Protomaps vs Valhalla
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?
Protomaps
Serverless maps from a single PMTiles archive
VS
Valhalla
Open-source routing engine with multimodal support
| Feature | Protomaps | Valhalla |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 8,192 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,980 | ★ 6,050 |
| First released | 2021 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Mapbox, Google Maps | Google Directions API |
Why pick each one
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
Choose Valhalla if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 6k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Protomaps or Valhalla better?
Neither is universally better. Valhalla 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 Protomaps and Valhalla free and open-source?
Yes. Protomaps is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Valhalla under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Protomaps and Valhalla with Docker?
Protomaps: check the project docs for container support. Valhalla: yes.