Field-Data Apps for Reforestation Teams
Compare field-data apps for reforestation, including KoboToolbox, QField and ArcGIS, by workflow, technical capacity and who will maintain the system.
A planting survey, a map of restoration sites, and a nursery-to-monitoring workflow need different tools. Start with the work your team does, then decide who will configure and maintain the system.
This guide compares five starting points, with three alternatives for more specific needs. It is an editorial shortlist, not a scored ranking or a hands-on benchmark of every app. Product documentation reviewed September 9, 2026.
Compare the main options
| App | Start here when… | Plan for… |
|---|---|---|
 KoboToolbox | You need structured surveys with photos and GPS. | Someone to design forms, review submissions, and maintain reporting. |
 QField + QFieldCloud | Your team works in QGIS and needs those maps in the field. | A capable QGIS owner to maintain projects and synchronization. |
 ArcGIS Survey123 | Your team uses ArcGIS and the work starts with a form. | ArcGIS administration, survey design, and licensing. |
 ArcGIS Field Maps | Your team uses ArcGIS and the work starts with a map. | Layer design, permissions, and offline map preparation. |
 Restoration Scope | You need a configured restoration workflow across field and office teams. | Scoping, onboarding, an internal owner, and an agreed support arrangement. |
The form-led and GIS apps above document offline field collection; Restoration Scope also offers offline capture. That does not make their offline behavior interchangeable. Test the actual forms, maps, attachments, and update cycle your team needs. Sources and tradeoffs follow each option below.
Which kind of tool fits your work?
Before comparing apps, decide which kind of tool you need. Most teams outgrow the first one in a predictable place.
| Need | Spreadsheet or Airtable | Form app (KoboToolbox, ODK) | GIS app (QField, ArcGIS) | Restoration platform | Custom software |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Offline collection | Google Sheets offline; Airtable needs internet | Yes | Yes, with maps prepared ahead | Varies; test it | If you build it |
| Custom forms | Basic | Strong | Good | Within its data model | Anything |
| Maps and boundaries | Point maps at most | Points and shapes; basic maps | Strong | Built in | If you build it |
| Revisiting the same plots and trees | Linked records you maintain | Possible, with careful IDs | Edit existing features | Usually built in | If you build it |
| Review and approval | Views you configure | Review status per submission | Through permissions | Varies | If you build it |
| Reporting | Charts and dashboards you build | Built-in summaries; deeper reports elsewhere | Maps and dashboards | Built-in reports | If you build it |
| Integrations | Exports; Airtable connects to many apps | API and exports | GIS formats and APIs | Varies; ask for an API | Anything |
| Support | You | Community; paid plans | Community, or Esri and partners | The vendor | Your developer |
- Spreadsheets or Airtable work for one site and a few people entering data back at the office. They strain when several collectors work offline, or when the same trees are visited every season and someone has to keep the links right.
- Form apps fit when the work is a questionnaire. The survey is easy; linking this year's visit to last year's record takes careful identifiers and someone to clean the data.
- GIS apps fit when the work starts on a map and someone on the team owns the GIS project.
- Restoration platforms fit when your work matches their model:
Terraware for seeds, nurseries and planting sites, or TerraMatch if your funding comes through TerraFund. - Custom software fits a workflow nobody else has, if you can pay a developer to keep it running.
Restoration Scope sits between the last two. It fits when nurseries, planting, monitoring and reporting need linked records and workflows, and you want them configured and maintained with you rather than built from scratch. For Acción Andina, that meant bringing 120 seasons of data from 23 projects into one system. See our products and how we work.
Forms and surveys
KoboToolbox
Good fit: Plot assessments, household interviews, planting records, and other work that can be expressed as a structured form. KoboCollect supports offline collection on Android; browser-based web forms are another collection option. Data can be exported for analysis and mapping.
Think twice if: Your main need is maintaining a shared map or coordinating many linked operational records. First prove how revisits, identifiers, review, and reporting will work; collecting a submission is only one part of that system.
Team commitment: A form owner and a clear process for checking data. Include cleaning and reporting time when comparing cost.
Sources: collection options,
KoboCollect,
exports.
ArcGIS Survey123
Good fit: Form-led collection in an existing ArcGIS organization. Survey123 connects survey records to ArcGIS Online or Enterprise and supports online and offline form completion in its mobile app.
Think twice if: You do not otherwise need ArcGIS, or collectors mainly need to browse and edit mapped features. Compare the total ArcGIS setup with a standalone form tool; compare the map-led workflow with Field Maps.
Team commitment: Someone to own surveys, accounts, and the downstream use of the data. Confirm the user types and licenses required for authors and collectors.
Sources: Survey123 overview,
licensing and capabilities FAQ.
Maps and GIS
QField + QFieldCloud
Good fit: A team with QGIS skills and a dedicated person who can maintain its field system. QField takes QGIS projects into online or offline fieldwork; QFieldCloud provides a synchronization workflow for teams.
Think twice if: Nobody can own layers, forms, project packaging, and sync issues. Technical capacity matters more than a long feature list. A supported implementation may still be viable, but include that service in the comparison.
Team commitment: A named GIS owner with time to maintain the project. Test two people updating field data, sync failures, attachments, and handover to a replacement administrator.
Sources: getting started,
QFieldCloud synchronization.
ArcGIS Field Maps
Good fit: Teams that already manage data in ArcGIS and need collectors to find, create, or update features on a map. Field Maps combines maps, forms, and field tasks, with prepared offline maps.
Think twice if: A straightforward questionnaire is the entire job, or adopting ArcGIS would introduce an ecosystem you do not otherwise need. Survey123 may suit the form-led part of the work better; the two can also share ArcGIS data.
Team commitment: A GIS owner to prepare layers, access, forms, and offline areas. Test changes to existing records as well as collection of new ones.
Sources: Field Maps overview,
Survey123 and Field Maps.
Restoration workflows
Restoration Scope
Good fit: Restoration teams looking for help connecting field collection, data processing, and an operational app around their project. Restoration Scope offers configurable capture apps, a data platform, and an app platform, including offline photos and GPS collection. It suits work that generic form apps handle poorly: the same plots and trees revisited every season, records linked across nursery, planting and monitoring, and reports that come from those records.
Think twice if: An existing survey or GIS tool already covers the job, you want to configure everything independently, or a scoped implementation would add unnecessary cost and dependency. A simple collection need may not justify a broader platform.
Team commitment: An internal owner still needs to define the workflow and accept changes. Agree on implementation cost, ongoing support, data export, responsibilities, and what happens if you leave before committing.
Source: Restoration Scope products.
More options by workflow
ODK · configurable data collection
Consider ODK alongside KoboToolbox for form-led work. ODK Collect supports offline collection, location, photos, and complex forms; ODK offers managed hosting as well as a self-managed route. Compare the form design, administration, and support you actually need. Choosing managed hosting does not remove the need for a form and data owner.
Sources: getting started,
ODK Collect.
Mergin Maps · another QGIS field workflow
Compare Mergin Maps alongside QField when QGIS is already part of your work. Its mobile app supports offline field surveys using projects prepared in QGIS. Use the same pilot for both tools, and compare project setup, synchronization, support, and total cost. You still need someone to maintain the QGIS project.
Source: Mergin Maps offline workflow.
Terraware · seeds, nurseries, and monitoring
Consider Terraware when seed banking, nursery inventory, and planting-site monitoring are central to your work. Its nursery records connect seedling batches to seed accessions, and its monitoring workflow uses scheduled observations. Its strongest part is the nursery. Its structure is fixed, so your project adapts to it: check that its inventory and monitoring model matches your operations before trying to make it a general-purpose field app.
Sources: Terraware overview,
seedling inventory,
monitoring observations.
How to choose a field-data app
- Start with your existing system. If your data and skills are already in QGIS, compare QField and Mergin Maps. If they are in ArcGIS, compare Survey123 and Field Maps. If the job is mainly a survey, start with KoboToolbox and ODK. For a restoration workflow spanning several teams, compare a configured platform with the cost of joining those tools yourself.
- Separate technical ability from available time. A team may know QGIS but have nobody available to maintain it. A dedicated, capable owner makes a configurable tool more practical. Without one, compare implementation and support services as part of the purchase.
- Ask who owns the work after launch. Who changes a form, fixes a failed sync, checks bad records, and trains new collectors? Wanting support does not select a single app: compare each provider's actual service scope and your team's remaining responsibilities.
- Compare total cost and your exit path. Include subscriptions, implementation, devices, training, maintenance, and data cleanup. Ask for a sample export with identifiers, geometry, photos, and relationships. Confirm current pricing, plan limits, and device support directly with the provider.
- Plan for verification if you sell carbon credits. A carbon project follows its methodology's sampling rules, measures individual trees, and keeps plot boundaries a registry will check. If it uses permanent plots, the team must find and remeasure them. Test revisits and boundary exports in your pilot, not only new surveys. Our guide to software for ARR carbon projects covers the rest of that stack, and carbon standards for nature projects compares what each standard asks for.
- Decide what you will do with the data. A field app collects records; it does not decide which questions they answer. Before the pilot, write down the four basic questions your planting data should answer and check that each app can answer them.
Run the same small pilot in two apps
- Use one real survey or site, your intended phones, and two collectors. Include photos, GPS, and a revisit to an existing record. Check each phone's accuracy on site with the free GPS accuracy test.
- Prepare the devices, switch off connectivity, close and reopen the app, and finish the fieldwork.
- Reconnect both devices. Check submissions, edits, attachments, and how conflicting updates are handled.
- Have an office colleague review the results and produce the report or export you actually need. Drop the field photos on the geotagged photo map to see which ones kept their location.
- Ask the future system owner to change a field and help a collector recover from a mistake.
Choose based on the work your team can complete and maintain. The most useful shortlist is the two tools that survive that pilot.
Related guides
- Software for ARR carbon projects: field data, monitoring plots, registry files and MRV.
- Restoration monitoring tools compared: frameworks, satellite data and platforms.
- explorer.land alternatives for donor and project portals: when the data has to reach funders.
- Tools for EUDR geolocation data: mapping plots for the EU Deforestation Regulation.
- Free GIS and field data tools: convert UTM coordinates, WKT and HEIC photos in the browser.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free app for collecting field data offline?
For form-based surveys, KoboToolbox and ODK are the usual free starting points. KoboToolbox's Community Plan is free for nonprofits, ODK is free if you host it yourself, and both collect data offline on Android. QField is free and open source for teams that already work in QGIS.
Should I use KoboToolbox or QField?
Use KoboToolbox when the work is a questionnaire, such as a plot assessment or a planting record. Use QField when the work is editing maps your team already keeps in QGIS, and someone on the team can maintain the QGIS project.
Do these apps work without mobile signal?
Yes, every field app in this guide documents offline collection, but they behave differently offline. Test your own forms, maps, photos and revisits with the phones switched to airplane mode before you choose.
Do I need ArcGIS to use Survey123 or Field Maps?
Mostly, yes. Both apps keep their data in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Enterprise, so you need an ArcGIS organization and the right user types to build forms and maps. Field Maps and private surveys need an account per collector; a public Survey123 survey can take responses without one.
How accurate is phone GPS for mapping restoration plots?
Phone GPS is typically accurate to around five metres under open sky and can be much worse under tree cover. Let the GPS settle before recording, and check your own phones on site with a free GPS accuracy test.
How do I test a field app before committing to it?
Run the same small pilot in two apps. Use one real site, two collectors and your own phones, work offline, then check what synced and whether the office can produce the report it needs.
