Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps? - skies
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pieterhg
I made a site for Google alternatives this week called
[https://nomoregoogle.com](https://nomoregoogle.com).

The only real alternatives for Google Maps as a consumer are:

\- [https://wego.here.com/](https://wego.here.com/)

\- [https://openstreetmap.org/](https://openstreetmap.org/)

Alternatives for Google Maps embedded in your app are:

\- [https://mapbox.com/](https://mapbox.com/)

\- [https://leafletjs.com/](https://leafletjs.com/)

\- [https://www.nextzen.org/](https://www.nextzen.org/)

\- [https://www.mapcat.com/](https://www.mapcat.com/)

~~~
wodenokoto
Why is bing maps not a "real alternative" for consumers?

[https://www.bing.com/maps](https://www.bing.com/maps)

~~~
pieterhg
Mostly cause it's another BigTech company

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43920
For a web mapping interface:

* [https://www.openstreetmap.org/](https://www.openstreetmap.org/)

* [https://wego.here.com/](https://wego.here.com/)

* [https://mapy.cz](https://mapy.cz)

For maps on your phone:

* Apple maps

* [https://maps.me/](https://maps.me/)

* [https://osmand.net/](https://osmand.net/)

* [https://www.generalmagic.com/magic-earth/](https://www.generalmagic.com/magic-earth/)

* [https://galileo-app.com/](https://galileo-app.com/)

For maps on your website, you'll probably have to combine a couple of
services:

* [https://www.mapbox.com/](https://www.mapbox.com/)

* [https://opencagedata.com/](https://opencagedata.com/)

* [http://www.thunderforest.com/](http://www.thunderforest.com/)

If you're willing to self-host:

* [https://github.com/komoot/photon](https://github.com/komoot/photon)

* [https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/blob/mas...](https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/blob/master/INSTALL.md)

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gurpreet-
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.

~~~
konschubert
Does Waze have public transport navigation?

~~~
gurpreet-
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.

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vivekseth
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.

~~~
sddfd
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.

~~~
Strongerpass
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.

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mtmail
Similar to "Ask HN: Inexpensive Google Maps Replacement?"
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17952072](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.

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lukeqsee
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.)

Check us out at [https://stadiamaps.com](https://stadiamaps.com)

For consumer maps, Apple Maps is decent, Bing isn’t awful, and
openstreetmap.org can meet some needs.

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nickserv
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.

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ucaetano
For what? As a map provider API? As a geocoding API? As a consumer map app?

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lousken
What do you need? Random examples:

Mapy.cz [https://en.mapy.cz/](https://en.mapy.cz/)

Bing Maps [https://www.bing.com/maps](https://www.bing.com/maps)

Wikimedia maps [https://maps.wikimedia.org](https://maps.wikimedia.org)

TomTom mydrive [https://mydrive.tomtom.com](https://mydrive.tomtom.com)

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nyxtom
I think people vastly underestimate the utility of Google's ability to do
search queries for things completely unrelated to directions. There are plenty
of great alternatives for mapping software, but ranking and actual search
(without having to be exact) for the kind of restaurant/cafe/business you are
looking for in a vague area around you is not something I've seen any good
alternatives for.

~~~
maxxxxx
That's the problem with a lot of Google stuff. You may be concerned about
privacy issues but things like Google maps and search are just really, really
good. Hard to replace them without loss of functionality.

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JulienRbrt
HERE[0] or OpenStreetMap[1] are both pretty complete and good for a user and
developer usage.

[0] [https://www.here.com](https://www.here.com)

[1] [https://www.openstreetmap.org](https://www.openstreetmap.org)

~~~
throwaway6789
I like Here except that, at least in Android, it seems to run as a background
service most of the time. Because of this, I ended up uninstalling.

~~~
BeetleB
Try offline maps on android.

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blhack
Here maps is fantastic in my opinion. I think you can download map data in
google and others (maybe?) but in here it is a first class feature.

Hugely useful if you are traveling and without data.

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se7entime
[https://osmand.net/](https://osmand.net/)

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mariusandra
For apps written in React, try pigeon-maps: [https://pigeon-
maps.js.org/](https://pigeon-maps.js.org/)

You'll need to find a tile server though. What to choose depends on your
volume. Mapbox is the provider with the best tile quality to price ratio as
far as I can tell...

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jadavies
Depending on your use cases OpenStreetMap may be suitable. For commercial use
you probably need to set up your own servers but that can work to your
advantage in that you're better insulated from random price hikes.

~~~
stephengillie
I tried OSM yesterday and it couldn't find my friend's house address in the
map. Not that it couldn't navigate there - it said the location didn't exist.
Google maps finds it right away.

~~~
nickserv
Did you add the address? The beauty of OSM is that anyone can edit the data
set.

For some things it's much better than Google, hiking trails and bike paths for
example.

~~~
stephengillie
How do I add an address when I don't know where is the place? I can add this
friend's address, because I've been to his house before. But what about a new
friend?

~~~
nickserv
Ask your friend to add it ;-)

But more seriously the idea is that if enough people start contributing to the
map, there's no reason it can't be as good as Gmaps.

It's already quite good, depending on your area. In some places the government
has supplied the data, which is part of the reason some cities or countries
are very detailed, while others much less so.

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yread
Mapy.cz is great especially for tourists. Also has an API with generous
limits.

In Europe lots of countries have local mapping systems, geoportail.fr for
example.

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trojanh
Here Maps was such an amazing service back in the days of Lumia phones. I hope
they still doing good and can be an alternative
[https://mobile.here.com/?x=ep](https://mobile.here.com/?x=ep)

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blt
Transit App for public transport route choosing and timetables. In fact, it is
much better than Google maps for this purpose.

[https://transitapp.com/](https://transitapp.com/)

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ctpide
Mapbox if you are looking to integrate something into your website / app

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briandear
MapKit JS:

[https://developer.apple.com/maps/mapkitjs/](https://developer.apple.com/maps/mapkitjs/)

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samat
Very sad that Apple maps do not provide transit for my area (Riga, Latvia).

Does anyone know a way to import bookmarks from google maps to Apple maps?

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phakding
I second here maps. This is navteq maps of past. Last time I checked they were
more accurate than Google maps.

I worked for the company few years ago.

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diggernet
[https://www.sygic.com](https://www.sygic.com)

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brunkerhart
Have a look on maps.yandex.ru

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dheerajverma321
Gooogle map alteratives are Citymapper,maps.me, Bings map,here wego

