The right tool depends entirely on what you’re trying to do. If you just need to highlight an area on a map and share a link, Google MyMaps or Felt will sort you out in five minutes. If you need real-time collaborative drawing on a web map, Felt is the current standout. If you’re doing professional GIS annotation for a deliverable or analysis workflow, QGIS or ArcGIS Online is the answer. The mistake most people make is reaching for a full GIS platform when they need a simple web tool — or reaching for a simple web tool when they need actual spatial analysis.
Here’s an honest comparison of every tool worth considering in 2026.
Comparison table
| Tool | Draw types | Collaboration | Browser-based | Free tier | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google MyMaps | Points, lines, polygons | Yes | Yes | Free | Quick personal maps, sharing with non-technical users |
| Felt | Points, lines, polygons, freehand | Real-time | Yes | Free (limited) | Teams doing collaborative web mapping |
| Scribble Maps | Points, lines, polygons, text | Limited | Yes | Free | Simple annotated maps for presentations |
| CalcMaps | Polygons, distance/area | No | Yes | Free | Area and distance calculations on a map |
| uMap | Points, lines, polygons | Via shared link | Yes | Free | Open-source, self-hostable mapping |
| QGIS | Full GIS annotation | No (desktop) | No | Free | Professional GIS analysis and map production |
| ArcGIS Online | Full GIS, dashboards | Yes | Yes | Limited free | Enterprise spatial analysis |
| Mango Map | Points, lines, polygons | Yes | Yes | Paid | Publishing maps with annotation for non-GIS users |
Tool-by-tool breakdown
Google MyMaps
Free, built into Google, and requires zero setup. You can draw regions, add pins with custom icons, draw lines, and share the whole thing with a link or embed it in a page. The interface is immediately familiar if you use Google products.
What it doesn’t do: handle spatial file imports. You can’t load a GeoTIFF, a LAS file, or any real spatial data format. KML import exists but it’s finicky. There are no measurement tools worth mentioning. The styling options are basic — custom colours and icons, nothing more.
This is the right choice for non-technical users who need to mark something on a map and share it quickly. It’s the wrong choice for anything involving real spatial data or professional cartography.
Felt
Felt is the most polished modern web mapping tool available right now. It’s what you’d build if you were designing Google MyMaps from scratch in 2024. Real-time collaboration, a clean interface, freehand drawing tools, and support for GeoJSON and KML imports. You can drop in a CSV with coordinates and it’ll plot the points. Collaborative editing is live — multiple people can draw on the same map simultaneously.
The free tier caps collaborators and map storage. For a single user doing occasional maps it’s fine; for a team using it heavily you’ll hit the limits quickly. Pricing is reasonable compared to GIS alternatives.
The downside is that Felt is still a basemap annotation tool — you’re drawing on top of OpenStreetMap or a satellite layer, not working with actual spatial data files. If you need to overlay a GeoTIFF orthomosaic or view a point cloud, Felt isn’t the answer. But for collaborative web-based annotation of geographic areas, it’s the go-to in 2026.
Scribble Maps
Does exactly what the name suggests — lets you draw on a map, add text labels, and export the result as an image or KML. No measurement tools, no real file format support, no spatial analysis. The interface is simple to a fault.
Its specific use case is creating annotated map images for presentations, reports, or emails. If you need to mark up a service area, show a project boundary, or annotate a site plan on a basemap for a slide deck, Scribble Maps gets the job done fast. Don’t use it for anything more demanding.
CalcMaps
Not an annotation tool — a measurement tool. The entire purpose of CalcMaps is to draw a polygon and get its area, or draw a route and get its distance. It does this well on a simple web basemap with no account required.
If someone sends you a piece of land and asks “how big is that in hectares?” — CalcMaps answers the question in 30 seconds. That’s the use case. It’s not for styling, it’s not for sharing, it’s for measurement on a basemap.
uMap
Open-source, self-hostable, and widely used in journalism and non-profit spatial work. uMap supports points, lines, and polygons with custom styling, GeoJSON and KML imports, and sharing via public link. The hosted version at umap.openstreetmap.fr is free with no account required for basic use.
The UI is dated. The workflow takes a few minutes to learn if you haven’t used it before. But for anyone who needs a free, open-source alternative to Google MyMaps — especially one that can be self-hosted with full data control — uMap is the obvious choice. It’s used widely by OpenStreetMap contributors, journalists building story maps, and organisations with strict data sovereignty requirements.
QGIS
QGIS is the real thing. Full GIS annotation capabilities — custom symbology, classification, labels, print composer for professional map output, and every draw tool you’d need for cartographic production. It’s desktop-only, open-source, and free.
The learning curve is real. QGIS is a professional tool with a professional interface, and it takes time to learn properly. If you’re coming from ArcGIS Desktop it will feel familiar. If you’ve never used GIS software, expect a few days before you’re productive.
For professional GIS annotation — marking up a topographic map, annotating a cadastral plan, producing a print-ready project map — QGIS is the answer. If you just want to highlight a region on a web map and share a link, QGIS is complete overkill and the wrong category entirely.
ArcGIS Online
Esri’s cloud platform. Enterprise-grade dashboards, spatial analysis tools, professional annotation and symbology, and browser-based access. The industry standard in GIS departments, local authorities, and large engineering organisations.
The free tier is too limited for real use — it’s effectively a trial. Useful functionality requires an ArcGIS Online subscription, which means an Esri organisational licence. If your organisation already has one, this is the obvious choice and you’re probably already using it. If you don’t, the cost is hard to justify unless you need the full Esri stack.
ArcGIS Online is excellent. It’s also expensive. The answer to “should I use ArcGIS Online?” is almost always “does your organisation already pay for Esri?”
Mango Map
A middle ground between Google MyMaps and ArcGIS Online. Mango Map is designed for non-GIS teams who need to publish styled maps with annotations — think council communications teams, NGO field programmes, or property developers sharing site plans with stakeholders.
It’s more capable than Google MyMaps on styling and data management, simpler than ArcGIS Online to administer. Paid only, with reasonable pricing for small teams. If you need something your non-technical colleagues can use to maintain a published map with annotations, and Google MyMaps isn’t powerful enough, Mango Map is worth evaluating.
How to choose
- “I just need to highlight an area and share a link” → Google MyMaps or Felt
- “I need real-time collaboration on a web map” → Felt
- “I need to measure an area or distance quickly” → CalcMaps
- “I need professional GIS annotation and cartography” → QGIS
- “My organisation has spatial data analysts and a budget” → ArcGIS Online
- “I want open source and self-hosted” → uMap
- “I need a publishable map my non-technical team can maintain” → Mango Map
What if you need to annotate actual spatial data files?
There’s an important distinction this comparison doesn’t cover: annotating a web basemap versus annotating actual spatial data files — LAS point clouds, GeoTIFF orthomosaics, E57 scans, drone survey outputs.
Every tool in the table above draws on top of a basemap. None of them can load a LAS file, render a georeferenced GeoTIFF at full resolution, or let you mark up a 3D point cloud. If someone asks you to “annotate the orthomosaic” or “mark the features on the point cloud,” these tools are the wrong category entirely.
For working with spatial data files in the browser — viewing them, sharing them, and eventually annotating them — you need a dedicated spatial data platform rather than a basemap drawing tool. The difference is explained in more detail in what is a spatial data delivery platform.
Swyvl’s draw tools roadmap
Swyvl’s viewer currently handles point clouds, GeoTIFFs, and 3D models in the browser — the actual spatial data files, not basemap overlays. Draw tools and AI-controlled annotation for the viewer are on the roadmap, so users will be able to mark up a scan or orthomosaic and share the annotations alongside the data. If that’s relevant to your workflow, get early access at hub.swyvl.io or read more about how Swyvl works for surveyors.