The Google price hike was a while ago but APIs continue to be too expensive for folks [1].
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26991625#27003898
For tile hosting: Openmaptiles [2], based on Openstreetmap data. Either pay them for out-of-the-box experience, or use their open-source code to set up your own server at whatever hosting for whatever price you prefer.
(I made it to for myself and later shared it with friends and others.)
https://developer.here.com/pricing
Disclaimer: I work for here.
Sounds to me like there are still are gaps that new services could fill to make it easier to use.
But as you said, you can self-host the maps (and geocoding/routing) with a server beefy enough.
To this day still covered by the free tier whereas on Google it went overnight from free to $300+/month.
I can’t quite recall if you need to be registered as an Apple Developer to use it (probably).
Rereading OP I realise the question was about APIs rather than necessarily web-based mapping (which is how I initially had read it)
$10 for 100,000 transactions (e.g. geocoding requests, tile sessions)
We have a tool to compare geocoding results across different providers: https://www.nettoolkit.com/geo/demo
We also have a JavaScript library (MapWrapper) that makes working with maps easier (including allowing you to easily switch among a few of the different tile providers).
We welcome feedback!
Map display? Geolocation? Routing?
I am also curious.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out at support @ [domain].