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Comment by flakeoil | Hacker News Reader

It's weird, 10 years ago I implemented using Google Maps API a website with dynamic maps, distance matrix, geolocation, map overlays and address autocomplete completely free also at high traffic. It was also easy to use.

Five years ago Google started to charge an outrageous amount > $1000/month and we could not continue so we switched to something that cost $100/month. And that was for only the maps. We had to scrap the distance matrix and address autocomplete.

Today it's still the same status, and if you want something cheaper then you have to work on putting pieces together like the Washington Post does.

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Same here with our website https://www.meetways.com. This product was created around the time google created their maps API. In fact we worked extensively with google to help them iron out some of their API issues. They even discuss our product on their blog: https://mapsplatform.googleblog.com/2008/10/geocoding-in-rev...

This site made a little bit of money, but not that much. But then 5 years ago google raised their prices so much that we were suddenly in the red. We had to drop the places API (replaced with Yelp) and the autocomplete API (we don't even use that anymore). Recently we've been moving to Apple Maps API which has a pretty generous free tier. Stadia Maps also looks interesting.

Would love to chat to see if we can help you! If you want, give me a shout at luke <at> stadiamaps.com

I'm not affiliated, but a reasonably satisfied customer of https://maptiler.com for my project https://cubetrek.com. Perhaps also worth to take a look.

Love the aesthetics you achieved with your map. Did you blog about the design process anywhere?

Thanks! No, but let me know if you have any questions. You can send me an email at contact@cubetrek.com

> ”Stadia Maps”

Interesting name, considering Stadia was the brand of a recently-discontinued cloud gaming platform made by… Google.

Yeah, it's unfortunate as Google launched their gaming product after we launched our maps, and we've outlasted them ;)

We offer a very competitive solution that is quickly becoming a one-stop shop for what you mentioned: https://stadiamaps.com.

All that functionality for a lot less than $1000 / month.

you should put a price comparison for stadia vs. google vs. mapbox

Yes. We should, and we're literally working on it right now!

and as a bonus you've got alidade smooth, the ideal map tile for overlaying colorful data on top of: https://stadiamaps.com/themes/

Thanks for the kind words! :)

Hey guys not affiliated with Stadia but I can vouch for them, I use it in one of my products for a few years now and never heard a complaint, only nice things. You can't go wrong with them.

Thanks for the kind words!

No idea which customer you are :), but if you ever want to have a chat or have feedback, ping me!

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