SHSelfHostIndex

MapLibre GL JS vs deck.gl

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?
MA MapLibre GL JS Open-source interactive vector map library for the web VS DE deck.gl WebGL-powered framework for large-scale data visualization on maps
FeatureMapLibre GL JSdeck.gl
CategoryMaps & GISMaps & GIS
LicenseBSD-3-ClauseMIT
LanguageTypeScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentsource, bare-metalsource
GitHub stars★ 11,304★ 14,360
First released20202016
ReplacesMapbox GL JS, Google Maps JavaScript APIMapbox visualization, ArcGIS

Why pick each one

Choose MapLibre GL JS if…

  • Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
  • Mature project with 11.3k GitHub stars
  • Written in TypeScript
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
MapLibre GL JS details

Choose deck.gl if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Mature project with 14.4k GitHub stars
  • Written in TypeScript
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
deck.gl details

Frequently asked questions

Is MapLibre GL JS or deck.gl better?

Neither is universally better. deck.gl has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are MapLibre GL JS and deck.gl free and open-source?

Yes. MapLibre GL JS is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and deck.gl under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run MapLibre GL JS and deck.gl with Docker?

MapLibre GL JS: check the project docs for container support. deck.gl: check the project docs for container support.

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