ArcGIS Pro versus ArcMap

Question

I took a few GIS courses in grad school, and now I'm at my first job and looking for opportunities to take on GIS responsibilities (my company has one person who usually takes care of all of our GIS needs, but I'm looking to take on the simpler tasks at least). The primary GIS software installed on my work laptop is ArcGIS Pro. I've never used it before, as I always used ArcMap in my classes. Basically, I'm wondering if there's any reason to wrestle with our company IT to get ArcMap installed and get a license for it, or if it will be better over the long term to just get used to ArcGIS Pro. Basically, I'd rather not fight IT, so if it's not a big deal either way I'll just learn to use Pro. But if there's a big reason to get ArcMap back I'll do that. What do you think? What factors should I be considering here? Do you have a preference between these software options?

SaraJL · Answer

Aside from ESRI deprecating ArcMap - I would definitely recommend to use ArcGIS Pro for a couple reasons!

I do support for installation on both programs, as well as supporting it for use in college classes - ArcMap traditionally crashes a lot and is SUPER laggy with basemaps. Our machines are pretty high powered, and ArcMap still struggles. That was the main reason for our switch a few years ago. We were wasting a lot of time with the program crashing, and most of the time just used Image Services instead of the ESRI basemaps because there were so many issues. Switching to Pro resolved almost all of those problems.

Another reason is that ArcMap has minimal online ties with ArcGIS Online - it's a lot easier to share data and maps in ArcGIS Pro where you can publish to ArcGIS Online. It doesn't require an ArcGIS Server as long as you have an Online account. It was a lot easier for students to use - especially when working in groups.

From an IT perspective - ArcMap is a SUPER PAIN to install verses ArcGIS Pro. With Pro, the license renewal is pretty automated, but it will take way longer to install ArcMap especially if you have to manually install it (versus deployment). ArcMap also is a lot more complicated to bulk deploy. I've stopped installing it on computers mainly for this reason - I only install it if someone needs to use a toolbox from an outside organization. A lot of local governments and entities will design toolboxes and scripts to use for models - but they haven't caught up to ArcGIS Pro yet.

The only think I don't like about Pro is that the Layout mode is really clunky. I think there is such an emphasis on interactive online maps now, tools for printing maps have kind of gone downhill. It really is not user friendly.

ArcGIS Pro is basically the same as ArcMap - it just looks like Microsoft Office 😁 I used ArcMap for 10+ years and sometimes I have to Google tools to figure out where they are in Pro, but from a functional perspective the programs are the same.

BarryNorthey · Answer

I find ArcGIS Pro (AGP) to be more intuitive than ArcGIS Desktop (AGD) but the folks where I previously worked with say the opposite and will remain in their comfort zone on AGD until forced to change.

I am retired but AGP can easily do everything that I previously did in AGD and more. There are often considerations beyond just the capabilities of the software platforms, such as:

What platform is your GIS person using? Will you be able to interact, get help, exchange ideas and support? Do you have external clients and if so, can you easily interact with them? And so on.

The only constant in technology is change. AGP is inevitable.

Robert_LeClair · Answer

ArcMap 10.8.x is the last release of ArcMap and will be retired March 1, 2026.  After that date, it will no longer have Esri Technical Support.  My recommendation is to install and learn ArcGIS Pro.  There's a ton of free learning courses at the Learn ArcGIS website on ArcGIS Pro and 111 web courses (potentially for free) on the Esri Training website as well.