Convert FlatGeobuf to Shapefile Online — Free & Instant
Converting FlatGeobuf to Shapefile is needed when delivering data to clients or systems that require the widely-supported Shapefile format. Maparz converts your .fgb file to a ZIP archive containing all required Shapefile components ready for immediate GIS use.
File converter
When to convert FlatGeobuf to Shapefile
- Delivering FlatGeobuf data to clients requiring Shapefile format
- Converting FlatGeobuf cloud data to Shapefile for legacy GIS workflows
How to convert FlatGeobuf to Shapefile
- 1
Upload your FlatGeobuf
Drop your .fgb file on the upload zone.
- 2
Select Shapefile
Click Shapefile .zip in the format selector.
- 3
Download and unzip
Unzip and open the .shp in QGIS or ArcGIS.
About FlatGeobuf
FlatGeobuf is a modern, high-performance binary format for geospatial vector data, designed for efficient streaming and cloud-native workflows. Based on FlatBuffers, it supports random access via HTTP range requests, making it ideal for serving large datasets directly from object storage like S3 without a tile server. FlatGeobuf is an OGC Community Standard and is supported by GDAL 3.1+, QGIS, Mapbox, and the GeoJSON ecosystem. Its compact binary encoding is significantly faster to parse than GeoJSON for large datasets.
Strengths
- +Extremely fast read/write — binary encoding
- +Supports HTTP range requests for cloud-native access
- +OGC Community Standard
- +Compact — much smaller than equivalent GeoJSON
About Shapefile
Shapefile (SHP) is the de-facto standard vector format developed by Esri. A shapefile is actually a collection of at least three files: .shp (geometry), .dbf (attributes), and .shx (index). Despite its age, it remains the most widely-supported format across GIS desktop software including ArcGIS and QGIS. Shapefiles support points, lines, and polygons but are limited to 2 GB in size and 10-character field names. When sharing shapefiles, always bundle them into a .zip archive.
Strengths
- +Universal compatibility with all GIS software
- +Stable, well-documented format
- +Supported natively by QGIS, ArcGIS, GRASS
Frequently asked questions
Q.Will FlatGeobuf field names be truncated?
Shapefile field names are limited to 10 characters. Longer FlatGeobuf field names are automatically truncated.