Battle of geospatial tools for beginners: CARTO vs Kepler.gl
🤔 What is CARTO?
CARTO is an open-source, cloud-based location intelligence platform. More on CARTO here.
🤔 What is Kepler.gl?
Kepler.gl is an open-source, web-based application to visualise location data. More on Kepler.gl here.
🎆 Examples of visualisations in…
… CARTO:
- Transport
- TRANSPORT NETWORK GEOSPATIAL ANALYTICS
- CARTO Traffico
- Real Estate
- Location Intelligence for Real Estate: Overcoming Unprecedented Shifts with Predictive Analytics
- Healthcare Analytics
… Kepler.gl:
- Daily bus boarding in São Paulo
- Visualising Traffic Safety with Uber Movement Data and Kepler.gl
- Visualising the Spread of COVID-19 in the United States
💿 How to import data to…
… CARTO:
- Shapefile
- Keyhole Markup Language (KML)
- Zip-compressed KML file (KMZ)
- GeoJSON
- Comma Separated Values (CSV)
- Spreadsheet
- GPS Exchange File (GPX)
- Open Street Map File (OSM)
- MapInfo file
- CARTO file
- GeoPackage (GPKG)
- File Geodatabase (FGDB)
… Kepler.gl:
- Comma Separated Values (CSV)
- GeoJSON
- JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
🧳 How to export data from…
… CARTO:
- Comma Separated Values (CSV)
- Shapefile
- Keyhole Markup Language (KML)
- GeoJSON
- Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
- GeoPackage (GPKG)
- CARTO file
… Kepler.gl:
- Comma Separated Values (CSV)
👥 How to share visualisations in…
… CARTO:
- URL
- HTML
- CARTO file
… Kepler.gl:
- Image
- HTML
- JSON
- URL (requires a Dropbox account)
👍 Advantages of…
… CARTO:
- Intuitive and easy to use
- Spatial analysis tools (buffer, intersection etc.)
- Data management options, including geocoding
- Widgets
- Handles real-time data
- Privacy features
… Kepler.gl:
- Easy to use
- High-impact geospatial visualisations
- Effective mapping of large time-enabled data
- Effective mapping of clusters and density
- Ideal for mobility visualisations
👎 Disadvantages of…
… CARTO:
- Nothing major
… Kepler.gl:
- Data needs to be pre-processed
- Lack of analytic tools and insights
💰 Pricing of…
… CARTO:
- Paid plans (free trial: 14 days). Note: the individual plan was not available on the website when this text was written.
- Student account
… Kepler.gl
- Free
👩🏫 Training and other valuable resources to get started with…
… Carto:
… Kepler:
- User guides
- Get started
- 4D Data Visualization with Kepler.gl
- Visualising geographical data with Kepler.gl (Michele Mauri)
- [Visualization Nights] Introduction to Kepler.gl
🤝 Carto + Keppler.gl?
What if you did not need to choose? With the Kepler.gl integration, you can manage your maps in one single place and work on them across both tools: Kepler.gl and CARTO. More information here, here and here.
🏆 Winner of the battle
Kepler.gl is flashy but gets limited fast. CARTO offers more geospatial analysis functionalities and is a proper location intelligence platform.
🎆 Do you want to create your own apps with Kepler.gl? Then, you might find these tutorials helpful:
Cristina
Cristina
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