Home Welcome to POINOVA
In 1 sentence Official neighbourhood data in 4 clicks. No Excel, no jargon, no statistics degree.
POINOVA is for business people who need to decide where to open or grow. If location matters to you, this guide shows you how to use it in 10 minutes.
Who it's for
Coffee shops, bakeries, neighbourhood restaurants.
Fashion, home decor, local shops, concept stores.
Dental clinics, physios, gyms, yoga studios.
Hair salons, beauty studios, laundries, print shops.
Advisory firms, lawyers, architects, consultancies.
Tutoring centres, nurseries, music schools.
If you're open to the public and your location decides whether people walk in, POINOVA is for you.
How any decision works, step by step
Home Create your account
In 1 sentence Email, password, you're in. One minute and you're already on the map.
If you're going to use POINOVA for a company, sign up with your work email. That way billing and your team are linked from day one.
Quick start Your first area in 5 minutes
In 1 sentence Search, draw, read. Five steps to the profile of any neighbourhood.
Speciality coffee shop in Sant Antoni. We draw a 10-minute walking area around the Mercat. The profile appears in 2 seconds:
- Average income above the city average
- Young neighbourhood, with a strong share of 25- to 39-year-olds
- NovaScore 54 out of 100 for a speciality coffee shop
- 12 coffee shops within the isochrone (real competition)
On screen it shows as Favourable for this type of business. Before signing, compare it with Dreta de l'Eixample or Gràcia.
The map Basic map controls
In 1 sentence Your area in four clicks. Just like a regular map, but with a search that understands you.
If you've ever used Google Maps, you already know how to get around POINOVA. Here are the basic gestures.
Mouse wheel or buttons + and − top right.
Click and drag. No weird keys.
Zooms in on the point you clicked.
Expand icon at the top right. Perfect for presenting.
Search an address
The map's search box (on a computer, at the top left of the map; on a phone, by tapping the place name in the top bar) understands four ways of asking for a place. Type the way you speak.
"Gran Vía 32, Madrid". Takes you to the exact entrance.
"Carrer Aragó". It takes you to that street.
"Camden Town" or "Malasaña". It takes you to that neighbourhood.
"48.86, 2.35". For when you already know the exact point.
Type "Gràcia" and the map jumps to the neighbourhood. If you enter "Carrer Verdi 23", it lands on the exact doorway. Same search box, and the same zoom level in both cases.
Handy shortcuts
Three shortcuts that save clicks once you get moving.
+ / − · zoom, after you click the map
Esc · closes the pop-up window
Enter · picks the search result
The map Layers and views
In 1 sentence Paint the map with the info you need to see. Income, density, NovaScore. One click.
Layers work like colour filters over the map. Turn one on and you see the neighbourhoods of the city painted by that figure. Handy for spotting patterns without going table by table.
Available layers
A yellow-to-red scale: the redder, the higher the income per person.
Inhabitants per km². Embajadores lights up, while Casa de Campo is almost empty.
At a glance, which neighbourhoods meet the most conditions for your sector. Green and blue, more; orange and red, fewer. Paid layer.
Points of interest filtered by sector and subtype. Every business, a pin.
Turn on the layer Income by neighbourhood and you will see Recoletos painted deep red, while San Cristóbal and Pradolongo stay yellow. In 5 seconds you know where the spending power of Madrid is.
Change the base map
Three backgrounds for three situations. Switch with one click in the top right corner.
To show it on a screen, try Dark + layer NovaScore. Neighbourhoods with better conditions for your sector come out green and those with fewer, red. That way you see at a glance how they are spread across the city.
Draw areas Freehand, circle or isochrone
In 1 sentence Three ways to mark your area. Choose based on how your customer moves.
What to choose for your business
| Type | When to use it | How it's done |
|---|---|---|
| Freehand drawing | When you already know the exact territory: a historic neighbourhood or a few specific streets (the Marais in Paris, for example). | Click on Drawing type → Manual, click the points and close it with a double click or the Finish button. |
| Circle or rectangle | For a quick view that is easy to explain: "everything around the premises". | Click on Drawing type → Circle and drag on the map from the centre out to the size you want. |
| Area within X minutes (isochrone) | For genuine proximity businesses (café, bakery, gym). It follows the streets and respects barriers. | Click on Catchment, pick the point on the map, the mode (walking, cycling, driving) and the minutes. |
Neighbourhood café: try 5 and 10 minutes walking. Gym: 10 to 15 minutes by car.
When you pick driving, we use an average city speed, not the limit of each street. In cities with many 30 km/h streets, the real area can end up a little smaller than the one drawn. For neighbourhood businesses, walking mode is closer to reality.
Undo while drawing
If you make a mistake, press Esc to cancel the whole drawing, or click the button Undo that appears while you draw to remove just the last point.
Draw areas Save and name areas
In 1 sentence Give it a clear name and a colour. Your future self will thank you in three weeks.
A good name is worth a thousand
Sant Antoni · 10 min walking · Café
City, area, mode and sector. You know what it is without opening anything.
"Dreta de l'Eixample · 500 m circle · Dental"
It tells you the area, the shape and why you drew it.
"Zone 3"
In 3 weeks you won't know what's inside.
Six colours available
Where your areas appear
In the left panel, under My areas. From there you open its data, see the businesses inside it or compare it with another.
Recommended pattern: "City · Type · Mode". The free plan saves 3 zones; paid plans save as many as you want.
Draw areas Edit and delete
In 1 sentence Change the name or the colour whenever you like. The saved shape cannot be reshaped.
Find it in My areas, double-click the name to change it, or click the colour dot to paint it a different colour. The shape cannot be edited: you have to draw it again.
Button Delete: from the right-click menu it asks first. The bin icon in the list deletes straight away, without asking. Either way an Undo notice appears for a few seconds so you can get it back. If you want to keep it, first download the PDF or export it to Excel.
If you already shared a link with that zone, the link holds a copy of the map as it was then: deleting the zone does not remove it from the link. Revoke the link from My account.
Analysis The data for each zone
In 1 sentence Every zone is looked at with dozens of figures across 5 tabs. All official, all comparable.
You don't need to understand statistics. Just look at the tabs you care about. The summary is free and the detail comes with a paid plan.
The 5 data tabs
The zone's key figures and how they compare with the city.
Age, education, households and origin of the people living there.
Income (mean or median, depending on each area's official source), inequality and estimated household spending.
Density, housing, how people commute and vehicles.
Cost to buy or rent, surroundings and safety. On a paid plan.
- 44,937 inhabitants, with an average age of 43.2.
- EUR 26,054 income, +41% above the Barcelona average.
- 57% with higher education, above the Barcelona average.
The zone, the city and the gap
Where the data comes from
In the PDF the data already comes down to the most relevant figures. If you want them all raw, use the Excel export.
Analysis NovaScore: your area in a single number
In 1 sentence A score from 0 to 100 that measures the conditions an area offers for your type of business. No calculations. No Excel.
Imagine you're torn between three neighbourhoods. Which one brings together the best conditions? POINOVA looks at the data that matters to your sector and gives you a score that's easy to compare.
Each sector values different things
A coffee shop and a dental clinic are not after the same thing. We look at the same data for the area, but each sector weighs it differently. Three examples:
Here what counts most is young residents, income and education level.
Here income leads, followed by families with children and education.
Here young people, income and population density weigh most.
If you haven't chosen a sector yet, POINOVA uses the 3 basic data points: income (50%), education (30%) and density (20%).
Two more things that move the score
If the area already has many businesses like yours, more than is usual in that city, the score goes down. An area with almost no commerce also brings it down: demand is not proven.
In the guided studies, available from Pro, you can say who you want to sell to: families, young people, older people, income level or where residents come from. Areas where that audience carries more weight score higher.
See the data the NovaScore looks at
What your area is compared against
The score is not an absolute value: it says how your area stands next to others. The point of comparison changes depending on whether you have chosen a sector.
It is the score you see when you click an area on the map before saying what you do, and also the one behind the NovaScore by neighbourhood layer. It compares the area with every area in the country, so you can put neighbourhoods from different cities side by side.
As soon as you choose a sector, the score compares the area with the other areas of its own city. It is the same score on the map and in the guided studies. It helps you choose within one city, which is why an area can end up with a different score from the one it had before you chose a sector.
How to read the final score
The NovaScore is a guide, not a verdict. If two areas tie, check competition and household makeup to break the tie.
Analysis Competition and points of interest
In 1 sentence Tell POINOVA your sector and it lists the businesses in that sector already inside your area. Available on the paid plans.
Knowing how many competitors are nearby changes the whole decision. A good area with 12 cafes within 500 m is usually not a good place to open one more.
4 steps to see your competition
You draw a 5-minute walking isochrone from the market. POINOVA finds 11 cafes inside it and shows you three things:
- The total: 11 cafes inside the isochrone.
- The list: the businesses found, with name and category.
- The effect on the score: competition takes points off the NovaScore.
Available sectors
What metrics you'll see
How many competitors are inside your polygon or isochrone.
How saturated the area is, in the sectors where we calculate it.
Up to 12 businesses in the area, with name and category.
For restaurants, bars and fitness: which cuisines or disciplines are missing.
Very new businesses may not show up yet. If you know of one that is missing, write to us through the contact form.
Analysis Compare vs the city
In 1 sentence A single figure says nothing. It only makes sense when you compare it with the city average.
26,054 EUR average income sounds good. But is it good for Barcelona, for Madrid or for a town of 15,000? Without the benchmark, you can't tell.
You draw the whole neighbourhood and POINOVA compares it with the Barcelona average:
- Income: 26.054 € · +41% over the city.
- Higher education: 57% · ahead over the city.
Two signals above the city. A good candidate for premium services.
You'll see it in two ways
One bar per figure and the percentage in green or red. If it is nearly the same, it is not shown.
The zone's shape drawn over the city's, to read the profile at a glance.
If an area stands out at the same time in high income, higher education and medium density, it's usually a clear candidate for premium services. If it only stands out in one, dig deeper before you sign.
Compare Compare 2 areas, side by side
In 1 sentence Two options, the same data. POINOVA shows you which one is ahead on each figure and why.
It's the most common decision: you have two premises in mind and need to pick one. Select both areas, click compare and look at the data for each.
Available from ProA speciality café owner is torn between the Dreta de l'Eixample and Gracia. Both have the right customer profile. In the comparison, la Dreta scores 78 and Gracia 62: more income and more passing trade in la Dreta, and 3 similar cafes within 500 m around Gracia. The decision is yours, with the numbers in front of you.
How to do it, in 4 steps
If the two tie on NovaScore, check competition and household makeup. They're usually the tiebreakers.
Compare Compare up to 4 areas, 6 on the annual plan
In 1 sentence Your shortlist in one table. Rule out the weak ones at a glance.
When you're not sure which way to go yet, drop in 4 candidates and let the table rank them by NovaScore. On Advanced and Enterprise, there is no limit on areas.
Available from Pro| Area | NovaScore | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| Dreta de l'Eixample | 78 | Very favourable |
| Sant Antoni | 71 | Very favourable |
| Eixample Esquerra | 42 | Mixed: a lot of competition |
| la Marina de Port | 28 | Weak for a coffee shop |
The same café widens the search to 4 neighbourhoods. The table sets aside la Marina de Port instantly and leaves Dreta de l'Eixample and Sant Antoni as finalists. From 4 candidates to 2, in a minute.
How it's done
The fastest way to decide without getting stuck: start with 4 candidates, rule out 2, then compare the 2 that remain in more detail.
Comparing areas is available from Pro. The Free plan does not include area comparison.
Reports Generate a PDF
In 1 sentence Your area, in 7 print-ready pages. Three clicks, on the Pro plan.
It is the format of choice when you need to show the area to someone who does not use POINOVA: your business partner, your team or your accountant.
What the PDF contains
To share with your team and your business partner. The PDF opens with a cover page with the name of the area and the date, and then comes the key data for the area, the competitors detected and the NovaScore with the conditions it gathers.
Example: the PDF for a coffee shop in the Dreta de l'Eixample shows 24,000 residents inside, a NovaScore of 78 and the coffee shops detected in the area.
If you have picked a sector or searched for competition in the area, the PDF adds a sector and competition page. Otherwise that page does not appear.
Reports Export to Excel
In 1 sentence The raw figures, split across several sheets. To hand to an analyst or cross-reference with your own data.
The PDF tells a story. The Excel file gives you the figures. Handy when someone on your team wants to go through the numbers calmly or merge them with their own data. Every sheet carries a link to the sources page at the bottom.
The sheets you get: 3 to 5
Name, date, NovaScore and the area's key values.
Population, income, households and mobility, with the area value, the city average and the gap.
The businesses in the area, counted by category and listed by name.
The competitors in your sector and the neighbourhoods that make up the area. They only appear when there is data.
How to export
An agency compares Sant Antoni, Gràcia and Sarrià for a restaurant client. Export each zone to Excel, copy the demographics sheet into your own template and hand over a report under your own brand. 3 zones, 3 files, 5 minutes.
The Free plan has no exports: no PDF and no Excel. Some of the figures are also trimmed on screen. To export you need the Pro plan or higher.
Reports Share with your team
In 1 sentence Two ways to share a zone: a private link or a downloaded file.
Choose according to who receives it. If you want them to see the map exactly as you left it, send the link. If they need a document, send the PDF.
Click Share and we create a private read-only link with the map view: the city, the layer you've painted and your areas. Whoever opens it doesn't need an account. This is a paid feature.
If you have seats, each person signs in with their own account and saves their own zones. To pass one on, send them the link or restrict it to their email.
An advisor compares Eixample Esquerra and Sant Martí for a dental clinic. Send the private link to the owner over WhatsApp. The owner opens the map on her phone, sees the two zones drawn and replies in 5 minutes. Without creating an account.
Links expire after 90 days. You cannot choose the date, but you can extend them by another 90 days or cancel them from My account, Shared links.
Account Change plan
In 1 sentence Move up or down whenever you like from My account, no phone calls. Enterprise is only sold by the year.
POINOVA has four plans. You start on Free and move up only when you feel it's no longer enough.
When to make the leap
When the 3 saved areas on Free fall short, or you want to compare several areas side by side to pick a site.
When you compare areas non-stop or need more reports each month. Paid yearly, it includes a second seat for your team.
When there are four or more of you, or you want reports carrying your own logo and colours. It is sold by the year.
Marta, a bakery franchisee, started on Free looking at 3 areas one at a time. When she wanted to save more and compare them side by side, she moved to Pro. When her business partner joined, she switched to yearly Advanced, which includes 2 seats.
How changes work
- Upgrade: immediate. You only pay the prorated difference for the days left.
- Downgrade: from the next cycle. You don't lose what you've already paid for.
- Cancel: no penalty. See how to cancel.
Account Team seats
In 1 sentence Each colleague takes a seat: €25 a month, or €20 paid yearly.
A seat is one person with their own access to the plan you pay for. Each plan comes with its own: any others are bought separately and have to be in place before you invite anyone.
Architecture studio in Gracia with 3 people on Pro:
Pro month by month (€59) + 2 extra seats (€25 × 2) = €109/month.
If 2 more join, moving to yearly Advanced works out better than piling seats onto Pro: it includes 2 as standard and the price per person drops.
You. Plan, team and areas. The account cannot be handed to someone else.
Draws areas, compares them and exports to PDF and Excel. Sees the whole team folder.
Invite someone · 4 steps
If your team changes a lot, take a look at Advanced: paid yearly it includes a second seat. If you need more, extra seats are bought separately and paid for before you invite anyone.
Account Billing
In 1 sentence Payment goes through our payment provider. The invoice reaches you by email with taxes already applied.
Payment goes through an external provider. At checkout you will see the payment options available, and the invoice reaches you by email with taxes already applied.
Billing cycles
- Monthly: billed each month on the date you signed up for the plan.
- Annual: one payment a year, up to 20% less. Pro goes from €708 to €588 a year.
Where to find your invoices
In the payment provider's email you get every invoice, ready to pass on to your accountant.
Account Cancel
In 1 sentence You email us and we cancel your plan. No phone calls. No retention emails.
If POINOVA stops working for you, email contact@poinova.com from your account address and we will cancel your subscription. No long forms.
How to cancel · 4 steps
What happens to your data
We delete nothing when you cancel: your saved areas are still there and you can open them. If you want them gone, delete the account from My account and they go straight away.
From My account you download all your data in one file. PDF and Excel reports come with the paid plans: get them out before you go back to Free.
If you share your plan with your team, cancelling also leaves your colleagues without a paid plan, because they inherit yours. Tell them first. An account cannot be handed over to someone else: whoever stays will need their own plan.
FAQ Frequently asked questions
In 1 sentence The questions we're asked most often by people getting started with POINOVA.
Do I need a credit card to get started?
No. The Free plan doesn't ask for a card. We'll only request payment details if you decide to move to a paid plan.
Where does POINOVA work?
Across all the coverage available. We work with official data from several countries and we keep extending the coverage. Every plan includes all the coverage available, at no extra cost per country.
See the current coverage and the official source of every figure
How do I contact support?
Email contact@poinova.com. You can also write to us from My account, under Help and support: it reaches us just the same.