Protomaps
Ranked 3 of 5 mapping APIs by recommenders
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.
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.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- 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: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Single-file PMTiles format with nice tooling
“It's a pretty clever way of storing everything in a single file and their tooling is pretty nice.”
Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Open-Source eInk Bike Computer” “One ~100GB archive for the entire world”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “CoMaps – FOSS Offline Maps” Free and open source
“we used Protomaps, OpenStreetMap, MapLibre and other free tools to craft a stylized version”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “First Basemap: How to create a fast and virtually free map” “open source and straightforward”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “CoMaps – FOSS Offline Maps” Easy self-hosting on static file server
“Seems today the best solution is to self-host Protomaps which offer very fresh OSM extracts”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “Why NUKEMAP isn't on Google Maps anymore” “The only thing you need server-side is a web server that can serve static files”
Comment from 26 Jan 2026 in “MapLibre Tile: a modern and efficient vector tile format”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Mobile performance unresolved and buggy
“I haven't sorted out performance (particularly on mobile), and it's a bit buggy still.”
Comment from 5 Jul 2026 in “Organic Maps”
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 |
| MapLibre | 9 | 2 | 82% | 4 | — | — |
| ProtomapsThis page | 8 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Google Maps API | 6 | 17 | 26% | 5 | — | — |
| Nominatim | 6 | 4 | 60% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's a pretty clever way of storing everything in a single file and their tooling is pretty nice.”
“One ~100GB archive for the entire world”
“open source and straightforward”
“I haven't sorted out performance (particularly on mobile), and it's a bit buggy still.”
“The only thing you need server-side is a web server that can serve static files”
“I find the protomaps basemap themes to be much nicer”
“Seems today the best solution is to self-host Protomaps which offer very fresh OSM extracts”
“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.