idea Make ArcCatalog a free & extensible stand-alone program in ArcGIS Pro Ideas

Make ArcCatalog a free & extensible stand-alone program

AaronAddison — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 20:11:06 GMT

ArcCatalog is a necessary tool for data management in the esri ecosystem, but a tool that users cannot make maps with or do spatial analysis.. Suggest to decouple it from ArcGIS Desktop and make it freely available to anyone. This would help Pro users with data management while also still serving current ArcGIS Desktop community.

ArcCatalog should remain extensible to anyone wanting to build tools to enrich the tool for either Desktop or Pro.

Re: Make ArcCatalog a free & extensible stand-alone program

DavidWheelock — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 21:51:40 GMT

Aaron, I just added the same suggestion this afternoon. It's already got 120 points:

Add Stand Alone Data Catalog Like ArcCatalog to ArcGIS Pro

Re: Make ArcCatalog a free & extensible stand-alone program

AaronAddison — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 22:07:48 GMT

Ah, indeed. I have been teaching class most of the day and just playing catch up. -Aaron

Re: Make ArcCatalog a free & extensible stand-alone program - Status changed to: Closed

ValeriaChavez — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 15:52:00 GMT

Hi @AaronAddison

ArcGIS Desktop retired March 1, 2026 so we won’t be considering this idea. We recommend that you migrate to ArcGIS Pro, our fully supported desktop GIS application.

Thank you for taking the time to share your ideas. We truly appreciate your contributions to continuously improving the software to help you do your work and look forward to what ideas you have for ArcGIS Pro.