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The 9 best location analytics software in the US (2026)
Huq is our product. Here's how we compared everyone, including us.
Location analytics software turns places into answers: how many people visit a site, where they come from, how long they stay and how it compares with its neighbors. This guide compares nine location analytics software options for US teams in 2026.
The category mixes three kinds of tool. GIS platforms such as Esri and CARTO analyze data you bring or license. Location data platforms such as Huq and Placer.ai measure how places perform. Data providers such as Unacast and Advan sell visit data for your own models. Good options are clear about where their data comes from, how often it updates and how it was validated.
Buyers include retail and restaurant real estate teams, landlords, investors, consultancies and local government. We wrote this list and Huq is ranked first, as the pick for branded retail chains, retail property owners and investors evaluating retail brands and assets, because it is built to give the broadest set of location data across 35 markets. Every entry lists pros and cons, with links to sources.
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Quick answer
For branded retail chains, retail property teams and investors, start with Huq, built to give the broadest set of location data across 35 markets. For US-only visit dashboards, try Placer.ai; for GIS-led trade areas, Esri Business Analyst; for analysis inside your warehouse, CARTO.
Location analytics software compared
What each tool is best for, where it covers, the level of detail it reports and what stands out.
In this guide
How we evaluated
- Analysis jobs covered: foot traffic, catchment or visitor origin, dwell and frequency, benchmarking and trade areas.
- Where the data comes from: the vendor's own visit data, licensed demographics, or data you bring.
- Skill needed: whether business users get answers directly or a GIS or data team is required.
- Cadence and delivery: how often data updates, and whether you get a dashboard, files or an API.
- Validation: whether the vendor publishes accuracy tests against ground truth, and the method behind them.
The best location analytics software for US teams
1. Huq: best for branded retail chains, retail commercial property teams, and investors and private equity evaluating retail brands and retail assets.
Location analytics software should answer the everyday questions about a place: how busy it is, who visits, where they come from and how it compares with what surrounds it. Huq is built to give you the broadest set of location data for those jobs, across 35 markets including the US, in one platform. Footfall comes by week, month and year, with total and average daily foot traffic, trends, period-on-period change and visiting versus passing traffic. Each area also splits residents from visitors and maps catchment, with drive-time and travel-time analysis alongside.
Behavior sits on top: visit frequency, dwell time, time of day, cross-visitation between sites and international visitation for tourism. Huq maps footfall density and transportation mode, and adds POIs, brand locations and brand analysis, industry performance and shopping center and retail center types, so you can read a site against its surroundings. Demographics (age, gender, purchasing power) and geo-spend by volume and category are available in selected markets.
Huq manually validates more than 1,000 locations in each market twice a year, and data refreshes weekly. Business users work in the Explore map without a GIS specialist and use Projects to monitor many locations at once. Results export to CSV or Excel or arrive as monthly PDF location reports, and data teams can take feeds: Parquet and CSV files delivered into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. As supporting evidence, Huq reports 81.9% accuracy in GB against a ~65% industry benchmark.
Pros
- Built to cover the core location analytics jobs in one tool: footfall, residents vs visitors, catchment, drive time, behavior, density, brands and industries
- 35 markets, with more than 1,000 locations manually validated in each market twice a year
- Business users get answers in the Explore map without a GIS specialist
- Projects, CSV and Excel exports and monthly PDF location reports for ongoing monitoring and stakeholder reporting
- Data teams can use the same dataset in their own tools through Parquet and CSV feeds into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage
Cons
- Newer to the US than US-native vendors such as Placer.ai
- Demographics and spend are available in selected markets only, so check availability for each market you need
- Delivers data feeds rather than an API, and isn't a general GIS, so custom spatial modeling on your own data needs a tool like CARTO or Esri
2. Placer.ai: best for US-only teams that want an established visit dashboard with trade area and competitor views.
Placer.ai (Placer Labs Inc.) is a US foot traffic analytics company with 4,000+ customers across retail, commercial real estate, local government, CPG, restaurants, finance and advertising. It estimates visits from a mobile location panel of tens of millions of devices and uses machine learning to extrapolate them to properties, chains, markets and regions, drawn on property-level polygons. Teams work in the analytics dashboard, with CSV, PDF and SHP exports, call the API, or take data feeds through the Placer Marketplace, Snowflake and AWS. A Data Marketplace layers on partner datasets such as sales estimates, demographics, business counts and consumer expenditure. Coverage is the United States only.
As location analytics software, Placer covers most core jobs for US sites: visits, dwell, trade areas, demographics and competitor overlap, with free tools and a freemium version for lighter use. In January 2024 it announced a strategic partnership with Esri, and its SHP exports help teams that also work in GIS. Compared with Huq, the analysis jobs are similar but the reach differs: Placer covers the US, while Huq runs the same footfall, catchment and benchmarking analysis across 35 markets.
Pros
- Established US platform with 4,000+ customers across retail, CRE, government and finance
- Dashboard, API and data feeds through Snowflake and AWS from one vendor
- Data Marketplace adds sales estimates, demographics and consumer expenditure
- Freemium version and free tools such as Chain Analysis
Cons
- Covers the US only, so international portfolios need a second provider
- Locations with fewer than 50 unique devices are hidden, which can limit small or low-traffic sites
- Reports correlations above 90% against first-party sources without publishing the full method
- Full access is a custom subscription; a Capterra reviewer calls it "expensive but worth the cost"
3. Esri ArcGIS Business Analyst: best for GIS and market analysts who need demographics, drive-time trade areas and detailed mapping.
ArcGIS Business Analyst is Esri's location-based market intelligence software, built on the ArcGIS platform. It combines demographic, consumer spending, business, lifestyle and census data with map analysis for site selection, market planning and territory design: over 15,000 variables from more than 170 countries, 2,000+ US demographic variables, 67 Tapestry segments and 13M+ US businesses, down to block group with five-year projections. POIs come from Foursquare Open Source Places, SafeGraph and Data Axle. It runs as a web app, mobile app, desktop app inside ArcGIS Pro or on premises, and higher tiers add void, suitability and Huff model analysis. Users include GIS teams, market analysts, real estate, healthcare and government.
Business Analyst is on this location analytics list because trade areas, drive times, Huff models and suitability analysis are its core jobs. Its traffic counts come from Kalibrate and measure vehicles, and reviewers cite a GIS learning curve and credit costs for many online tasks. It analyzes who lives around a site. Huq adds who actually visits: observed weekly footfall, catchment by ZIP code, dwell and visit frequency, available across 35 markets without GIS skills.
Pros
- 15,000+ variables from 170+ countries, with US geographies down to block group
- Drive-time trade areas, Huff model, suitability and void analysis
- Runs on web, mobile, desktop and on premises within the wider ArcGIS stack
- Rated 4.6 out of 5 on G2, with high support scores
Cons
- No foot traffic dataset of its own; its traffic counts come from Kalibrate and measure vehicles
- Reviewers cite a GIS learning curve for non-specialist users
- Many online tasks use credits, which G2 users find confusing
4. CARTO: best for data and GIS teams running spatial analysis inside their own cloud data warehouse.
CARTO describes itself as an agentic, 100% cloud-native GIS platform. Instead of copying data into its own system, it runs spatial analysis inside the warehouse you already use, including Google BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, AWS Redshift, Microsoft Azure and Oracle. Builder handles maps and visualization, Workflows offers 100+ low-code analysis components with machine learning and AI steps, the Data Observatory supplies enrichment data, and AI agents can draft maps from natural-language requests. It is aimed at data analysts, data scientists, GIS professionals and developers, and lists site selection, territory planning and market analysis among its use cases, with logos such as Verizon, JLL, Unilever and Bain & Company.
CARTO belongs among location analytics software as the toolkit a data or GIS team uses to build its own analysis on foot traffic, demographic or sales data it already holds or licenses. It offers a free trial, and gets the most value when your data already sits in a supported warehouse. Huq can supply that data as Parquet or CSV feeds into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage, or provide the analysis itself in a self-serve platform across 35 markets.
Pros
- Runs inside BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, Azure and Oracle
- 100+ low-code Workflows components, including ML and AI steps
- Builder maps very large datasets and accepts natural-language prompts
- Free trial available
Cons
- Not a foot traffic source; you bring or license the data
- Suits teams with data or GIS skills more than business users who want ready answers
- Its value depends on already running a supported cloud data warehouse
5. Precisely: best for enterprises that need geocoding, data enrichment and spatial analytics at scale.
Precisely sells data integrity and location software to large enterprises, and Fortune Business Insights names it among the largest location intelligence companies, with MapInfo and Spectrum Spatial in its product line. Its location data software validates, standardizes, geocodes and enriches addresses, while its location intelligence software adds spatial analytics, visualization and GeoAI. Spectrum Spatial embeds geospatial rules in existing systems across desktop, web and mobile. Precisely Visits adds foot traffic patterns and movement behavior, and the Gio AI assistant answers spatial questions in plain language. It integrates with Snowflake and Databricks, partners with AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, and serves financial services, insurance, government, healthcare, retail, telecoms and utilities.
Precisely belongs among location analytics software for teams whose first problem is clean, geocoded data at scale, with spatial analysis built into enterprise systems. IDC named it a Leader in its 2026 MarketScape for worldwide data intelligence platform software, and customer stories include Generali and Citizens Bank. Its location page doesn't state coverage or refresh for Visits data. Huq suits teams that want ready answers on how places perform, with weekly footfall and catchment across 35 markets.
Pros
- Geocoding, address standardization and enrichment for large data volumes
- Spectrum Spatial embeds spatial rules in existing enterprise systems
- Precisely Visits adds foot traffic and movement data from the same vendor
- Snowflake and Databricks integrations
Cons
- Built for enterprise data programs, so expect an enterprise sales process
- Its location intelligence page doesn't state coverage or refresh for Visits data
- Business users who want a ready-made site dashboard may find it more than they need
6. Unacast: best for product and data teams that want visitation and trade area data through APIs.
Unacast is a location data company headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, with Norwegian roots, and it merged with Gravy Analytics in late 2023. It sells global mobility data, US foot traffic data, consumer data enrichment and data linkages that connect mobile ad IDs to hashed emails and IPs. The Area Visitors, Observations, Trade Areas and Personas APIs serve product and data teams, and bulk data can be scheduled into a warehouse or data lake. US visitation datasets cover weekly, monthly and quarterly foot traffic, dynamic trade areas and cross-visitation, built from origin ZIP code and census block group. In December 2025 Unacast raised $28M from Vector Capital.
Unacast fits a location analytics list for teams that want trade area and cross-visitation datasets to analyze themselves. Its US visitation is released weekly with a 4-day lag, with history from October 2018, and G2 reviewers rate it 4.9 out of 5. In January 2025 the FTC finalized an order restricting Gravy Analytics' use of sensitive location data. Huq offers similar analysis jobs ready-made in its platform, across 35 markets.
Pros
- Trade area, cross-visitation and visitation-pattern datasets for the US
- Weekly release with a 4-day lag and history from October 2018
- APIs plus scheduled bulk delivery into your warehouse or lake
- Rated 4.9 out of 5 on G2 (10 reviews)
Cons
- Data and API first, so your team builds the analysis and visuals
- Visitation datasets cover the US; other markets are raw mobility data
- The January 2025 FTC order against Gravy Analytics means buyers should ask how it affects the data they license
7. Advan Research: best for quant and alternative-data teams that want US foot traffic and card-spend datasets with dashboards.
Advan Research is a New York alternative-data company founded by former hedge fund and fintech people. It sells foot traffic and card-spend data to hedge funds and institutional investors, REITs, corporates and the public sector. After buying SafeGraph's Patterns business in November 2022, its Weekly Patterns+ dataset became the successor to SafeGraph Patterns: POI-level visits for each Monday-to-Sunday week across the US and Canada, delivered on Wednesdays, with history from January 2018. Neighborhood Patterns+ reports at census block group level, and SpendView adds weekly US consumer spend. Raw files ship by FTP, AWS S3 and Google Cloud, and the FIT, REI and REVEAL dashboards serve people who prefer a screen.
Advan belongs in location analytics software for teams that need hourly visit detail: Weekly Patterns+ includes 168 hourly visit counts per week, with monthly backfills. Its core buyers are hedge funds and institutional investors tracking 2,000+ tickers. Advan says its panel covers 45M US and 65M global devices. Huq covers the analysis jobs store and property teams use most, including footfall, catchment, dwell and dayparts, across 35 markets in a self-serve platform.
Pros
- Successor to SafeGraph Patterns, with POI-level history from January 2018
- Foot traffic and US card spend from one vendor
- 168 hourly visit counts per week in Weekly Patterns+
- FIT and REVEAL dashboards alongside raw datasets
Cons
- Built for analysts and quants more than business users
- Coverage is US-focused; Weekly Patterns+ adds Canada
- Weekly Patterns+ applies no dwell-time filtering, so check how visits are defined
8. pass_by: best for teams that want US retail visit and spend metrics fed into their own BI tools through feeds or an API.
pass_by is a London-based retail market intelligence company focused on US retail. Its Almanac platform combines visits, spend, trips and trade areas for brands and markets, and AI Retail Agents answer market questions inside the tools teams already use. Its US visit data covers about 93% of US branded retail POIs, or 1.31M locations across 7,080 brands, with history from January 2019. Feeds & API deliver the same data to Amazon S3, Snowflake, BigQuery and Databricks or through an API. pass_by self-reports a 94% correlation to ground truth and says it serves 15+ datasets to 100+ retailers, with ALDO Group among its named customers.
pass_by is on this list because it publishes its US retail POI coverage and offers feeds into common warehouses. Its 94% correlation figure is self-reported, and pass_by's own comparison content mentions a 24-hour free trial for testing on known stores. It fits teams that want retail visit and spend metrics in their BI stack. Huq covers 35 markets, with footfall, catchment and behavior in its platform or as Parquet or CSV feeds.
Pros
- About 93% coverage of US branded retail POIs (1.31M locations, 7,080 brands)
- Visits, spend and trade areas in one product
- Feeds to S3, Snowflake, BigQuery and Databricks, plus an API
- 24-hour free trial
Cons
- Focused on branded retail POIs, so check coverage for other place types
- Its 94% correlation to ground truth is self-reported
- Coverage outside the US isn't stated on its homepage
9. MyTraffic: best for teams with mainly European locations that want footfall and catchment answers through an AI assistant.
MyTraffic is a Paris-founded footfall and location intelligence platform, now in one group with Geoblink. It measures footfall, profiles visitors and maps catchments, and its AI assistant, Gini, built on both companies' software experience, answers geospatial questions in plain language. DataLibrary sells alternative data, AudienceLabs links digital advertising to in-store visits, and SmartMonitor tracks shopping center performance. MyTraffic lists 18 countries, mostly in Europe plus the United States, where Gini is live in New York, Texas and Massachusetts. It says 600 companies across Europe use it. Delivery is a SaaS platform with onboarding, training and consultants, and client stories include Five Guys, GOIKO and outlet operator Advantail.
MyTraffic belongs among location analytics software because footfall, visitor profiling and catchment mapping are its core jobs, delivered through a chat-style assistant. It claims 10M locations analyzed with 10-meter accuracy, a self-reported figure. In the US, Gini is live in three states. Huq handles the same analysis jobs, footfall, catchment, dwell and cross-visitation, across 35 markets, with Projects for monitoring many sites and monthly PDF reports for stakeholders.
Pros
- Gini AI assistant answers location questions in plain language
- Footfall, visitor profiling and catchment mapping in one platform
- 18 countries listed, mostly in Europe
- Dedicated onboarding, training and consulting
Cons
- US availability covers three states so far
- Customer base is mainly European
- Its 10-meter accuracy claim is self-reported
How to choose location analytics software
Start with the question, not the map
If you need to know how a site performs, you need visit data. If you need to model territories or drive times on your own data, a GIS tool fits better. Many teams use one of each.
Check observed vs modeled catchments
Drive-time rings show who could reach a site. Observed visitor origin shows who actually came. Ask which one each tool uses for its trade areas.
Match the tool to your team's skills
CARTO and Precisely suit data and GIS teams working in a cloud warehouse. Esri Business Analyst rewards GIS skill. Huq, Placer.ai and pass_by are built for business users.
Ask for the method behind accuracy claims
Ask each vendor how its numbers compare with door counts or reported sales, and which country each test covers. A figure with no method is hard to compare.
Frequently asked questions
What is location analytics?
Location analytics is the analysis of data tied to places, such as visits, visitor origin, dwell time and nearby businesses, to answer business questions. Retailers use it to pick sites and review stores, landlords to value assets and investors to track brands. Location analytics software packages that data and analysis into one tool.
What is the difference between location analytics and GIS?
GIS software, such as Esri ArcGIS or CARTO, is a general toolkit for mapping and spatial analysis on any data you load. Location analytics software focuses on business questions about places and usually ships with its own data, such as foot traffic. GIS offers more flexibility; location analytics gets business users to answers faster.
Which location analytics tools include foot traffic data?
Huq, Placer.ai, pass_by and MyTraffic include foot traffic in a dashboard. Huq adds residents vs visitors, catchment, drive time, behavior, density, transport mode, POIs, brands and industries in one tool. Unacast and Advan sell foot traffic datasets, and Advan also offers dashboards. Precisely offers a Visits product. Esri Business Analyst's traffic counts come from Kalibrate and measure vehicles, not people.
How are trade areas calculated in location analytics software?
There are two common methods. Drive-time or distance areas show who could reach a site. Observed trade areas use visitor origin to show where visitors actually come from. Huq offers both: catchment by ZIP code, residents vs visitors and drive-time and travel-time analysis. Placer.ai and Unacast also offer observed trade areas, and Esri Business Analyst is strong on drive-time and demographic trade areas.
Can location analytics software benchmark my sites against competitors?
Yes, if it measures any address. In Huq you can draw any area, including a competitor's site, and compare footfall by week, month and year, residents vs visitors, catchment, drive time, frequency, dwell, dayparts, cross-visitation, tourism, density, transport mode, POIs, brands, industries, plus demographics and spend in selected markets. Projects monitors many locations at once. Placer.ai also reports competitor overlap for US sites.
What dashboards exist for location analytics?
Huq, Placer.ai, pass_by and MyTraffic show visits, catchment and benchmarks without coding. Huq's Explore map and Projects cover footfall, residents vs visitors, catchment, drive time, behavior, density, transport mode, POIs, brands and industries, plus demographics and spend in selected markets, refreshed weekly. Esri Business Analyst offers demographic reports and trade areas, and CARTO builds maps on your warehouse data.
Questions? Talk to us
Book a demoSources
- Huq: platform
- Huq: Walmart sales validation study
- Huq: cross-visitation
- Huq: data feeds
- Placer.ai
- Placer.ai: site selection analytics
- Placer.ai: FAQ
- Esri ArcGIS Business Analyst
- Esri: Business Analyst data and reports
- Esri: Business Analyst buying options
- FitGap: ArcGIS Business Analyst alternatives
- CARTO
- Precisely: location intelligence
- Precisely: Spectrum Spatial
- Unacast
- Unacast: foot traffic data
- Unacast: visitation datasets
- FTC: final order against Gravy Analytics and Venntel
- Advan Research
- Advan Research: data dictionaries
- Advan Research: SafeGraph Patterns acquisition
- pass_by
- pass_by: foot traffic data providers
- Datarade: pass_by US visit data
- MyTraffic
- Gitnux: best location analytics software
- TechCrunch: Placer.ai raises $75M
- Capterra: Placer.ai reviews
- Placer.ai and Esri partnership
- G2: ArcGIS Business Analyst reviews
- Esri: Foursquare data update in Business Analyst
- Esri: Business Analyst October 2025 release
- Unacast: about
- G2: Unacast
- Business Wire: Unacast financing from Vector Capital
- Advan Research: about
- Business Wire: Advan acquires RetailStat REI
- pass_by: Placer.ai alternatives
About Huq
Huq is a location intelligence company. We turn anonymised mobile location data into footfall, catchment and visitor insight for any place, so retailers, property owners and local authorities can make decisions on evidence.
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