Google Maps alternative
I'm working on a platform which makes use of the google maps api (places, geolocation and js maps) and found out their prices are pretty steep when you pass their threshold and that their free limit is actually pretty low. You get a $200 usage to spend on their services every month which according to google translates to 28500 map loads per month (https://mapsplatform.google.com/pricing/). Combine that with 2 (or more) api's and you'll be burning through that $200 pretty quickly as you get more users.
I'm not saying that that my product will be a success from the get go, but considering the potential costs I'm trying to think ahead as I'm building it. Other than that, i've read horror stories of people using google services and ending up in thousands of dollar bills.
Other than that, caching the data (lat/long) is also not allowed according to the Google Maps TOS. You're only allowed to store the placeId property which in turn can be used to make a call to google to grab the lat/long. So you'll be making a bunch of API calls which can easily shred that $200 limit.
Has anyone here has experience with alternative services that allows you to cache data and is overall much cheaper than Google Maps? Only service I've found that is cost-wise cheaper is LocationIQ but I've yet to find out if they allow data caching.
This is a 2-year old article. But something that is relevant for you:
https://joemorrison.substack.com/p/google-maps-moat-is-evaporating
for placekeys there is an opensource alternative which you might want to explore:
https://github.com/Placekey
Thank you for sharing, that article is actually pretty revealing and a gold mine. Looking into the AWS location service as we speak that was mentioned in the article.
Check out Here Maps: https://www.here.com/get-started/pricing
Thanks! Haven't checked this one
I've worked on a couple map-based applications and unfortunately that's just the nature of the beast these days. It used to be almost free, but Google and Mapbox are basically the only players in town when it comes to capabilities and ease of use, and they know it.
If you're okay to do a lot more work, or don't need more advanced functionality, openstreetmap data is free, and you can use something like https://leafletjs.com/
Really though, you just need to charge enough to make money even with API fees!
I was afraid that was the case.. I already arrived at that conclusion after doing some self research and using countless of demo's but I was hoping there was a hidden gem I wasn't aware of.
I don't mind the extra work if it avoids scary high bills if for whatever reason traffic spikes up lol. I was already thinking replacing the maps with an openstreetmap implementation, will definitely look into leaflet, thanks!
There's also https://www.maptiler.com/cloud/pricing/
Lowest effort options no one has heard of would be:
$0.003 per call Unofficial Google Maps API ($ doesn't change if you include more variables like phone number etc.)
Unlimited Unofficial Google Maps API for $500/month
2. https://apis.researchrhino.io/catalog/prd_oelpbru8n8knvw31
Mapbox
Apple Maps
TurfJS
These are all the best options available as google maps alternative
From the >200 Indie Products in the Indie Lottery website most makers using map use, indeed google maps. But there are also makers using other options like:
1- Mapbox
2- Leaflet
3- OpenStreetMap
4- TurfJS
5- Yandex Maps
I hope this was useful
Have you tried Mapbox? It's not entirely free but I think they have more generous offers.
https://www.mapbox.com/pricing
Migrated from google to mapbox when google went crazy with their prices (we got a 10k bill, if I remember correctly). Would definitely recommend them for API and overall developer experience. The price was also pretty reasonable.
I'll have a second look at Mapbox. I initially thought price-wise mapbox was more expensive (or similar to) than Google Maps. I think they did a similar price hike a few years ago. Does mapbox allow caching of data (lat/long)?
For map loads, react-map-gl + map-libre works well. you'll need a tile service if you don't want to self-host, but those are pretty cheap.
Place data is trickier. There are services like serpapi.com that purport to scrape Google in a compliant way. not a lawyer but i think the idea is that "scraped" public data can be saved, while data fetched directly from google cannot.
anyway good luck!
Thanks for the tip! The app is built using react, so I might look into the map-gl / map-libre combo!
Not sure this will help with your use case but I've dabbled with MapBox: https://www.mapbox.com/
Seems like a good option for a lot of mapping projects that isn't Google. Not sure on the costs but worth taking a look at it.
I've looked into mapbox already, their free tier seems as bit more generous, but after that its even more expensive. Thanks for the tip tho!
I've used waze.com for maps and it was much cheaper than google maps. I'm not sure if you're allowed to store their placeID properties, but you can definitely check them out to see if you can use them or if they've already solved the problem you're looking to solve.
Thanks, haven't checked out waze yet! Will check it out!
i think google maps is the only one who has so much apis to use and is also the best at it. I always stored lat & long plus the placeid and noebody cares.
Depending on the nature of your data you can take the risk obviously. But nobody cares until somebody does and you end up with getting your API shut down and potentially forced to delete data (which in my case is tied to the users). A risk I'm not willing to take tbh
I'd be careful there haha. If Google makes a large overhaul then they could just force you to delete the data. So unless the data doesn't matter too much, then that could be an issue.