OpenFreeMap
Infrastructure
map tile hosting
SHOW HN2024
How HN took it
21 positive, 50 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 11 critical, out of 85 comments about the project. Thread score +0.19.
Idea: 8 for, 2 againstPricing: 5 for, 4 againstPerformance: 0 for, 2 againstDesign: 1 for, 1 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Free tiles with no API keys or limits
From 2 comments
Looks great love the free tiles and no limits or API keys. Question, why use btrfs?
thinkingemote on HNFYI if you need a CDN you can get bulk pricing from fastly with a monthly commitment. I'm not sure if their hosting works for you because you might be serving byte ranges. I…
mannyv on HN
Fast loading compared to PMTiles on Cloudflare
From 2 comments
I'll write a detailed blog post for that, definitely. Basically Protomaps / PMTiles allows you to do this serverless, but it has it's downsides. There are two ways to use PMTiles…
hyperknot on HNI explained a bit about PMTiles in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41636376 In summary, on a cold start (so now when it's on HN it might be totally…
hyperknot on HN
Objections
Risk of abuse or heavy traffic from embedded sites
From 1 comment
I really like the idea. Why OMT instead of protomaps? The latter is clearly where the community is moving towards (albeit very slowly). I'm somewhat sceptical about the "free…
jenny91 on HN
Requests
Historical map data and tiles
From 1 comment
Something I'd be willing to pay for is historical tiles/data. I'm writing an application that lets you view historical data, and the problem is that most/all map services show…
mholt on HN
Clearer business plan and support offering
From 1 comment
I understand you don't plan to make money, only to cover costs. Nevertheless, I believe you would benefit from a more explicit "business plan". Your Gold support plan kind of…
wongarsu on HN
Questions
How does it differ from Protomaps
From 2 comments
I would be interested in the differences between this and protomaps
zarazas on HNI really like the idea. Why OMT instead of protomaps? The latter is clearly where the community is moving towards (albeit very slowly). I'm somewhat sceptical about the "free…
jenny91 on HN
Why use Btrfs
From 1 comment
Looks great love the free tiles and no limits or API keys. Question, why use btrfs?
thinkingemote on HN
Alternatives named
Protomaps / PMTiles
From 2 comments
I really like the idea. Why OMT instead of protomaps? The latter is clearly where the community is moving towards (albeit very slowly). I'm somewhat sceptical about the "free…
jenny91 on HNI would be interested in the differences between this and protomaps
zarazas on HN
MapTiler
From 1 comment
Related : I'm building https://github.com/laem/cartes, an alternative to Google Maps. On top of a custom protomaps tileset and a few other MapTiler options (such as satellite and…
maelito on HN
Mapbox
From 1 comment
Neat! We used to host our own mbtiles map for like $11/mo, but the problem was (this was prior to planetiler and people generating public worldwide mbtile dumps) there wasn't a…
ryantgtg on HN
Versatiles
From 1 comment
Yes, Versatiles is a nice truly open project! One of the long term plans for OpenFreeMap is to migrate to Shortbread + Versatiles styles.
hyperknot on HN