PMTiles
Hacker ApprovedVector tile format in Developer tools
A single-file map tile format that can be served over plain HTTP range requests with no backend, which people say is cheap to host and fast to load.
11 people recommended PMTiles in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 16 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 14 of those comments still count.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 0
The record
Recommended in 6 of 12 months
In 7 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it carries the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 7 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 46% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, 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 14 of the 16 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
Good CLI and library support
“as someone integrating PMTiles right now, thank you!”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format” “I’ve found it so useful I created an Elixir library”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format” “their CLI has pretty much everything you need”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: I built a real-time OSINT dashboard pulling 15 live global feeds” Cheap hosting with no backend
“bandwidth costs are negligible because clients only download the exact data they need”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Hacker Book – All the HN Belong to You 2006 – 2025” “easy to host and get incredible performance with a good CDN”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Planet Labs' open satellite feed” Fast loading via range requests
“Loading tiles with range requests made our application so much faster.”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format” “pmtiles files are better because they allow for http range requests”
Comment from 9 May 2026 in “GeoJSON” Efficient storage and retrieval
“Very efficient to store and retrieve, and cut our S3 PUT request costs by something like 90% across the project.”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer” “It efficiently produces pyramidal XYZ tile overviews of vector data.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “iNaturalist”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Metadata stored as JSON
“the tile metadata is stored as JSON, which I get is for compatibility reasons with existing software”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Hacker Book – All the HN Belong to You 2006 – 2025”
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PMTilesThis page | 11 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | Approved |
| MapLibre Tile | 7 | 1 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
14 of the 16 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“easy to host and get incredible performance with a good CDN”
“Very efficient to store and retrieve, and cut our S3 PUT request costs by something like 90% across the project.”
“pmtiles files are better because they allow for http range requests”
“It efficiently produces pyramidal XYZ tile overviews of vector data.”
“their CLI has pretty much everything you need”
“I’ve found it so useful I created an Elixir library”
“as someone integrating PMTiles right now, thank you!”
“Loading tiles with range requests made our application so much faster.”
“pmtiles is such a simple and innovative solution”
“We recently deployed a solution that uses pmtiles and it's great”
“the tile metadata is stored as JSON, which I get is for compatibility reasons with existing software”
“gee it's an elegant solution”
“PMTiles is absurdly great software.”
“bandwidth costs are negligible because clients only download the exact data they need”
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 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.