Mapnik vs Nominatim
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?
Mapnik
Toolkit for rendering raster map tiles from spatial data
VS
Nominatim
Geocoding and reverse geocoding for OpenStreetMap data
| Feature | Mapnik | Nominatim |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | LGPL-2.1 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 16,384 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,949 | ★ 4,406 |
| First released | 2006 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Google Maps, Mapbox | Google Geocoding API |
Why pick each one
Choose Mapnik if…
- Released under the LGPL-2.1 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Choose Nominatim if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Mapnik or Nominatim better?
Neither is universally better. Nominatim has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Mapnik and Nominatim free and open-source?
Yes. Mapnik is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and Nominatim under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mapnik and Nominatim with Docker?
Mapnik: yes. Nominatim: yes.