What is MAPS.ME and what are its top alternatives?
MAPS.ME is a popular offline mapping application that allows users to access maps, navigation, and travel guides without an internet connection. Key features include detailed maps of various locations worldwide, turn-by-turn navigation, offline search functionality, and the ability to bookmark favorite places. However, limitations of MAPS.ME include occasional inaccuracies in map data and limited user-generated content compared to other mapping apps.
- Google Maps: Google Maps is a versatile mapping app that offers detailed maps, real-time traffic updates, turn-by-turn navigation, and street view imagery. Pros include accurate data, user-generated content like reviews, and integration with other Google services. Cons compared to MAPS.ME include the need for an internet connection and higher data usage.
- Waze: Waze is a crowdsourced navigation app that provides real-time traffic updates, alerts about accidents, police, road closures, and more. Key features include community-driven data, voice-guided navigation, and the ability to find the cheapest gas stations. Compared to MAPS.ME, Waze offers more dynamic and up-to-date information but requires an internet connection.
- HERE WeGo: HERE WeGo is a comprehensive mapping app that offers offline maps, public transit information, real-time traffic updates, and route planning for various modes of transportation. Pros include offline capabilities, detailed transit information, and customizable route options. Compared to MAPS.ME, HERE WeGo may have a steeper learning curve and less intuitive interface.
- Sygic: Sygic is a GPS navigation app that provides offline maps, voice-guided navigation, traffic information, and speed limit warnings. Key features include 3D maps, lane guidance, and real-time updates about road conditions. Compared to MAPS.ME, Sygic offers a more robust navigation experience but may come with a premium price tag.
- CityMaps2Go: CityMaps2Go is a travel app that offers offline maps, travel guides, and tips for various destinations around the world. Pros include detailed city maps, curated travel content, and the ability to create personalized travel itineraries. Compared to MAPS.ME, CityMaps2Go may lack some advanced navigation features but excels in travel-related content.
- OsmAnd: OsmAnd is an open-source mapping app that offers offline maps based on OpenStreetMap data, turn-by-turn navigation, and points of interest. Key features include route planning, voice guidance, and offline search capabilities. Compared to MAPS.ME, OsmAnd may have a less user-friendly interface but allows for extensive customization and data manipulation.
- MapQuest: MapQuest is a mapping service that offers features like driving directions, live traffic updates, and satellite imagery. Pros include a simple interface, route optimization options, and integration with various platforms. Compared to MAPS.ME, MapQuest may lack some advanced features but provides reliable mapping services.
- Pocket Earth: Pocket Earth is a mapping and navigation app that offers offline maps, hiking trails, and travel guides. Key features include detailed topographic maps, route planning for outdoor activities, and travel tips from the community. Compared to MAPS.ME, Pocket Earth focuses more on outdoor enthusiasts and may not have as extensive coverage for urban areas.
- Gaia GPS: Gaia GPS is a mapping app designed for outdoor adventurers, offering offline maps, hiking trails, topographic and satellite maps, and navigation tools. Pros include detailed maps for outdoor activities, route tracking, and the ability to download maps for offline use. Compared to MAPS.ME, Gaia GPS is more specialized for outdoor exploration and may lack features for urban navigation.
- Citymapper: Citymapper is a transit app that provides real-time public transportation information, route planning, and multi-modal journey options in various cities worldwide. Key features include live transit updates, bike and scooter options, and integration with ride-sharing services. Compared to MAPS.ME, Citymapper excels in urban transit information but may not offer as extensive mapping features for general navigation.
Top Alternatives to MAPS.ME
- 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. ...
- Gaia
Gaia is an open source automation platform which makes it easy and fun to build powerful pipelines in any programming language. Based on HashiCorp's go-plugin and gRPC, gaia is efficient, fast, lightweight, and developer friendly. ...
- Leaflet
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. ...
- Mapbox
We make it possible to pin travel spots on Pinterest, find restaurants on Foursquare, and visualize data on GitHub. ...
- OpenLayers
An opensource javascript library to load, display and render maps from multiple sources on web pages. ...
- 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. ...
- 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. ...
- Java Persistence API
It is a Java application programming interface specification that describes the management of relational data in applications using Java Platform, Standard Edition and Java Platform, Enterprise Edition.It provides a POJO persistence model for object-relational mapping. ...
MAPS.ME alternatives & related posts
Google Maps
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- Sharable Directions81
- Google Earth47
- Unique46
- Custom maps designing3
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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.
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!
related Gaia posts
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related Leaflet posts
Which will give a better map (better view, markers options, info window) in an Android OS app?
Leaflet with Mapbox or Leaflet with OpenStreetMap?
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- Great customer support3
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related Mapbox posts
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.
Which will give a better map (better view, markers options, info window) in an Android OS app?
Leaflet with Mapbox or Leaflet with OpenStreetMap?
- Flexibility15
- Maturity11
- Open Source8
- Incredibly comprehensive, excellent support7
- Extensible4
- Strong community4
- Choice of map providers4
- Low Level API3
- OpenStreetMap1
related OpenLayers posts
- Simple22
- Free17
- Open-Source9
- Open-Data7
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related OpenStreetMap posts
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!
Which will give a better map (better view, markers options, info window) in an Android OS app?
Leaflet with Mapbox or Leaflet with OpenStreetMap?
- Reponsive7
- A lot of widgets4
- Data driven vizualisation4
- Easy tà learn2
- 3D2
- Easy API1
related ArcGIS posts
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.