Kart

What Kart is

Kart is a free, GPL-licensed tool for versioning geospatial and tabular data. It uses standard Git repositories and Git-like command-line commands, while recording changes at the row and cell level. Users can create local branches, compare dataset versions, review changes, and switch back to earlier states. Kart synchronizes datasets by transferring and applying a minimal compressed set of changes, and its operations run locally.

Kart provides GIS database and file working copies that can be edited in common GIS software without plugins. Supported working-copy formats include GeoPackage, PostGIS, Microsoft SQL Server, and MySQL. The data it handles includes vector points, lines, and polygons; tables; raster and grid tiles; and tiled LAS data. Its documentation describes a plugin for interacting with Kart from QGIS. Users can also clone and work on a geographic subset of a larger repository.

Kart runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with downloads linked from its website for Windows 64-bit, macOS, and Linux Debian and RPM packages for amd64 and arm64. It is self-hosted and uses storage users provide. The project is actively developed, and some APIs may change. In the documented Quick Guide workflow, schema changes are detected but are unsupported and result in an error.

Who it suits

Kart suits GIS and data teams that want Git-style version history for geospatial or tabular datasets, including changes tracked at row and cell level. It is also suited to users who work locally, manage their own storage, and edit GIS working copies in common GIS software.

Limits

Kart's Quick Guide says schema changes are detected but are unsupported in the described workflow and cause an error.

Getting started

1. Visit the Kart website and choose a download for Windows, macOS, or Linux.
2. Select the package that matches your system; Linux downloads include Debian and RPM options for amd64 and arm64.
3. Use Kart with standard Git repositories and Git-like command-line commands.
4. Use its GIS database or file working copies with common GIS software, or consult the documentation for its QGIS plugin.

Verdict

Choose Kart if you need free, open-source version control for geospatial or tabular data and want local Git-style workflows with detailed dataset history. Consider the schema-change limitation in the documented workflow and the possibility of API changes when deciding whether it fits your project.