MapTiler Data has launched. It provides ready-to-use geographical data of the entire world for your web & mobile applications. MapTiler Information Technology and Services Zug, ZG 568 followers Software for building digital maps.
The impetus for the comparisons made in this article was Google’s announcement that they were discontinuing their Fusion Tables product. For those unfamiliar with Fusion Tables, it was a product that allowed for fast and easy rendering of large datasets on Google Maps.
Fusion Tables was easy to use, and allowed website owners to display many thousands of placemarks quickly and easily. More importantly, Fusion Tables rendered the data layer on the map on the server side, eliminating the inevitable performance issues on client machines that made mapping large datasets difficult or impossible
Mapping Large Datasets
Mapping a lot of data was easy with Fusion Tables, so I was shocked to find just how difficult competing products would be. Technologies outside of the Google ecosystem are largely geared towards GIS professionals, with little documentation or tools that help non-GIS people get started quickly and easily.
It is my goal to evaluate map technology providers from the perspective of a webmaster, not a GIS professional or programmer. The goal here is to visualize large datasets on interactive maps with the lowest possible cost and difficulty.
I spent a lot of time researching and testing available services and technologies. In the end I concluded two companies offered products that matched my needs: Mapbox and Maptiler. While each company essentially sells the same end result – map hosting services that can serve large data sets as tiled maps – each delivers their products very differently.
Mapbox is more similar to Fusion Tables in terms of workflow. You upload your data, convert that data to a map tileset, apply that tileset to one of Mapbox’s default map styles, then customize the style in Mapbox Studio. The end result is a map that is based on OpenStreetMap, with your data layer (or layers) rendered as tiles and any custom styling you have created.
With Maptiler you are getting a similar result – an OpenStreetMap with your custom data and styles – but with a different workflow. Rather than upload your data set, you instead download the Maptiler Desktop application and process your data into a tileset on your local machine. You then upload the tileset to Maptiler Cloud where you apply it to a map and apply custom styles, similar to Mapbox.
While the workflows from these two companies don’t sound that different based on the summaries given above, in practice they are very different, from the capabilities of each to the pricing.
Mapbox is the Clear Winner
Mapbox makes it easy to dive into their technology and experiment with it with few restrictions. Create as many data sets, tilesets, and maps as you want. There is a limit on total disk space you can use on their servers, but the limits are in the tens of gigabytes which should be plenty for any small business to get started with.
These are the pros and cons I discovered while using Mapbox:
Maptiler Pricing
Mapbox Pros:
- Mapbox has an actual free tier with enough functionality and resources to create and serve business-ready maps at no cost for small businesses
- The use of “map loads” rather than tile loads makes understanding your usage and costs understandable and predictable (the first 50k map loads are free)
- Mapbox has excellent documentation and support
- The Mapbox Studio is feature rich and well-implemented
- Mapbox as a company is constantly adding new features and innovations
- While not nearly as extensive as the Google ecosystem, there are enough experienced Mapbox freelancers that you should be able to get help when you need it.
Mapbox Cons:
- Uploading data is limited to 5MB per file, so larger datasets need to be split into multiple files
- Mapbox’s upload utility is picky about the data that is being uploaded, and often fails for simple reasons like a missing lat or long value
- Upload errors contain no helpful details. Even something as simple as the line number that contained the fault would save so much pain for end users.
- Although Mapbox documentation is good, it would be helpful to have more high-level “getting started” like articles for non-GIS professionals
From an account and cost perspective, evaluating Mapbox and creating my first maps was very straightforward. As of writing this I have paid Mapbox exactly nothing. I almost feel guilty about that, this is a great company and service and I like to support the tools that I use in my business.
Maptiler Pro
Maptiler is a Confusing Mess
When I first starting the job of evaluating these mapping companies, Mapbox had a different pricing structure than the current one and I was concerned that costs would quickly get out of hand. It seemed at the time that Maptiler was going to be a more cost-effective choice… until I got into the details.
Maptiler’s strange cost structure, especially for the Maptiler Desktop product, makes evaluating it’s capabilities upfront difficult, and likely very expensive even for relatively simple projects like mine. Here are the pros and cons related to pricing and functionality for Maptiler:
Maptiler Pros:
- The Maptiler Desktop product is superior to Mapbox’s system for processing very large datasets
- The Maptiler Desktop product is more flexible than Mapbox in processing datasets that have missing or incorrect data
- Use of Maptiler Desktop allows you to keep your custom tilesets, creating an opportunity to self-host maps for more advanced users.
Maptiler Cons:
- If you are a US based business, be aware that Maptiler’s default base maps with contour lines can’t be translated from meters to feet. I wish I had known this upfront I would have never bothered evaluating Maptiler.
- Despite Maptiler advertising a “free” tier to the Maptiler Cloud, there is no actual free tier that can be used to make business-ready maps. The “free” tier watermarks your data so that on the map the word “maptiler” is going to show up randomly.
- The upfront costs for Maptiler Desktop are arbitrary and often absurd. In my case, to process my one dataset, it was going to cost $3,450 for the license I needed, or $560 for a 30 day license which would mean if I ever needed to update my tileset I would need to spend the $560 every time.
- Maptiler is lacking in both documentation and support.
- The Maptiler community, which Maptiler docmentation often refers you to, is mostly inactive and getting answers there is unlikely to happen.
- As of the day this was written, Upwork has exactly zero freelancers that list Maptiler as a skill. Good luck getting help.
- Maptiler Cloud starts out free, but the method they use to count the views you will ultimately be charged for is difficult to understand and quickly leads to high costs (note that Maptiler has now deleted this support request on their forums but the gist of it was that a business user was outraged at the high costs he was facing – costs that were almost impossible to understand based on Maptiler’s pricing scheme).
- Front end Javascript code examples are difficult to find and lacking in features to get simple maps deployed quickly and easily
The cons far outweigh the pros and I can’t think of any scenario where I would recommend Maptiler other than you need to leverage the advantages offered by the Maptiler Desktop product and price was not an issue.
Conclusion: Mapbox Has the Right Tools, Support, and Pricing
While I entered this work without a lot of optimism as I loved Fusion Tables and so did my users, I ended up being quite happy with the final maps I created with Mapbox. Mapbox’s advanced styling features and overall presentation was an improvement over the Fusion Table maps I had been using for years.
The implementation of the maps was much more difficult and ultimately more expensive than Fusion Tables (hiring a developer to create the Javascript for the front end map implementation is where the expense was), and while I’m not happy about that part, I am relieved that I was able to replace the maps at all with the limited resources I have available as a small business owner.
The Mapbox styling options allow for more control of your visualization, and in many ways the final result is superior to what Google Fusion Tables offered. The OpenStreetMap base maps are not as detailed as Google Maps, especially in rural areas so you many want to take a look at them to see if they will suit your needs.
Overall though, Mapbox is a great product and company and it will cost you nothing to jump in and give it a try.
FOREFLIGHT MOBILE
Customize How You Fly with ForeFlight
Easily import custom waypoints, charts, and map layers via hyperlink, email attachment, AirDrop, or drag-and-drop in iTunes for viewing on the map. Ideal for flight schools, search and rescue operations, pipeline patrol, aerial firefighting, and more.
Content Packs
Content Packs give you control over the type of critical information you need to see in ForeFlight for missions like wildfire fighting, smokejumping, backcountry flying, flight training, sightseeing tours, and more.
Easily build Content Packs using a variety of data types, then access your data for flight planning and flying in the familiar Maps, Airports, and Plates app views.
Custom Charts
Bring your own geo-referenced charts to ForeFlight with support for MBTiles, an open source file format developed by MapBox that allows for efficient compression and distribution of large charts. A great tool for creating your own MBtiles is MapTiler, which is free to download and allows you to quickly georeference and export raster charts.
Learn more about Custom Charts
Custom Map Layers
Create custom overlays with KML geographic shapefiles. KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is a file format used for geographic data that allows you to import shapes such as points, lines, and polygons into ForeFlight's map view. User Map Shapes allow you to designate specific areas on the map for your custom navigation needs; flight schools or flying clubs can use User Map Shapes to delineate training areas or route lines on the map.
Learn more about Custom Map Layers
User Waypoints
Maptiler
User Waypoints in ForeFlight allow you to save geographic locations and then view them as named point markers on the Maps view. You can create user waypoints one-by-one in the app itself, or import them in bulk using a CSV or KML file, then add them to your route plan like any other waypoint.