GeoLibre review: a GIS that runs in your browser

GeoLibre is a free, open-source, cloud-native GIS by Qiusheng Wu and the opengeos team, the people behind leafmap and geemap. Version 1.0 launched in June 2026. It loads, styles, edits, and analyzes spatial data entirely on your device, with no account and no server.

Made by	Qiusheng Wu / opengeos
License	MIT
Runs on	Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Jupyter
Built with	MapLibre GL JS, React, Tauri, DuckDB-WASM, deck.gl
Formats	GeoParquet, FlatGeobuf, PMTiles, COG, STAC, 3D Tiles, WMS/WFS
Best for	Fast viewing and light analysis, sharing maps by link

Why it caught our attention

Most day-to-day mapping doesn’t need a full desktop GIS. You open a layer, check attributes, measure something, and send a screenshot. GeoLibre does that in a browser tab, and the desktop app is a fraction of the size of QGIS or ArcGIS Pro. Because processing runs locally, client data stays on your machine unless you load online data yourself.

What’s inside

• Drag-and-drop loading of vector and raster data, including large cloud-hosted files streamed without downloading.
• Attribute and geometry editing, styling, measuring, and bookmarks.
• A SQL workspace powered by DuckDB Spatial, running in the browser.
• A large toolbox of geoprocessing tools compiled to WebAssembly.
• An optional server for heavier jobs, plus a plugin system and project sharing by URL.

GeoLibre vs. QGIS

	GeoLibre	QGIS
Setup	Open a URL	Install, plus plugins
Cloud-native data	First-class (GeoParquet, PMTiles, COG)	Supported, varies by format
Cartography and print layouts	Basic	Mature, publication-grade
Processing depth	Growing	Very deep (GDAL, GRASS, SAGA)
Sharing	Share a link	Share project files

Our take

GeoLibre won’t replace QGIS for thesis maps or heavy raster analysis yet. It’s great for quick looks, field checks on a phone, and sending a live map to someone who doesn’t have GIS installed.

Try it: open web.geolibre.app and drag in a GeoJSON or GeoPackage. The source code is on GitHub.

Sources

• GeoLibre 1.0 announcement (gishub.org)
• GeoLibre on GitHub