iD editor
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 9 map editors by recommenders
Recommended as an easy, beginner-friendly editor built into the OpenStreetMap website, powerful enough for large edits; the most common caveat is that it can feel overwhelming with so much data.
Recommended as an easy, beginner-friendly editor built into the OpenStreetMap website, powerful enough for large edits; the most common caveat is that it can feel overwhelming with so much data.
15 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easy to learn for beginners
“the web based iD editor is much easier to learn and will hold your hand a lot more”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Make your first edit to OpenStreetMap” “The iD editor in openstreetmap.org is much more user friendly than JOSM.”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Make your first edit to OpenStreetMap” “As a beginner use the editor built in on the website instead”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Make your first edit to OpenStreetMap” - Comment from 1 Oct 2026 in “StreetComplete on iOS is now in public beta”
Built into the OSM website
“Doing the same with iD (the editor embedded in the OSM website) is faster and there's even a tutorial”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Make your first edit to OpenStreetMap” “The iD editor built into the openstreetmap.org site is really easy to use.”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “State of the Map 2026” “The iD editor in openstreetmap.org is much more user friendly than JOSM.”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Make your first edit to OpenStreetMap” - Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Make your first edit to OpenStreetMap”
Easy to use
“The iD editor built into the openstreetmap.org site is really easy to use.”
Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “State of the Map 2026” “It works, it's not hard to use”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Make your first edit to OpenStreetMap”
Other map editors people recommend
The four most recommended other map editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Every Door | 22 | 4 | 85% | 8 | — | Approved |
| MapComplete | 16 | 3 | 84% | 7 | — | Approved |
| iD editorThis page | 12 | 3 | 80% | 6 | — | Approved |
| JOSM | 11 | 11 | 50% | 4 | — | — |
| Vespucci | 8 | 2 | 80% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
14 of the 16 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“even the web-based iD editor is so much easier to figure out”
“their own editor which is awesome”
“The online iD editor is powerful enough for even pretty complex/big edits in my experience”
“even by the iD editor, and the whole idea of the data model”
“The web editor is far from ideal but the app has a greater learning curve.”
“It works, it's not hard to use”
“The iD editor in openstreetmap.org is much more user friendly than JOSM.”
“As a beginner use the editor built in on the website instead”
“Doing the same with iD (the editor embedded in the OSM website) is faster and there's even a tutorial”
“the web based iD editor is much easier to learn and will hold your hand a lot more”
“The iD editor built into the openstreetmap.org site is really easy to use.”
“much less friendly to new contributors than the web-based iD editor”
“we already have an excellent tool which handles geometry drawing”
“can still be overwhelming with its sheer amount of data”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.