Mapnik 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?
Mapnik
Toolkit for rendering raster map tiles from spatial data
VS
Protomaps
Serverless maps from a single PMTiles archive
| Feature | Mapnik | Protomaps |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | LGPL-2.1 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | C++ | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,949 | ★ 2,980 |
| First released | 2006 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Google Maps, Mapbox | Mapbox, Google Maps |
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 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 Mapnik or Protomaps better?
Neither is universally better. Mapnik has the larger community, while Protomaps is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Mapnik and Protomaps free and open-source?
Yes. Mapnik is licensed under LGPL-2.1 and Protomaps under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mapnik and Protomaps with Docker?
Mapnik: yes. Protomaps: check the project docs for container support.