Mapnik vs Photon
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
Photon
Fast, typo-tolerant geocoder built on OpenStreetMap
| Feature | Mapnik | Photon |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | LGPL-2.1 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,949 | ★ 2,972 |
| First released | 2006 | 2013 |
| 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 Photon if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Java
Frequently asked questions
Is Mapnik or Photon better?
Neither is universally better. Mapnik has the larger community, while Photon is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Mapnik and Photon free and open-source?
Yes. Mapnik is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and Photon under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mapnik and Photon with Docker?
Mapnik: yes. Photon: yes.