Beyond the Shapefile with File Geodatabase and GeoPackage

The shapefile format has limitations such as size restrictions, limited data types, and lack of support for certain spatial types. Esri's File Geodatabase (FGDB) format is considered a replacement, offering improvements like file size flexibility and rich data types, but it lacks open-source support and requires proprietary Esri APIs. The GeoPackage (GPKG) format, developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), addresses these issues with an open-source SQLite storage engine, platform independence, and extensibility through documentation and extensions.