Alternatives to Google Maps logo

Alternatives to Google Maps

Mapbox, OpenStreetMap, TomTom, Leaflet, and OpenLayers are the most popular alternatives and competitors to Google Maps.
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What is Google Maps and what are its top alternatives?

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.
Google Maps is a tool in the Mapping APIs category of a tech stack.

Top Alternatives to Google Maps

  • Mapbox
    Mapbox

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

  • 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. ...

  • TomTom
    TomTom

    It is the leading independent location technology specialist, shaping mobility with highly accurate maps, navigation, real-time traffic info and services. ...

  • 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. ...

  • 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. ...

  • Java Persistence API
    Java Persistence API

    It is a Java application programming interface specification that describes the management of relational data in applications using Java Platform, Standard Edition and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition.It provides a POJO persistence model for object-relational mapping. ...

  • Google Places API
    Google Places API

    You can provide users data on location names, addresses, ratings, reviews, contact information, and atmosphere. Local guides and users submit tens of millions of updates every day, so you can count on accurate, reliable information. ...

Google Maps alternatives & related posts

Mapbox logo

Mapbox

698
925
112
Design and publish beautiful maps
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925
+ 1
112
PROS OF MAPBOX
  • 28
    Best mapping service outside of Google Maps
  • 22
    OpenStreetMap
  • 15
    Beautifully vectorable
  • 11
    Fluid user experience
  • 8
    Extensible
  • 7
    React/ RNative integration
  • 5
    3D Layers
  • 4
    Low Level API
  • 4
    Affordable
  • 3
    Great customer support
  • 3
    Custom themes
  • 2
    High data volume rendering
CONS OF MAPBOX
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    related Mapbox posts

    Stephen Gheysens
    Lead Solutions Engineer at Inscribe · | 7 upvotes · 403.6K views

    Google Maps lets "property owners and their authorized representatives" upload indoor maps, but this appears to lack navigation ("wayfinding").

    MappedIn is a platform and has SDKs for building indoor mapping experiences (https://www.mappedin.com/) and ESRI ArcGIS also offers some indoor mapping tools (https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/indoor-gis/overview). Finally, there used to be a company called LocusLabs that is now a part of Atrius and they were often integrated into airlines' apps to provide airport maps with wayfinding (https://atrius.com/solutions/personal-experiences/personal-wayfinder/).

    I previously worked at Mapbox and while I believe that it's a great platform for building map-based experiences, they don't have any simple solutions for indoor wayfinding. If I were doing this for fun as a side-project and prioritized saving money over saving time, here is what I would do:

    • Create a graph-based dataset representing the walking paths around your university, where nodes/vertexes represent the intersections of paths, and edges represent paths (literally paths outside, hallways, short path segments that represent entering rooms). You could store this in a hosted graph-based database like Neo4j, Amazon Neptune , or Azure Cosmos DB (with its Gremlin API) and use built-in "shortest path" queries, or deploy a PostgreSQL service with pgRouting.

    • Add two properties to each edge: one property for the distance between its nodes (libraries like @turf/helpers will have a distance function if you have the latitude & longitude of each node), and another property estimating the walking time (based on the distance). Once you have these values saved in a graph-based format, you should be able to easily query and find the data representation of paths between two points.

    • At this point, you'd have the routing problem solved and it would come down to building a UI. Mapbox arguably leads the industry in developer tools for custom map experiences. You could convert your nodes/edges to GeoJSON, then either upload to Mapbox and create a Tileset to visualize the paths, or add the GeoJSON to the map on the fly.

    *You might be able to use open source routing tools like OSRM (https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/issues/6257) or Graphhopper (instead of a custom graph database implementation), but it would likely be more involved to maintain these services.

    See more

    Which will give a better map (better view, markers options, info window) in an Android OS app?

    Leaflet with Mapbox or Leaflet with OpenStreetMap?

    See more
    OpenStreetMap logo

    OpenStreetMap

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    56
    The free editable map of the whole world
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    PROS OF OPENSTREETMAP
    • 22
      Simple
    • 17
      Free
    • 9
      Open-Source
    • 7
      Open-Data
    • 1
      React/ RNative integration
    CONS OF OPENSTREETMAP
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      related OpenStreetMap posts

      Adam Abdelmoula
      CPO at Split Mobile Software · | 5 upvotes · 466.8K views

      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!

      See more

      Which will give a better map (better view, markers options, info window) in an Android OS app?

      Leaflet with Mapbox or Leaflet with OpenStreetMap?

      See more
      TomTom logo

      TomTom

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      14
      0
      Shaping the future, leading the way with autonomous driving, smart mobility and smarter cities
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      + 1
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      PROS OF TOMTOM
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        CONS OF TOMTOM
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          related TomTom posts

          Leaflet logo

          Leaflet

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          1.1K
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          JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps
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          PROS OF LEAFLET
          • 32
            Light weight
          • 28
            Free
          • 12
            Evolutive via plugins
          • 10
            OpenStreetMap
          • 9
            Strong community
          • 7
            Choice of map providers
          • 6
            Easy API
          • 3
            Alternative to Google Maps
          CONS OF LEAFLET
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            related Leaflet posts

            Which will give a better map (better view, markers options, info window) in an Android OS app?

            Leaflet with Mapbox or Leaflet with OpenStreetMap?

            See more
            OpenLayers logo

            OpenLayers

            554
            457
            57
            A high-performance, feature-packed library for all your mapping needs
            554
            457
            + 1
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            PROS OF OPENLAYERS
            • 15
              Flexibility
            • 11
              Maturity
            • 8
              Open Source
            • 7
              Incredibly comprehensive, excellent support
            • 4
              Extensible
            • 4
              Strong community
            • 4
              Choice of map providers
            • 3
              Low Level API
            • 1
              OpenStreetMap
            CONS OF OPENLAYERS
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              related OpenLayers posts

              ArcGIS logo

              ArcGIS

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              184
              20
              A geographic information system for working with maps
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              184
              + 1
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              PROS OF ARCGIS
              • 7
                Reponsive
              • 4
                A lot of widgets
              • 4
                Data driven vizualisation
              • 2
                Easy tà learn
              • 2
                3D
              • 1
                Easy API
              CONS OF ARCGIS
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                related ArcGIS posts

                Stephen Gheysens
                Lead Solutions Engineer at Inscribe · | 7 upvotes · 403.6K views

                Google Maps lets "property owners and their authorized representatives" upload indoor maps, but this appears to lack navigation ("wayfinding").

                MappedIn is a platform and has SDKs for building indoor mapping experiences (https://www.mappedin.com/) and ESRI ArcGIS also offers some indoor mapping tools (https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/indoor-gis/overview). Finally, there used to be a company called LocusLabs that is now a part of Atrius and they were often integrated into airlines' apps to provide airport maps with wayfinding (https://atrius.com/solutions/personal-experiences/personal-wayfinder/).

                I previously worked at Mapbox and while I believe that it's a great platform for building map-based experiences, they don't have any simple solutions for indoor wayfinding. If I were doing this for fun as a side-project and prioritized saving money over saving time, here is what I would do:

                • Create a graph-based dataset representing the walking paths around your university, where nodes/vertexes represent the intersections of paths, and edges represent paths (literally paths outside, hallways, short path segments that represent entering rooms). You could store this in a hosted graph-based database like Neo4j, Amazon Neptune , or Azure Cosmos DB (with its Gremlin API) and use built-in "shortest path" queries, or deploy a PostgreSQL service with pgRouting.

                • Add two properties to each edge: one property for the distance between its nodes (libraries like @turf/helpers will have a distance function if you have the latitude & longitude of each node), and another property estimating the walking time (based on the distance). Once you have these values saved in a graph-based format, you should be able to easily query and find the data representation of paths between two points.

                • At this point, you'd have the routing problem solved and it would come down to building a UI. Mapbox arguably leads the industry in developer tools for custom map experiences. You could convert your nodes/edges to GeoJSON, then either upload to Mapbox and create a Tileset to visualize the paths, or add the GeoJSON to the map on the fly.

                *You might be able to use open source routing tools like OSRM (https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/issues/6257) or Graphhopper (instead of a custom graph database implementation), but it would likely be more involved to maintain these services.

                See more
                Java Persistence API logo

                Java Persistence API

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                96
                0
                A Java application programming interface specification
                124
                96
                + 1
                0
                PROS OF JAVA PERSISTENCE API
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                  CONS OF JAVA PERSISTENCE API
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                    related Java Persistence API posts

                    Google Places API logo

                    Google Places API

                    73
                    101
                    0
                    Help users discover the world with rich details for points of interest
                    73
                    101
                    + 1
                    0
                    PROS OF GOOGLE PLACES API
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                      CONS OF GOOGLE PLACES API
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                        related Google Places API posts

                        A huge component of our product relies on gathering public data about locations of interest. Google Places API gives us that ability in the most efficient way. Since we are primarily going to be using as google data as a source of information for our MVP, we might as well start integrating the Google Places API in our system. We have worked with Google Maps in the past and we might take some inspiration from our previous projects onto this one.

                        See more