ESRI Is Overkill for Your Utility. Here's What to Use Instead.

You've probably heard by now: ESRI is retiring ArcMap. No more patches. No more security updates. No more new licenses. If your utility has been running on ArcMap — even just to keep your maps current — you're going to have to make a move.

The obvious next step is ArcGIS Pro. But here's where it gets uncomfortable: Pro runs on named-user licensing. That means every person who needs access pays for a seat. For a utility with 5 or 6 people who all need to see the map, you're looking at a bill that doesn't make sense for your budget.

We hear this constantly. One utility manager in Indiana told us straight: "We can't figure out ESRI." A superintendent in Kansas said they were looking for "something easier." A PUD in Washington — 18 water systems, years invested in ESRI and CityWorks — said the tools "haven't met all expectations."

These aren't people who failed at technology. They're operators running water systems with 3 to 12 people, no IT department, and no GIS specialist. ESRI wasn't built for them. It was built for engineering firms and large metro utilities with dedicated GIS coordinators.

The Real Problem Isn't the Map

Here's what most utilities figure out after a year or two with ESRI: the map is fine. You can see your pipes. You can color-code by material or age. It looks good in a board presentation.

But the map doesn't do the work.

It doesn't tell you who fixed that valve last Tuesday. It doesn't track your flushing schedule. It doesn't log the work order when a hydrant gets hit. It doesn't capture what your retiring operator knows about the pump that seizes every January.

You end up with a map in one system and your actual work tracked in spreadsheets, notebooks, and the back of someone's truck. Two systems that don't talk to each other. Your crew updates one and ignores the other.

As one superintendent put it: "Some work was done somewhere at some point in time by somebody." That's what your records look like when your map and your work don't live in the same place.

What Small Utilities Actually Need

We've talked to hundreds of small water and wastewater utilities — systems running 500 to 10,000 connections with tiny crews. The pattern is the same almost everywhere:

They need their assets on a map. Where are the valves? Where are the mains? What's the pipe material and install date? Basic stuff. They don't need sub-centimeter survey-grade precision. They need to find the shutoff valve at 2 a.m. during a main break.

They need work orders tied to those assets. When you fix something, the record should live on the asset — not in a binder at the shop. When your new operator pulls up a hydrant, they should see every flush, every repair, every note anyone has ever logged.

They need it on their phone. Your crew isn't sitting at a desktop running ArcGIS Pro. They're in a ditch. They're in a truck. They need to pull up the map, see what's there, log what they did, and move on.

They need everyone on the team to have access. Not one named user. Not the superintendent and nobody else. Everyone — from the newest crew member to the office manager fielding customer calls. Unlimited users, because information shouldn't be locked behind a license.

Already Have ESRI? You Don't Have to Rip It Out

Here's something that surprises people: about 20% of the utilities who reach out to us think they have to choose. ESRI or Ziptility. All or nothing.

That's not how it works.

A lot of our customers run ESRI at the engineering level and Ziptility at the operations level. Different jobs. Your engineer needs survey-grade data and CAD integration for capital projects. Your field crew needs to find the valve, log the work order, and get to the next job.

You can import your ESRI shapefiles into Ziptility. Your engineering data stays where it is. Your field operations get a tool that actually works for them. No conflict. No migration headache.

The question isn't whether you should have GIS. The question is whether your GIS is doing the operational work — the daily, in-the-field, boots-on-the-ground work — or just sitting there looking pretty on a screen at the office.

Why ArcMap's End of Life Matters Right Now

ESRI has officially stopped supporting ArcMap. That means:

As operating systems update, ArcMap will eventually stop running altogether. It's not a question of if — it's when.

The migration path ESRI wants you on is ArcGIS Pro with named-user licensing. For a large metro utility with a GIS department, that makes sense. For a 2,000-connection water system with a $2 million annual budget and 6 employees? The math doesn't work.

We're already seeing it. Smaller consultancies and organizations that relied on ArcMap are being priced out of the named-user model. Small utilities are caught in the middle — their old tool is dying and the replacement costs more than they can justify.

This is the moment to ask: do we actually need what ESRI sells? Or do we need something built for how we actually work?

What Ziptility Does Differently

Ziptility is the only system that combines GIS mapping, asset management, work orders, and inventory tracking in one app — built specifically for small water and wastewater utilities.

Here's what that means in practice:

Your map comes alive. Every work order, every inspection, every note gets tied to the asset on the map. It's not a static picture of your infrastructure. It's a living record of everything that's ever happened to it. One customer logged over 8,000 tasks in a single year on a 3,600-connection system.

Everyone gets access. Unlimited users. Your whole crew — field operators, office staff, the superintendent — all on the same system. No named-user fees. No per-seat pricing games. Just one annual cost based on your number of connections.

It works on your phone. Built mobile-first. Your crew can pull up any asset, see its full history, create a work order, and attach a photo — all from the field. No laptop required. No VPN. No asking someone back at the office to look it up.

You keep your data. Everything you put in is yours. Export anytime. No lock-in. If you have ESRI shapefiles, import them. If you ever want to move your data somewhere else, take it with you.

Ferguson trusts it. Ferguson Enterprises — the largest waterworks distributor in North America, with over 300 field reps — distributes Ziptility. When Ferguson's reps visit utilities, Ziptility is the tool they recommend for getting off paper and into a real system.

The Cost Comparison

Let's be direct. ESRI's named-user licensing for ArcGIS Pro starts around $700 per user per year for the basic Creator license. Add on Field Maps, Workforce, and the extensions you'd need to replicate work orders and asset tracking, and a small utility with 5-6 users is looking at nearly ten thousand dollars per year — for just the GIS piece and mobile access. You'd still need separate tools for work orders and asset management.

Ziptility is priced per connection, not per user. Unlimited users. GIS, asset management, work orders, and inventory all included. For most small utilities, the annual cost is comparable to what ESRI charges for a couple of named-user licenses — except you get the whole system, not just the map.

Who This Is For

If you're a utility with 500 to 10,000 connections, 3 to 12 staff, no dedicated IT or GIS department, and you're either running on paper maps, using ESRI and struggling with complexity, or facing the ArcMap end-of-life deadline — this is built for you.

92% of public water systems in the United States serve fewer than 10,000 people. That's over 50,000 utilities. Most of them are running on paper, binders, and institutional knowledge that walks out the door when someone retires. ESRI was never designed for them. We are.

Make the Switch (or Add the Layer)

You don't have to decide between keeping ESRI and trying something new. A lot of utilities do both — ESRI for engineering, Ziptility for daily operations. Others drop ESRI entirely and save the money.

Either way, the first step is the same: see it with your own data.

We'll load your infrastructure into a trial system — your actual pipes, valves, hydrants, and assets — so you can see how it works for your utility, not a demo with fake data.

Takes about 45 minutes to get set up. Start your free trial or see how it works.