I'm assuming OpenStreetMap provides the vector data. OpenStreetMap doesn't charge to use their service commercially iirc, so what do you provide that OSM doesn't?
So, the short answer is, yes, you could do this with OSM's data, but most companies prefer to pay to abstract away the management efforts.
We also provide other geo services, such as static maps and routing, which are often useful for companies and projects needing maps.
Sure. Here's a brief overview:
- Bill-as-you-go vs tier-based billing Many other services use usage-based billing, which is great for minimizing costs, but not so much for cost-prediction. We use tiers with soft-limits, so if you exceed your given usage for a few days of the month, it's not big deal and your bill doesn't change (e.g., you hit the HN front page!). Our initial customers told us consistent costs were very useful when handling client projects.
- Raw price We believed we could deliver a premium product at lower costs than other providers. Based on price comparisons, we believe we are on the right path to achieve this. We also do not treat certain applications (such as asset tracking) differently.
- Map design We didn't like many of the other provider's themes, so we built our own and plan to expand our portfolio over time.
- Goals We want to build a sustainable map service provider that respects the rights and data of its users (and its users' users)—not grow at any cost. Many of the other providers aggressively market for growth or capturing users' data, or marketing their own products on the map (e.g., reviews or other places), we want to get out of the way and allow your data to shine on our maps.
There are more differentiators, but these are some of the factors that led us to begin our own service.
I have an idea in the works and was beginning to research self-serving OSM tiles for it. Will definitely try Stadia.
Yes and no. The OSM project provides a database dump. You can download it all ( https://planet.openstreetmap.org/ ). But it's not really in a format that you can draw maps from without processing (look at https://switch2osm.org/ to see how).
> OpenStreetMap doesn't charge to use their service commercially iirc
The map images on openstreetmap.org are run by unpaid volunteers, in a donated server space, and is for the OSM project and mappers to use. If some group starts hammering the service, then they'll block you, commerical or non-commerical is not relevant. There is no guarantees of service. If you want guarantees, pay someone :)