Google Earth Engine: Planetary-scale analysis of satellite imagery in the cloud. GRASS GIS: Open-source GIS for advanced raster, vector and terrain analysis.
| Google Earth Engine | GRASS GIS | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Spatial Analysis & GeoAI | Desktop GIS |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Open source |
| Starts at | See website | Free |
| Free tier | Free for non-commercial and research use | — |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Software licence | — | GPL-2.0+ |
| API | Yes | — |
| Platforms | Web, Python, JavaScript | Windows, macOS, Linux, Python |
| Made by | — | |
| Commercial use | Paid plan | Allowed |
| Export / print images | Allowed | Allowed |
| Offline / caching | Check terms | Allowed |
| Visits from MapTools | 1 | 8 |
| Visit | Visit |
Google Earth Engine features
- Landsat, Sentinel, MODIS and many other datasets
- JavaScript Code Editor and Python API
- Time-series and classification
- Export results to Drive or Cloud Storage
Commercial use requires a paid Google Cloud licence. Each dataset keeps its own licence terms.
Google Earth Engine alternativesGRASS GIS features
- Raster and terrain analysis
- Hydrological modelling
- Image processing
- Python and command-line scripting
Summary based on public information. Check each provider's current pricing and terms.