Alternatives to Leaflet logo

Alternatives to Leaflet

OpenLayers, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Mapbox, and Leaf are the most popular alternatives and competitors to Leaflet.
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What is Leaflet and what are its top alternatives?

Leaflet is an open source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. It is developed by Vladimir Agafonkin of MapBox with a team of dedicated contributors. Weighing just about 30 KB of gzipped JS code, it has all the features most developers ever need for online maps.
Leaflet is a tool in the Mapping APIs category of a tech stack.
Leaflet is an open source tool with 37.6K GitHub stars and 5.6K GitHub forks. Here’s a link to Leaflet's open source repository on GitHub

Top Alternatives to Leaflet

  • OpenLayers
    OpenLayers

    An opensource javascript library to load, display and render maps from multiple sources on web pages. ...

  • Google Maps
    Google Maps

    Create rich applications and stunning visualisations of your data, leveraging the comprehensiveness, accuracy, and usability of Google Maps and a modern web platform that scales as you grow. ...

  • OpenStreetMap
    OpenStreetMap

    OpenStreetMap is built by a community of mappers that contribute and maintain data about roads, trails, cafés, railway stations, and much more, all over the world. ...

  • Mapbox
    Mapbox

    We make it possible to pin travel spots on Pinterest, find restaurants on Foursquare, and visualize data on GitHub. ...

  • Leaf
    Leaf

    Leaf is a Machine Intelligence Framework engineered by software developers, not scientists. It was inspired by the brilliant people behind TensorFlow, Torch, Caffe, Rust and numerous research papers and brings modularity, performance and portability to deep learning. Leaf is lean and tries to introduce minimal technical debt to your stack. ...

  • D3.js
    D3.js

    It is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Emphasises on web standards gives you the full capabilities of modern browsers without tying yourself to a proprietary framework. ...

  • ArcGIS
    ArcGIS

    It is a geographic information system for working with maps and geographic information. It is used for creating and using maps, compiling geographic data, analyzing mapped information, sharing and much more. ...

  • Cesium
    Cesium

    it is used to create the leading web-based globe and map for visualizing dynamic data. We strive for the best possible performance, precision, visual quality, ease of use, platform support, and content. ...

Leaflet alternatives & related posts

OpenLayers logo

OpenLayers

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431
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A high-performance, feature-packed library for all your mapping needs
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+ 1
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PROS OF OPENLAYERS
  • 14
    Flexibility
  • 11
    Maturity
  • 8
    Open Source
  • 7
    Incredibly comprehensive, excellent support
  • 4
    Extensible
  • 4
    Strong community
  • 4
    Choice of map providers
  • 3
    Low Level API
  • 1
    OpenStreetMap
CONS OF OPENLAYERS
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    related OpenLayers posts

    Google Maps logo

    Google Maps

    38.1K
    26K
    565
    Build highly customisable maps with your own content and imagery
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    PROS OF GOOGLE MAPS
    • 253
      Free
    • 136
      Address input through maps api
    • 81
      Sharable Directions
    • 47
      Google Earth
    • 45
      Unique
    • 3
      Custom maps designing
    CONS OF GOOGLE MAPS
    • 4
      Google Attributions and logo
    • 1
      Only map allowed alongside google place autocomplete

    related Google Maps posts

    A huge component of our product relies on gathering public data about locations of interest. Google Places API gives us that ability in the most efficient way. Since we are primarily going to be using as google data as a source of information for our MVP, we might as well start integrating the Google Places API in our system. We have worked with Google Maps in the past and we might take some inspiration from our previous projects onto this one.

    See more
    Adam Abdelmoula
    CPO at Split Mobile Software · | 5 upvotes · 98.3K views

    We need some advice about the map services provider. We are a mobility app that just launched 5 months ago in Tunisia offering P2P carpooling. We are currently using Google Maps API for maps (Places API, Geocoding API, Directions API & Distance Matrix API). Thus, we received expensive bills from Google Cloud following the number of requests we are using. We are looking forward to reduce the number of requests in general because we can't afford these large bills at this stage, knowing that they are going to increase proportionally to the active users of the app. We tried to optimize multiple times but it isn't enough. We are searching for optimization advice or ideas on how we use the APIs, or other map providers (like OpenStreetMap or similar) that offers free or cheaper options than Google Maps, without lacking quality of information (we are in Tunisia and we have to choose options that have enough data about Tunisia). Thanks!

    See more
    OpenStreetMap logo

    OpenStreetMap

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    The free editable map of the whole world
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    PROS OF OPENSTREETMAP
    • 22
      Simple
    • 17
      Free
    • 9
      Open-Source
    • 7
      Open-Data
    • 1
      React/ RNative integration
    CONS OF OPENSTREETMAP
      Be the first to leave a con

      related OpenStreetMap posts

      Adam Abdelmoula
      CPO at Split Mobile Software · | 5 upvotes · 98.3K views

      We need some advice about the map services provider. We are a mobility app that just launched 5 months ago in Tunisia offering P2P carpooling. We are currently using Google Maps API for maps (Places API, Geocoding API, Directions API & Distance Matrix API). Thus, we received expensive bills from Google Cloud following the number of requests we are using. We are looking forward to reduce the number of requests in general because we can't afford these large bills at this stage, knowing that they are going to increase proportionally to the active users of the app. We tried to optimize multiple times but it isn't enough. We are searching for optimization advice or ideas on how we use the APIs, or other map providers (like OpenStreetMap or similar) that offers free or cheaper options than Google Maps, without lacking quality of information (we are in Tunisia and we have to choose options that have enough data about Tunisia). Thanks!

      See more

      Which will give a better map (better view, markers options, info window) in an Android OS app?

      Leaflet with Mapbox or Leaflet with OpenStreetMap?

      See more
      Mapbox logo

      Mapbox

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      113
      Design and publish beautiful maps
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      PROS OF MAPBOX
      • 28
        Best mapping service outside of Google Maps
      • 22
        OpenStreetMap
      • 15
        Beautifully vectorable
      • 11
        Fluid user experience
      • 8
        Extensible
      • 7
        React/ RNative integration
      • 5
        3D Layers
      • 4
        Affordable
      • 4
        Low Level API
      • 3
        Great customer support
      • 3
        Custom themes
      • 2
        High data volume rendering
      • 1
        Alt
      CONS OF MAPBOX
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        related Mapbox posts

        Stephen Gheysens
        Lead Solutions Engineer at Inscribe · | 6 upvotes · 50.9K views

        Google Maps lets "property owners and their authorized representatives" upload indoor maps, but this appears to lack navigation ("wayfinding").

        MappedIn is a platform and has SDKs for building indoor mapping experiences (https://www.mappedin.com/) and ESRI ArcGIS also offers some indoor mapping tools (https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/indoor-gis/overview). Finally, there used to be a company called LocusLabs that is now a part of Atrius and they were often integrated into airlines' apps to provide airport maps with wayfinding (https://atrius.com/solutions/personal-experiences/personal-wayfinder/).

        I previously worked at Mapbox and while I believe that it's a great platform for building map-based experiences, they don't have any simple solutions for indoor wayfinding. If I were doing this for fun as a side-project and prioritized saving money over saving time, here is what I would do:

        • Create a graph-based dataset representing the walking paths around your university, where nodes/vertexes represent the intersections of paths, and edges represent paths (literally paths outside, hallways, short path segments that represent entering rooms). You could store this in a hosted graph-based database like Neo4j, Amazon Neptune , or Azure Cosmos DB (with its Gremlin API) and use built-in "shortest path" queries, or deploy a PostgreSQL service with pgRouting.

        • Add two properties to each edge: one property for the distance between its nodes (libraries like @turf/helpers will have a distance function if you have the latitude & longitude of each node), and another property estimating the walking time (based on the distance). Once you have these values saved in a graph-based format, you should be able to easily query and find the data representation of paths between two points.

        • At this point, you'd have the routing problem solved and it would come down to building a UI. Mapbox arguably leads the industry in developer tools for custom map experiences. You could convert your nodes/edges to GeoJSON, then either upload to Mapbox and create a Tileset to visualize the paths, or add the GeoJSON to the map on the fly.

        *You might be able to use open source routing tools like OSRM (https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/issues/6257) or Graphhopper (instead of a custom graph database implementation), but it would likely be more involved to maintain these services.

        See more

        Which will give a better map (better view, markers options, info window) in an Android OS app?

        Leaflet with Mapbox or Leaflet with OpenStreetMap?

        See more
        Leaf logo

        Leaf

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        0
        Machine learning framework in Rust
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        + 1
        0
        PROS OF LEAF
          Be the first to leave a pro
          CONS OF LEAF
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            related Leaf posts

            D3.js logo

            D3.js

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            A JavaScript visualization library for HTML and SVG
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            PROS OF D3.JS
            • 192
              Beautiful visualizations
            • 101
              Svg
            • 91
              Data-driven
            • 80
              Large set of examples
            • 60
              Data-driven documents
            • 23
              Visualization components
            • 20
              Transitions
            • 18
              Dynamic properties
            • 16
              Plugins
            • 11
              Transformation
            • 7
              Makes data interactive
            • 4
              Components
            • 4
              Enter and Exit
            • 3
              Exhaustive
            • 3
              Backed by the new york times
            • 3
              Open Source
            • 2
              Easy and beautiful
            • 1
              Angular 4
            • 1
              Awesome Community Support
            • 1
              Simple elegance
            • 1
              123
            • 1
              Templates, force template
            CONS OF D3.JS
            • 10
              Beginners cant understand at all
            • 5
              Complex syntax
            • 1
              123

            related D3.js posts

            Tim Abbott
            Shared insights
            on
            Plotly.jsPlotly.jsD3.jsD3.js
            at

            We use Plotly (just their open source stuff) for Zulip's user-facing and admin-facing statistics graphs because it's a reasonably well-designed JavaScript graphing library.

            If you've tried using D3.js, it's a pretty poor developer experience, and that translates to spending a bunch of time getting the graphs one wants even for things that are conceptually pretty basic. Plotly isn't amazing (it's decent), but it's way better than than D3 unless you have very specialized needs.

            See more

            I'm a student, and I have a project to build an application (Visual analytics tool) that takes a Microsoft Excel file, cleans the data, and visualizes it. Also, the app should allow the user to filter and interact with it.

            1- should I make it desktop application or web application? : I'm leaning toward (desktop)

            2- D3.js OR Python?

            3- better excel or CSV?

            I'm a beginner Inspiration for interaction and look of the app: eventflow application.

            See more
            ArcGIS logo

            ArcGIS

            127
            174
            20
            A geographic information system for working with maps
            127
            174
            + 1
            20
            PROS OF ARCGIS
            • 7
              Reponsive
            • 4
              A lot of widgets
            • 4
              Data driven vizualisation
            • 2
              3D
            • 2
              Easy tà learn
            • 1
              Easy API
            CONS OF ARCGIS
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              related ArcGIS posts

              Stephen Gheysens
              Lead Solutions Engineer at Inscribe · | 6 upvotes · 50.9K views

              Google Maps lets "property owners and their authorized representatives" upload indoor maps, but this appears to lack navigation ("wayfinding").

              MappedIn is a platform and has SDKs for building indoor mapping experiences (https://www.mappedin.com/) and ESRI ArcGIS also offers some indoor mapping tools (https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/indoor-gis/overview). Finally, there used to be a company called LocusLabs that is now a part of Atrius and they were often integrated into airlines' apps to provide airport maps with wayfinding (https://atrius.com/solutions/personal-experiences/personal-wayfinder/).

              I previously worked at Mapbox and while I believe that it's a great platform for building map-based experiences, they don't have any simple solutions for indoor wayfinding. If I were doing this for fun as a side-project and prioritized saving money over saving time, here is what I would do:

              • Create a graph-based dataset representing the walking paths around your university, where nodes/vertexes represent the intersections of paths, and edges represent paths (literally paths outside, hallways, short path segments that represent entering rooms). You could store this in a hosted graph-based database like Neo4j, Amazon Neptune , or Azure Cosmos DB (with its Gremlin API) and use built-in "shortest path" queries, or deploy a PostgreSQL service with pgRouting.

              • Add two properties to each edge: one property for the distance between its nodes (libraries like @turf/helpers will have a distance function if you have the latitude & longitude of each node), and another property estimating the walking time (based on the distance). Once you have these values saved in a graph-based format, you should be able to easily query and find the data representation of paths between two points.

              • At this point, you'd have the routing problem solved and it would come down to building a UI. Mapbox arguably leads the industry in developer tools for custom map experiences. You could convert your nodes/edges to GeoJSON, then either upload to Mapbox and create a Tileset to visualize the paths, or add the GeoJSON to the map on the fly.

              *You might be able to use open source routing tools like OSRM (https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/issues/6257) or Graphhopper (instead of a custom graph database implementation), but it would likely be more involved to maintain these services.

              See more
              Cesium logo

              Cesium

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              99
              1
              A javascript library to build 3D globes and 2D maps
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              99
              + 1
              1
              PROS OF CESIUM
              • 1
                Fully interactive 3D and can dynamically switch to 2D.
              CONS OF CESIUM
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                related Cesium posts