Farewell, Google Maps

1

Google Maps

Our startup allows patients to find medicines they need in brick-and-mortar pharmacies. Even from the name ("where I get my meds" in English) you could tell that location is an important part of it. It is easy to explain how the service works through a single picture, and Google Maps has always been a prominent background of it:

#Maps #Web Mapping #Mapping And GIS

2

OpenStreetMap

Some options we could reject quickly for various reasons. OpenStreetMap is not supposed to be directly used by commercial sites. Apple Maps, even though we wouldn't mind having Apple logo on our site somewhere, was just released as beta and requires Apple developer account to test properly.

#Maps #Web Mapping #Collaborative Maps 129 social mentions

3

Azure Maps

On the first glance, it seems that almost all providers would provide satisfactory experience as far as centre of Warsaw is concerned. One exception might be Azure Maps, which was made available just in the previous months. To be fair, Microsoft claims that perceived emptiness of its maps is intentional and for the benefit of its large corporate partners, who like to overlay a large amount of their own information on the maps.

#Maps #Web Mapping #Mapping And GIS 2 social mentions

4

HERE

HERE maps seem a poor match visually for our site (too stark), have proprietary interface and we prefer pay-as-you-go billing to bundles. But a large site that we know decided to migrate to HERE, so we will see how it works for them.

#Geolocation #Maps #Geocoding 6 social mentions

5

Leaflet

On a positive note we were impressed by the quality of open source code for operating maps (Leaflet). Some advanced functions which we had implement ourselves on Google side were readily available in Leaflet.

#Maps #Interactive Maps #Development Tools 123 social mentions

6

Mapbox

Mapbox has more resources to its disposal - 400 employees according to LinkedIn, compared to MapTiler's 7 team members - thanks to Softbank's $164m investment. On the other hand, having acquired that much capital, the company is branching out in several directions (autonomous driving, VR...) which for a user dependent on its maps service might be somehow concerning. Therefore we will keep using both services in parallel.

#Developer Tools #Mapping And GIS #Maps 12 social mentions

7

MapTiler

Mapbox has more resources to its disposal - 400 employees according to LinkedIn, compared to MapTiler's 7 team members - thanks to Softbank's $164m investment. On the other hand, having acquired that much capital, the company is branching out in several directions (autonomous driving, VR...) which for a user dependent on its maps service might be somehow concerning. Therefore we will keep using both services in parallel.

#Maps #Web Mapping #Interactive Maps 3 social mentions

8

Apple Maps

Google decided to make Maps its next billion dollar business by raising prices 14 times and decreasing free usage limit almost 30 times, all with minimal notice period. Fortunately, the move energised map competitors. Apple Maps, Mapbox, TomTom - which alternative is best for mid- and larger sites?

#Maps #Mobile Maps #Web Mapping 1 social mentions