Headway vs Protomaps
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
Protomaps
Serverless maps from a single PMTiles archive
| Feature | Headway | Protomaps |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Rust | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,957 | ★ 2,980 |
| First released | 2022 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Google Maps | Mapbox, 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 Protomaps if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Headway or Protomaps better?
Protomaps is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Headway if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Headway and Protomaps free and open-source?
Yes. Headway is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Protomaps under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Headway and Protomaps with Docker?
Headway: yes. Protomaps: check the project docs for container support.