ArcGIS for Desktop from ESRI allows data to be shown on maps, but it also supports the management of data, analysis and the modelling and automation of workflows. There are many tools to support spatial analysis, and many data sources can be accommodated (more than 70 formats). Geographic, tabular, metadata and organisation tools are also provided. Creating maps is aided by wizards and templates, and a large library of symbols adds to the richness of the end result.
The products allow you to integrate data layers onto maps, globes, and models on the desktop and serve them out for use on a desktop, in a browser, or in the field via mobile devices. For developers, ArcGIS gives you APIs for building rich, interactive applications using JavaScript, Flex, or Silverlight, embedding your applications into Web pages or launch stand-alone Web applications.
CartoDB is a geospatial database on the cloud that allows for the storage and visualization of data on the web. Using CartoDB allows rapid creation of map based visualizations. At its heart, CartoDB is an open source geospatial mapping Platform. It is a tool built to make mapping dynamic, scalable, and interesting. At its core, CartoDB is an Editor that gives a user friendly interface for making maps and visualizing data.
GeoCommons is the public community of GeoIQ users who are building an open repository of data and maps for the world. The GeoIQ platform includes a large number of features that allows users to easily access, visualize and analyze data. GeoIQ enterprise is the same platform that powers GeoCommons, but has additional features specifically geared for the enterprise. It includes intuitive analytics for insights and predicative capabilities. Social, local and mobile data can be used to see how they are impacting. ESRI now owns GeoIQ/Geocommons
Leaflet is a modern open-source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. It is developed by Vladimir Agafonkin with a team of dedicated contributors. Weighing just about 33 KB of JS, it has all the features most developers ever need for online maps.
Leaflet is designed with simplicity, performance and usability in mind. It works efficiently across all major desktop and mobile platforms out of the box, taking advantage of HTML5 and CSS3 on modern browsers while still being accessible on older ones. It can be extended with a huge amount of plugins, has a beautiful, easy to use and well-documented API and a simple, readable source code that is a joy to contribute to.
Mapbox Streets is a highly accurate worldwide map powered by up-to-the-minute data from the OpenStreetMap project. It’s built to be customized: change the map colors, show and hide features, and even configure the labeling language. Mapbox Terrain is a beautiful elevation and land-use layer for the entire world, visualizing hills and elevation contour lines. Terrain is just as easy to customize as streets – it’s simple to adjust color scheme or gently fade it for subtle map designs. Turn off labels and streets for a clean textured backdrop that makes custom cartography and data visualizations look beautiful. Mapbox Satellite offers highly-detailed imagery for the whole world. We process and color-correct millions of source images to create the best-looking up to date satellite layer available anywhere.
Modest Maps is a small, extensible, and free library for designers and developers who want to use interactive maps in their own projects. It provides a core set of features in a tight, clean package with plenty of hooks for additional functionality.
Polymaps is a free JavaScript library and provides speedy display of multi-zoom datasets over maps, and supports a variety of visual presentations for tiled vector data, in addition to the usual cartography from OpenStreetMap, CloudMade, Bing, and other providers of image-based web maps. Because Polymaps can load data at a full range of scales, it’s ideal for showing information from country level on down to states, cities, neighborhoods, and individual streets. Because Polymaps uses SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) to display information, you can use familiar, comfortable CSS rules to define the design of your data. And because Polymaps uses the well known spherical mercator tile format for its imagery and its data, publishing information is very easy.
QGIS is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) licensed under the GNU General Public License. QGIS is an official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). It runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, Windows and Android and supports numerous vector, raster, and database formats and functionalities.
You will find an excellent list of mapping tools and libraries here.