Honest numbers.
Zero spin.
Source-backed comparisons of maps.guru against every major map API provider. Pricing pulled from vendor pages, free tiers quoted exactly, and the gotchas each one hides — documented.
Seven providers
Pick your incumbent. See the tradeoffs.
Every comparison covers pricing at real volumes, free-tier fine print, data residency, and the scenarios where the other provider is genuinely the better choice.
Google Maps
When Places API depth and Street View matter most
/compare/google-maps-alternative →
Mapbox
When Navigation SDK maturity and mobile trips are non-negotiable
/compare/mapbox-alternative →
MapTiler
When Switzerland hosting or on-premises deployment is required
/compare/maptiler-alternative →
Stadia Maps
When GDPR-first, privacy-positioning and no-ad-bias tile data matters
/compare/stadia-maps-alternative →
LocationIQ
When geocoding-only with INR pricing and 5K free requests/day is enough
/compare/locationiq-alternative →
Ola Maps
When India-only coverage is enough and 500K free calls/month is the priority
/compare/ola-maps-alternative →
Mappls
When certified government maps of India with proprietary POI data are required
/compare/mappls-alternative →
Delhivery Maps
When India logistics-grade addresses and vehicle-aware routing are the priority
/compare/delhivery-maps-alternative →
Not sure which one wins for you?
Put your real monthly volumes into the cost calculator and compare all eight providers side by side.
/tools/cost-calculator →
Mapping terms, defined
The vocabulary these comparisons use, in plain language.
What is Vector tile?
- A vector tile is a compressed binary chunk of map geometry (roads, buildings, labels) that the browser styles and renders at runtime, instead of downloading a pre-drawn image. Vector tiles let one dataset power unlimited visual styles and stay sharp at every zoom level.
What is Basemap?
- A basemap is the background map layer (roads, water, landuse, place labels) that your own data is drawn on top of. maps.guru serves basemaps as MapLibre-compatible vector tiles.
What is Map style?
- A map style is a JSON document that tells a renderer which colours, fonts, widths, and zoom rules to apply to each layer of a vector tile. maps.guru styles follow the MapLibre Style Specification, so they work in any MapLibre or Mapbox GL JS compatible renderer.
What is Geocoding?
- Geocoding is the process of converting a text address or place name into latitude and longitude coordinates. Reverse geocoding does the opposite: it converts coordinates into the nearest human-readable address.
Questions about choosing a maps API
Which maps API is cheapest for high traffic?
It depends on billing model rather than headline rate. Per-request providers such as Google Maps Platform and Mapbox cost more as traffic grows, so a spike produces a proportional bill. Flat-tier providers such as maps.guru cap the monthly cost, which is cheaper once you are consistently serving tens of thousands of map loads.
What should I compare when choosing a maps API?
Five things: the billing model (per request versus flat tier), which SKUs are metered separately, renderer lock-in, address-matching quality in your target country, and whether you can self-host the same data if you need to leave.
Are these comparisons based on published pricing?
Yes. Every comparison cites the provider’s own public pricing page, with the date the figures were read, because maps API pricing changes and stale numbers make a comparison misleading.
Sources
- Google Maps Platform pricing — Google
- Mapbox pricing — Mapbox
- MapTiler Cloud pricing — MapTiler
- Stadia Maps pricing — Stadia Maps
- LocationIQ pricing — LocationIQ
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