Taxonomy of Web Mapping Frameworks

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Here’s an attempt to create a simple taxonomy of the currently active and popular web mapping frameworks available. This covers web mapping that delivers a consumer-navigable geographic “slippy” map of raster and/or vector tiles containing bespoke geographic data.

Ecosystems Hosted Wrappers Managed Wrappers Managed APIs Open Frameworks Spatial Servers Server Programming
MapBox Studio

Carto Builder

ESRI ArcGIS Online

Tableau

Google Fusion Tables

Google MyMaps

 Google Maps Embed API

Google Static Maps API

OSM StaticMapLite

 Google Maps JavaScript API

HERE Maps API for JavaScript

Microsoft Bing Maps V8 Control

 OpenLayers

Leaflet

D3

R (with RStudio packages)

 MapServer

GeoServer

 R

Java

Mapnik (C++/Python)
Advanced data visualisation
Remote server dependency
Scripting knowledge required
Programming required
Web space required
Shell access to server required

I will aim to update based on feedback and new discovery. This initial version is based on my own usages/experiences in the field, so it is quite possible there are some very obvious candidates I have missed.


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