Felt vs. Carto — The GIS Alternative Built for Your Whole Team

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

37° 48' 15.7068'' N, 122° 16' 15.9996'' W

cloud-native gis has arrived

Compare what you can do: Felt vs. CARTO

Ease of use

Felt

Intuitive, design-first UI. Built for your entire team — from data and GIS teams to operations and leadership. Create powerful maps even without SQL knowledge or GIS training.

Carto

Requires SQL fluency for most geospatial workflows. Built for data teams — not the broader organization that needs access to that data.

Raster support

Felt

Full native raster and vector support in one platform. Visualize and analyze raster data directly, including streaming from COGs (Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs), without additional tooling.

Carto

Limited raster support — only some file types are accepted natively, and most require an external processing pipeline to reproject them, adding extra cloud costs and risking precision loss.

Map Tiling Costs

Felt

Connect to your warehouse and pre-tile your data once so your team scales usage without scaling costs.

Carto

Every map interaction triggers a direct charge to your data warehouse, with little visibility into what's driving costs until your bill arrives.

App building

Felt

Build and ship maps, apps and dashboards in minutes, not weeks. No professional services required.

Carto

Complex SDK and app development that requires professional services. Slowing you down and adding professional services teams instead of letting you own your process 100%.

AI Features

Felt

Create maps, run spatial queries, and analyze data using natural language — available to every user on your team, expanding access to geospatial workflows.

Carto

Built to query an existing dashboard, not create one. Your team still needs to complete the full technical setup before AI adds any value.

Mobile & Field Access

Felt

Full mobile app for field data collection and map access — your team stays connected whether at a desk or in the field.

Carto

No mobile offering and no support for field workflows.

Collaboration

Felt

Real-time collaboration that keeps your whole team working together — co-edit, comment, and share with stakeholders without leaving the map.

Carto

No real-time collaboration that keeps your team siloed instead of working together.

The GIS your whole team can rely on from day one.

Felt is built so your team owns the process, controls the costs, and has a complete GIS from day one — without the workarounds.

Let your team own the process

Give the power of modern GIS to your entire team — without PS dependency, complex SDKs, or writing a single line of code.

Scale your usage, not your costs

Pre-tile your data once and use as much as you need. Focus on your project, not on guessing the next bill.

Raster isn't optional. It's part of real GIS work

One platform for all your spatial analysis — raster and vector natively. No additional tooling, no workarounds.

From idea to app in seconds

Build complete Felt-native applications with just a prompt. Deploy immediately.

Prompt your way to powerful extensions
Turn any map into a polished applications
Your data stays protected

Power your tools directly from the source

Build apps, maps, and dashboards with data your team can rely on.

Create map layers from your sources
Set data update frequency
Embed in notebooks or applications

Streamline field data collection

Felt's mobile app turns any device into a complete field collection tool, with no configuration or training required.

Create custom surveys that standardize what your team collects in the field for documenting assets, inspections, or observations
Capture points, lines, and areas with automatic location tracking and GPS precision
Add visual context by attaching geotagged photos directly to features and comments, capturing conditions exactly as they exist
Work offline anywhere—when you're back in range, data syncs and is ready to analyze and share

The modern GIS stack is here. Get started today.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can Felt connect to the same cloud warehouses as CARTO?

Yes. Felt connects to Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, and Postgres. The key difference: Felt pre-tiles your data once, so your team can explore maps without triggering warehouse queries on every interaction. Felt is also an official partner of AWS, Databricks, and Wherobots — so your existing stack is well supported.

Can Felt support both technical data teams and non-technical stakeholders at the same time?

Yes. Felt offers direct SQL querying for data teams who want it, alongside a no-code interface for everyone else. Technical and non-technical users work in the same environment, on the same maps, in real time.

Does Felt support raster data like elevation or satellite imagery?

Yes — fully. Felt supports streaming COGs, STAC catalogs, and S3 auto-indexing.We're a complete GIS platform for both raster and vector

How quickly can my team get started with Felt?

Most teams are up and running the same day — no setup, no implementation project, no professional services required. Connect your data source, build your first map, and share it with your team in minutes. And when you're ready to build more — dashboards, apps, embeds — Felt's SDK and no-code tools mean your team owns the process end to end, without needing outside help.

Join 500+ teams across industries building powerful maps, apps, and dashboards today.

Book a demo

Start free trial

Why teams choose Felt as their CARTO alternative for enterprise GIS

Enterprise GIS software your whole team can actually use

Felt offers direct SQL querying for data teams who want it, alongside a no-code interface for everyone else. Technical and non-technical users work in the same environment, on the same maps, in real time.

Predictable GIS costs that don't compound as you scale

CARTO queries your data warehouse on every interaction with the map triggering constant charges blocking you from freely scaling your work. Felt pre-tiles your spatial datasets once, so your team runs advanced GIS workflows at no additional compute cost. Teams switching from CARTO report significant savings on their annual GIS software spend.

Complete GIS platform for advanced raster and vector spatial analysis

CARTO's limited raster support means teams working with satellite imagery or elevation models are forced into workarounds or additional tooling. Felt is a complete GIS software platform with full native raster and vector support including streaming COGs, STAC catalog access, and S3 auto-indexing. One platform for all your geospatial data, without workarounds.

Powerful GIS your team owns from day one — no PS required

CARTO's architecture can often block even standard GIS workflows and require additional support. Felt is self-serve from day one — allowing teams of all sizes and GIS expertise to ship spatial analysis dashboards and GIS mapping applications within 48 hours, without PS, complex SDKs, or writing a single line of code.

The GIS your whole team can rely on from day one.

Let your team own the process

Scale your usage, not your costs

Raster isn't optional. It's part of real GIS work

From idea to app in seconds

Power your tools directly from the source

Streamline field data collection

The modern GIS stack is here. Get started today.

Built by the people who shaped modern GIS

Teams that chose modern GIS

Can Felt connect to the same cloud warehouses as CARTO?

Can Felt support both technical data teams and non-technical stakeholders at the same time?

Does Felt support raster data like elevation or satellite imagery?

How quickly can my team get started with Felt?

Why teams choose Felt as their CARTO alternative for enterprise GIS

Enterprise GIS software your whole team can actually use

Predictable GIS costs that don't compound as you scale

Complete GIS platform for advanced raster and vector spatial analysis

Powerful GIS your team owns from day one — no PS required