19 open-source GIS and science apps
Open Source GIS & Science Software
The most popular open-source GIS and science apps for Windows, macOS and Linux on GitHub are QGIS, Shadowbroker and Stellarium. appsgit lists 19, including free alternatives to ArcGIS and SPSS, each with its platforms, license and install commands.
Updated Oct 8, 2026
Open Source GIS & Science Software
QGIS
qgis/QGIS
QGIS is a free, open source, cross platform (lin/win/mac) geographical information system (GIS).
OfficialScience, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxShadowbroker
BigBodyCobain/Shadowbroker
Open-source intelligence for the global theater.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxStellarium
Stellarium/stellarium
Stellarium is a free GPL software which renders realistic skies in real time with OpenGL.
OfficialScience, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxGeoLibre
opengeos/GeoLibre
A lightweight, cloud-native GIS platform for visualizing, exploring, and analyzing geospatial data.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxCava
karlstav/cava
Cross-platform Audio Visualizer.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxGqrx
gqrx-sdr/gqrx
Software defined radio receiver powered by GNU Radio and Qt.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxCelestia
CelestiaProject/Celestia
Real-time 3D visualization of space.
OfficialScience, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxNodify
miroiu/nodify
Highly performant and modular controls for node-based editors designed for data-binding and MVVM.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsMapsui
Mapsui/Mapsui
Mapsui is a.NET Map component for: MAUI, Avalonia, Uno Platform, Blazor, WPF, WinUI, Windows Forms, Eto Forms,.NET for Android and.NET for iOS.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsOpen Dronelog
arpanghosh8453/open-dronelog
Drone Log analyzer: A high-performance universal dashboard application for organizing and analyzing DJI/Litchi flight logs privately in one place.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxMacro Deck
Macro-Deck-App/Macro-Deck
The open-source macro pad with customizable widgets, powerful integrations and a secure plugin ecosystem.
OfficialScience, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxQucs S
ra3xdh/qucs_s
Qucs-S is a circuit simulation program with Qt-based GUI.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxQField
opengisch/QField
A simplified touch optimized interface for QGIS.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxPizero Bikecomputer
hishizuka/pizero_bikecomputer
An open-source bike computer with GPS and ANT+ capabilities, based on the Raspberry Pi Zero (W, WH, 2 W) or the Compute Module Zero (CM0).
Science, GIS & engineeringmacOSLinuxGrass
OSGeo/grass
GRASS - free and open-source geospatial processing engine.
OfficialScience, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxGap
gap-system/gap
Main development repository for GAP - Groups, Algorithms, Programming, a System for Computational Discrete Algebra.
OfficialScience, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxJASP
jasp-stats/jasp-desktop
JASP aims to be a complete statistical package for both Bayesian and Frequentist statistical methods, that is easy to use and familiar to users of SPSS.
OfficialScience, GIS & engineeringWindowsmacOSLinuxRadio Active
dpnkrpl/radio-active
Play any radios around the globe right from the terminal.
Science, GIS & engineeringWindowsLinuxPithos
pithos/pithos
Pithos is a native Pandora Radio client for Linux.
Science, GIS & engineeringLinux
What are the best open-source GIS and science apps?
By GitHub stars, QGIS is the most popular (14,480 stars), followed by Shadowbroker and Stellarium. People often use these instead of ArcGIS and SPSS. Each page lists the platforms, license and last commit.
Which of these run on Windows, Mac and Linux?
17 of the 19 open-source GIS and science apps listed here run on Windows, 15 on macOS and 17 on Linux; on a Mac, the most starred is QGIS. 3 can be installed with a package manager such as Flathub, Homebrew, winget or Chocolatey.
Are these open-source GIS and science apps free?
Yes. All 19 use an open-source license (OSI-approved or FSF-free), so you can use, copy and change them for free.
How are these open-source GIS and science apps chosen?
Apps come from desktop awesome lists (Awesome Linux Software, awesome-mac, awesome-windows, awesome-electron and the media and file sections of awesome-cli-apps), more than 70 GitHub topics such as desktop-app, electron-app, tauri-app, gtk, qt, macos-app, pdf-editor, cad and remote-desktop, and a hand-picked list of flagship apps. An app is listed only if it has a license (one GitHub detects, or one appsgit checked by hand), a README and a commit in the last six months, is not archived or a fork, and has 1000+ GitHub stars (topics), 500+ (awesome lists) or 100+ (hand-picked). It must also be an end-user application with a desktop signal: installers in its releases, install instructions for Windows, macOS or Linux, or a Flathub, Homebrew, winget, Chocolatey, Snap or AUR package. Libraries, frameworks, themes, plugins and servers are left out, and source-available apps are labelled as such.