Publish a QGIS project online: four approaches compared

Two families: map server or static export

Every option falls into one of two families. The first relies on QGIS Server: the QGIS project stays the source, the server draws maps on demand with the style defined in QGIS, and a web client displays them. Lizmap, QGIS Cloud and QWC2 belong here.

The second exports the project as standalone web pages: the data and an approximation of the style are converted for a JavaScript library, and the result goes on any web page hosting. That is how the qgis2web plugin works. No server to run, but no live link with the project either. There is also a middle route: publishing WMS and WFS services with QGIS Server alone, then displaying them in an existing web client. It still requires the same server skills as the complete solutions, without the ready-made interface.

Questions to ask before choosing

Before comparing tools, clarify the need. The same six questions almost always separate the options:

• Who needs to see the map? The public, one department, a few partners? As soon as access must be restricted, a static export is no longer enough.
• Is the data sensitive? Data copied into a web page can be read by any visitor who knows how to open their browser's developer tools.
• Must data be edited online? Editing requires a server and, in practice, a PostGIS database.
• Does the data change often? If so, a solution linked to the project avoids redoing an export at every update.
• What volume? A few hundred features work anywhere; hundreds of thousands need a server that draws the map on demand.
• Who will look after it? A map server must be administered; a hosted or managed service does it for you.

Keep your answers in mind while reading on: each option answers some of these questions well and others badly. If you are unsure, start with the question of access rights: it is the one that rules out unsuitable options fastest. Online editing and data volume come next, and they almost always settle the choice between the remaining options. Write your answers down and share them with the people who will use the map: they often see constraints the GIS team had not thought of.

Lizmap: the QGIS project becomes a portal

Lizmap, developed by 3Liz, turns a QGIS project into a web map portal. You configure it in QGIS Desktop with the Lizmap plugin: visible layers, basemaps, tools, editing forms, access rights. Rendering comes from QGIS Server, so it matches the project. The official documentation, at docs.lizmap.com, describes every panel of the plugin: layers, attribute table, editing, filters, charts, atlas, tooltips.

• Strengths: online editing of PostGIS layers, search, printing from QGIS layouts, filters, charts, fine-grained user and group management, add-on modules.
• Limits: you need to run QGIS Server and Lizmap, or use a host; configuration means learning the Lizmap plugin.
• For whom: local governments, consultancies and GIS departments that want a real portal, with editing and permissions.

You can install it yourself or have it hosted: the guide Install Lizmap yourself or choose hosting compares the two. With LizPack Map, LizPack's managed Lizmap hosting, the instance is online in about four minutes and the LizPack Publisher plugin publishes the open project from QGIS.

In practice, Lizmap works equally well as a public portal or an internal tool. Staff in a department can view, search, print and edit data, while the public only reaches the maps intended for them. Because everything starts from the QGIS project, the GIS specialist keeps control of rendering without writing any code, and a change made in QGIS appears online at the next publication.

QGIS Cloud: publishing from a QGIS plugin

QGIS Cloud is a hosted service run by the Swiss company Sourcepole. You install the QGIS Cloud plugin from the official QGIS plugin repository; it creates hosted PostgreSQL and PostGIS databases, loads the data into them, then publishes the project with a web client, a mobile client and WMS and WFS services, with WFS-T for editing.

• Strengths: very simple start from QGIS, PostGIS database provided, QGIS Server rendering, a free plan to get started.
• Limits: on the free plan, every published map is accessible to anyone; password-based access restriction is part of the Pro plan. The service is run by its publisher, so you depend on its terms.
• For whom: quickly publishing a map or OGC services without installing anything, especially for public data.

For public data and a one-off need, it is a convenient way in. For internal data, check before committing which plan allows access restriction, where the data is hosted and how to get it back if you leave: as always, it is better to ask these questions before the first publication than after it, when maps and habits are already in place.

QWC2: a modular web client for technical teams

QGIS Web Client 2 (QWC2) is an open source, responsive web client for QGIS Server, built with React and OpenLayers. Each published QGIS project becomes a theme of the client. The qwc-services ecosystem adds user administration, editing, full-text search and several authentication backends.

• Strengths: modular architecture, modern and highly customizable interface, suited to large infrastructures, configurable PDF printing and search.
• Limits: setting up services, themes, resources and permissions requires administration skills and often web development.
• For whom: organizations with a technical team that wants to build and evolve its own geoportal.

QWC2 and its services are developed as open source on GitHub, with online documentation at docs.qwc.app. Before committing, make sure your team will be able to follow new releases and maintain your customizations over time: a custom geoportal is software to maintain, not just an installation, and its cost lies as much in the years after launch as in the launch itself.

qgis2web: static export without a server

The qgis2web plugin turns the project into an OpenLayers or Leaflet web map. It replicates as many aspects of the project as it can: layers, extent, styles, including categorized and graduated ones. With GeoJSON export, no server-side software is needed: the result can go on any static web hosting.

• Strengths: free, no map server, ideal for a one-off map on a website or blog.
• Limits: the exported data ships with the page, so any visitor can download it, and it is frozen at export time; not every QGIS setting carries over; large datasets make the page heavy; no editing, no access control, no OGC services.
• For whom: small public maps, little data, rare updates.

In practice, the export is configured in the plugin window: choice of library, layers to export and display options, preview, then export of a folder containing the page and its files. That folder is uploaded as is to the hosting. Every time the data is updated, you have to run the export again and replace the folder, which is fine for a map that changes once a year and tedious for one that changes every week.

Preparing the QGIS project, whatever the option

Whichever way you publish a QGIS project online, the quality of the result is decided first in QGIS Desktop. The same precautions prevent most blank, slow or unreadable maps:

• Relative paths. Save the project with relative paths and keep the data in its folder. A path to your local drive exists neither on a server nor in an export.
• Suitable formats. Prefer GeoPackage to scattered Shapefiles, and PostGIS as soon as data is edited, large or shared.
• Coordinate system. Choose it deliberately. To overlay web basemaps, Web Mercator (EPSG:3857) is simplest; for accurate measurements, keep your country's official system in the data itself.
• Layer names and order. Legend names are what your visitors will see: replace technical names with clear labels, and group layers by theme.
• Useful fields. Hide or rename internal fields before publishing: a technical identifier helps nobody, and some columns must not be visible to the public.
• Metadata. Fill in the title, abstract and data source in the project and layer properties: OGC services reuse them and they help your users understand what they are looking at.

These settings take only a few minutes and serve every option. If you change tools later, a clean project can be published again with no effort, which is worth a great deal when the choice of platform is revisited a few years down the line.

Keeping a web map fast

A slow map is a map nobody opens any more. The causes are almost always the same, and the fixes depend on the family of solution you chose.

With a solution based on QGIS Server, the tile cache is the most powerful lever for basemaps and layers that rarely change. With a static export, data size is what matters: beyond a few megabytes, a map server becomes the better choice, because the browser no longer has to download and draw everything at once.

Serving OGC services as well

Publishing a QGIS project online does not only mean showing a map in a browser. Solutions based on QGIS Server also expose OGC services, standardized exchange formats that other software can read:

• WMS delivers map images, with the project's style. A partner adds it to their own GIS as a basemap or a reference layer.
• WFS delivers the features themselves, with their attributes, for querying or analysis; WFS-T also allows editing them.
• WMTS delivers pre-rendered tiles that display quickly.
• WCS delivers raw raster data.

Lizmap and QGIS Cloud rely on QGIS Server and offer these services; a qgis2web export offers none. If your partners work in QGIS, ArcGIS or other software, these services avoid sending files by email and ensure everyone sees the same version of the data. Just remember to decide who may access them: a public service can be read by anyone, including automated tools that harvest open data, so publish only what you are prepared to share.

Comparison table to publish a QGIS project online

Third-party services change their features: check their official websites before deciding. This table describes what they are, not their commercial plans.

If what you mainly need is to serve layers as WMS or WFS to other software, rather than a portal, also look at GeoServer: the guide Host GeoServer online covers that option, and GeoServer Cloud offers a ready-to-use workspace. Finally, nothing prevents you from combining them: a Lizmap portal for staff and elected officials, a qgis2web export for a one-off map on the town website, and OGC services for partners. What matters is that the source stays single, the QGIS project and the PostGIS database, and that everything else derives from it: that is what prevents diverging versions of the same data.

• A one-off public map with little data: qgis2web is enough.
• A public map or OGC services, quickly, with nothing to install: QGIS Cloud is a simple option.
• A portal with editing, group permissions and printing, without a development team: Lizmap, self-installed or hosted.
• A custom geoportal backed by a technical team: QWC2.
• Mainly layers to serve to other software: GeoServer, or the OGC services of QGIS Server.

Frequently asked questions