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Speaking of, does anyone know a cheaper service than Mapbox and Google Maps for raster tiles? I have an app that uses Leaflet for rendering, and Mapbox purely

Speaking of, does anyone know a cheaper service than Mapbox and Google Maps for raster tiles? I have an app that uses Leaflet for rendering, and Mapbox purely for its raster tiles (both plain maps and satellite required). Mapbox has been cheap for us, at about $50/mo. But with the new pricing structure taking effect in December, it's now about $450/mo. I believe Google and Bing are both more expensive than that. I've been considering setting up OSM, but I'd like to avoid having to run and maintain it.

bransonf 7y ago
If you can find the time to set it up, OpenMapTiles [0] is the way to go. In the long run, you’ll probably save more money than the time it takes to manage. [0] https://openmaptiles.org/ https://openmaptiles.org/
- atombender 7y ago
  Interesting, thanks. Unfortunately, those tiles are pretty ugly compared to Mapbox, but it might be an option if I can't find anything else. Edit: Also it's $1,000 for commercial use, even to use with OSM data?
  - TomMarius 7y ago
    Could you send an example of a great looking map?
    - atombender 7y ago
      Mapbox's tiles are very good. I particularly like the hybrid terrain + road mode, which you can see here: https://homes.stltoday.com/search https://homes.stltoday.com/search
      - kylebarron 7y ago
        I agree that layer is gorgeous. I think the best open vector map style is OSM liberty [0]. My fork, which includes my generated hillshade and contours, is here [1]. [0]: https://github.com/maputnik/osm-liberty https://github.com/maputnik/osm-liberty [1]: https://github.com/nst-guide/osm-liberty/blob/gh-pages/style.json https://github.com/nst-guide/osm-liberty/blob/gh-pages/style...
  - bransonf 7y ago
    You can style the tiles or use your own. Where did you find the $1000 quote? I know you can have them hosted unlimited for $245/month but I was fairly sure it was free for self-hosted use.
    - atombender 7y ago
      It's a little unclear to me. But from what I can gather, the basic software can download data from OSM, but if you want hillshading or satellite, you have to get that separately, and it's part of the $1,000 "production package" [1], which is actually $2,048 for businesses, plus $1,024/year for updates. [1] https://openmaptiles.com/production-package/ https://openmaptiles.com/production-package/
      - kylebarron 7y ago
        I have a couple open source repos for generating hillshade and contours (raster and vector, respectively) that I use with my self hosted tiles at nst.guide. The data sources I'm using are US only, though SRTM is a common choice for international Digital Elevation Models. [0]: https://github.com/nst-guide/hillshade https://github.com/nst-guide/hillshade [1]: https://github.com/nst-guide/contours https://github.com/nst-guide/contours
        atombender 7y ago
        Awesome, thanks!
    - atombender 7y ago
      Update: So if you run the server locally and select maps, you're presented with this screen, saying you need a key from openmaptiles.com: https://i.imgur.com/NTb5zIL.jpg https://i.imgur.com/NTb5zIL.jpg. If you select "commercial product or company web", you're asked to pay for it: https://i.imgur.com/TrAmju4.jpg https://i.imgur.com/TrAmju4.jpg If you select any of the non-commercial ones, the newest map data you get is from 2017 (!). I'm not against paying, but it's not free!
  - dwnoble 7y ago
    It's only $20/mo for their commercial cloud offering: https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/plans/ https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/plans/
    - atombender 7y ago
      Only if you're below 500k raster tile downloads per month. The app I need this for is at 5.5m/mo, so it'd be a little more than $245/mo. Still better than Mapbox, though.
sciurus 7y ago
For anyone curious like me about Mapbox's new pricing structure taking effect now, they're at https://blog.mapbox.com/new-pricing-46b7c26166e7 https://blog.mapbox.com/new-pricing-46b7c26166e7
- baroffoos 7y ago
  Those prices look good. I remember last time I checked they had a very good free plan but you had to jump right up to the very expensive enterprise plan if you had an internal app even if it was tiny.
geuis 7y ago
Don’t know about cheaper, but Planet (planet.com) offers daily imagery. Worked there a few years ago.
Shakahs 7y ago
I went through the various providers and ended up using MapTiler Cloud, it is the cheapest option I know of besides generating and serving your own tiles. https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/plans/ https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/plans/
ruffrey 7y ago
We are hosting about 150GB of map data, raster and vector, with the following stack: - MapProxy with Redis cache - MapServer for rendering - PostGIS for data storage
durkie 7y ago
I'm in a similar boat, looking to generate my own vector tile static images (basically raster tiles with fractional zoom levels). I use a fair amount of these, and there's no service that lets you cache them (of course). Seems like Mapbox and Maptiler are the only games in town.
roelschroeven 7y ago
You might have a look at HERE. If your needs fit comfortably in their Freemium plan, it should cost not very much at all. Their website is quite confusing though, if you ask me. A starting point might be https://developer.here.com/sign-up?create=Freemium-Basic&keepState=true&step=account https://developer.here.com/sign-up?create=Freemium-Basic&kee...
mdasen 7y ago
https://stadiamaps.com https://stadiamaps.com Stadia Maps is pretty cheap. $25 gets you 25,000 map views per day or around 750k/month. $100 gets you 250k/day or around 7.5M per month.
joe-mapbox 7y ago
Hey, @atombender. Joe here from the Mapbox billing support team. Feel free to reach out to help@mapbox.com. We can dig into your implementation with you to see if there are ways to limit your API consumption (and reduce your overall bills). Things like limiting panning/zooming can help limit the number of tiles your end users load. Fewer tiles -> cheaper invoices https://docs.mapbox.com/mapbox.js/example/v1.0.0/maxbounds/ https://docs.mapbox.com/mapbox.js/example/v1.0.0/maxbounds/ There are other options as well. That said, it's hard to know exactly without taking a look at your map specifically. Let us know!
CalRobert 7y ago
I've been very happy with Thunderforest and they're pretty cheap. https://www.thunderforest.com/pricing/ https://www.thunderforest.com/pricing/
lukeqsee 7y ago
We built Stadia Maps to save you the trouble and the expense. https://stadiamaps.com https://stadiamaps.com Happy to answer any questions! (I’m a cofounder.)
- atombender 7y ago
  Cool, thanks. Pricing looks good. I'm not able to check out your product because your service appears to be down right now...? $ curl 'https://tiles.stadiamaps.com/styles/alidade_smooth.json' <html><body><h1>502 Bad Gateway</h1> The server returned an invalid or incomplete response. </body></html> Tried from multiple locations to make sure.
  - lukeqsee 7y ago
    Yeah… :( Very unfortunate timing there. We had a cache server wedge, and the failover mechanism didn't detect it quickly enough. We've diverted traffic manually and are working on bringing the bad region back into the mix after it went down. Things should be working again now, at least.
    - atombender 7y ago
      Confirmed. Thanks!
- echelon 7y ago
  Really unfortunate that Google Stadia has a name collision with y'all. :( You don't even show up in the "stadia" search results without the term "maps" added. If it wasn't scary and expensive to sue Google for a name change, this seems like a case of Google (probably unwittingly) crushing your brand and trademark with their own. Have y'all noticed a decrease in search traffic (or general brand/product awareness) since Google Stadia launched? And if so, do you plan to do anything about it? Really cool product! Your maps look slick and super clean. :)
  - lukeqsee 7y ago

bransonf 7y ago

If you can find the time to set it up, OpenMapTiles [0] is the way to go. In the long run, you’ll probably save more money than the time it takes to manage. [0] https://openmaptiles.org/ https://openmaptiles.org/

atombender 7y ago
Interesting, thanks. Unfortunately, those tiles are pretty ugly compared to Mapbox, but it might be an option if I can't find anything else. Edit: Also it's $1,000 for commercial use, even to use with OSM data?
- TomMarius 7y ago
  Could you send an example of a great looking map?
  - atombender 7y ago
    Mapbox's tiles are very good. I particularly like the hybrid terrain + road mode, which you can see here: https://homes.stltoday.com/search https://homes.stltoday.com/search
    - kylebarron 7y ago
      I agree that layer is gorgeous. I think the best open vector map style is OSM liberty [0]. My fork, which includes my generated hillshade and contours, is here [1]. [0]: https://github.com/maputnik/osm-liberty https://github.com/maputnik/osm-liberty [1]: https://github.com/nst-guide/osm-liberty/blob/gh-pages/style.json https://github.com/nst-guide/osm-liberty/blob/gh-pages/style...
- bransonf 7y ago
  You can style the tiles or use your own. Where did you find the $1000 quote? I know you can have them hosted unlimited for $245/month but I was fairly sure it was free for self-hosted use.
  - atombender 7y ago
    It's a little unclear to me. But from what I can gather, the basic software can download data from OSM, but if you want hillshading or satellite, you have to get that separately, and it's part of the $1,000 "production package" [1], which is actually $2,048 for businesses, plus $1,024/year for updates. [1] https://openmaptiles.com/production-package/ https://openmaptiles.com/production-package/
    - kylebarron 7y ago
      I have a couple open source repos for generating hillshade and contours (raster and vector, respectively) that I use with my self hosted tiles at nst.guide. The data sources I'm using are US only, though SRTM is a common choice for international Digital Elevation Models. [0]: https://github.com/nst-guide/hillshade https://github.com/nst-guide/hillshade [1]: https://github.com/nst-guide/contours https://github.com/nst-guide/contours
      - atombender 7y ago
        Awesome, thanks!
  - atombender 7y ago
    Update: So if you run the server locally and select maps, you're presented with this screen, saying you need a key from openmaptiles.com: https://i.imgur.com/NTb5zIL.jpg https://i.imgur.com/NTb5zIL.jpg. If you select "commercial product or company web", you're asked to pay for it: https://i.imgur.com/TrAmju4.jpg https://i.imgur.com/TrAmju4.jpg If you select any of the non-commercial ones, the newest map data you get is from 2017 (!). I'm not against paying, but it's not free!
- dwnoble 7y ago
  It's only $20/mo for their commercial cloud offering: https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/plans/ https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/plans/
  - atombender 7y ago
    Only if you're below 500k raster tile downloads per month. The app I need this for is at 5.5m/mo, so it'd be a little more than $245/mo. Still better than Mapbox, though.

sciurus 7y ago

For anyone curious like me about Mapbox's new pricing structure taking effect now, they're at https://blog.mapbox.com/new-pricing-46b7c26166e7 https://blog.mapbox.com/new-pricing-46b7c26166e7

baroffoos 7y ago
Those prices look good. I remember last time I checked they had a very good free plan but you had to jump right up to the very expensive enterprise plan if you had an internal app even if it was tiny.

geuis 7y ago

Don’t know about cheaper, but Planet (planet.com) offers daily imagery. Worked there a few years ago.

Shakahs 7y ago

I went through the various providers and ended up using MapTiler Cloud, it is the cheapest option I know of besides generating and serving your own tiles. https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/plans/ https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/plans/

ruffrey 7y ago

We are hosting about 150GB of map data, raster and vector, with the following stack: - MapProxy with Redis cache - MapServer for rendering - PostGIS for data storage

durkie 7y ago

I'm in a similar boat, looking to generate my own vector tile static images (basically raster tiles with fractional zoom levels). I use a fair amount of these, and there's no service that lets you cache them (of course). Seems like Mapbox and Maptiler are the only games in town.

roelschroeven 7y ago

You might have a look at HERE. If your needs fit comfortably in their Freemium plan, it should cost not very much at all. Their website is quite confusing though, if you ask me. A starting point might be https://developer.here.com/sign-up?create=Freemium-Basic&keepState=true&step=account https://developer.here.com/sign-up?create=Freemium-Basic&kee...

mdasen 7y ago

https://stadiamaps.com https://stadiamaps.com Stadia Maps is pretty cheap. $25 gets you 25,000 map views per day or around 750k/month. $100 gets you 250k/day or around 7.5M per month.

joe-mapbox 7y ago

Hey, @atombender. Joe here from the Mapbox billing support team. Feel free to reach out to help@mapbox.com. We can dig into your implementation with you to see if there are ways to limit your API consumption (and reduce your overall bills). Things like limiting panning/zooming can help limit the number of tiles your end users load. Fewer tiles -> cheaper invoices https://docs.mapbox.com/mapbox.js/example/v1.0.0/maxbounds/ https://docs.mapbox.com/mapbox.js/example/v1.0.0/maxbounds/ There are other options as well. That said, it's hard to know exactly without taking a look at your map specifically. Let us know!

CalRobert 7y ago

I've been very happy with Thunderforest and they're pretty cheap. https://www.thunderforest.com/pricing/ https://www.thunderforest.com/pricing/

lukeqsee 7y ago

We built Stadia Maps to save you the trouble and the expense. https://stadiamaps.com https://stadiamaps.com Happy to answer any questions! (I’m a cofounder.)

atombender 7y ago
Cool, thanks. Pricing looks good. I'm not able to check out your product because your service appears to be down right now...? $ curl 'https://tiles.stadiamaps.com/styles/alidade_smooth.json' <html><body><h1>502 Bad Gateway</h1> The server returned an invalid or incomplete response. </body></html> Tried from multiple locations to make sure.
- lukeqsee 7y ago
  Yeah… :( Very unfortunate timing there. We had a cache server wedge, and the failover mechanism didn't detect it quickly enough. We've diverted traffic manually and are working on bringing the bad region back into the mix after it went down. Things should be working again now, at least.
  - atombender 7y ago
    Confirmed. Thanks!
echelon 7y ago
Really unfortunate that Google Stadia has a name collision with y'all. :( You don't even show up in the "stadia" search results without the term "maps" added. If it wasn't scary and expensive to sue Google for a name change, this seems like a case of Google (probably unwittingly) crushing your brand and trademark with their own. Have y'all noticed a decrease in search traffic (or general brand/product awareness) since Google Stadia launched? And if so, do you plan to do anything about it? Really cool product! Your maps look slick and super clean. :)
- lukeqsee 7y ago