The portal's download button is missing or disabled. Can I still get the data?

Usually yes. Open data portals often publish a layer as a REST service without offering a file. If you can reach the service URL, MapGeoData can read the layer from it and export the result as GeoJSON, a shapefile, CSV, or FlatGeobuf.

Where do I find the layer URL?

On an ArcGIS Hub or Open Data page, look for an API or service link ending in /FeatureServer or /MapServer, usually followed by a layer number like /0. Paste either the whole service (and pick a layer from the list) or the numbered layer directly.

What if the service asks for a sign-in?

Secured services need an ArcGIS token, and a pasted link cannot carry one, so MapGeoData tells you a sign-in is required instead of failing with a confusing error. Export the layer from the portal you have access to and open the file here.

How many features can it fetch?

A service answers in pages, so the app asks the layer how many features match and tells you how many requests that will take before it starts. It fetches up to 100,000. For anything larger, tick the option to fetch only what is in the current map view.

Does it work with MapServer as well as FeatureServer?

Yes, as long as the service can return GeoJSON, which ArcGIS 10.4 and later can. Older servers are refused by name rather than half-loaded.

No. What you open is a snapshot taken when you added it. It behaves like any other layer after that, so it keeps working offline and can be styled and exported, but it doesn't update when the service does.

Completely free. No sign-up, no trial, no watermark.

Open an ArcGIS FeatureServer layer online

Paste an ArcGIS FeatureServer or MapServer URL and MapGeoData fetches the layer straight from the service and draws it on a map. It runs in your browser, needs no ArcGIS license, and lets you export what you find as GeoJSON, a shapefile, CSV, or FlatGeobuf.

The viewer, shown here with sample boundary data. A service layer opens the same way. Open it with your own data →

What an ArcGIS FeatureServer is

Most public agencies publish their maps through ArcGIS Server or ArcGIS Online, and what they expose is a REST service rather than a file. The URL ends in /FeatureServer or /MapServer, often with a layer number after it:

https://services.arcgis.com/.../MyCounty_Parcels/FeatureServer/0

A service is a query API. Ask it for features and it answers with the ones you asked for, a page at a time. That's why a browser showing you the URL isn't showing you the data, and why the link can't simply be downloaded.

Getting data out when there's no download button

This is the common frustration. You find the layer you need on a county or agency portal, and the download option is grayed out, missing, or produces a format you can't use. All you have is a service endpoint.

MapGeoData reads that endpoint the same way desktop GIS would:

Copy the service URL. Either the whole service or one numbered layer.
Paste it into Add from URL. The app works out what kind of service it is and, if you gave it a whole service, lists the layers so you can pick one.
Check what you are about to fetch. Before anything downloads, it tells you how many features the layer has and how many requests that will take.
Add the layer, then use Export to save it as GeoJSON, a Shapefile ZIP, CSV, or FlatGeobuf.

That last step is the part people are usually after. The service becomes a file you own, in a format your other tools accept.

Large layers

A statewide parcel layer can hold millions of records, and no service hands those over in one request. ArcGIS caps each answer at a maximum record count and flags that more remain, so the app pages through until it has the layer.

Two things keep that honest. It asks for an exact count first, so you see "248,300 features, fetched in 125 requests" rather than watching a progress bar with no end. And there's an option to fetch only what's inside your current map view, which turns a national layer into the part you actually want. If a fetch stops early, either at the 100,000 feature limit or because the service stopped answering, the layer still loads and says how much of it arrived.

What you can do once it's open

A service layer behaves like any other layer once it's on the map:

Style by attribute: continuous ramps, categories, choropleth classes, labels, and point sizing.
Filter and query: hide features outside a value range, or select by expression.
Inspect: click a feature for its attributes, or open the data table to sort and filter every record.
Combine it with your own files, and run a spatial join, buffer, or clip against them.
Export the result, which is how the layer becomes a file.

What it doesn't do

A pasted service is read once, not subscribed to, so the layer is a snapshot rather than a live connection. Secured services that need an ArcGIS token cannot be opened from a link, and are refused with that reason rather than a vague error. Services too old to return GeoJSON, meaning ArcGIS 10.3 and earlier, are named as such instead of loading incorrectly.

Runs in your browser

The fetch happens in your browser and the data goes straight onto your map. If the service refuses direct browser requests, it's relayed through our server, which passes the bytes back without keeping them. There's nothing to install and no account to create. It sets no tracking cookies, and we never sell or share your data.

Free, no account, no install. Runs right in your browser.

Open a service URL