Alternatives
Esri Business Analyst alternative for site screening
Esri ArcGIS Business Analyst is a full site and market analysis suite inside the ArcGIS platform. MapBees is narrower: one browser map with the data already joined, answering where-to-open questions the same way in every city it covers.
Where Esri Business Analyst fits
Business Analyst is part of the ArcGIS platform. Teams use it for demographic and market reports, site analysis and custom workflows, usually beside other ArcGIS products and their own data. That breadth is the point of it, and MapBees does not try to match it: your own data comes in only as a file of points kept in your browser, and there is no report designer and no forecast. MapBees is built for one job, screening neighborhoods before you commit to a site.
Where Esri Business Analyst is the better fit
- Your organization already works in ArcGIS, and the result has to sit beside its other maps and data.
- You need to bring in your own customer, sales or store data.
- You need formal reports, demographic forecasts or change over time. MapBees shows one census year per country.
What you can answer in MapBees today
| Your question | Where in MapBees | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Which hexes rank highest on my mix of factors? | Score | Every hex scored 0–100 on the factors you pick, each with its own importance and direction. |
| How many pharmacies are there per 1 000 residents? | Amount · per 1 000 residents | Pharmacies divided by residents in each hex, so busy and quiet parts of the city compare fairly. |
| Are these hot spots of pubs real? | Clusters (Getis-Ord Gi*) | The statistic behind Hot Spot Analysis. Only hexes that pass the test are marked busy or quiet. |
| Who lives within a 15-minute drive of this pin? | Territory · catchment | Drive, walk, cycle or transit catchments with a dashboard of residents, ages, affluence and places. Two areas show their overlap. |
| Where do lots of residents meet little retail space? | Cross two (bivariate) | Both measures on one 3×3 color grid. The map picks how to cut each axis and says why. |
| How much of the market would a second store take? | Market Share (Huff gravity model) | Captured demand, share and cannibalization for your stores against competitor stores, with a CSV report. |
Try it on a real map
Each button opens the example in the map app, ready to change.
One question, answered the same way in every country
Ask where cafés are thin compared with the city average in Berlin, Toronto or São Paulo, and you get the same map type with the same controls. Places and buildings come from Overture Maps everywhere, and Transit departures from the transit timetables (GTFS) that most cities' transit agencies publish. Population and age come from each country's census, such as Zensus 2022, ONS Census 2021 or US Census 2020 (NHGIS), and income wherever the census publishes it. Each figure is an estimate for its hex.
Catchments and their overlap
In the Territory tool, drop a pin and draw a catchment by driving, walking, cycling or transit time, or draw the shape yourself. Each area gets a dashboard of residents, ages, affluence and places, and where two areas overlap, the overlap gets a dashboard of its own. Catchment bands nest several times around one pin and show its Reach: how much the pin can get to, with nearer bands counting more.
What MapBees does differently
- The same question works the same way in 10 countries: places, buildings and accessibility are measured identically everywhere, and people come from each country's own census.
- Each formula is a named map type with plain-word controls: Fair share is the Location Quotient, Clusters is Getis-Ord Gi*, the statistic behind Hot Spot Analysis, and Cross two is a bivariate map.
- Change a factor's importance or direction, and the Score map re-ranks every hex from 0–100.
- The result is a link: Copy link reopens the same map, factors and weights included, for a landlord, partner or colleague.
Frequently asked questions
Is MapBees a replacement for ArcGIS Business Analyst?
Not for a team that works in ArcGIS. MapBees covers one part of the job, screening neighborhoods on data that is already on the map, and leaves your own layers, formal reports and the wider ArcGIS platform to Esri.
Does MapBees use the same hot spot statistic as ArcGIS?
Yes. The Clusters map uses Getis-Ord Gi*, the statistic behind ArcGIS Hot Spot Analysis, and marks only the hexes that pass the test.
Do I need GIS training to use MapBees?
No. Each map type is named by the question it answers, such as "More than its fair share?" or "How many are missing?", with the field's term beside it. It runs in your browser on the Free Tier.
Where does the data come from?
Places and buildings come from Overture Maps, and Transit departures from the transit timetables (GTFS) each city's transit agencies publish. Population, age, households and income come from each country's census, such as Zensus 2022 in Germany or US Census 2020 (NHGIS) in the United States.
Keep reading
Clusters: hot spot analysis (Getis-Ord Gi*), explained simply
A bright stretch of map is not proof of anything - random scatter makes bright stretches too. The Clusters map runs the standard hot-spot test (Getis-Ord Gi*) and marks only the hexes where there is genuinely more, or less, around than chance would explain. Pubs in London show how, along with the odd ones out and Standouts on this map.
Read the guideHow to use Territory Mapping (step by step)
Want to draw a sales territory, franchise area, or store catchment - or bring yours in from a file - and see how many people, shops, and buildings are inside, and where two areas overlap? This guide walks you through Territory Mapping in London, from the first pin to the full dashboard, with no jargon.
Read the guideHow a Cross two (bivariate) map works, explained simply
A Cross two map (the field calls it a bivariate map) shades every hex by two measures at once. Using residential plus outbuilding volume vs. total population in New York City, here is how to read the colors, the units, the real band edges under the legend, and the classification the map chose for each axis - in plain language.
Read the guideEsri Business Analyst is a trademark of its respective owner. This comparison describes each product's public positioning as of October 3, 2026, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Esri Business Analyst.
About the author
Tinkal Gogoi(LinkedIn profile, opens in a new tab)Founder & Location Data Engineer
Builds MapBees's location-intelligence pipeline end to end — census and Overture Maps ingestion, H3 hex scoring, and the map interface — and writes the methodology behind every number on the site.