GIS tools analyze.Peony shares the deliverables.
Pick ArcGIS Online, QGIS Cloud, Bentley OpenCities, or Mapbox for active spatial analysis, live web maps, collaborative editing, and field data collection. Pick Peony if you need to share GIS deliverables (shapefiles, geodatabases, geotiffs, KMZs) and the accompanying technical reports with bidders, lenders, JV partners, regulators, or LPs — without provisioning ArcGIS seats for every external reviewer.Set up in under 5 minutes.
No credit card required
Why do mining, energy, AEC, and CRE teams use both ArcGIS and Peony?
ArcGIS Online, QGIS Cloud, Bentley OpenCities, and Mapbox are built for active spatial analysis — buffer, overlay, network analysis, live web map editing, real-time field data collection, and dashboarding. They are not built for sharing GIS deliverables externally with people who don't have GIS seats. Most exploration, project finance, and M&A teams keep ArcGIS for in-house analysis and add Peony for the diligence and distribution layer.
No ArcGIS seats per reviewer
ArcGIS Online's named-user pricing is $500–$1,500/seat/year. Peony has unlimited external viewers on every plan — JV partners, lenders, agency reviewers, and bidders all access via NDA-gated link with no seat cost.
NDA gating before access
ArcGIS sharing is via group / role permissions, not NDA-gated workflows. Peony requires the JV partner, bidder, or LP to e-sign your NDA before any folder or rendered map loads.
Watermarks on every rendered map
Dynamic watermarks stamp every page — including rendered shapefile maps, drillhole cross-sections, lease boundaries, and corridor overlays — with the viewer's name, email, and timestamp.
Page-level engagement analytics
See which JV partner studied your alteration model for 40 minutes versus which one skimmed the lease boundary KMZ. ArcGIS map-view logs do not capture this granularity.
Side-by-side comparison
ArcGIS Online and QGIS Cloud are GIS analysis platforms with per-seat licensing. Peony is a purpose-built virtual data room with NDA gates, page-level analytics, dynamic watermarks, and AI Smart Q&A — designed for external GIS diligence distribution in mining, oil & gas, utilities, solar, AEC, CRE, and environmental review.
PeonyWhen should you choose ArcGIS Online or QGIS Cloud over Peony?
Peony is the wrong tool for active GIS analysis. Choose ArcGIS, QGIS, Bentley OpenCities, or Mapbox when your workflow is one of these:
Active spatial analysis
Buffer, intersect, overlay, network analysis, raster algebra, spatial joins. ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, and QGIS are purpose-built for this. Peony is a distribution layer, not an analysis layer.
Live web map editing
Multi-user collaborative web map editing with real-time feature updates (e.g., a multi-stakeholder corridor planning workshop). ArcGIS Online and Mapbox handle this; Peony does not.
Field data collection
Survey123, QuickCapture, Field Maps, or QField for in-field geological mapping, easement walkdowns, archaeological surveys. These belong in ArcGIS or QGIS, not Peony.
Real-time operational dashboards
Live pipeline-pressure dashboards, real-time outage maps, operational fleet tracking. ArcGIS Dashboards and Mapbox-based ops tools are the right architecture.
Daily map updates with field team
Active project where the field crew is updating the map daily and the office team needs immediate visibility. ArcGIS Online's web maps support this natively; Peony's data rooms are intended for stable curated deliverables.
Engineering BIM-GIS coordination
Integrated BIM-GIS coordination on active design (e.g., bridge or rail corridor design with continuous updates). Bentley OpenCities and ArcGIS GeoBIM are purpose-built; Peony is the diligence layer for the deliverable, not the active workspace.
Where does Peony fit in your GIS workflow?
Peony has dedicated landing surfaces for the GIS-heavy verticals and adjacent file types — geological/seismic, point cloud, drone footage, and corridor BIM/CAD.
Geological Data Room
Mining and oil & gas. Leapfrog, Petrel, acQuire, NI 43-101, seismic, and lease GIS.
Point Cloud Data Room
Lidar (LAS, LAZ, E57), photogrammetry, infrastructure scans. Multi-GB at full resolution.
Drone Footage Data Room
Corridor surveys, mining stockpile aerials, project progress videos with watermarks.
Mining
JV partner diligence, NI 43-101 sharing, royalty/streaming fund evaluation.
Energy
Oil & gas upstream, renewable project finance, utility ROW divestiture, JV negotiations.
Commercial Real Estate
Parcel GIS, zoning overlays, environmental Phase I/II reports for LP investors and lenders.
Construction
Corridor surveys, tender GIS overlays, contractor prequalification, project archives.
Large-File Data Room
Multi-GB shapefile bundles, geotiffs, lidar, and project archives without browser timeouts.
Peony vs Autodesk Construction Cloud
When AEC firms compare ACC to Peony for sharing BIM, GIS, and project deliverables.
"Peony has been great for sharing documents with investors, employees, and customers. It's easy to use, good value, and new features are constantly being added. Definitely recommend!"
Ed Harris
Founder & CEO, Ligo Bio (YC S24)
GIS data room FAQ
Real questions from mining VPs of exploration, oil & gas corp dev, solar developers, utility divestiture teams, AEC partners, CRE acquisitions, and environmental consultancies.
I'm VP of exploration at a 35-person mining junior at NI 43-101 PEA stage with 5GB of GIS deliverables — drillhole shapefiles, alteration polygons, geochem rasters, lease boundary KMZs. JV partners want access. Should I give them ArcGIS Online seats or use a data room?
For a 35-person mining junior at PEA stage with 5GB of GIS deliverables, give JV partners a data room — not ArcGIS Online seats. JV partners need to REVIEW your NI 43-101 GIS layers (drillhole shapefiles, alteration polygons, geochem rasters, lease KMZs) and the accompanying technical reports, not perform active spatial analysis on your live geodatabase. Issuing ArcGIS Online seats means $500-$1,500/seat/year per JV reviewer plus your IT team granting and revoking access on a process that may take 6-9 months. Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives each prospective JV partner an NDA-gated link in 5 minutes; they download the shapefile/.gdb exports to open in their own GIS environment, and review the NI 43-101 PDF, drillhole logs, and alteration interpretations directly in the Peony viewer. Dynamic watermarks stamp every page (including drillhole cross-sections and alteration maps) with the JV partner's name, email, and timestamp — useful when geological-IP leaks are consequential. Visitor groups segregate confidential resource estimates from preliminary geological observations. Keep ArcGIS for your in-house exploration team's active analysis; use Peony for external JV review. → https://www.peony.ink/use-cases/geological-data-room
I'm a managing partner at a $4B mining-streaming and royalty fund evaluating a $200M precious-metals stream — counterparty sent us their geodatabase (.gdb), 15GB of geotiffs, and a NI 43-101 feasibility report. Do I need ArcGIS seats or just a data room?
For a $4B mining-streaming fund evaluating a $200M stream, you don't need ArcGIS seats — you need controlled access to the GIS deliverables and the technical report. Your geological consultant will open the geodatabase, geotiffs, and shapefiles in their own ArcGIS or QGIS environment for technical review; your investment committee reviews the NI 43-101 in PDF. Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives counterparty's geological consultant and your IC NDA-gated access to the 15GB+ deliverable package with screenshot protection, dynamic watermarks tied to viewer identity, and per-viewer audit trails. The counterparty maintains operational control of their live GIS environment; you receive the curated diligence package without needing seats in their system. Datasite quotes $30K-$80K for mining diligence rooms at this scale; Peony's 2-3 admin team pays $960-$1,440/year flat. → https://www.peony.ink/use-cases/geological-data-room
We're a 60-person solar/PV developer with 4GB of site-suitability GIS layers (slope, irradiance, transmission proximity, parcel boundaries) — IRA tax-equity lenders and project finance banks want to see them. ArcGIS Online or data room?
For a 60-person solar developer presenting site-suitability to IRA tax-equity and project finance lenders, the decision depends on what the lender's diligence team actually does with the GIS files. If they're running their own spatial analysis (re-validating slope, re-computing irradiance, building their own transmission distance models), they'll want the raw shapefiles and geotiffs to open in their preferred GIS environment — and a Peony data room delivers those files securely with NDA gates and per-viewer watermarks. If they only need to REVIEW your maps and the underlying interconnection studies, PPAs, and environmental permits, Peony's PDF viewer renders the deliverable maps with screenshot protection and dynamic watermarks; the GIS files are also available for download by their analyst when needed. Either way, ArcGIS Online seats are wrong for this — you'd be paying $500-$1,500/seat/year per lender reviewer for capabilities they don't need. Peony Business at $40/admin/month covers your full project-finance diligence flow with unlimited counterparties. → https://www.peony.ink/solutions/energy
We're a 200-person utility/pipeline operator divesting two non-core pipeline lines — 6 PE bidders each need separate access to the right-of-way (ROW) GIS package, easements, FERC filings, and as-built drawings. How do we run that without giving each bidder its own ArcGIS environment?
For a 200-person utility divesting two pipeline lines to 6 PE bidders, ArcGIS Online's per-seat licensing model is structurally wrong: you'd need 6 separate organizations or 6 sets of named users with carefully scoped role assignments, plus operational risk of one bidder seeing another's analytics or comments. Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives each PE bidder its own NDA-gated visitor group with isolated permissions — Bidder A never sees that Bidder B exists. Each visitor group sees the ROW GIS package (shapefiles, KMZ overlays, geotiffs of as-built routing), easement files, FERC submissions, and historical operations records relevant to its scope. Dynamic watermarks stamp every page (including rendered map exports) with the specific bidder's identity and timestamp. Page-level analytics show which bidder's diligence team is deepest into which subset, useful for prioritizing late-stage management presentations. ArcGIS stays appropriate for your in-house pipeline-ops engineering; Peony handles the external divestiture diligence. → https://www.peony.ink/solutions/energy
I'm head of corp dev at a $2B oil & gas exploration company in M&A diligence on a $400M acreage divestiture — buyer wants 80GB of seismic, lease GIS, well-log data, and PSAs. Do I share via ArcGIS, QGIS Cloud, or a data room?
For an $2B oil & gas company divesting $400M of acreage, the buyer's technical team will open seismic volumes and lease GIS in their own Petrel, Kingdom, or QGIS environment — they're not running a live GIS platform you give them seats in. Peony Business at $40/admin/month handles 80GB+ of SEG-Y seismic, .zgy volumes, lease shapefiles, well logs (LAS/DLIS/acQuire exports), production curves, PSAs, and JOAs inside one NDA-gated room with no per-GB surcharges. Folder-level permissions isolate confidential reservoir interpretation from public lease information; dynamic watermarks stamp every page including seismic section snapshots and lease maps with the bidder's identity. Compared to ArcGIS Online's per-seat pricing ($500-$1,500/seat/year per buyer reviewer) plus the operational complexity of provisioning isolated environments per bidder, Peony's flat $40/admin/month per admin is the clear cost and security winner for diligence distribution. ArcGIS stays the right tool for your internal exploration team's active analysis. → https://www.peony.ink/use-cases/geological-data-room
I'm a 25-person CRE acquisitions team evaluating a $300M industrial portfolio — sellers' broker shipped us the parcel GIS, zoning overlays, environmental Phase I/II reports, and rent rolls. How do we share with our LP investors and lenders?
For a 25-person CRE team evaluating a $300M industrial portfolio, your LP investors and the construction lender want to REVIEW the parcel GIS, zoning overlays, and Phase I/II environmental reports — they're not building their own zoning analysis from your raw shapefiles. Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives LPs and lenders NDA-gated access to the parcel GIS exports, zoning rendered as PDF/PNG, environmental reports, rent rolls, and operating financials. Dynamic watermarks stamp every page with the LP or lender's identity. Page-level analytics tell you which LP studied the environmental reports for 40 minutes versus which lender skimmed the zoning summary — useful intelligence for follow-up. ArcGIS Online seats for your LPs and lenders would cost $500-$1,500/seat/year per reviewer for capabilities they don't need; Peony's flat $40/admin/month covers your full external diligence flow. → https://www.peony.ink/solutions/real-estate
I'm a partner at an 80-person AEC firm being acquired — buyer wants our corridor GIS for the past 5 years (highway and rail projects). We use ArcGIS Pro internally; should I share via ArcGIS Online or a data room?
For an 80-person AEC firm acquisition with 5 years of corridor GIS, sharing via ArcGIS Online means giving the buyer's diligence team named-user seats in your live ArcGIS organization — and exposing your project workspace structure, naming conventions, internal review comments, and ongoing project work to the buyer. That's almost never what you want during M&A. Peony Business at $40/admin/month handles 200GB+ of corridor shapefiles, .gdb exports, KMZ overlays, geotiffs of rendered corridor maps, AutoCAD .DWG, Revit, IFC, and project archives inside one NDA-gated room with no per-GB surcharges. The buyer's technical team downloads the GIS exports to open in their own ArcGIS environment for technical review; your live ArcGIS organization stays operational for active project work. Dynamic watermarks stamp every page (including rendered corridor maps and as-built drawings) with the buyer-side identity. ArcGIS stays the right tool for your active project execution; Peony is the M&A diligence layer. → https://www.peony.ink/use-cases/cad-data-room
I'm principal at a 12-person environmental consultancy preparing a NEPA Environmental Impact Statement for a federal infrastructure project — we have 60GB of GIS layers, hydrology models, and biological surveys. How do we deliver to the federal agency reviewers and the public-comment portal?
For a 12-person environmental consultancy delivering a NEPA EIS on a federal infrastructure project, the federal agency review team and any litigation-track stakeholders want a defensible, auditable record of who saw what and when. Peony Business at $40/admin/month gives the federal agency reviewer team and your client's general counsel NDA-gated access to the EIS package — 60GB of GIS layers (wetlands, threatened species range, hydrology, transportation), geotiffs of viewshed analyses, biological survey reports, archaeological clearance memos, and the EIS document — with dynamic watermarks tying every page to the specific reviewer, screenshot protection, and per-viewer audit trails exportable for litigation work-product. ArcGIS Online seats for federal reviewers cost $500-$1,500/seat/year and require their IT to provision named users in your environment — administratively heavier than the project deserves. Peony's flat $40/admin/month covers your full agency-distribution and post-comment-period litigation prep flow. → https://www.peony.ink/use-cases/geological-data-room
Stop provisioning ArcGIS seats.Start sharing GIS deliverables securely.
Mining juniors, streaming funds, oil & gas explorers, solar developers, utility divestiture teams, AEC firms, CRE acquirers, and environmental consultancies use Peony to share GIS deliverables with bidders, lenders, JV partners, regulators, and LPs — securely and without per-seat licensing.
No credit card required. Median setup: 4 minutes 19 seconds.