OpenStreetMap Carto vs OSRM
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?
OpenStreetMap Carto
The standard map style for OpenStreetMap rendering
VS
OSRM
High-performance routing engine for OpenStreetMap
| Feature | OpenStreetMap Carto | OSRM |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | CC0-1.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | CartoCSS | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 8,192 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,723 | ★ 7,955 |
| First released | 2012 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Google Maps | Google Directions API |
Why pick each one
Choose OpenStreetMap Carto if…
- Released under the CC0-1.0 license
- Active community (1.7k GitHub stars)
- Written in CartoCSS
Choose OSRM if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenStreetMap Carto or OSRM better?
Neither is universally better. OSRM has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are OpenStreetMap Carto and OSRM free and open-source?
Yes. OpenStreetMap Carto is licensed under CC0-1.0 and OSRM under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenStreetMap Carto and OSRM with Docker?
OpenStreetMap Carto: check the project docs for container support. OSRM: yes.