deck.gl vs wanderer
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?
deck.gl
WebGL-powered framework for large-scale data visualization on maps
VS
wanderer
Trail database where you can upload your recorded tracks or create new
| Feature | deck.gl | wanderer |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,360 | ★ 3,802 |
| First released | 2016 | 2026 |
| Replaces | Mapbox visualization, ArcGIS | — |
Why pick each one
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
Choose wanderer if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is deck.gl or wanderer 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 deck.gl and wanderer free and open-source?
Yes. deck.gl is licensed under MIT and wanderer under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run deck.gl and wanderer with Docker?
deck.gl: check the project docs for container support. wanderer: yes.