Launched this week
SteadyMaps
Self-hostable Google Maps alternative for business websites
17 followers
Self-hostable Google Maps alternative for business websites
17 followers
SteadyMaps is a self-hosted Google Maps alternative for business location pages. Show your location without third-party map requests or recurring API fees.
Cool that this is self hosted and skips those API fees. One thing that would be really handy is letting each location page pull its own custom data, like hours, services, or staff info, directly from a config file or your own API. That way you are not stuck with just a pin and address on the map.
@fikretseymenler I think people need to embed this into their site's context somehow anyway and my thinking currently is they add their information such as Business name, Opening hours etc. in whatever way they like to do, like put it in a card next to the map like in this example, but the info could as well be prominently visible on the business site already, so that map would have a lot of context anyway:
A self-hosted maps setup for business pages is a really practical idea, especially with Google raising prices again. One thing that would make this way more useful for me would be built-in support for custom map styles or overlays so each business can match its branding without needing a separate tool.
@harunartkowci I'm not there yet with custom styles, but I do have a palette of 8 styles available, some light, some dark. I didn't build a showcase or interactive page to show them all, but the examples page does show at least three of them: https://steadymaps.com/examples/
Here's one of the dark themes for example:
Concerning overlays, at the moment the product is really focused on displaying a single location with a marker. It does show lots of other shops and places for context and orientation of local customers seeing the map. The business owner can however remove some of them easily by editing a plain JSON data file with the records, or even add additional ones, should some relevant places be missing.
Self-hosting the maps is a really practical angle for businesses that hate the per-load billing. One feature that would seal the deal for me is built-in support for custom map tiles, so we could drop in branded colors or a custom theme instead of the default Google look.
@yaar58863951762 Thanks for the idea, I guess in the long run we could offer kind of a map studio around it where customers can tweak the theme to their liking
One thing that would make this really useful for me would be adding customizable pin styles, like letting businesses upload their own logo as the map marker instead of a generic dot.
@aynurkrbykyt2b Hey Aynur, thanks for the suggestion, that's a good idea for improving the customization options.
Finally got around to setting this up on a small client site and it just works, no fuss with API keys or billing alerts creeping up. The map tiles look clean and load fast on mobile, which honestly was my main worry with self-hosting.
@rfanlt2k OK, great to hear, next step would be buying the actual map data assets for your client's business location.
Cool idea for cutting out Google entirely. One thing that would honestly make this way more useful is a built-in SEO-friendly embed option, like a clean schema.org LocalBusiness JSON-LD generator that ties directly to each location page so you don't have to patch it in separately. Would save a ton of time for anyone running multiple storefronts.