TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Show HN: Self-Hosted Maps Stack

213 pointsby ellenhpalmost 3 years ago
Over the past week I built a project to let people self-host an entire maps stack so they don&#x27;t have to send data to the big G. Right now it includes a base map, geocoder and directions server. Currently only bicycle directions are supported, and I&#x27;m only hosting tiles for Seattle because I&#x27;m unemployed and can&#x27;t afford to host data for the whole planet. Check it out!<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;maps.ellenhp.me&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;maps.ellenhp.me&#x2F;</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;ellenhp&#x2F;headway" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;ellenhp&#x2F;headway</a><p>Ultimately I&#x27;d like to really focus on transit routing (not implemented) but I&#x27;ll probably throw a driving mode in there too.

17 comments

devitalmost 3 years ago
What&#x27;s the advantage compared to using <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;</a> and Organic Maps, or self-hosting them? (the website is <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;openstreetmap&#x2F;openstreetmap-website" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;openstreetmap&#x2F;openstreetmap-website</a> and the tile server is <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;gravitystorm&#x2F;openstreetmap-carto&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;gravitystorm&#x2F;openstreetmap-carto&#x2F;</a>)
评论 #31537161 未加载
donalhuntalmost 3 years ago
Looks like it uses OpenStreetMap data. Please ensure attribution is displayed as per the license terms.<p>See <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;copyright" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.openstreetmap.org&#x2F;copyright</a>
评论 #31538260 未加载
ellenhpalmost 3 years ago
I&#x27;d really love feedback and suggestions by the way! I have a fair amount of experience in maps but I&#x27;ve never just built an entire maps web app from scratch so I&#x27;m kind of stumbling through a lot of it, especially the web frontend stuff.
评论 #31538383 未加载
评论 #31538165 未加载
评论 #31538250 未加载
zylepealmost 3 years ago
Nice! I was going to point out the project I’ve been working on [1] to reduce the cost but I see you’ve already found it :-) Feel free to reach out it you run into any issues!<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;onthegomap&#x2F;planetiler" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;onthegomap&#x2F;planetiler</a>
评论 #31537423 未加载
评论 #31537005 未加载
avibryantalmost 3 years ago
This is great! If you&#x27;re interested, I&#x27;d love to have you at a GIS&#x2F;mapping-focused retreat I&#x27;m hosting at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gradientretreat.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gradientretreat.com&#x2F;</a> this summer. You can reach out privately at avi@avibryant.com.
评论 #31537286 未加载
frzenalmost 3 years ago
Is there any way to write commands where I could give my own time weighting to certain types of roads for route finding?<p>Google maps, organic maps, osmand+, I still have to double check what crazy suggestion it has made. Single track gravel roads over a perfectly safe alternative a lot of the time.<p>I have the avoid unpaved roads options ticked... it would be great to have some machine learning magic take a look at a street view picture and decide if there is grass growing up the middle of the road and add a weighted chance of needing to reverse 200 metres when there is other traffic
tmp538394722almost 3 years ago
Very nice!<p>I haven’t looked into the code yet, but I’m especially interested in the routing bit.<p>As a cyclist I’m almost always disappointed by google, apple, and Valhalla. The cycling directions from these systems are usually better than nothing, but almost always have one or two dangerous or ridiculous segments.<p>I’ve never tried to solve it myself, only day dreamed.<p>Any insights?
评论 #31538264 未加载
评论 #31542563 未加载
评论 #31539118 未加载
pmontraalmost 3 years ago
I self host OSM by using OSMAnd+ on my phone and downloading the maps of the areas I move to. I&#x27;m not particularly interested in directions so I don&#x27;t know if they work well. It&#x27;s missing all the satellite and street view layers and they are the main reason I often go to Google Maps.
评论 #31542301 未加载
评论 #31540475 未加载
评论 #31540498 未加载
reducesufferingalmost 3 years ago
I’m working on an app that will extensively use a variety of maps. Did you directly interact with OSM (it’s like a big local DB of map tiles, right?) or did you use any important helper libraries? What are the best resources you used to learn about building city level maps like this?
评论 #31536960 未加载
uptimealmost 3 years ago
Headway is a great name for wayfinding! Looking forward to this evolving.
999900000999almost 3 years ago
How much money to add transit directions ?<p>I would absolutely love if this supported an API to get directions. I&#x27;ve worked on a few projects with public transit directions and I&#x27;d love to use a common base instead.
评论 #31537170 未加载
SlavikCAalmost 3 years ago
Is it possible to use alternative map data source?<p>I&#x27;m looking for a way to generate topographical maps...<p>Or may be you can suggest any alternative project for that?
jhgbalmost 3 years ago
These things are <i>way</i> more difficult than they should be, really. As evidenced by the effort needed to put this together.
dawnerdalmost 3 years ago
Been wanting to do similar but stopped once I saw just how much data hosting the entire world map takes.
评论 #31539785 未加载
tppiotrowskialmost 3 years ago
Hello from a fellow map geek building Shademap[1] in Bothell. Excited to see where your project goes.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shademap.app" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shademap.app</a>
评论 #31537516 未加载
mike_dalmost 3 years ago
Email me. I&#x27;ll give you a server to further development.<p>All the good open source tile servers have pivoted into commercial businesses, and I&#x27;d like to support the development of a project that stays open.
评论 #31538751 未加载
评论 #31537009 未加载
评论 #31536734 未加载
评论 #31539100 未加载
评论 #31539874 未加载
评论 #31536799 未加载
评论 #31537284 未加载
hedoraalmost 3 years ago
I know you&#x27;re focused on self-hosting websites on the internet, but I have another, closely related problem.<p>I have a degoogled Android phone, and location services are one of my bigger frustrations with it. The phone has more than enough room to store the entire planet&#x27;s maps locally, which means some microg-style replacement for google&#x27;s location services should be able to compute location name from GPS coordinates, and also pull up map tiles without hitting the network. Both those features are super flaky, especially if the network is down.<p>This is particularly frustrating because I have Organic Maps installed, and it has already downloaded the necessary databases!
评论 #31537518 未加载
评论 #31537512 未加载