Martin 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?
Martin
Blazing-fast vector tile server written in Rust
VS
Protomaps
Serverless maps from a single PMTiles archive
| Feature | Martin | Protomaps |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Rust | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | binary, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,814 | ★ 2,980 |
| First released | 2018 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Mapbox | Mapbox, Google Maps |
Why pick each one
Choose Martin if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
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 Martin or Protomaps better?
Neither is universally better. Martin has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Martin and Protomaps free and open-source?
Yes. Martin is licensed under MIT and Protomaps under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Martin and Protomaps with Docker?
Martin: yes. Protomaps: check the project docs for container support.