Overview Information about Famous Google Maps

Google Maps is a proud product of Google Inc and is a major part of their services. The Google Maps service was publicly launched in February 2005 and from that time it has grown into a giant product with so many user-end API services such as routing, direction, map tiles design customization, route traffic, many advanced layers, overlays, map customization options and much more. The major boost of Google Maps in the online world was when people were able to start integrating their maps solution in their websites. Now it’s so common that we see almost every single website, either corporate or commercial, have a section of maps showing their location.

We have hundreds of solutions in almost every CMS or framework, such as WordPress, through which we can integrate Google Maps into our websites. Moreover, it can be integrated for free and ads free, but Google states in its terms of service that they reserve the rights to display Google ads in the future.

Draw Backs of Google Maps API Services

When we think from the developers’ point of view the first thing which comes to our mind is the source code of Google Maps, which is proprietary of Google Inc and we can’t play around with it to adjust it according to our requirements. The libraries’ hacks will not work much longer as the whole package is loaded every time and Google keeps enhancing it with every release. On the other hand, we have Open Street Maps which is open source mapping solutions that is getting popular every day because of its open database license. Furthermore, we can download the whole solution and edit it without any restriction.

Overview of Open Street Maps

Open Street Maps (OSM) is an open-source project maintained by the OpenStreetMap community that provides free editable maps of the whole world. OSM’s motivation was to make a restriction-free mapping solution that can be used for commercial and non-commercial usage which any limitation. Moreover, the project was launched in August 2004 by Steve Coast as a non-profit organization. Moreover, the data of OSM is a perfect alternate solution for Google Maps that contains almost all the service that Google Maps offers with the advantage of customizability. In the next section, we will compare the services of both mapping solutions.

Comparison of both Mapping Solutions

Geocoding API, Google Maps vs Open Street Maps

Google Maps Geocoding API is the service through which we can convert the address into coordinates by providing the address as a string to the API. In addition, the reverse works as well, this is known as reverse Geocoding. The accuracy of Geocoding API is very high and it can convert almost any address into its latitude/longitude coordinates. The Standard Usage API limit has a usage policy of 2,500 requests per day for free, more requests will be billed. For Open Street Maps we have Nominatim which is a free service and is hosted on many private servers. MapQuest and Mapbox also provide address lookup services as paid solutions.

GeoDirection API, Google Maps vs Open Street Maps

Google Direction service is a pretty popular service that calculates the distance between the two coordinates or addresses and draws an interactive route over the map that shows turn by turn direction with distance and time. In addition, It also provides several modes of transportation where a user can choose between transit, driving, walking, or cycling. The API can be used by anyone through either their server or client-side with a usage limit of 2,500 free directions requests per day. Whereas Open Street Maps doesn’t have any direction API, there are some other 3rd Party solutions such as Mapbox, MapQuest that can be used as a paid solution.

Place API Service, Google Maps vs Open Street Maps

Google has a unique Place API typeahead widget that can be installed on any website or app very easily. Furthermore, Google provides a list of locations (Zipcode, County, City, State, Country) and keeps filtering as you type the address using its typeahead feature. In addition, this API service works with Google Maps API and has a usage limit. However, for small or medium scale websites the usage limit is pretty good. OSM lacks such widget as free service, a third-party provider such as Mapbox does provide such service but that’s just a data service rather than a widget.

Overlays, Google Maps vs Open Street Maps

Google Maps does support overlay for images and basic shapes such as Polyline, Polygon, Circle, etc. In addition, Google Maps, also provides a library for drawing managers which can easily be used for user web applications. In Open Street Maps, the same or more functionality can be achieved using third-party library such as “Leaflet” which is free and can be extended for your requirements.

Data Layers: Google Maps vs Open Street Maps

Google Maps supports many types of data layers which include KML Layer, data layers for earthquakes, heat maps, fusion tables, etc. It also provides data layers for traffic, transit, and bicycle layers. In OSM these layers are not part of the project. In addition, these custom layers can be fetched from Mapbox or Mapquest services.

Street View Feature, Google Maps vs Open Street Maps

Google has a pretty accurate street view feature that provides panoramic 360-degree views from designated roads throughout its coverage area. The view is the same as shown in https://maps.google.com. However, the coverage of this 360 view is for limited cities. Open Street Map or any other 3rd party service provider doesn’t have such a great service.

Few Comparison Stats based on Features

Conclusion

In the end, we will conclude this comparison by saying that Google Maps is good with its easy features. However, if you are looking for more customization and control, the open source solution which is Open Street Maps is a better choice. Moreoves, Open Street Maps provides lots of options to manage things according to your requirements.