MapLibre
Ranked 2 of 5 mapping APIs by recommenders
Free, flexible open-source map rendering library people find easy and fast to work with, though it adds a large binary to Android apps.
Free, flexible open-source map rendering library people find easy and fast to work with, though it adds a large binary to Android apps.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Pleasant and easy to work with
“Maplibre and its various wrappers are so much nicer to work it.”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “Why NUKEMAP isn't on Google Maps anymore” “it's been super pleasant to work with”
Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “GeoLibre 1.0” “It is very easy with this stack”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Adds a large binary to APK
“it is a high-level library that adds a huge binary to the APK itself”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Tiny FOSS Compass and Navigation App (<2MB)”
Other mapping APIs people recommend
The four most recommended other mapping APIs, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mapbox | 10 | 3 | 77% | 9 | — | Approved |
| MapLibreThis page | 9 | 2 | 82% | 4 | — | — |
| Protomaps | 8 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Google Maps API | 6 | 17 | 26% | 5 | — | — |
| Nominatim | 6 | 4 | 60% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
8 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“MapLibre being very flexible and performant”
“With Kepler and MapLibre I see pretty pictures.”
“it's been super pleasant to work with”
“In practise, this doesn't work out as visually pleasing as you'd like”
“It is very easy with this stack”
“it is a high-level library that adds a huge binary to the APK itself”
“Maplibre and its various wrappers are so much nicer to work it.”
“we used Protomaps, OpenStreetMap, MapLibre and other free tools to craft a stylized version”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.