I came so close to getting our app off of Google Maps a few months ago, we'd be saving literally thousands a month. But the "look" of the map from open street map, map tiler, etc was deemed too different and the team was scared it would negatively impact our users. The Maps API is definitely getting worse, and the pricing setup seems like it was cooked up by someone from Microsoft. Also Maplibre and its various wrappers are so much nicer to work it.

• bfayers

  01/14/2026

  I find that the OpenFreeMap[1] 'Liberty' style looks fairly close to Google Maps.

  1: https://openfreemap.org/

  • embedding-shape

    01/14/2026

    Couldn't OpenFreeMap/someone else offer an identical style/theme to Google Maps, or would that be a "copyright" or some other type of infringement in the US?

    • dannyfritz07

      01/14/2026

      Probably an issue of trademark if people confuse the product with Google Maps.

      • embedding-shape

        01/14/2026

        Do people understand that embedded Google Maps "widgets" are "the product Google Maps"? I think for most people it's just "that map on a website", even if there is labels and stuff explicitly saying "Google Maps".

        • butvacuum

          01/14/2026

          they won't care as long as it links to google maps when they click it.

      • NooneAtAll3

        01/14/2026

        speaking of trademarks... when will google walk the xerox plank already?

        to google has been a verb for like a decade already

• cwmma

  01/14/2026

  Usually the 'look' is not the issue as much as the geocoder (which you are only allowed to use with a google basemap, no that clever idea you have isn't going to work), like clients are often excited to use a more customizable basemap but balk when it comes to other geocoders which are nice but are not the google one which people really really are used to.

  • jmuguy

    01/15/2026

    Yeah this was a major problem for us as well. Luckily we can just replace the map, and we'll continue to use the Geocoder and address lookups elsewhere. Its kind of crazy how much better it is with "newer" US addresses vs everything else we've tried.

• jtbaker

  01/14/2026

  I feel like with custom vector based styles, you should be able to get pretty dang close to cloning the look of it? Also subjectively, I find the protomaps basemap themes to be much nicer.

  • jmuguy

    01/15/2026

    Yeah I agree, I found dozens of options that look (subjectively!) a hell of a lot better.

• tdeck

  01/14/2026

  Would it be possible to run an AB test?

  • cwmma

    01/14/2026

    not OP but the google maps API doesn't actually support other vector tiles (and other map libraries are not allowed to use the google map basemap) which means it's not easy to just have two versions of the site that differ only in basemap

  • jmuguy

    01/15/2026

    Possibly but we don't have much to measure which is "better" - maybe could just ask people to give thumbs up or down.

• theshrike79

  01/15/2026

  I tried to use GMaps for a commercial thing years and years ago, but the pricing was "FREE (*)", which made me nope out really fast.

  (*) we will tell you when you go over our undeclared free limit and send you a bill

I've been following Alex Wellerstein off and on for a few years now, since I discovered that he was a science adviser for a crazed nuclear-history TV series called Manh(a)ttan, so I read this post about NUKEMAP when it originally appeared. I wonder whether the situation with Google Maps is any different now. I'm not a developer, so I don't need to know. I'm just curious.

• embedding-shape

  01/14/2026

  > I wonder whether the situation with Google Maps is any different now. I'm not a developer, so I don't need to know. I'm just curious.

  As the Google Maps APIs/libraries already exited the "growth" phase where the focus is acquiring new users, and entered the "squeeze" phase, I'd say it's worse today than it was in 2019.

That map pricing change stole literally months of my life having to rip out google from an app I spend months building it into. F Google

Since then, Open Street Maps is self-hostable and supports all of these calls you'd need to remake this.

And no throwing $1500/month at google for what amounts to 3 colored circles on a map.

• RicoElectrico

  01/14/2026

  *OpenStreetMap.

  Seems today the best solution is to self-host Protomaps which offer very fresh OSM extracts, and if HTTP range requests are on the table, single-file hosting of the whole world map.

  • softskunk

    01/14/2026

    it doesn’t even need to be particularly fresh. for the purposes of this map, it could update just once or twice a decade with no real value loss to anyone using it.

• runjake

  01/14/2026

  OpenStreetMap. No "s", no spaces. Happy hacking! :)

  https://www.openstreetmap.org/

  https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenMapTiles

  There are various ways to implement a self-hosted OpenStreetMap. Here's one: https://blog.netmanageit.com/openstreetmap-server-self-hoste...

I do a lot of maps API calls, and found I get better results (and can save money) by using multiple providers.

So I use Apple Maps, Mapbox, OpenStreetMap, and Google Maps… sometimes to check the results with multiple providers, and sometimes to divvy up the free allotment.

For anyone using Java/Kotlin/JVM, I made an SDK for Apple Maps: https://github.com/WilliamAGH/apple-maps-java which is one with a generous included tier.

Wait until someone writes a script doing a loop or auto-refresh and you get charged 100'000 USD. For such, Google is very dangerous (lot of nightmare stories), you have to avoid as much as possible their public API services.

• ProofHouse

  01/14/2026

  Yup. Avoid Google services especially map at all costs

Google Maps is just Spam spelled backwards.

• SequoiaHope

  01/14/2026

  spaM elgooG

  • mbirth

    01/15/2026

    It’s actually Spanish: Spam El Goog

Protomaps should have been cited.

I never knew about MISSILEMAP, and am happy to report that no Russian missiles, not even the Satan II appear to have the range to reach New Zealand.

...ohhhh, that's why Peter Thiel has citizenship here.