Tegola vs TileServer GL
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?
Tegola
Vector tile server for geospatial data
VS
TileServer GL
Serve vector and raster map tiles from MBTiles
| Feature | Tegola | TileServer GL |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,498 | ★ 2,872 |
| First released | 2016 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Mapbox, Tilehosting | Mapbox |
Why pick each one
Choose Tegola if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.5k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Choose TileServer GL if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Tegola or TileServer GL better?
Neither is universally better. TileServer GL has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Tegola and TileServer GL free and open-source?
Yes. Tegola is licensed under MIT and TileServer GL under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Tegola and TileServer GL with Docker?
Tegola: yes. TileServer GL: yes.