Protomaps
Protomaps builds PMTiles, an open source single-file archive format and basemap tileset for self-hosted interactive web maps, serving frontend developers and organizations seeking a low-cost alternative to Google Maps or Mapbox.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersClaymont, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Protomaps does
Protomaps is an open source mapping infrastructure company that provides a single-file archive format (PMTiles), a basemap tileset derived from OpenStreetMap and Natural Earth, and a hosted tile API. The core technology is PMTiles, a Hilbert-ordered single-file archive specification for pyramids of tiled geospatial data (vector tiles, rasters, and custom layers) served on-demand via HTTP Range Requests. A PMTiles archive can be deployed as a static file on any S3-compatible cloud storage, eliminating the need for a tile server. The pre-built Protomaps Basemap is distributed as a ~120GB planet archive with daily builds, available in five visual flavors and 41 language translations, with client-side support through MapLibre GL JS, Leaflet, and OpenLayers. The company is a privately held Delaware LLC founded in 2019 by Brandon Liu (primary maintainer) with 1-10 employees and no external venture capital; the open-core model was retired in February 2024 in favor of a fully open source distribution under BSD and ODbL licenses.
The business operates three revenue streams. Commercial users of the hosted tile API become GitHub Sponsors under a freemium model with a soft cap of 1,000,000 tile requests per month, with sponsorship covering Cloudflare Workers and CDN infrastructure costs. Self-hosting users pay their own cloud storage and bandwidth (cited at roughly $120/month on AWS for comparable usage versus ~$3,640/month for Google Maps), which generates no direct revenue but drives adoption. Consultation services are available by direct email for organizations implementing Protomaps. The go-to-market is product-led and community-led: developer documentation at docs.protomaps.com, GitHub repositories, conference presence (State of the Map, FOSS4G Asia), and Bluesky/Fediverse accounts, with named enterprise references including SFO Museum, Felt, and Flickr. In February 2024, Protomaps received an NGI Zero Core grant from NLnet Foundation to fund public-sector enhancements, multilingual localization, and security audits, signaling intent to expand into government and EU public-sector use cases that prioritize GDPR-friendly self-hosting.
Protomaps firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Protomaps
- Legal name
- Protomaps LLC
- Website
- https://protomaps.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Protomaps builds PMTiles, an open source single-file archive format and basemap tileset for self-hosted interactive web maps, serving frontend developers and organizations seeking a low-cost alternative to Google Maps or Mapbox.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Protomaps industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Open source mapping software
- NAICS
- Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services (541370)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Mapping & Basemap Platforms (Tiles/SDKs) (BPAMANAB)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Enterprise PaaS (App Runtime & Managed Application Platforms) (HDAEAKAB)
Keywords
Where Protomaps is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Claymont
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Protomaps business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Hosted API (GitHub Sponsorship): The Protomaps Tile API is free for non-commercial use. Commercial use requires becoming a GitHub Sponsor, which offsets the cost of running the infrastructure (Cloudflare Workers and CDN). The hosted API has a soft limit of 1,000,000 tile requests per month.
- Self-Hosting (Infrastructure Costs): Users pay their own cloud storage and bandwidth costs to self-host PMTiles archives. This model creates no lock-in - users can leave the platform anytime once they outgrow the hosted API. Cost comparison: Protomaps on AWS ~$120/month vs Google Maps ~$3,640/month for comparable usage.
- Consultation Services: For companies seeking advice on adopting Protomaps, consultation is available by contacting [email protected].
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Non-Commercial Free Tier |
| Subscription | Monthly | Commercial Use (GitHub Sponsorship) |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Protomaps product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Protomaps provides open source mapping software built around PMTiles, a single-file archive format for pyramids of tiled geospatial data (vectors, rasters, custom layers) served via HTTP Range Requests from any S3-compatible cloud storage. The offering includes a pre-built vector basemap generated from OpenStreetMap and Natural Earth data, a hosted CDN-cached Tile API, a JavaScript library with MapLibre/Leaflet/OpenLayers plugins, a CLI for creating and managing archives, and an NPM package for generating custom basemap styles.
Product overview
Protomaps is an open source mapping system consisting of three core components: PMTiles (a single-file archive format for tiled geospatial data using HTTP Range Requests), an ecosystem of tools and libraries (JavaScript library with MapLibre/Leaflet/OpenLayers plugins, Python package, and CLI), and a pre-built vector basemap based on OpenStreetMap. The system is designed for frontend developers to self-host earth-scale interactive maps without server infrastructure. Users can download the free basemap planet file (~120 GB), extract regional subsets via CLI, host on any S3-compatible cloud storage, and serve via CDN or directly from storage. The hosted API provides a CDN-cached alternative requiring API keys for non-commercial use. All core components are released under BSD/ODbL licenses with full open source transition completed in 2024.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- PMTiles: An open archive format for pyramids of tile data, accessible via HTTP Range Requests. PMTiles is a single-file archive format for tiled data supporting rasters, vector basemaps, and custom layers.
- Protomaps Basemap
Products and services
- PMTiles Open archive format for pyramids of tiled data (vectors, rasters, custom layers), accessible via HTTP Range Requests. Supports MVT vector tiles, raster images (PNG, JPEG, WEBP), and custom geospatial data. Currently at version 3 specification. Designed for cloud storage deployment with zero server setup.
- Hosted Basemap API Global CDN-cached basemap tile API serving MVT vector tiles based on OpenStreetMap data. Free for non-commercial use with a soft limit of 1,000,000 tile requests per month; commercial use requires becoming a GitHub Sponsor. Provides three access methods: Style JSON, TileJSON, and raw ZXY URLs.
- Protomaps Basemap General-purpose vector basemap built from OpenStreetMap and Natural Earth data, distributed as a single PMTiles archive. Full planet file is approximately 120 GB covering zoom levels 0 to 15. Includes layers for boundaries, buildings, landcover, landuse, places, POIs, roads, transit, and water. Available in 5 visual flavors (light, dark, white, grayscale, black) with 41 translated languages. Daily builds available at maps.protomaps.com/builds.
- pmtiles CLI Command-line tool (go-pmtiles) for creating, validating, extracting regions from, merging, and uploading PMTiles archives. Single binary with no external dependencies, available for all major operating systems and architectures.
- pmtiles JavaScript Library JavaScript library for reading PMTiles archives directly in web browsers. Includes plugins for MapLibre GL, Leaflet, and OpenLayers map rendering libraries.
- @protomaps/basemaps NPM package providing programmatic generation of MapLibre GL style JSON with configurable flavor, language, and layer settings. Enables developers to customize basemap themes, languages, and layer configurations programmatically.
- Mapterhorn Terrain Tiles Terrarium-encoded RGB terrain tiles aggregated from multiple global data sources, distributed as PMTiles archives. Launched in 2025 via the external mapterhorn.com project.
- PMTiles.io Viewer Web-based browser-based tool for visualizing PMTiles archives on a map, inspecting metadata, and debugging individual tiles. Available at pmtiles.io.
- protomaps/basemaps pipeline Open source Java/Planetiler-based pipeline for generating custom basemap PMTiles archives from OpenStreetMap data. Supports local city/country builds or planet-scale generation.
Quantifiable outcome
- Reduce map bills from hundreds per month to pennies on existing cloud storage
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Protomaps
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Protomaps technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration16 records
Feature5 records
Protomaps partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered minor.
- AllmapsminorAllmaps is a map overlay and georeferencing platform that supports PMTiles format. Listed as a supporter of the Protomaps project on the main website.
- Cloud-Native Geospatial ForumminorCloud-Native Geospatial Forum (cloudnativegeo.org) is an industry consortium working on open standards for cloud-native geospatial data. Listed as a supporter of the Protomaps project.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Protomaps competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Geoapify: Geoapify provides commercial map tiles, geocoding, and location APIs with OpenStreetMap-derived data. It directly competes with Protomaps' hosted API for SMB and developer customers seeking affordable OSM-based map services.
- MapTiler: MapTiler provides commercial OpenStreetMap-based vector and raster tiles, map hosting, and self-hosted map solutions. It is a direct competitor to Protomaps, particularly for customers comparing paid OSM-based tile services with self-hosted PMTiles alternatives.
- Mapbox: Mapbox is a leading commercial mapping platform offering vector tiles, basemaps, and APIs for web and mobile. It is a direct competitor to Protomaps' hosted basemap API, with Mapbox typically positioned as the primary paid alternative that Protomaps' cost savings narrative targets.
- Stadia Maps: Stadia Maps offers commercial map tile APIs and self-hosted map services built on OpenStreetMap data. It is a direct competitor in the OSM-based tile serving market, with overlapping value propositions around affordability and developer experience.
- Thunderforest: Thunderforest offers commercial map tile APIs using OpenStreetMap data with multiple styled themes. It is a direct competitor in the OSM-based tile API market, particularly for customers wanting themed basemaps as a service.
Broad incumbents
- AWS Location Service: AWS Location Service provides commercial map tiles, geocoding, and location APIs as part of the AWS ecosystem. It is a broad incumbent competitor in the cloud-native mapping API space, particularly for AWS customers considering alternatives to third-party tile providers.
- HERE Technologies: HERE Technologies is a broad incumbent providing commercial map data, APIs, and location services for enterprise and automotive customers. It competes with Protomaps in the broader mapping API market, especially for enterprise customers needing global map data and location services.
- ESRI ArcGIS Platform: ESRI's ArcGIS Platform is a broad incumbent offering geospatial services, basemaps, and tile APIs across enterprise and government markets. It competes with Protomaps at the higher end of the market, particularly for government and large enterprise customers that ArcGIS has traditionally served.
Emerging players
- MapLibre: MapLibre is an open source fork of Mapbox GL JS that provides the rendering libraries used by Protomaps. While not a direct competitor in tile serving, it is a closely related ecosystem player and the recommended rendering library for Protomaps' PMTiles format.
- OpenStreetMap Foundation: OpenStreetMap Foundation maintains the open map data that Protomaps' basemap is built from. While not a direct commercial competitor, it is the foundational data source for Protomaps' offering and represents the broader open mapping ecosystem that Protomaps is part of.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Protomaps social profiles
Digital presenceProtomaps compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Protomaps financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Protomaps leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Protomaps funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Protomaps M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Protomaps
What does Protomaps do?
Protomaps provides open source mapping software built around PMTiles, a single-file archive format for pyramids of tiled geospatial data (vectors, rasters, custom layers) served via HTTP Range Requests from any S3-compatible cloud storage. The offering includes a pre-built vector basemap generated from OpenStreetMap and Natural Earth data, a hosted CDN-cached Tile API, a JavaScript library with MapLibre/Leaflet/OpenLayers plugins, a CLI for creating and managing archives, and an NPM package for generating custom basemap styles.
Is Protomaps a public or private company?
Protomaps is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Protomaps founded?
Protomaps was founded in 2019. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Protomaps based?
Protomaps is headquartered in Claymont, United States, in the North America region.
How does Protomaps make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Hosted API (GitHub Sponsorship) is the primary driver. The others are self-Hosting (Infrastructure Costs) and consultation Services.
Who are Protomaps's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Geoapify, MapTiler, Mapbox, Stadia Maps and Thunderforest. Broad incumbents are AWS Location Service, HERE Technologies and ESRI ArcGIS Platform. Emerging players are MapLibre and OpenStreetMap Foundation.
Does Protomaps have an API?
Yes. The Protomaps Hosted Tile API serves MVT vector tiles conforming to Basemap Layers. It provides three access methods: Style JSON for MapLibre GL JS, TileJSON for custom styles, and raw ZXY protocol URLs. Non-commercial use is free; commercial use requires GitHub Sponsorship. API keys are required and subject to CORS restrictions set per key. Developer documentation is at protomaps.com/api.
What industry is Protomaps in?
Protomaps's product category is Open source mapping software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAMANAB, Mapping & Basemap Platforms (Tiles/SDKs), with a secondary code of HDAEAKAB, Enterprise PaaS (App Runtime & Managed Application Platforms). Its NAICS code is 541370 and its SIC code is 7372.