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  1. Stackups
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  3. API Tools
  4. Mapping Apis
  5. CARTO vs Google Maps

CARTO vs Google Maps

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Google Maps
Google Maps
Stacks42.5K
Followers29.8K
Votes568
CARTO
CARTO
Stacks40
Followers78
Votes3
GitHub Stars2.8K
Forks658

CARTO vs Google Maps: What are the differences?

CARTO: The CARTO platform empowers business analysts, data scientists and more, to turn location data into business outcomes. The CARTO platform empowers everyone, from business analysts to data scientists, to turn location data into business outcomes. We accelerate innovation, power new use cases and disrupt business models through Location Intelligence; Google Maps: Build highly customisable maps with your own content and imagery. Create rich applications and stunning visualisations of your data, leveraging the comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usability of Google Maps and a modern web platform that scales as you grow.

CARTO and Google Maps can be primarily classified as "Mapping APIs" tools.

Some of the features offered by CARTO are:

  • Drag and drop data import allows you to create visualizations in seconds
  • Make sense of your location data and power your business.
  • Create beautiful visualizations with our easy to use design and styling tools.

On the other hand, Google Maps provides the following key features:

  • Maps Image APIs
  • Places API
  • Web Services

CARTO is an open source tool with 2.19K GitHub stars and 603 GitHub forks. Here's a link to CARTO's open source repository on GitHub.

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Advice on Google Maps, CARTO

Adam
Adam

CPO at Split App

Feb 24, 2022

Needs adviceonGoogle MapsGoogle MapsOpenStreetMapOpenStreetMap

We need some advice about the map services provider. We are a mobility app that just launched 5 months ago in Tunisia offering P2P carpooling. We are currently using Google Maps API for maps (Places API, Geocoding API, Directions API & Distance Matrix API). Thus, we received expensive bills from Google Cloud following the number of requests we are using. We are looking forward to reduce the number of requests in general because we can't afford these large bills at this stage, knowing that they are going to increase proportionally to the active users of the app. We tried to optimize multiple times but it isn't enough. We are searching for optimization advice or ideas on how we use the APIs, or other map providers (like OpenStreetMap or similar) that offers free or cheaper options than Google Maps, without lacking quality of information (we are in Tunisia and we have to choose options that have enough data about Tunisia). Thanks!

497k views497k
Comments
StackShare
StackShare

Apr 4, 2019

Needs advice

From a StackShare Community member: "We're a team of two starting to write a mobile app. The app will heavily rely on maps and this is where my partner and I are not seeing eye-to-eye. I would like to go with an open source solution like OpenStreetMap that is used by Apple & Foursquare. He would like to go with Google Maps since more apps use it and has better support (according to him). Mapbox is also an option but I don’t know much about it."

183k views183k
Comments
Duane
Duane

Feb 5, 2021

Needs advice
  1. I would like to input a spreadsheet with names and associated addresses into a map program to; pinpoint all of the locations on a map. How can I do that? On which map? Are there field size limitations? All help would be appreciated.

  2. There is a subdivision that is about one(1) mile by 3/4 mile in size. Is there a map program that would create the most efficient way to drive all of the streets in the subdivision without a lot of doubling back?

41.1k views41.1k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Google Maps
Google Maps
CARTO
CARTO

Create rich applications and stunning visualisations of your data, leveraging the comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usability of Google Maps and a modern web platform that scales as you grow.

The CARTO platform empowers everyone, from business analysts to data scientists, to turn location data into business outcomes. We accelerate innovation, power new use cases and disrupt business models through Location Intelligence.

Maps Image APIs;Places API;Web Services;Google Earth API;Maps API Licensing;Google Maps API for Work
Drag and drop data import allows you to create visualizations in seconds;Make sense of your location data and power your business.;Create beautiful visualizations with our easy to use design and styling tools.;Run spatial analysis with no coding.;Create dashboards to explore and filter your data.;Share your visualizations securely with your team or publish them on the web.;Integrate maps and geospatial analyses directly into your websites.;Create Mobile applications with CARTO Mobile SDK.;
Statistics
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Stars
2.8K
GitHub Forks
-
GitHub Forks
658
Stacks
42.5K
Stacks
40
Followers
29.8K
Followers
78
Votes
568
Votes
3
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 253
    Free
  • 136
    Address input through maps api
  • 82
    Sharable Directions
  • 47
    Google Earth
  • 46
    Unique
Cons
  • 5
    Google Attributions and logo
  • 2
    Only map allowed alongside google place autocomplete
Pros
  • 1
    Comprehensive platform
  • 1
    Great customer service
  • 1
    Crisp UI

What are some alternatives to Google Maps, CARTO?

Mapbox

Mapbox

We make it possible to pin travel spots on Pinterest, find restaurants on Foursquare, and visualize data on GitHub.

Leaflet

Leaflet

Leaflet is an open source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. It is developed by Vladimir Agafonkin of MapBox with a team of dedicated contributors. Weighing just about 30 KB of gzipped JS code, it has all the features most developers ever need for online maps.

OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap is built by a community of mappers that contribute and maintain data about roads, trails, cafés, railway stations, and much more, all over the world.

OpenLayers

OpenLayers

An opensource javascript library to load, display and render maps from multiple sources on web pages.

ArcGIS

ArcGIS

It is a geographic information system for working with maps and geographic information. It is used for creating and using maps, compiling geographic data, analyzing mapped information, sharing and much more.

CSV2GEO

CSV2GEO

It provides live conversion of batch addresses into geographic coordinates (address to lat long) or turn coordinates into well formatted address. It creates and publishes interactive maps.

MapTiler

MapTiler

It is a software for map tile rendering. It has been designed for producing seamless maps and aerial photo layers covering whole countries. The rendering is fast and efficient, and it can fully utilize multiple CPUs to 100%.

MAPS.ME

MAPS.ME

MAPS.ME is an open source cross-platform offline maps application, built on top of crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap data. It was publicly released for iOS and Android.

LocationIQ

LocationIQ

Free and Fast Geocoding Service

Stadia Maps

Stadia Maps

We enable devs to contextualize their data on a map and build complicated apps involving routing, time zones, and more with our APIs. We hate billing surprises as much as you, and if you send us an email, you'll get a real human reply.

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