Headway vs OpenStreetMap Website
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted maps & gis options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Headway
Self-hostable maps stack you can run yourself
VS
OpenStreetMap Website
The Rails application powering openstreetmap.org
| Feature | Headway | OpenStreetMap Website |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,957 | ★ 2,796 |
| First released | 2022 | 2006 |
| Replaces | Google Maps | Google Maps |
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 OpenStreetMap Website if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Ruby
Frequently asked questions
Is Headway or OpenStreetMap Website better?
Neither is universally better. Headway has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Headway and OpenStreetMap Website free and open-source?
Yes. Headway is licensed under Apache-2.0 and OpenStreetMap Website under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Headway and OpenStreetMap Website with Docker?
Headway: yes. OpenStreetMap Website: yes.