3.9 KiB
OpenFreeMap
What is OpenFreeMap?
OpenFreeMap is an open and free OpenStreetMap tile hosting service.
It's truly free: there are no limits on the number of map views or requests you can make, nor on how you use your map. There is no registration page, user database, API keys, or cookies.
It's truly open-source: everything, including the full production setup, is on GitHub.
Why is this important?
OpenStreetMap is one of the most significant collective projects in history. More than 2 million users have contributed to it over 19 years; 3 million edits are made each day.
Unfortunately, when you want to use the map on your website or app, you need to look for a commercial map tile provider and hope your site doesn't become too popular. Otherwise, you might end up with a $10,000 bill in a single day, as Hoodmaps did *.
You can try self-hosting, but it requires a big server and a lot of time to get it right.
Who is behind this project?
I'm Zsolt Ero (twitter, blog). I created MapHub and have been running map hosting in production for 8 years.
How can I use it?
How can I donate or support this project?
...
Is commercial usage allowed?
Yes
Why did you make this?
I waited for years for someone to offer this service but realized no one was going to make it. So, I thought I might use my map hosting experience and do it myself.
I'll share more about the reasons in a future blog post. Feel free to subscribe.
How can this work? How can a one-person project offer unlimited map hosting for free?
There is no technical reason why vector tile hosting should cost as much as it does today. Vector tiles are just static files. OK, serving 300 million files is not easy, but at the end of the day, they are just files.
Financially, the plan is to keep renting Hetzner servers until they cover the bandwidth. I believe it can work if enough people subscribe to the support plans.
If this project helps you save on your map hosting costs, please consider subscribing to a support plan!
How can I follow this project?
twitter: hyperknot and OpenFreeMapOrg
The main repo is hyperknot/openfreemap
Styles are at hyperknot/openfreemap-styles
mastodon zsolt https://elk.zone/sigmoid.social/@hyperknot/followers
mastodon ofm TODO
What is the tech stack?
The map schema is OpenMapTiles.
The tiles are generated by Planetiler.
There is no tile server running, only BTRFS partition images with 300 million hard-linked files.
The server is nginx on Ubuntu.
There is no cloud, just dedicated servers at Hetzner.
Currently, it is behind Cloudflare, but it has been designed so that it can be changed at any time.
Moreover, a lot of work is going into customizing the styles at openfreemap-styles.
What about PMTiles?
I would have loved to use PMTiles; they are a brilliant idea!
Unfortunately, making range requests in 80 GB files just doesn't work in production. It is fine for files smaller than 500 MB, but it has terrible latency and caching issues for full planet datasets.
Attribution
If you are using MapLibre, attributions are automatically added.
If you are using this in printed media or video, please attribute:
OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap
You do not need to display the OpenFreeMap part, but it is nice if you do.
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