Google or Mapbox? What provider should I choose?
Storemapper works with the Google Maps Platform and Mapbox platform to ensure your customers get the best possible map experience. As your map is on your website, publicly available, and your customer uses it freely, you’ll have to have your own relationship with mapping provider (Google in this case) .
Google offers 28,000 free searches a month, however if you go over that amount you can pay extra charges for the extra usage you may use. This would be in the amount of $7 per 1000 map loads.
Mapbox offers 50,000 free searches a month and if you do go over that amount, you will be charged $5 for every 1000 map loads.
99% of our customers should fit into free credit, so for almost every customer, there are no additional licensing fees and nothing extra you need to worry about when using your store locator. You can keep an eye on your usage via the Google console and checking out the searches via your dashboard -
Let’s compare these providers using the following areas:
- Map Data & Services
- Customization
- Cost
Map Data & Services
Google is using his own Google’s data
Mapbox – relies on OpenStreetMaps and crowd-sourced geographical data
Apart from actual map data, your Storemapper is using additional services to provide you with store locator functionality.
It’s Geocoding – conversion of human-readable address into a pair of coordinates (lat/long). Without this, you won’t be able to place your locations on the map and make them searchable.
Another handy feature is Autocompletion. Whenever your end-user inputs something in the search field he/she gets a list of addresses suggestions. This is the best way to get better input searches and improve the users experience with your store locator.
Both Google and Mapbox support Geocoding and Autocompletion.
Google or Mapbox? Google has access to huge data streams that no ordinary company can afford access to. OpenStreetMap used by Mapbox does not have a robust database for developing countries and information displayed on 4th or 5th zoom level could be insufficient. Google is considered to be more accurate.
Customization
Every map provider gives you a way to customize the look of the underlying map and its geographical objects like water, roads, country labels e.t.c
Google Maps uses CSS-like syntax that you can add to your store locator account and it will be loaded on the fly. You can use Snazzy Maps to create your own style or get a free one from the large list of already created presets.
You can control the visibility, color, and opacity of every visual element on the map. However, you cannot use custom textures, nor provide separate styles at each zoom level
Mapbox went a bit farther with this. It opens its entire platform for customization. You can use Mapbox Studio – a powerful tool where you can customize your map, create re-usable datasets. You can get very granular with styling and create unique designs.
Note - Google or Mapbox? Mapbox gives you more options for map customization, so if you want to create a unique map and go very creative, then choose Mapbox!
Google or Mapbox? Mapbox is definitely WAY CHEAPER than Google. If your map usage goes above Google free quota, you’d definitely want to switch to Mapbox.
Lastly! If you want to check store locators running on Google vs Mapbox please see the following links:
https://www.storemapper.com/demo
https://www.beardbrand.com/pages/our-retailers
Mapbox
https://ezpzfun.com/authorized-retailers
If you have any further questions, please feel free to reach out at help@storemapper.co