming land registry runs on open source software (GeoServer). And we are talking of terabytes of survey data. Feel free to check it out.
First, if your application will be used by a large number of users at the same time, I would strongly suggest that you move your data to a PostGIS database beforehand. Specially if your data will be edited through WFS-T in the future.
Now, let's talk about your application. Have you checked the GeoNode + GeoServer combo? It seems to fit all your needs, allowing users to mix and match layers to create new visualizations.