Frequently Asked Questions

Open data is a key component of ArcGIS Hub. It is a fundamental building block for sharing data with the community, and the source data for information products, apps, and initiatives that are part of the ArcGIS Hub community engagement experience. ArcGIS Hub puts open data to work by focusing its use on initiatives and internal and external collaboration efforts that make an impact. ArcGIS Hub adds intent and focus for the use of open data, instead of simply providing data to the public without any direction or focus to help solve community problems.

The basic license level comes included as part of your ArcGIS Online subscription. It allows you to share open data and create open data sites and pages that can integrate, and leverage data driven visualizations and apps created with ArcGIS.

The premium license level provides added functionality and tools that make your community engagement efforts easier, including tools for creating and managing initiatives and initiative teams, an event management system, and dashboards for monitoring feedback and progress. It also provides community members with identity accounts that allow them to create a community profile to provide feedback, sign up to attend events, follow initiatives, and receive relevant updates. ArcGIS Hub administrators can also leverage included initiative templates and tools to help them manage internal and external collaboration and participation.

ArcGIS Hub is automatically available with a subscription to ArcGIS Online, so if you have access to an ArcGIS Online organization, you have access to ArcGIS Hub. You can sign in to ArcGIS Hub at hub.arcgis.com using your ArcGIS Online credentials, or by following these steps.

You can go beyond basic site creation and open data sharing by using the engagement capabilities included with a premium license.   

The basic license level capabilities are included, but the premium license level capabilities of ArcGIS Hub are not included in Enterprise Agreements. The premium capabilities are licensed in addition to an EA, but they are available to EA customers at a reduced rate.  The capabilities are intended to extend Enterprise GIS and provide GIS capabilities to the community, in effect extending a customer’s staff, by making it possible for citizens to contribute to the efforts of data gathering and initiative work.

Any organization with ArcGIS Online can take advantage of the basic license level capabilities of ArcGIS Hub.

An ArcGIS Online subscription is required for both the basic and premium license levels of ArcGIS Hub.

The premium license level of ArcGIS Hub requires you to designate which ArcGIS Online organization (if you have multiple) that you wish to use to manage and administer your hub.  If you do not have access to an ArcGIS Online organization or wish to have a new organization for your hub, you can purchase one. If you plan to have many internal participants in your hub, you might need to add additional users to your ArcGIS Online organization.  

Sites is a capability of ArcGIS Hub which enables you to build custom web pages and websites for sharing content like datasets, web maps, documents, and media. Sites is included with the basic license level of ArcGIS Hub. The premium license level of ArcGIS Hub includes additional advanced capabilities that allow you to create and launch initiatives. Initiatives can help you organize people and data around projects or goals. Each initiative can contain any combination of solutions, including configurable apps, web maps, story maps, dashboards, events, surveys, and website templates. Initiatives allow you to form teams within your organization and your community, to provide data and solutions needed to collaborate and work on projects together, and tools for monitoring engagement and progress. You can create your own custom initiatives to address your unique goals or use one of the ready-to-use initiative templates that come included with ArcGIS Hub to jumpstart your work.

People within your community who sign up to join your ArcGIS Hub become members within your ArcGIS Hub Community, a separate but linked ArcGIS Online organization, that comes with a premium level ArcGIS Hub license. As members of this organization, people from the public can create an account, manage their user profile, sign up to attend events, store data downloads, follow initiatives, respond to surveys, receive relevant notifications and emails, and create story maps and web maps using shared data.  

No. ArcGIS Hub benefits many sectors.  We have seen tremendous interest from educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, and nonprofit organizations. We even envision hubs for the private sector. Anyone who needs to coordinate internally across departments or groups and wishes to engage a broader community outside of their organization can use ArcGIS Hub. 

Any organization with ArcGIS Online can take advantage of the basic license level capabilities of ArcGIS Hub.

In addition, the premium license level of ArcGIS Hub is included in Educational Site/Institution licenses (e.g., colleges, universities, K-12 schools, school districts, etc.).  For more information, contact educationinfo@esri.com.

Special pricing for the premium license level of ArcGIS Hub is also available for nonprofits. If you think you are eligible, please contact us for information and details.

Esri’s industry-leading technical support professionals are available to address any questions or issues related to ArcGIS Hub.

Esri Consulting Services subject matter experts are also available to provide guidance and support in the deployment and configuration of the ArcGIS Platform, open data, apps, Living Atlas of the World, and other components involved in the creation of a hub. A hub is not just about technology.  Implementing a hub environment requires thinking and planning holistically.  Esri Consulting Services can help you assess where gaps exist in your hub ecosystem and provide a roadmap and assistance in filling them.

Find out more about Esri Consulting Services' offerings.

ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Hub both include a feature called Sites which provides organizations with the same user experience for creating and managing websites and pages. The difference is that ArcGIS Hub is supported by ArcGIS Online's configurable cloud platform, while ArcGIS Enterprise enables organizations to operate their GIS on-premise behind their own firewall. The premium license level of ArcGIS Hub uses Sites in conjunction with additional community engagement tools, such as an events management system and surveys, to share relevant and timely content with internal teams and collaborators within the community. Many ArcGIS Enterprise organizations use Sites to share their Portal's authoritative GIS data across teams and other departments by using sites and pages to create more tailored web page experiences for their data portal users. Learn more about how to access and get started with ArcGIS Enterprise Sites.