QGIS is an open source geographic information systems applications that allows analysis of geospatial data.
Even though QGIS comes with very powerful built-in features, it also allows third party developers to build their own plugins. For newbies, however, installing a QGIS plugin can seem ambiguous, although it is very straight forward.
Let’s quickly dive into how you can install a QGIS plugin from a .zip file.
Assume that you would like to install Hotspot Analysis plugin, which implements LISA (Local Indicator of Spatial Association) statistics needed for Hotspot and Cluster analysis.
First, you need to download the .zip file for the QGIS plugin.
Next, you just need to extract the .zip file and move the folder inside to C:\Users\{username}\Program Files\QGIS\apps\qgis\python\plugins
After that, you need to restart the QGIS if it is already running and you should be able to see your new plugin via Plugins > Manage and Install Plugins section.
One important thing is that you need to enable the plugin in order to start using it. Again, from Plugins > Manage and Install Plugins section you just need to check the plugin, in order to activate it.
Happy geospatial data analysis via QGIS.
NOTE: This method only required if you are using QGIS version 2.X but if you are using QGIS version 3.X, then you don’t need to manually copy files to install the plugin as QGIS version 3.X comes with plugin install from .zip file feature.
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