OpenLayers vs Tangram
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?
OpenLayers
High-performance library for all kinds of web maps
VS
Tangram
Flexible WebGL map rendering engine
| Feature | OpenLayers | Tangram |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | source, bare-metal | source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,532 | ★ 2,335 |
| First released | 2006 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Google Maps JavaScript API | Mapbox GL JS, Google Maps |
Why pick each one
Choose OpenLayers if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- Mature project with 12.5k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Tangram if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (2.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenLayers or Tangram better?
Neither is universally better. OpenLayers has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are OpenLayers and Tangram free and open-source?
Yes. OpenLayers is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Tangram under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenLayers and Tangram with Docker?
OpenLayers: check the project docs for container support. Tangram: check the project docs for container support.