Headway vs Tangram
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
Tangram
Flexible WebGL map rendering engine
| Feature | Headway | Tangram |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Rust | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,957 | ★ 2,335 |
| First released | 2022 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Google Maps | Mapbox GL JS, 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 Tangram if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Headway or Tangram better?
Neither is universally better. Headway has the larger community, while Tangram is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Headway and Tangram free and open-source?
Yes. Headway is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Tangram under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Headway and Tangram with Docker?
Headway: yes. Tangram: check the project docs for container support.