Comparing Surfer and QGIS

Quite often people will ask, “What are the differences between Surfer and QGIS?” Below is a comparison of the main features and functionality of each program. Surfer, as you may know, provides 2D and 3D contouring complete with surface mapping software. QGIS has an assortment of plugins, and we haven’t been able to review them all. I encourage you review and let me know if there is any missing information. As new information comes in, I’ll be sure to update the matrix below.

	Surfer version 13	QGIS version 2.12.3
Price	1-3 licenses $849/license 4-10 licenses $805/license 11+ licenses $765/license	Free
Development Model	Commercial	Open source
Plug-ins
Free Resources
Website
Live technical support
Phones
Email
Live chat
Knowledge Base
Forums
User Groups
Documentation
In-program help
Training manual
Paid for Resources
Full PDF user guide
Live training	Provided by Golden Software & authorized resellers	Provided by 3rd party contributors
Map Types
Base map
Contour map
Image map
Post map
Classed post map
Shaded relief map
Vector map (1-grid)
Vector map (2-grid)
Watershed map
Viewshed map
3D surface map
3D wireframe map
Pie chart thematic map
Histogram thematic map
Map Features
Axes
Profiles
Scale bar
Color scale
Coordinate systems
Import/edit/export attributes
Measure distance
Measure angles
Digitize XYZ points
Overlay maps
Stack maps
Log contours
Save/load contour levels
Edit contours
Inline contour labels
Map transparency
Gridding/Interpolation/Rasterizing
Inverse distance
Kriging
Minimum curvature
Modified Shepard's method
Natural neighbor
Nearest neighbor
Polynomial regression
Radial basis function
Triangulation with linear interpolation
Moving average
Data metrics
Local polynomial
Function grid
Variogram modeling
Grid date/time data
Grid reports with statistics
Faults
Breaklines
Anisotropy
TIN support
Grid Functions
Math
Calculus
Filter
Spline smooth
Blank/null
Convert
Extract
Transform
Mosaic
Volume
Slice
Residuals
Grid info
Grid node editor
Assign coordinate system
Regrid
Grid metadata
Grid transpose
3D File Viewer
Worksheet
Automation
Import/Export
Import options	33	22
Export options	27	28
Open grid	47	64
Save grid	24	64

Beyond the actual functionality, another difference between Surfer and QGIS is the development models. Surfer is a commercially developed program whereas QGIS is open source and is developed by a community of contributors. While it’s difficult to quantify, I believe it’s worth mentioning the pros and cons, according to me, associated with our commercial software model and QGIS’s open source model.

As a commercially developed product, Surfer comes with a price tag. Since people are spending their hard earned dollars, it is our duty to develop a high quality product. Our developers adhere to rigorous developmental principles, all code is reviewed by another developer, and Surfer undergoes extensive internal and external testing periods. We put a great focus on the usability of Surfer to ensure feature are easy to access. Beyond the quality of the product, we take great pride in the support we provide Surfer customers. All technical support is free for any version of the product (yes, even back to MS-DOS). This includes live phone, email, and chat along with our 24x7 web resources including the open forums and knowledge base. We also have a dedicated documentation writer who ensures all aspects of Surfer is documented.

Another point worth mentioning is longevity. Golden Software has been around since 1983, and we’ve sold licenses in 185 countries and on all seven continents.

Alternatively, as an open source product, QGIS is completely free and is developed through the good intentions of anyone wishing to contribute to its feature set. As such, anyone from a hobby developer to a senior developer can contribute, but there are minimal quality controls around code quality and program usability. QGIS does seem to have a strong community of followers which is important because it is to this community you will turn for technical support. Paid-for commercial support is also offered through 3rd party contractors. Like the development of QGIS, documentation is handled through the good intentions of volunteers which results in a wide range of poorly documented features to well documented features.

Let me know your thoughts on Surfer vs. QGIS. What do you like and what do you dislike about each program?