Headway vs Mapnik
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted maps & gis options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Headway | Mapnik |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 84 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Language | Rust | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,002 | ★ 3,961 |
| First released | 2022 | 2006 |
| Replaces | Google Maps | Google Maps, Mapbox |
What are Headway and Mapnik?
Headway
Headway is a complete, self-hostable maps stack that combines tiles, geocoding, and routing into one deployment. It aims to let anyone run their own Google Maps replacement for a city or region.
- Complete maps stack
- Search and routing built in
- Per-region deployment
- Privacy focused
Mapnik
Mapnik is an open-source toolkit for rendering raster map tiles from OpenStreetMap and other geospatial data using a flexible styling engine. It powers custom slippy maps without relying on commercial tile providers.
- Raster tile rendering
- Flexible styling
- OpenStreetMap data support
- No vendor lock-in
Headway vs Mapnik: key differences
Headway is written in Rust, while Mapnik is built with C++. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Headway versus LGPL-2.1 for Mapnik. Mapnik is the lighter option, starting around 2,048 MB of RAM against 8,192 MB for Headway. Mapnik is the more established project (first released 2006), while Headway arrived in 2022.
Why pick each one
Choose Headway if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
Choose Mapnik if…
- Released under the LGPL-2.1 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Headway or Mapnik better?
Neither is universally better. Mapnik has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Headway and Mapnik free and open-source?
Yes. Headway is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Mapnik under LGPL-2.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Headway and Mapnik with Docker?
Headway: yes. Mapnik: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Headway or Mapnik?
Mapnik has the smaller minimum footprint at 2,048 MB of RAM, compared to about 8,192 MB for Headway. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.