VersaTiles: Open source project as an alternative to commercial map services
The open source project promises the media, NGOs and the open source community a free alternative to commercial map services.
The aim of the open-source project VersaTiles is to make it easier to create and use digital maps for the web. VersaTiles is being developed by data journalist and software developer Michael Kreil. The free and open map infrastructure is primarily aimed at media projects, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the open-source community and is intended to serve as an alternative to commercial map services such as Mapbox or MapTiler. According to Kreil, some media such as SWR – where Kreil worked as a data journalist –, NDR, taz and Berliner Morgenpost are already using VersaTiles to implement interactive map projects, for example to visualize census data or cannabis prohibition zones.
Freely usable map infrastructure
During a presentation at the CCC event "Datenspuren 2024", Kreil gave an insight into the current status of VersaTiles. An important motivation for Kreil is that commercial map providers often incur high costs when projects become successful, which can be problematic for community projects and open-source initiatives. VersaTiles offers an alternative here by providing a free map infrastructure. According to Kreil, the traffic costs are covered in full, but financing VersaTiles is a challenge. Funding is currently available from the Babelsberg Media Innovation Center, but the long-term goal is to create an independent and freely usable map infrastructure without commercial interests. Interested parties can support the project on GitHub or find out more on the website versatiles.org.
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Vector maps in containers
VersaTiles is technically characterized by its own container format for vector map tiles. These tiles are pre-generated and can be downloaded as containers. In this way, Kreil aims to enable flexible and high-performance map processing that is suitable for both large and small projects. The VersaTiles server is written both in Rust and as a Node.js project and ensures high-performance delivery of the maps.
VersaTiles has a modular structure and consists of four parts: Tile generation, map server, network infrastructure and frontend. In the first step, a generator based on tilemaker creates the required vector tiles from the OpenStreetMap data. These are stored in a VersaTiles container. The second level comprises a server that makes the vector tiles available. The third level, the network, takes care of technical aspects such as TLS certificates, caching and load balancing. In the final stage, the front end uses MapLibre to load and render the vector tiles into an interactive map.
This modular approach is designed to enable users to replace and adapt individual components as required. Ready-made styles, fonts and icons are available for quick integration. For further support, VersaTiles offers a range of tools, including scripts for tile generation, configuration files, NPM packages for various functions, Docker images, a Node.js server and rendering tools. These cover the entire process from data generation to front-end display and promise flexible adaptation to different requirements and architectures.
Although the project is already well advanced, Kreil sees the current status of VersaTiles as a "shell". Future improvements such as better documentation, additional developer tools and new functions such as address search are planned. During his presentation, Kreil invited the community to actively participate in the further development and emphasized the importance of a strong community for the long-term success of the project.
(vza)
