I’ve used both. Here’s an honest take.

ArcGIS Pro is more polished

The interface is better. The 3D visualization is better. The integration with other Esri products (ArcGIS Online, Living Atlas, feature services) is seamless. If you’re working inside an organization that runs on Esri infrastructure, ArcGIS Pro is the right choice because everything connects.

The ModelBuilder tool for building geoprocessing workflows is more mature than QGIS’s graphical modeler. Not dramatically, but noticeably.

QGIS is free and good enough

For most analysis tasks, QGIS does everything ArcGIS Pro does. The plugin ecosystem is large. The Python console gives you direct access to QGIS internals. It’s updated frequently. And it costs nothing.

The things that are worse: the interface is less consistent, some tools behave unexpectedly, and the 3D viewer is not as good. None of these are dealbreakers for day-to-day work.

The real question is cost

ArcGIS Pro requires a license. For an individual it’s expensive. For an organization already paying for an Esri site license, it’s already paid for.

If you’re a student, freelancer, or working at a company without Esri licenses, QGIS is the obvious answer. It’s not a compromise. It’s a good tool.

If you’re working inside a government agency or large organization that runs on Esri, learn ArcGIS Pro. That’s what your colleagues will be using and what your outputs will need to integrate with.

I use QGIS for my own work. I use ArcGIS Pro when a client requires it.