---
title: ArcGIS Business Analyst Reviews
meta_title: 'ArcGIS Business Analyst Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features |
  G2'
meta_description: Filter 21 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to
  find out how ArcGIS Business Analyst works for a business like yours.
aggregate_rating:
  rating_value: 4.6
  review_count: 21
  scale: '5'
date_modified: '2026-07-07'
parent_category:
  name: Business Intelligence
  url: https://www.g2.com/categories/business-intelligence
---

# ArcGIS Business Analyst Reviews
**Vendor:** Esri  
**Category:** [Location Intelligence Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/location-intelligence)  
**Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0  
**Total Reviews:** 21
## About ArcGIS Business Analyst
See people and opportunities clearly using ArcGIS Business Analyst. ArcGIS Business Analyst helps you make smarter market planning, site selection, and customer segmentation decisions. By combining demographic, lifestyle, behavioral, and spending data, maps, and reports with location-driven intelligence, you can identify under-performing markets, pinpoint the right growth sites, find where your target customers live, and share the market research across your organization. Whether you’re on your desktop, in a web browser, or using a mobile device, identify the most profitable sites then create beautiful maps and professional reports, no matter where you are. Using ArcGIS Business Analyst, numerous Fortune 500 companies are able to: ◦ Take a data-driven approach to validate assumptions about location. ◦ Analyze marketplaces to identify where to expand or reduce presence. ◦ Use automated workflows for territory design, location-allocation, and market penetration analyses. ◦ Target new and existing customers. ◦ Showcase analysis in a compelling way. ◦ Share market research across the organization. ArcGIS Business Analyst comes with spatial analysis tools and global data that covers over 90% of the world’s population in 135+ countries with 15,000+ variables on market data. Combine your own location and customer data with Esri’s demographic data to validate your instincts about a prospective location—whether it’s local or global.




## ArcGIS Business Analyst Reviews
  ### 1. Rich Market Data and Drive-Time Insights That Make Site Selection Easy

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Karthick K. | Team Lead GIS, Non-Profit Organization Management, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 26, 2026

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Provides rich demographic and market data (population, income, spending) in one place

Very useful for site selection and business decision-making

Drive-time and trade area analysis gives more realistic insights than simple distance buffers

Easy integration with ArcGIS Online and dashboards


Generates professional reports automatically, saving time
User-friendly interface — even non-technical users can perform analysis
Supports data-driven decision making for retail, logistics, and urban planning

Helps identify target customers and market potential quickly
Cloud-based access makes it easy to use from anywhere

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

High cost (credits/subscription-based), especially for frequent or large-scale analysis

Data limitations in some regions (less accurate or outdated data outside major cities)

Limited customization and advanced analysis compared to tools like ArcGIS Pro

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

ArcGIS Business Analyst solves the problem of combining location, demographic, and market data for better decision-making. It helps in site selection, customer analysis, and market evaluation, saving time and improving accuracy. It benefits me by streamlining my GIS workflows and enabling faster, data-driven insights.

  ### 2. Business Intelligence in few clicks.

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Charlyn S. | Researcher, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** June 13, 2025

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

It provides data-driven insights important to all stages of business.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

There is nothing that I dislike in the current offering.

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Establishing market segments.

  ### 3. Great Features for Solving Complex Geospatial Problems

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Todd B. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 16, 2023

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I like the ability to perform drive time/drive distance analysis on points of interest.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Sometimes it runs slowly for unknown reasons.

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

It allows me to measure distances between points of interest for public health and health care data.

  ### 4. Good for basics

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Linda J. | Writer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 25, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

ArcGIS offers intelligence based maps and user experience capabilities that provide deep insight into what each business-- or customer-- is looking for. Whatever it is that your business might need to show on a map or to portray in terms of location, ArcGIS offers it and then come. 

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

However, that's all it offers. There is a limited amount of options available for what one might be capable of accomplishing if they were given the full scape and scale of what you can do with other software like Autocad among others.

**Recommendations to others considering ArcGIS Business Analyst:**

Keep using other options that are available so you can see what best works with whatever you are trying to implement on your site without having to deal with having a big and huge idea and realizing far too late that what you envisioned before cannot be completed on ArcGIS alone. 

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

The business analyst makes it easy to track where and when customers are looking for when they visit the site and it helps gear targeted ads towards what they might be looking for. However it isn't until you want to start doing more that you realize there are other possibilities out there.

  ### 5. Business Analyst

**Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 10, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I like the simplicity of the application (online- browser only version).  I like how there is practically data for any location in the U.S.  For the most part is a REALLY well accepted product in our organization, but it does have a few drawbacks.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

The first thing I don't like about it is formatting.  When building an infographic, there are VERY limited vector icons to use for the infographics.  Our organization has to build so many icons to use.  Second, there is a major formatting issue with the infographics.  We often run a report (infographic) and when we see the product the numbers or formatting cause issues and then we have to go back to the infographic and adjust and then re-run the infographic.  This costs us a lot of credits.  If there was a way to "re-run" the same infographic and to fix formatting without costing credits that would be extremely helpful.  Lastly, the source of all the data is kind of a mystery.  I get asked all the time "where do they get this data" and the answer is "i really don't know"  if there was some more open communication about the source of these "7,000+" variables, that would be very helpful.  

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

This has shown our clients that we took the time to understand their demographics and their community and their dynamic which helps us sell products.  

  ### 6. The best software to implement any application on Geographical system

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Janish S. | Head Technical Program Manager, Information Technology and Services, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 24, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Ease of use, simplicity, easy to learn and train the users.  ArcGIS really help perform detailed analysis. 

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Sometimes the support from ArcGIS could be really expensive $ wise. 

**Recommendations to others considering ArcGIS Business Analyst:**

I would highly recommend this product any individual currently evaluating products in market. 

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We are able to retain real time vehicular information. In my previous project I was able to perform detailed land analysis and provide geographical map information on real time basis. 

  ### 7. Business Analyst

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Government Administration | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 10, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

The different ways to analyze the proximity of locations to each other.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I don't really like that the analysis part is so sensitive

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I have assisted our Inspector General's office identifying people and stores suspected of food stamp fraud.  Also I have recently used Business Analyst to help identify how close individuals live to assigned social service offices in Baltimore City

  ### 8. easy to use and very versatile 

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Rosemary M. | College Advisor, Hospital & Health Care, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 16, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I really liked that this analyst can be used anywhere and be used for just about any company.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

What I disliked about ArcGIS was that it was difficult to navigate at times.

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

It has improved how we view our customers and have helped us become a better company.

  ### 9. Makes certain things harder than needed

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Sarah F. | Marketing Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 24, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

It’s a knowledgeable database where you can do a lot of cool things 

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Getting to doing the simple functions you need it for is too hard

**Recommendations to others considering ArcGIS Business Analyst:**

Eh it does the job — is it worth it though? Not really 

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Commercial real estate 

  ### 10. ArcGIS Business Analyst

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Arushi A. | Ms., Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 21, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Provides location-based intelligence for planning, site selection, and customer segmentation.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Hard to login sometimes , sometimes street address don't show up for all countries.

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Provides location-based intelligence for planning, site selection, and customer segmentation.

  ### 11. ArcGIS Business Analyst Review

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 10, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

There is lots of information available to use 

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Sometimes tables cannot be exported due to size

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I use business analyst to extract information that has to do with a working area local school, airports, parks, street data, and hydrography information.

  ### 12. Arcgis

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Management Consulting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 26, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

The data input is easy to plug in and analyze

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

The updates are frequently hard to install

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

The statistics are good for time management

  ### 13. Good resource

**Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Real Estate | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 03, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

There are many available reports in ArcGIS Business Analyst which have very useful information and there are many options to print the material. 

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

It is confusing to create a project and then to keep project information in the proper place. It is also confusing to modify the infographic template. 

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Demographics and community profile information for real estate sales.

  ### 14. Wonderful for my construction company

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Construction | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 23, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I really enjoy having a platform to use that all employees in my organization can grasp

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

The learning curve is slightly steep though it is very comprehensive 

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We’ve integrated it throughout our entire analyst team

  ### 15. Business Analyst is great for US Census-based data - not for specific geographic regions

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Lily M. O. | Planner, Architecture & Planning, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** October 29, 2018

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I like the array of information Business Analyst Online will give users looking for quick reports and the regions you are able to select/make. 

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I dislike that within drawn or selected regions around a US Census-based block group, etc. the market data are given in reports in innacurate and doesn't show the exact locations selected. 

**Recommendations to others considering ArcGIS Business Analyst:**

Create reports using US Census group data; not data from creating your own polygon shapefiles for reports. 

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

The reports are easy to use and easy to take numbers from for other reporting. 

  ### 16. Great use for geosystems.

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 17, 2019

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Very easy to extract data into the system.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Nothing that I dislike. All functions are easy to learn.

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Geomapping problems for urban mobility optimization

  ### 17. Used for suitability analysis, and optimizing retail network

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Michael P. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 09, 2018

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I personally utilize the spatial overlay function, as a way to enrich my Postal-specific geographies, develop trade areas, and determine what type of facility should exist where.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Unfortunately, my organization only maintains a few BA licenses. As one of the most heavy users, it's unfortunate to only be able to access when available through a VM.

**Recommendations to others considering ArcGIS Business Analyst:**

Have a very well-defined workflow in mind when using to develop trade areas. Use the COTS capabilities as a starting guide to generate your own tool, specific to your goal to make the most informed decisions.

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I utilize trade area development, business listings, derive new locations, and several others regularly to develop a new network in accord with demographic trends.

  ### 18. Functional & Simple

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Matthew R. | Commercial Real Estate, Real Estate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 19, 2018

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I enjoy how easy it is to figure out, as well as the customer service help if needed. Also it provides many data points that most other programs do not have access to.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I dislike the lack of information when it comes to where they are getting their data. I understand when some of it is census based, but for the other components I would like to know more.

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Business real estate decisions based on; 
Clients patient base, 
Clients customer base, 
Clients workforce base. 

  ### 19. It Works!

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Janelle B. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 12, 2018

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I like being able to inter-related different datasources in order to see a complete picture.  This allows for data-driven decision making.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

I believe there can be improvements with the shareability of analytics

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

We are working with Analyst Desktop to analyze and transform data to help support our open data and digital cities transformation

  ### 20. High Quality Spatial Data

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Christine I. | Senior Source Acquisition Coordinator, Internet, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2018

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

ArcGIS makes it very easy to view maps and spatial data.  It is easy to create meaningful, and visually appealing infographics, which is important for us in presenting data we acquire.

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

Every once in a while, I come across small bugs and glitches - nothing that restarting the computer can't fix.

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

ArcGIS helps us in validating acquired data with public record data online, i.e. address, legal description, acreage.  It helps us add a visual to our data.

  ### 21. Streamline retail anaysis

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Retail | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 11, 2018

**What do you like best about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

The vast capabilities for interpreting customer data, store tracking, and site analysis

**What do you dislike about ArcGIS Business Analyst?**

The buggy Locator Report tool. Does not like Model Builder inline variables and issues with specifying defining geographies

**Recommendations to others considering ArcGIS Business Analyst:**

Learn proper Model Builder practices to gain the most use of the Business Analyst tools, such as iterators

**What problems is ArcGIS Business Analyst solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Calculating market share, trade areas, competitive impacts, and helping internal customers interpret their data spatially


## ArcGIS Business Analyst Discussions
  - [What are credits and why do I need them?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-credits-and-why-do-i-need-them) - 2 comments, 2 upvotes
  - [Is it possible to combine data from different countries?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-it-possible-to-combine-data-from-different-countries) - 1 comment, 1 upvote
  - [Where can I find more information about the data included in the Business Analyst web app?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/where-can-i-find-more-information-about-the-data-included-in-the-business-analyst-web-app) - 1 comment, 1 upvote
  - [Can I get my data into the Business Analyst Web App?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/can-i-get-my-data-into-the-business-analyst-web-app) - 1 comment, 1 upvote
  - [How can I create reports for the entire United States?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-can-i-create-reports-for-the-entire-united-states) - 1 comment, 1 upvote

- [View ArcGIS Business Analyst pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/arcgis-business-analyst/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-07-15+00%3A09%3A20+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=3690b046-b35b-4e3f-b349-b07519ce316b&secure%5Btoken%5D=3e67d836f27b9de829a460a128e210aaea7e8d61223fd9b73a69fc187e4a9dc7&format=llm_user)
## ArcGIS Business Analyst Integrations
  - [ArcGIS Online](https://www.g2.com/products/arcgis-online/reviews)

## ArcGIS Business Analyst Features
**Reports**
- Reports Interface
- Steps to Answer
- Graphs and Charts
- Score Cards
- Dashboards

**Cartography**
- Map Design
- Vector Mapping 
- Data Visualization
- Overlaying

**Analysis**
- Predictive Analysis
- Distance Analysis 
- Spatial Analysis
- Data Stream

**Reporting**
- Data Transformation
- WYSIWYG Design
- API Integrations

**Self Service **
- Calculated Fields
- Data Column Filtering
- Data Discovery
- Search
- Collaboration / Workflow

**Advanced Analytics**
- Predictive Analytics
- Data Visualization
- Big Data Services

**Building Reports**
- Data Transformation
- Data Modeling
- WYSIWYG Report Design
- Integration APIs

**Platform**
- Mobile User Support
- Customization 
- User, Role, and Access Management
- Internationalization
- Sandbox / Test Environments
- Performance and Reliability
- Breadth of Partner Applications

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