OSRM 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?
OSRM
High-performance routing engine for OpenStreetMap
VS
Protomaps
Serverless maps from a single PMTiles archive
| Feature | OSRM | Protomaps |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | C++ | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,955 | ★ 2,980 |
| First released | 2012 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Google Directions API | Mapbox, Google Maps |
Why pick each one
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++
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 OSRM or Protomaps better?
Neither is universally better. OSRM has the larger community, while Protomaps is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are OSRM and Protomaps free and open-source?
Yes. OSRM is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Protomaps under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OSRM and Protomaps with Docker?
OSRM: yes. Protomaps: check the project docs for container support.