# Protomaps

8 Hacker News commenters recommended Protomaps and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free, open-source vector basemap stored as one file that is easy to self-host from static files. Caveat: mobile performance is unresolved and it can be buggy.

## Why people recommend it

- Single-file PMTiles format with nice tooling (2 comments): "It's a pretty clever way of storing everything in a single file and their tooling is pretty nice." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49569113)) "One ~100GB archive for the entire world" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48817340))
- Free and open source (2 comments): "we used Protomaps, OpenStreetMap, MapLibre and other free tools to craft a stylized version" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46504403)) "open source and straightforward" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48815580))
- Easy self-hosting on static file server (2 comments): "Seems today the best solution is to self-host Protomaps which offer very fresh OSM extracts" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46615976)) "The only thing you need server-side is a web server that can serve static files" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46765832))

## What people warn about

- Mobile performance unresolved and buggy (1 comments): "I haven't sorted out performance (particularly on mobile), and it's a bit buggy still." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48796225))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Mapbox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mapbox.md): 10 recommend
- [MapLibre](https://hackerapproved.com/p/maplibre.md): 9 recommend
- [Google Maps API](https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-maps-api.md): 6 recommend
- [Nominatim](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nominatim.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Protomaps", https://hackerapproved.com/p/protomaps/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).