PostGIS adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. In effect, PostGIS "spatially enables" the PostgreSQL server, allowing it to be used as a backend spatial database for geographic information systems (GIS), much like ESRIs SDE or Oracles Spatial extension. PostGIS follows the OpenGIS "Simple Features Specification for SQL" and has been certified as compliant with the "Types and Functions" profile.
PostGIS has been developed by Refractions Research as a project in open source spatial database technology. PostGIS is released under the GNU General Public License. We continue to develop PostGIS, and have added user interface tools, basic topology support, data validation, coordinate transformation, programming APIs and much more. Our list of future projects includes full topology support, raster support, networks and routing, three dimensional surfaces, curves and splines and other features. Ask us about consulting services and implementing new features.
Comments and Reviews
Very powerful, but not for the faint of the heart. PostGIS needs a serious SQL person to be setup and be really useful, one needs to import shapefiles, tabular data, building a whole environment that can, in the end, benefit end-users. I had no problems using PostGIS with openSUSE Leap and shapefiles can be imported using graphical and command line interfaces (the last are important to do batch imports).