Frequently asked questions

GOAT is a browser-based WebGIS for spatial analysis, mapping, and collaboration, whereas QGIS and ArcGIS are desktop GIS you install and run locally. The main differences:

• It runs in the browser. Nothing to install or maintain, and your whole team can work online in the same projects with the same data.
• Data and tools are ready to use. GOAT comes with a built-in catalog of European data and a full analysis toolbox — general GIS operations plus accessibility and mobility indicators — so you do not need to source data or build workflows from scratch.
• It's open source. Built on open standards and open-source technology, with the code on GitHub — transparent and easy to integrate with the systems you already use.
• It's developed and hosted in Germany. Your data stays on certified German servers in full compliance with GDPR — part of the digital-sovereignty approach many public-sector teams need.
• You work directly with the people who build it. We're a focused team, so your questions and requests reach us directly and get solved fast — not routed through a global support queue. We can also adapt GOAT to your needs or run the analysis for you.

GOAT isn't a like-for-like replacement for desktop GIS — QGIS and ArcGIS remain powerful, broad toolboxes, and many teams use GOAT alongside them. Where GOAT stands out is bringing spatial data, analysis, and collaboration together in one platform, ready to use out of the box.

Yes. GOAT is built on open-source technologies and open standards, and the code is available on GitHub. Being open source supports transparency and digital sovereignty, and makes it easy to connect GOAT to the geospatial systems you already use, such as OGC services. If you want to know more about the importance of it, you can read this article.

In GOAT you can run a range of accessibility analyses: catchment areas (isochrones) showing what's reachable within a given walking, cycling, driving, or public-transport time; travel-time and routing analysis between locations; heatmaps of how well areas are served; and public-transport quality indicators such as ÖV-Güteklassen. These sit alongside GOAT's general GIS tools, so you can combine them with your own data and other spatial analyses.

The 15-minute city is a planning concept where residents can reach everyday essentials within a short walk or bike ride. Yes — GOAT is built for exactly this: its accessibility tools show how much of the population can reach key destinations within a given travel time, and where the gaps are. You can read the white paper we created, which shows you how to analyse the 15-minute city in GOAT using its accessibility indicators.

Public-transport quality classes (ÖV-Güteklassen) rate how well an area is served by public transport, based on stop proximity and service frequency. GOAT can compute them — based on the Swiss ÖV-Güteklassen method — to reveal which areas are well served and which are underserved. You can read the white paper we created, which shows you how to analyse public transport quality using the ÖV-Güteklasse indicator, which you can find in GOAT's toolbox.

GOAT's data comes from official open-data sources — the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG), the state surveying offices, OpenStreetMap, the Overture Maps Foundation, and the Census — supplemented by our own datasets and, where needed, commercial data. A reliable data basis is the foundation of any analysis, and further datasets can be integrated flexibly.

GOAT's data is updated in line with each source's publication cycle — usually once or more per year. This keeps your analyses current without you having to manage the updates.

Yes. You can upload your own datasets and combine them with GOAT's built-in data. GOAT supports common GIS formats including Shapefile, GeoPackage, GeoJSON, CSV, XLSX, WMS and MVT, and connects to OGC services such as WFS and WMS. Learn more about data in GOAT here(opens in a new tab).

Your data is stored on secure, certified servers in Germany, in full compliance with GDPR. Data security is a top priority and part of GOAT's digital-sovereignty approach — developed and hosted in Germany.

No. GOAT already includes ready-to-use data covering all of Europe, and in some cases beyond, so you can start analysing straight away. If you have local datasets you'd like to include, you can upload them easily. Read more about how to work with datasets in GOAT here(opens in a new tab).

GOAT is used for a wide range of urban, transport, and environmental planning tasks — local mobility concepts, public-transport planning, cycling-infrastructure planning, urban-development and retail concepts, and ensuring access to essential services. It's also used for web mapping and public participation. You can review our References to get further insight into past applications of GOAT, check the industry pages, or contact us if you have questions regarding a specific use case.

GOAT is used by planners and decision-makers across the public and private sector — from municipalities and planning offices to consultancies, utilities, and research institutions. Typical users include:

• Cities & public authorities — infrastructure, land-use, and development planning, and finding underserved areas.
• Mobility & transport planners — assessing public-transport quality and closing cycling-infrastructure gaps.
• Real estate teams & developers — evaluating site suitability and accessibility for investment decisions.
• Retail planners — site selection, catchment analysis, and spotting local-supply gaps.
• Health planners — analysing access to medical care and planning facilities where they're needed most.
• Energy planners & municipal utilities — locating demand and targeting energy-transition infrastructure.
• Researchers & NGOs in Climate Risk and Sustainability — climate adaptation, green-space provision, and evidence for sustainable development.

Whether you run the analyses yourself in GOAT or have us deliver them as a report, the platform supports the whole range of urban, transport, environmental, and location planning.

Not in the classic sense — GOAT doesn't forecast traffic volumes, trip generation, or modal shift the way transport models such as PTV Visum do. Instead, GOAT models accessibility: it calculates how well people can reach destinations such as shops, schools, and transit stops by walking, cycling, or public transport, using routing, travel-time, and different accessibility analysis and indicators. You can also build scenarios — change an input, such as a planned development or a new stop, and see how accessibility changes. This supports concepts like the "city of short distances" and the 15-minute city. In short: transport models predict how traffic flows; GOAT reveals how well places can be reached.

You can check our white paper about the 15-minute city or the one about ÖV-Güteklassen.

GOAT calculates travel times with a routing engine that reflects how each mode actually moves:

• Cycling: accounts for gradients, path surface, and an average delay at intersections.
• Walking: based on path availability (few infrastructure factors are applied by default, due to limited data).
• Public transport: based on GTFS timetable data, and responds dynamically to the time window you select.
• Car: uses historical speed profiles for working days.

More information on routing can be found here(opens in a new tab).

Yes. GOAT integrates data for all of Europe, and partly beyond, and calculates across administrative boundaries. The extent of an analysis is defined by the data, not by territorial lines.

Yes. You can integrate development-plan data — such as building and land-use points of interest — in common GIS formats, and test scenarios, for example, how well the residents of a planned neighbourhood would reach schools or other essential destinations.

No. GOAT runs entirely in your browser — there's nothing to install, and your whole team can work online from the same project.

Yes. Analyses can be shared as interactive web maps with external audiences, including the public, and exported for reports. In citizen workshops, GOAT can also model proposed measures live and show their effects dynamically.

GOAT is available as a subscription (software-as-a-service), and you can start using it immediately — no setup or installation. If you'd rather have the results than run the software yourself, we can also do the analysis for you and deliver a finished report. You can get your free 14-day trial(opens in a new tab) now. Book a demo(opens in a new tab) or contact us with any other enquiries.

There's no setup time — you can use GOAT immediately after signing up here(opens in a new tab).

Pricing mainly depends on the number of users. Contact us for a tailored quote or check our pricing options here.

We already have the necessary data available throughout Europe, and in some cases beyond. Nothing specific is therefore required from you. If you have specific local data sets that you would like to use in GOAT, you can easily integrate(opens in a new tab) them as well.

Yes, you can register for a 14-day demo version(opens in a new tab).

Yes. If you'd rather not use the app yourself, we can run the analysis in GOAT and deliver a finished study or report, as a PDF or an interactive dashboard, that answers your specific planning question. Just contact us!

Yes. Because GOAT is open source, it can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure — an option some municipalities and public authorities choose to keep full control over their data and systems. By default, GOAT is hosted on certified servers in Germany in full compliance with GDPR, but if your organisation requires on-premise deployment or a dedicated environment, contact us and we'll find the right setup.