Maptitude vs. Surfer

Maptitude has proven to be an easy tool got banker to analyze their lending patterns for CRA and HMDA. In addition, it helps refine and target potential customers based on segmentation models. Given the new 2020 census data, Maptitude is ideal for understanding the changing demographics.

Incentivized

Surfer has been excellent for us, a small company, to process the electrical resistivity, refraction microtremor, and MASW data collected in the field. There are an increasing number of programs capable of assisting in this geophysical analysis but Surfer is the most advanced. The ability to create both 2D and 3D figures in the program while managing data is a huge help. It also greatly improved report quality and helped clients better understand what the results were for a study.

Incentivized

• Geocoding
• Thematic mapping
• Big data

• The interface is simple and easy/quick to learn, so that not much experience is needed to start generating maps.
• The map layouts are easy to manipulate, change colors, scale, labels, contour interval, etc...
• Simple but functional mathematical and logical functions allow for the calculation and manipulation of grids.

Incentivized

• Ease of use, the learning curve is steeper than normal; however, once you learn it, it is simple.
• The tools can be glitchy. There are times when you add say a radius to the map and go to move it; the tool tries to resize the area and not move it. You have to re-click on the tool that you want every time; it is cumbersome at times.
• The zip code areas should be smoother. If you market via zip code and not DMA, you will have this issue. It is not the systems fault, so-to-say, it is the way that the system maps these zips, using zip area.

Incentivized

• The user interface can be tricky at first. It's a little rough around the edges and takes a little time to get the hang of.
• Not an ideal application for older employees. There are too many things with the interface that make it not worthwhile to train employees with less computer experience.
• Manipulating data within Surfer is difficult because you have to do things in a certain order. Not terrible if you get the hang of it but certainly frustrating at first.

Incentivized

Caliper are really good at responding to any difficulties you're having ...even if it's your own fault! If I was a US user, I'd immediately give it 10/10, but because I'm in the UK and am an early bird, there are those occasions where I've needed support in our morning, but had to be patient. But it's not an issue.

I was a MapPoint user and was looking for a simple GIS tool to replace it when Microsoft announced that they weren't going to update it any further - actually Maptitude can do masses more than I ever need it for, and it does what I need really well - masses better than MapPoint could do.

Surfer is very unique with respect to its capabilities. I am not aware of any other mapping software that is at the same time flexible, has a friendly interface, and creates such nice-looking maps.

Incentivized

• More professional data sets.
• Enhanced analysis ability.

Incentivized

• The worst thing about Surfer is the cost. My company can only afford one license at the moment which means only one employee gets to use it regularly. Not so great when someone is sick or you have a huge wave of projects.
• The user interface is a little rough but younger employees have been great at catching on quickly and producing great images.
• There's nothing else quite like Surfer. It's versatile and not to difficult to use so, though the licenses are expensive, it is an excellent program that has done wonders for our company!

Incentivized