Getting started with LizPack: put a QGIS map online

Before you start: what you need

Putting a QGIS map online with LizPack requires very little, and nothing that involves a server. LizPack is an open source geospatial infrastructure: it installs and maintains well-established free software for you, Lizmap Web Client, QGIS Server and PostGIS, and you work with the tools you already know. The guide What LizPack does explains how the roles are divided; here, we move on to the practical side.

• QGIS Desktop, version 3.16 or later, since that is the version required by the LizPack Publisher extension.
• The Lizmap plugin, the 3Liz extension used to configure the web map. It is installed from the QGIS Plugins menu, like any other plugin.
• A QGIS project: your layers, their symbology and their labels. File layers (GeoPackage, Shapefile, rasters) and PostGIS layers are supported.
• An email address to create the LizPack account. The Free plan is a 30-day free trial, with no credit card required.

If your project already exists and has been configured with the Lizmap plugin for another installation, it is compatible as it is: LizPack Map hosts the same Lizmap, with the same features. If you are starting from scratch, the steps below also cover the preparation work.

The steps in this guide follow those described on the LizPack Map, LizPack Publisher, Databases, LizPack Field, GeoServer Cloud and LizPack Viewer product pages. For screen-by-screen detail, the customer area documentation is the reference.

Step 1: create your LizPack account

Everything starts with a LizPack account. It opens the customer area, where you create and follow your instances, and its credentials are the ones you then use to sign in from QGIS. The same account also opens LizPack Field, for field data collection, and GeoServer Cloud: a single sign-in for all the products.

When you sign up, you start on the Free plan: a 30-day free trial, with no credit card required. It is enough to follow this whole guide and check that your projects display as expected. You then choose a paid plan if the map has to stay online: Basic at 10 USD per month for one instance, or Pro at 20 USD per month for two instances, with direct database access from QGIS and updates included. Enterprise is available on quotation. The Pricing page shows the complete, up-to-date grid.

Your choice of plan is not final. If you are unsure, start with the trial, publish a real project, and decide based on the result. The guide Reading LizPack plans and quotas explains what each plan includes, quota by quota.

Step 2: create a LizPack Map instance

An instance is your map portal. It brings together Lizmap Web Client, the application that displays maps in the browser, QGIS Server, which draws the layers from your projects, a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database and a tile cache. All of it is installed and maintained by LizPack; you never access the server itself.

1. From the customer area, start creating a LizPack Map instance.
2. Choose a name: it becomes your subdomain, the address at which your maps will be viewed.
3. Choose the QGIS Server version: it is selected at deployment. Preferably pick a version close to that of your QGIS Desktop.
4. Wait about four minutes: the instance is installed, the subdomain configured and the HTTPS certificate set up, then renewed automatically.

The name deserves a moment of thought, since it will appear in the address you share with your users. A short name, linked to your organization or your project, is easier to remember than a technical acronym.

From the Basic plan upward, each instance has its own QGIS Server, and the instance includes PostgreSQL/PostGIS database storage. The guide Anatomy of a Lizmap instance describes each component and how they work together to display a map.

Step 3: prepare the project in QGIS with the Lizmap plugin

Preparation takes place entirely in QGIS Desktop, as for any Lizmap publication. LizPack adds no format and no step of its own: the 3Liz Lizmap plugin describes what the web map will offer, and QGIS Server draws your layers exactly as you see them in QGIS.

Start with the project itself. Arrange the layers in the order and groups you want to see in the online legend, set the symbology and labels, and give the layers readable names, since those are what your users will see. Choose a coordinate reference system suited to your area. Then save the project, preferably in a folder that also contains its data, so that everything can be published in one piece.

Next, open the Lizmap plugin. This is where you set up the web experience: the initial map extent, the scales, the base layers, the tools offered to visitors, the queryable layers and their information popups, and, where relevant, layers that can be edited online. The plugin saves these settings in a configuration file stored next to the QGIS project. That file and the project travel together.

• Keep data as close to the project as possible: relative paths make publishing easier.
• File layers (GeoPackage, Shapefile, rasters) and PostGIS layers are supported.
• A lighter project displays faster: limit the number of layers visible at startup.
• Run the Lizmap plugin configuration again after any significant change to the project, so that the configuration file stays up to date.

The guide Publish a Lizmap map from QGIS goes through these settings one by one, along with the most common pitfalls.

Step 4: publish with LizPack Publisher

Once the project is ready, it has to be sent to the instance. The simplest way is the LizPack Publisher extension, which is free and published in the official QGIS plugin repository. It connects QGIS Desktop to your instances: you browse their files, open a remote project, publish the open project and, from the Pro plan upward, work in the instance's PostGIS database, all from a single window.

1. Install: in QGIS, in the Plugins menu, search for LizPack and install LizPack Publisher from the official repository.
2. Sign in: enter your LizPack credentials, then choose the instance to work on. Your credentials can be kept encrypted by the QGIS authentication store if you wish.
3. Prepare the project: configure it with the Lizmap plugin, as described in the previous step.
4. Publish: validate and publish the open project. It joins your Lizmap portal along with its data.

When you publish, the open project is first validated, then sent to the instance along with its data. The map is then online in Lizmap. If your project relies on a larger data folder, the extension can also send a whole folder from your computer to the instance, keeping its structure.

Every operation is recorded in a log, which can be copied in one click and attached to a support request if something does not go as planned. The extension adds no library to your QGIS installation.

Would you rather not install anything? The instance's online file manager also lets you upload, organize and replace your projects and data directly from the browser. The result is the same: the project and its Lizmap configuration file are placed on the instance, and the map appears in the portal.

Step 5: set access rights and share the map

Your map is online. What remains is to decide who can see it. This is set in the Lizmap administration of your instance, with the usual Lizmap tools: user accounts, groups and access rights per project. A map can be open to everyone, restricted to a group, or visible only to signed-in users.

Two questions help you decide. Does the map contain data that must not leave your organization? Then restrict it to a group. Is it meant to inform the public, like a zoning plan or a map of public facilities? Open it, and simply share the address of your subdomain.

On the LizPack side, the customer area also lets you work as a team: on the Pro plan, you can invite up to five collaborators. You can also copy a theme from the marketplace to style your maps, and follow the activity of your account.

If you are still unsure how to distribute a map, the guide Create an online map and share it compares several tools and the ways they share maps.

Keeping the map alive: updates and continuity

Putting a QGIS map online is only the beginning: a useful map evolves. To update it, edit the project in QGIS, run the Lizmap plugin again if needed, then publish again with LizPack Publisher or replace the files from the online file manager. If your data lives in a PostGIS database, the map shows its current state directly, without republishing.

The software itself evolves too. Updating Lizmap and QGIS Server takes one click; it is included from the Pro plan upward and costs 10 USD per component on the Free and Basic plans. The HTTPS certificate renews automatically.

Finally, if a subscription expires, the instance stops, but its projects, files and database are kept for 60 days. Renew within that period to find it exactly as it was. Three emails warn you before anything is deleted.

Your projects remain QGIS projects configured with the Lizmap plugin, and your data remains in open formats. They can be reinstalled on any other Lizmap installation.

Going further: PostGIS, LizPack Field, GeoServer Cloud, LizPack Viewer

A first online map often leads to other needs: centralizing data, collecting it in the field, distributing it to other software, building maps on the fly. Each LizPack product meets one of these needs, with the same free software and the same account.

Work in a PostGIS database. From the Pro plan upward, you connect to the instance's PostGIS database from QGIS Desktop or pgAdmin over an encrypted connection, and LizPack Publisher lets you add its tables as layers, import a layer into it and run a diagnosis on it. For larger volumes, the Databases product offers dedicated databases running PostgreSQL 17 and PostGIS 3.5, from 1 to 10 GB, billed per GB. Its steps: create the database by choosing its size, retrieve the host, port and credentials, load data from QGIS, then connect the database to your Lizmap instance so that its layers are served and editable online.

Collect in the field. LizPack Field sends a QGIS project to your teams' phones with the QField app, on Android and iOS, online or offline. The steps: prepare the collection project in QGIS, publish it to LizPack Field, collect with QField, then let changes flow back automatically. With the Pro plan, at 15 USD per month, records are written into your PostGIS database, and the Lizmap map that displays those layers is updated with every synchronization. The Free plan includes 200 MB and one project.

Distribute as OGC services. GeoServer Cloud opens an isolated GeoServer workspace, included with your account and free up to 200 MB and 10 layers. Activate the workspace from the dashboard, upload a Shapefile, GeoPackage or GeoTIFF, or connect the PostGIS database of an instance in one click, publish each layer as WMS, WFS or WMTS, then add the service address in QGIS, Lizmap, ArcGIS or your application.

Build maps without a project. LizPack Viewer, included with LizPack Field, starts from an empty map in the browser: you add layers from your projects or online services by their address, save the map to « My maps » with its styling, then choose who can open it and copy its link or embed code.

To see how these products fit together in a single setup, the guide How LizPack solutions work together puts them in perspective.

Summary: from account creation to your first online map

Here is the complete path, in summary. Each row matches a step described above, with the tool used and what it produces.

All in all, the technical part, which used to mean installing a server, Lizmap, QGIS Server and a database, then configuring a domain name and a certificate, comes down to creating the instance. The rest of your time is spent where it adds value: in QGIS, on your data and on the map itself.

If you want to compare this approach with installing Lizmap on your own server, the guide Install Lizmap yourself or choose managed hosting sets the two options side by side, and the LizPack Map page details what an instance includes.

Frequently asked questions