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Since Google Maps jacked up their prices a few days ago, I've been exploring alternatives, including Mapbox. Unfortunately Mapbox is also very steep for a solo

Since Google Maps jacked up their prices a few days ago, I've been exploring alternatives, including Mapbox. Unfortunately Mapbox is also very steep for a solo developer developer who wants to build a side project - at least if it's considered 'commercial'. $500 / month for only 250 users, and no way to plan beyond that without inquiring with them about an "enterprise" plan. Also, if anyone from Mapbox is reading this, you need to be more clear about what is considered "commercial". At the top of the pricing page you define a commercial app as: Paid web app or website (fee or subscription) Private web app or website with restricted access Asset tracking app or website to monitor people or things But then lower down on the page, you seem to indicate a more permissive definition: If your app is for internal business use by employees, or if it is not accessible or functional for members of the general public then we consider that a Commercial app. Even with these two definitions, it's not clear how this pricing works for freemium websites or websites paid for by advertising. There are some other alternatives that are more truly "pay as you go" or have affordable tiers for commercial apps: TomTom - https://developer.tomtom.com/store/maps-api https://developer.tomtom.com/store/maps-api MapQuest - https://developer.mapquest.com/plans https://developer.mapquest.com/plans Stadia Maps - https://stadiamaps.com/ https://stadiamaps.com/ There is also MapFit, which says it has "Clear pricing that scales with you" but doesn't actually explain any of their pricing: https://mapfit.com/pricing https://mapfit.com/pricing If anyone else has good alternatives that are affordable for solo devs, especially ones with good alternatives to the Google Maps Places API, I'd love to hear about them.

lukeqsee 8y ago
We don't have Places API support, but we definitely are aiming for products from solo devs and smaller businesses at Stadia Maps. We have a few suggestions for places to look when our services have a hole. For instance, Foursquare has a pretty good places API we've used before.
- dabernathy89 8y ago
  Ah thanks for mentioning Foursquare - I meant to list it. It's another one that has a huge upfront cost for solo devs building a commercial app ($600 / month).
  - lukeqsee 8y ago
    > It's another one that has a huge upfront cost for solo devs building a commercial app ($600 / month). Yeah. :( This problem seems to extend to the whole industry. Everyone charges big bucks to even very small players. We want to solve pieces of that we can, but it's a tough road to build quality databases.
lemonlyman516 8y ago
Ali from Mapbox here - love to help clear up the confusion & answer any questions. If you want you can shoot me an email ali@mapbox.com
taneq 8y ago
> no way to plan beyond that without inquiring with them about an "enterprise" plan. I find it interesting how often people (myself included) are willing to consider spending hundreds of dollars on a product or service, but aren't willing to take 30 seconds to send an inquiry email or ring a sales line. Possibly it stems from cynicism (or from a perception that "if you have to ask, you can't afford it") but a few times now I've grumblingly made contact with a supplier only to find that the prices are very reasonable and they're great to deal with.
- dabernathy89 8y ago
  You're right that part of it is "if you have to ask, you can't afford it". But it's also frustration that they don't have a predictabe, structured pricing plan - they almost certainly tailor it to specific clients above the intro tier (otherwise, why not list it?). Now I understand custom pricing has to be implemented at some level, but you usually see multiple pricing tiers before it kicks in.

lukeqsee 8y ago

We don't have Places API support, but we definitely are aiming for products from solo devs and smaller businesses at Stadia Maps. We have a few suggestions for places to look when our services have a hole. For instance, Foursquare has a pretty good places API we've used before.

dabernathy89 8y ago
Ah thanks for mentioning Foursquare - I meant to list it. It's another one that has a huge upfront cost for solo devs building a commercial app ($600 / month).
- lukeqsee 8y ago
  > It's another one that has a huge upfront cost for solo devs building a commercial app ($600 / month). Yeah. :( This problem seems to extend to the whole industry. Everyone charges big bucks to even very small players. We want to solve pieces of that we can, but it's a tough road to build quality databases.

lemonlyman516 8y ago

Ali from Mapbox here - love to help clear up the confusion & answer any questions. If you want you can shoot me an email ali@mapbox.com

taneq 8y ago

> no way to plan beyond that without inquiring with them about an "enterprise" plan. I find it interesting how often people (myself included) are willing to consider spending hundreds of dollars on a product or service, but aren't willing to take 30 seconds to send an inquiry email or ring a sales line. Possibly it stems from cynicism (or from a perception that "if you have to ask, you can't afford it") but a few times now I've grumblingly made contact with a supplier only to find that the prices are very reasonable and they're great to deal with.

dabernathy89 8y ago
You're right that part of it is "if you have to ask, you can't afford it". But it's also frustration that they don't have a predictabe, structured pricing plan - they almost certainly tailor it to specific clients above the intro tier (otherwise, why not list it?). Now I understand custom pricing has to be implemented at some level, but you usually see multiple pricing tiers before it kicks in.