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Cloud-native, in short

For years, sharing geodata meant one of two things: sending a file that everyone downloads in full and opens on their own computer (a shapefile, a GeoPackage), or running servers that cut the data up on request (a WFS, a map tile server, a database behind them). The first doesn't scale past a few hundred megabytes; the second costs money and attention every day it runs.

Cloud-native formats are files organised so that software can read only the part it needs, straight from where the file is stored. A map of one city reads the few kilobytes covering that city out of a file of the whole country, with plain web requests and no server in between. Geobox turns what you add into these formats, and keeps the ones you already make as they are:

What changes for GIS work:

• No server to run. The files sit in plain storage; reading them costs next to nothing and never slows down when more people use them.
• Any size. The same few requests draw a map of a thousand features or of ten million.
• One copy for everything. The file behind the map is the one your analysts query and your colleagues download: no export to keep in sync.
• Open standards. These are open specifications read by free and commercial software alike. Your data stays yours, readable without Geobox.

Getting started

1. 1. AddDrop a file on your box, or paste the web address of a file or a map service.
2. 2. Wait a momentGeobox prepares it. Most files are ready in seconds; very large ones take a few minutes.
3. 3. Use itOpen it on a map, colour it, combine it with other data, download it or share it.

You can leave the page while Geobox works: it carries on and your box shows where it is.

No file at hand? The Samples button next to Sentinel-2 opens open datasets to try Geobox with: US national parks, this week's earthquakes, New York City's buildings, the neighborhoods of Los Angeles and more. Most are linked, so they use none of your space.

Adding data

Files from your computer

Drop files on your box or pick them. Geobox reads:

• Layers: Shapefile, GeoPackage, GeoJSON, CSV with coordinates, KML and KMZ, FlatGeobuf, GeoParquet, File Geodatabase (zipped: a .gdb is a folder). A geodatabase with several layers asks which to take; its tables without geometry are left out; curves become smooth lines; fields with coded values (domains) keep their codes and get their labels in a field next to them, ending in _resolved.
• Map tiles (PMTiles): vector tiles you made yourself (tippecanoe, Planetiler, a basemap) are stored as they are, with all their layers, and shown on maps. If the file carries a MapLibre style in its metadata, the map uses it; otherwise each layer gets one colour. Without the data behind the tiles, they can't be exported to other formats or coloured by a field: for that, add the data itself. They're kept as they were added: never converted again, rebuilt or replaced (a new version is a new dataset); its name, description, theme and sharing can still be changed. Image tiles (PNG, JPEG, WebP) aren't taken yet.
• Map tiles with their style: a zip holding the PMTiles, its MapLibre style.json, and the fonts (folders of 0-255.pbf files) and sprite (sprite.json and sprite.png) it uses. The map draws it exactly as styled, labels and icons included. It's also offered as a basemap, under Your map tiles in the basemap menu, for this workspace's maps and their public pages. Its style gets its own link (Share turns it on), which opens as is in MapLibre or QGIS.
• Satellite images: the Sentinel-2 button next to Import from URL opens a map of the Earth cut into 110 km squares. Find a place by name or click a square, pick a period (the last weeks or months, or a whole year back to 2018) and how few clouds (down to none), and press On map on an image to see it at full detail before choosing. Tick the images you want: they're linked into your box, credited, in a Sentinel-2 theme, using no space. Choose True colour, or All 10 m bands (blue, green, red, near-infrared) to get vegetation (NDVI) and water indices and false colour on the map.
• Imagery: GeoTIFF and JPEG 2000. Several images picked together (the tiles of an orthophoto, or a zip of them) can be merged into one dataset: Geobox asks, then checks they have the same bands and lie next to each other.
• Zip files holding any of the above.

For a shapefile, select all its parts together (.shp, .dbf, .shx, .prj), or the zip that holds them. When a file doesn't say which coordinate system it uses, or how its text is encoded, Geobox asks, with a suggestion.

Tables with coordinates

A CSV becomes points when it has latitude and longitude columns (lat, lon, lng, latitude, longitude...) or x and y columns, or a column of WKT geometries. French exports with decimal commas ("43,6045") and Latin-1 text work too. When the coordinates are in metres, Geobox asks which coordinate system they are in and suggests the likely one from their values (Lambert-93, Swiss LV95...).

A file on the web

Paste its address. Geobox fetches it and can check it again regularly to stay up to date. A GeoJSON feed is named after the title it gives itself.

Map services

Paste the address of an ArcGIS service or of a WFS, however it's written: the service itself, one of its layers, a GetCapabilities or GetFeature request, an ArcGIS services directory. Geobox lists what it offers; tick the layers you want and each becomes a dataset in your box, named as the service names it, which can be kept up to date too. The Theme box is filled in with the service's name, so the new datasets arrive grouped (change it, or clear it). From ArcGIS, fields with coded values keep their codes and get their names next to them, in a field ending in _resolved, and the layer arrives in the service's own colours (yours replace them as soon as you style it).

STAC catalogs

Paste the address of a STAC catalog, collection or item (a catalog.json, collection.json or an item's address): Geobox offers to browse it. Search-only STAC APIs list their collections but not their files: paste an item's address there. You see its collections and their files, and add GeoParquet layers and Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF images as links, named after where they come from.

Not sure where to start? Under Import from URL, Try one opens public examples: US federal data on ArcGIS, the week's earthquakes from the USGS, a Sentinel-2 image of Sacramento, the French mapping agency's WFS, and world boundaries as a STAC catalog.

Open data catalogs

Under Catalog, browse ready-made open datasets and add them as links: nothing is copied and they don't use any of your space. Each catalog's page shows its STAC address, to open it in QGIS too.

Organising your box

The settings button on a dataset's row opens its panel: Details (description, theme, updates, fields, files, how to open it in QGIS, ArcGIS Pro and more, a new version, delete), Share (people, its link, the public catalog) and, on Pro and Team, Advanced (how its files are stored). The share button opens it at Share. Click a dataset's name to rename it.

• Themes group datasets under a heading, like folders. Set one in the dataset's Details (its settings button), or for several at once from the selection bar. Datasets shared with you can go in your themes too (yours only: the owner's copy doesn't change). To rename a theme, use the pencil at the right of its heading; a name already in use merges the two themes.
• Select several with the box on their picture: open them together on a map, move them to a theme, share them, copy their links or delete them.
• Details: click a name to see everything about a dataset, rename it or describe it in place.
• Find and sort by name, size, newest, or last opened; the chips above the list filter by kind and show what is converting or needs a look.
• Each format has a small copy button next to its name, for its direct link (QGIS, DuckDB, Python).
• A green check next to a size means the file is in your box; a chain means it's linked from where it's published and uses none of your space.

Viewing and styling

Click a dataset's picture to open it on a map. Click a feature to read all its values. The current zoom level shows under the zoom buttons.

Symbology

Under Style, choose how the layer is drawn:

• Single symbol: one colour, with its outline, width, pattern, point symbol and size.
• Categories: a colour per value of a field. Change any colour, untick a value to hide it, give a value a label (hover its row). Import a legend takes the colours and labels from an SLD file, a QGIS style (.qml) or a CSV with a value and a colour on each line. CORINE Land Cover and NLCD codes are recognised: one click applies their official legend.
• Classes: ranges of a number, in 3 to 7 classes, cut by the method you choose: equal interval, quantiles, Jenks natural breaks, standard deviation, arithmetic or geometric progression, or head/tail breaks. Pick a palette (and reverse it), type your own limits, untick a class to hide it, size points by value between a smallest and a largest size. A histogram under the classes shows how the values spread. On very large layers the classes come from a sample spread across the layer, and say so.

Blend: Multiply, under the opacity, combines a layer's colours with what's below instead of covering it. Over the Relief basemap, land cover keeps strong colours and shows the slopes.

The style is saved with the dataset: it reopens that way, new maps start from it, and its catalog uses it.

Legend

The legend on the map lists every visible layer as it's drawn, without what you hid. Fold it away with its header. To hide part of a layer, untick a class or a value (or "All other values") in its list under Style.

Large layers

• Zoomed out, Geobox can draw hexagons instead of the features: each says how many features it holds and their leading values, and the features take over from the zoom you choose (under Map tiles).
• Fields when zoomed out: heavy layers carry only a few fields in their zoomed-out map. Colour by another one and Geobox rebuilds the map tiles with it, with a progress bar; until then its colours show from the finest zoom levels. Choosing another field stops the rebuild.

More

• Imagery: pick which bands to show, or a ready-made combination or index (NDVI and others) once Geobox knows which band is which. A single band (an elevation, an index, a model's output) takes a colour ramp: choose one, reverse it, and set the range of values it spans instead of the automatic one.
• Thumbnail: the camera button makes the current view the dataset's picture in your box.
• Open in RustGIS: from a saved map, sends its layers to RustGIS, a free GIS that runs in your browser, with their colours.

Downloading

Every dataset can be downloaded in the format your software expects, from its Download menu:

Some formats are prepared when you ask for them ("Prepare"), which takes a moment. A prepared copy is kept for 7 days. Each format also has a link you can copy, from this menu or from the copy button next to its name in your box, for example to load the data straight into QGIS.

Maps

A map puts several datasets of your box together, with their order, colours and view. Open a dataset, add others with "Add data", arrange them and save. Your maps are listed under Maps. A map only points to your data: deleting a map never deletes a dataset. Each layer keeps its own style in the map, and the legend shows them all.

The button under the zoom buttons changes the basemap: Light, Dark, Streets or None. A saved map keeps its basemap, public maps included.

Share on a saved map gives it a public page that anyone with the link can open, read-only. Its visitors also see your other public maps under More maps, so one map leads to the next. To keep a map out of that list (and the list off its page), turn off "Show my other public maps" in its Share window. "Show in search engines" lets Google and AI assistants find the page; it's off until you turn it on.

Visitors can also click Open this map in your box: they get a free box (or use theirs) with a copy of the map, ready for their own data. Its layers stay yours: they appear in their box under the map's name, read-only, without using their storage, and they leave it when you make the map private, delete it or take the layer off it.

Working with others

Your datasets and maps live in a workspace. The Free plan includes one; with Pro or Team you can have several, for example one per client or project. You can also join any number of workspaces others invite you to, and switch between them from the menu at the top right.

In Settings, the owner of a workspace invites people by email and chooses what they can do:

People outside your workspace see nothing of it, unless you share a dataset with them or publish it in a catalog.

Sharing one dataset

To give someone a single dataset without inviting them to your workspace, use the Share button on its row and type their email address. The address only tells Geobox whose workspace to put it in: the data itself is never sent by email, only a short notice. If they aren't on Geobox yet, they get an invitation instead: its button signs them in and gives them a free box of their own. The dataset then appears in their box, in a "Shared with you" group at the top (or a theme of their own, if they give it one), with a note saying who shared it: they can view it, add it to their maps and download it, but not change it, and it doesn't use their space (it still counts in yours). Your changes reach them at once. Remove them from the Share panel and the dataset leaves their box straight away; they can also remove it themselves. The same panel adds a dataset to another of your own workspaces.

Links, catalogs and other tools

Each dataset's Share panel says who can open its files:

• Only your workspace (the start): its members, and the people you shared it with by email, inside Geobox.
• Anyone with the link: the dataset gets its own link, for QGIS, ArcGIS, Python, DuckDB or a colleague. It opens that dataset only. New link replaces it, and the old one stops working.
• Public: listed in your public catalog, which anyone can browse on the web or open in QGIS, with the licence it's shared under. The first time, you give the catalog an address. You can take a dataset back at any time.

Credit: each dataset can say who made it and under which licence. Geobox fills it in when you add data from a catalog (its producer and licence) or copy a web service (an ArcGIS layer's credits or organisation, a WFS's provider), and you can change it in the dataset's Details under Source. It's shown on every map that draws the dataset, public maps included, and in your public catalog.

In the dataset's Details, Open it in your tools shows, step by step, how to open it in QGIS (by its link, or through your workspace's catalog), ArcGIS Pro, a web map, DuckDB, Python or GDAL.

To work on your whole workspace in QGIS, use Your private catalog under Catalog: one address with every dataset, opened from QGIS's Browser panel (STAC › New STAC Connection). Keep that address to yourself: it opens every dataset in the workspace. If it leaks, replace it in Settings and the old address stops working at once.

Your data and privacy

• Only your workspace sees your data. Geobox doesn't share, sell or analyse it.
• Where it's kept: files are stored with Cloudflare. When you create a workspace, you can choose to keep its files in the European Union only.
• Your own storage: on the Pro and Team plans, a workspace can keep its files in your own bucket (OVHcloud, Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Scaleway, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces or another S3-compatible service; the form says how to make a key at each): choose "Your own bucket" when you create it, under New workspace in Settings. Geobox tests the bucket first and keeps its key encrypted; maps and downloads go through Geobox, so the bucket needs no other setting.
• Deleting is real: deleting a dataset removes its original file, its converted copies and its downloads straight away. The same goes for a workspace or your account, in Settings.
• No backup yet: keep your own copy of files you can't afford to lose.
• Your original is kept as is until you delete or replace it, so you can always download exactly what you added.
• Signing in: Geobox has no passwords. You sign in with a code sent by email, or with a passkey (Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello or your phone), which you can add after signing in or in Settings.

The details are in our privacy notice and terms of use.

Space and limits

Every feature is in every plan: maps, styling, sharing, public maps, catalogs, downloads. Pro and Team add several workspaces, members in a workspace (a Free workspace is yours alone; sharing a dataset still works), datasets that keep themselves up to date from their source, and your own storage bucket.

Only your original files count. The converted copies, map tiles and linked datasets are free (on Free, up to 8 GB in all, which leaves plenty of room: past it, the gauge says the box is full). The gauge at the top of your box shows how much space you use.

A conversion is an import, an update or a refresh of a linked service. Rebuilding a map after a style change and downloads in other formats don't count. They're counted over the last 24 hours: past the limit, new ones wait and start on their own as soon as there's room. Everyone shares the converters fairly, so a big batch from one box never holds up the others for long.

Questions

Feedback

Geobox is new and improving every week. Everything you notice helps: something unclear, a file that didn't work, a feature you miss. Use the Feedback button at the top of any page: we'll know which page you were on. You can also write to contact@geomermaids.com.

Acknowledgements

Geobox stands on open source work by people and communities who share it freely. Thank you to:

• geoparquet-io, by Chris Holmes and contributors: every file becomes an optimised GeoParquet through it.
• tylertoo, by Nissim Lebovits: GeoParquet to PMTiles, the maps you see, hexagons included.
• GeoParquet, the open specification, and the OGC working group behind it; GeoArrow, by Dewey Dunnington and contributors.
• DuckDB, its spatial extension and DuckDB-Wasm, which read and analyse the data on the converter and in your browser; the H3 extension by Isaac Brodsky, and H3, Uber's hexagon grid.
• PMTiles, by Brandon Liu and Protomaps.
• GDAL and PROJ, which read almost every geographic format and every coordinate system there is.
• MapLibre GL JS, which draws the maps, and geotiff.js and proj4js for imagery in the browser.
• async-geotiff and obstore, by Kyle Barron and Development Seed.
• Apache Arrow and Parquet, the ground all of this is built on.
• STAC, the catalog specification your published datasets follow.
• OpenFreeMap, by Zsolt Ero: the background map under every Geobox map, free, with no key and no limits.
• OpenStreetMap contributors, whose data that background map is drawn from, and OpenMapTiles for its schema.
• The Cloud-Native Geospatial Forum, where much of this comes together.