Alternatives for QGIS web export

The main alternative to qgis2web is QGIS2WebMap, which exports a QGIS project to a single portable HTML file rather than a folder of files, renders your actual point symbols instead of plain circles, and reports what changed before you export. Both are free, open source, and install side by side from the QGIS plugin repository.

Beyond the two export plugins, the other routes are a hosted web GIS, writing a web map by hand, or running a map server — each covered below.

Most people arrive at this question the same way: qgis2web is the answer everybody gives, you have tried it, and something about the result did not fit — usually the folder of files, or a symbol that came out as a plain circle. This page lays out what the actual alternatives are, so you can pick on the shape of the output rather than on which plugin came up first.

For a direct feature-by-feature comparison with qgis2web specifically, see QGIS2WebMap or qgis2web. This page is the wider view.

The routes that exist

Export plugins. A plugin reads the saved project and writes a web map: qgis2web, which is the established one and produces Leaflet, OpenLayers or Mapbox GL output, and QGIS2WebMap, which produces a single HTML file drawn by OnlyMap. No account, no upload, no server-side software in either case. This is the cheapest route by a distance, and for most people it is the whole answer.

A hosted web GIS. ArcGIS Online, Felt, CARTO, GIS Cloud and similar. You upload your data and the platform renders and serves it. Strong if you need editing, permissions, live data or dashboards, and if you already pay for one it is usually the right call. The costs are an account, a data upload to somebody else’s servers, and a per-seat or per-map limit.

Writing it yourself. Export GeoJSON, write Leaflet, MapLibre or deck.gl by hand. Total control, and the only route where you can build something genuinely custom. It is also a development project, and it does not track your QGIS styling — the moment the project changes in QGIS, you are hand-editing again.

A map server. GeoServer or QGIS Server in front of your data, with a web client on top. This is the right architecture for an organisation publishing many maps from a live database. It is a great deal of machinery for one map.

Where QGIS2WebMap fits

It is an export plugin, and it is built around one specific case: you need to hand a map to a person, and the map has to look like your map.

• One file. The default output is a single HTML document. Attach it to an email, put it on a USB stick, drop it in a shared folder. It opens off a disk, offline, with no unzipping and no web server. Folder and ZIP outputs exist too when you need those shapes.
• Your point symbols survive. The actual QGIS symbol is rendered and baked into the export as an image, including SVG markers and stacked symbol layers.
• You are told what changed before you send it. Every layer, symbol and label gets a verdict on the Fidelity tab — kept, changed, rasterised, not exported, or blocked — while you can still act on it.
• Per-layer popup behaviour. Hover-versus-click, highlight colour and coordinate precision are set per layer, with a map-wide default.
• Real 3D. Genuine extruded geometry with lighting, plus an optional global relief ground surface.

It is free to install and free to use locally, under GPL-2.0-or-later. A paid OnlyMap key is only involved if you publish a map to a real domain and exceed the free hosting tier — 5 layers, 25,000 features per layer, and 20 MB of fetched data. Those three limits do not apply to a file somebody opens from their own disk, or to localhost; see what gets exported for exactly where they bite.

What it is not

It is not a hosted platform, not a data editor, and not a live-data pipeline. It reads a saved project and writes a map. If you need viewers to edit features, or the map to reflect a database that changes hourly, one of the other routes above is the honest answer.

Rasters are not exported in the current release.

Trying it

QGIS2WebMap and qgis2web install side by side and do not interfere with each other, so there is nothing to undo. QGIS2WebMap is on the official plugin repository as nika_onlymap_exporter. Install from inside QGIS, open a project you have already published, and export it — the Fidelity tab will tell you what would be different before you commit to anything.

• Install the plugin
• Your first export
• QGIS2WebMap or qgis2web, side by side
• The demos — real exports with the QGIS project downloadable beside each

qgis2web is an independent project and is not affiliated with NIKA. The comparison points above are described in more detail, with sources and dates, on the comparison page.