There are lots more OSM-based alternatives for particular use cases.
For example, for a mobile app, try OsmAnd or maps.me. There are also 'niche' apps such as MapOut, which is an outdoor-focused iOS mapping app with gorgeous cartography.
Or for bike routing, try https://cycle.travel/map (disclaimer - my site), Komoot, CycleStreets or many others. OSM is historically very strong on walking and cycling, while being less focused than Google on car navigation.
openstreetmap.org itself expressly doesn't aim to be a consumer-facing website; it's principally a portal, community and editing interface for mappers. The OSM philosophy is "we provide the data, you take it and build the apps".
I have recently started using a MapTiler which has a great features for a reasonable prices. And also as an osm-based alternative i have to say it has really nice UX.
https://www.maptiler.com
In the UK at least, Bing Maps is also excellent; it provides free access to Ordnance Survey 1:25000 and 1:50000 mapping, which is top quality. The OS maps are orthorectified for the Bing projection, so route plans line up properly.
Thank you for https://wego.here.com/ <3. I use their Android app, had no idea they had a web app to. And incidentally loads like 100x quicker than Google Maps.
I've used MapBox on an a few projects and absolutely loved the experience and API. But I kind of believe Mapbox is more of a "best tool of the job" type of alternative. (Meaning, I wouldn't use it for general purpose mapping. More like mapping out specific points of data.)
From a user-perspective definitely Waze. It provides a great voice assistant and live updates from other users. Other Waze users are on-screen and you can chat to them. Other users can report roadblocks, broken down cars, traffic jams, slow-downs and even accidents long before any radio station finds out about them. It has places you can go to which are more accurate than that of Google Maps. Plus, it also shows you speed cameras and your speed on-screen. The only downside is that it's really only for private transport only - no options to see routes and timings for walking, cycling or public transport.
From a library perspective, I think Mapbox is pretty good as it integrates with a lot of languages and it has a lot of smart decision making tools.
In addition to Waze being owned by Google, as mentioned by others, Waze pops up ads in the middle of trips which should never be tolerated by users. Waze also tends to make bad traffic worse by directing cars off high-volume roads onto low-volume roads, distributing gridlock everywhere and encouraging people to drive through residential neighborhoods or other areas that cannot support this type of traffic. And finally, Waze is not a general purpose mapping application, but a very specific one for driving. I think that's enough from me on this. :-)
Waze is pretty cool, especially with alerting to the presence of nearby speedgunning cops, but the battery drain is too much for me to tolerate, not to mention the obnoxious "integration" with Spotify.
Just checked and no it does not seem that it does have public transport navigation. With that being said, you can select different transport types. Those are: Motorcycle, Private, Taxi.
Apple Maps. I’ve been using it as my primary maps app for about an year and it’s been pretty good. I live in the bay area so YMMV if you live somewhere else.
I've used the Apple Maps navigation during the last vacation in Spain (rental car did only support Apple car play), and the navigation desperately needs some love. The worst things are:
- no support for roundabouts: it's really hard to determine where you have to leave, and the spoken hints are not helping. Why not displaying a top view of the intersection/roundabout like other navigation devices do?
- no good support for leaving a highway. If the connection is non-standard the speech commands seem off/hard to understand. Top view again would help.
I tried to use it some time ago and visiting another city. I followed directions and after a bunch of left/right suddenly it instructed me to "drive west". This was on a pretty big street and as far as I can tell Apple Maps knew my location properly. Pretty fun.
Not sure about the second, but the lane guidance icon does change to show a diagram of which exit to take, and you should also see the 2.5D map with a blue line showing the route on the actual map.
This is still my primary reason to use GMaps - I wish they would prioritize Public Transport in Apple Maps - SBB even provides an API they could easily use to get any schedule they need as far as i know.
Similar to "Ask HN: Inexpensive Google Maps Replacement?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17952072 unless you point to specific needs yo have like distance matrix API, native iOS libraries, mobile offline capability, bulk geocoding, license restrictions, styling preference.
For replacing their web API, my cofounder and I started a company to address many of the issues with Google Maps, starting with price and privacy. We have more issues to address, but we offer the necessities now and have expansion plans. We offer map tiles, static maps, and routing. (We had a mutual client that needed maps and we found no good alternatives, so we built the one we wanted.)
As a startup without the time nor resources to roll our own stack, we went with the Mapbox tile server and the OpenLayers JS library for displaying to the end user.
Since maps are a big part of our project, and we keep a decent amount of Geo data, we'll have to set up our own servers once it becomes cheaper than paying Mapbox in terms of views.
It's surprisingly easy with the OpenStreetMap data and Mapnik to display nice maps (at least at the POC stage ;-).
We use GeoDjango with PostGIS to store and process our geospatial data.
Readit News
The only real alternatives for Google Maps as a consumer are:
- https://wego.here.com/
- https://openstreetmap.org/
Alternatives for Google Maps embedded in your app are:
- https://mapbox.com/
- https://leafletjs.com/
- https://www.nextzen.org/
- https://www.mapcat.com/
For example, for a mobile app, try OsmAnd or maps.me. There are also 'niche' apps such as MapOut, which is an outdoor-focused iOS mapping app with gorgeous cartography.
Or for bike routing, try https://cycle.travel/map (disclaimer - my site), Komoot, CycleStreets or many others. OSM is historically very strong on walking and cycling, while being less focused than Google on car navigation.
openstreetmap.org itself expressly doesn't aim to be a consumer-facing website; it's principally a portal, community and editing interface for mappers. The OSM philosophy is "we provide the data, you take it and build the apps".
Quick observation, my votes dont seem to stick. (Most likely I am doing something wrong). How do I vote correctly?
It doesn't work with uBlock Origin. Maybe this[1] is why.
[1] https://cl.ly/937a69631c0d - It's in Malvertising filter list by Disconnect.
https://www.bing.com/maps
* https://www.openstreetmap.org/
* https://wego.here.com/
* https://mapy.cz
For maps on your phone:
* Apple maps
* https://maps.me/
* https://osmand.net/
* https://www.generalmagic.com/magic-earth/
* https://galileo-app.com/
For maps on your website, you'll probably have to combine a couple of services:
* https://www.mapbox.com/
* https://opencagedata.com/
* http://www.thunderforest.com/
If you're willing to self-host:
* https://github.com/komoot/photon
* https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/blob/mas...
From a library perspective, I think Mapbox is pretty good as it integrates with a lot of languages and it has a lot of smart decision making tools.
I say this because the typical driving force for seeking an alternative to a Google service is the fact that it's owned by Google.
The map detail is quite low. It doesn't understand U-turns (turn left, then turn left), it doesn't give lane guidance.
The "watch out" warnings are quite useful though, I suppose.
- no support for roundabouts: it's really hard to determine where you have to leave, and the spoken hints are not helping. Why not displaying a top view of the intersection/roundabout like other navigation devices do?
- no good support for leaving a highway. If the connection is non-standard the speech commands seem off/hard to understand. Top view again would help.
Check us out at https://stadiamaps.com
For consumer maps, Apple Maps is decent, Bing isn’t awful, and openstreetmap.org can meet some needs.
Since maps are a big part of our project, and we keep a decent amount of Geo data, we'll have to set up our own servers once it becomes cheaper than paying Mapbox in terms of views.
It's surprisingly easy with the OpenStreetMap data and Mapnik to display nice maps (at least at the POC stage ;-).
We use GeoDjango with PostGIS to store and process our geospatial data.