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Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

protomaps.com

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Re: Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

#11

Post by bdon »

TotempaaltJ wrote: post #10
bdon wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As mentioned in the post there's a _free_ API for non-commercial use that I maintain, and you can make commercial use of it by becoming a GitHub Sponsor: http://github.com/sponsors/protomaps But being "Google Maps compatible" will never be possible as long as the Google Maps client library and data are proprietary.

That's awesome, just saw that myself! This is a super cool project. Fwiw with "Google Maps compatible" I didn't mean showing Google's Maps, I was thinking more a drop-in replacement to (some subset of) Google's client library.

Hmm, I haven't heard of any open source projects re-implementing Google's client library, and I imagine it would be difficult to keep parity with a closed-source project.

Most open source efforts have consolidated around MapLibre GL https://maplibre.org which is a maintained fork of Mapbox GL before their switch to a source-available license.

Re: Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

#12

Post by bdon »

teruakohatu wrote: post #3
moneywoes wrote: post #2

What’s the catch?

There isn't a catch. If you only want to serve map tiles, this is the cheapest way to do it. If you want fancy features like being able to use a UI to make custom map styles, vehicle routing and satellite overlay, then MapBox and Google are still your friend.

As the developer of this system, I concur with this; Protomaps is focused on map tiles, and can be used with other solutions such as http://geocode.earth for search.

A small detail: I don't believe this is the absolute cheapest way to deliver map tiles. Renting an unmetered bandwidth server is always going to be the cheapest way to host content, but unmanaged servers don't give you SSL termination, infinite storage, or an edge cache.

Protomaps is designed as the right compromise between self-hosted operational+development costs and SaaS-like delivery.

Re: Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

#13

Post by teruakohatu »

bdon wrote: post #12
teruakohatu wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't a catch. If you only want to serve map tiles, this is the cheapest way to do it. If you want fancy features like being able to use a UI to make custom map styles, vehicle routing and satellite overlay, then MapBox and Google are still your friend.

As the developer of this system, I concur with this; Protomaps is focused on map tiles, and can be used with other solutions such as http://geocode.earth for search. A small detail: I don't believe this is the absolute cheapest way to deliver map tiles. Renting an unmetered bandwidth server is always going to be the cheapest way to host content, but unmanaged servers don't give you SSL termination, infinite storage,…

Thank you for your hard work on this.

Re: Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

#14

Post by londons_explore »

bdon wrote: post #11
TotempaaltJ wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's awesome, just saw that myself! This is a super cool project. Fwiw with "Google Maps compatible" I didn't mean showing Google's Maps, I was thinking more a drop-in replacement to (some subset of) Google's client library.

Hmm, I haven't heard of any open source projects re-implementing Google's client library, and I imagine it would be difficult to keep parity with a closed-source project. Most open source efforts have consolidated around MapLibre GL https://maplibre.org which is a maintained fork of Mapbox GL before their switch to a source-available license.

Most Google Maps client library users use only a few basic features - "display slippy map here with a pin centered on here" type thing.

Then just stub out any other API call with "alert('Not implemented, but PR's welcome!')"

And as far as webmasters are concerned, switching from google maps to your maps involves just switching out the tag for a different one.

Re: Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

#15

Post by singularity2001 »

teruakohatu wrote: post #3
moneywoes wrote: post #2

What’s the catch?

There isn't a catch. If you only want to serve map tiles, this is the cheapest way to do it. If you want fancy features like being able to use a UI to make custom map styles, vehicle routing and satellite overlay, then MapBox and Google are still your friend.

For vehicle routing you can add GraphHopper

Re: Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

#16

Post by severak_cz »

moneywoes wrote: post #2

What’s the catch?

I have tested Protomaps in of my project and I can say this is good as tileset datasource. E.g. if you already have some map data in your app and needs basemap to display under them Protomaps is your solution.

The catch is that you have to host it yourself (which is pain if you want to update it - otherwise it's just upload and forget).

Re: Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

#18

Post by pirsquare »

Google Map 10X their price on a single price change.

Never trust Google Cloud or run any production servers with them. They have zero empathy for you.

Just today, we got screwed by Google Cloud (as a 4 yrs customer) when they abruptly shutdown our production servers just because we didn't fill up a form on-time.

My story: https://twitter.com/Ryan_Liao/status/1634103410525077504 (happens today) [Link Updated]

Re: Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

#19

Post by GeorgeHoneywood »

bdon wrote: post #6
moneywoes wrote: post #2

What’s the catch?

Author here - the catch is that the data you store and serve is usually not as rich and complete as Google's, of course. The solution as described in the post is for serving tile archives, and where you get the tile archive is up to you - I have a commercial offering (and am working on an open source one too), and there's various other FOSS projects for tile creation.

PMTiles looks excellent, I think the range request idea will go far. Just wanted to let you know that the "Live Example Page" link on the page seems to 404.

Re: Serverless maps at 1/700 the cost of Google Maps API

#20

Post by KingOfCoders »

pirsquare wrote: post #18

Google Map 10X their price on a single price change. Never trust Google Cloud or run any production servers with them. They have zero empathy for you. Just today, we got screwed by Google Cloud (as a 4 yrs customer) when they abruptly shutdown our production servers just because we didn't fill up a form on-time. My story: https://twitter.com/Ryan_Liao/status/1634103410525077504 (happens today) [Link Updated]

Yes we we're caught by this some years ago and switched to Stadia Maps (very happy).
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