MapLibre Tile
Vector tile format in Developer tools
Newer open vector tile format that cuts archive size about 10% at default settings, built on lessons from years of tile use.
7 people recommended MapLibre Tile in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
7 of the 7 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format”.
Summary written by Claude from 7 comments.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 0
The record
Recommended in 1 of 12 months
In 1 different thread.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
- Recommended in 1 threadNeeds 5 or more, not met.
- 7 of its 7 recommenders came from one threadNeeds half or less, not met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 7 of the 8 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Smaller archives than the older format
“In my testing I’ve seen ~10% reduction in overall OpenMapTiles archive size with default settings”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format” “So roughly a ~10% compression improvement, neat!”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Default styles lack some needed languages
“Their default styles did not support the languages we needed out of the box”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format”
What people recommend instead
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 | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PMTiles | 11 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
| MapLibre TileThis page | 7 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 8 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“extremely excited for this”
“the column-oriented layout, support for lightweight encodings such as FSST and FastPFOR”
“It's great to see that the Rust stack they used is the one I contributed to, now 8 years ago.”
“Their default styles did not support the languages we needed out of the box”
“In my testing I’ve seen ~10% reduction in overall OpenMapTiles archive size with default settings”
“There are some pain points in the older version that 10 years of experience can fix in a newer format.”
“So roughly a ~10% compression improvement, neat!”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 3 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.