NInielsole·Aug 10, 2025
In OpenFreeMap survived 100k requests per secondhyperknot
openfreemap
Python2024–2025
hyperknot / openfreemap
openfreemap
Free and open-source map hosting solution with custom styles for websites and apps, using OpenStreetMap data
4Distinct people
8Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
6.4KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Free and open-source map hosting solution with custom styles for websites and apps, using OpenStreetMap data
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by month8 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2024-09-19 16:20:21 UTC to 2025-08-10 00:20:52 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2024 | 2024-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Oct 2024 | 2024-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2024 | 2024-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Dec 2024 | 2024-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2025 | 2025-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2025 | 2025-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2025 | 2025-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2025 | 2025-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2025 | 2025-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2025 | 2025-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2025 | 2025-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
What Hacker News says
8 sourcesYes, I designed the whole path structure / location blocks with caching in mind. Here is the generated nginx.conf, if you are interested:
https://github.com/hyperknot/openfreemap/blob/main/docs/asse...
In OpenFreeMap survived 100k requests per secondOpenFreeMap is not providing:
- search or geocoding
- route calculation, navigation or directions
- static image generation
- raster tile hosting
- satellite image hosting
- elevation lookup
- custom tile or dataset hosting
https://github.com/hyperknot/openfreemap?tab=readme-ov-file#...
In OpenStreetMap's New Vector TilesHere the requests are really really small, on average 405 bytes each. I guess in your genomics work you are making larger requests, so probably it's not so much of an issue.
BTW, we are discussing latency with bdon in this issue, it seems to be specific to Cloudflare:
https://github.com/hyperknot/openfreemap/issues/16
In Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map HostingYes, I think it would. Have a look at the extract_mbtiles script:
https://github.com/hyperknot/openfreemap/blob/main/modules/t...
In Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map HostingFrom the FAQs on GitHub [1]
> What about PMTiles?
> I would have loved to use PMTiles; they are a brilliant idea!
> Unfortunately, making range requests in 80 GB files just doesn't work in production. It is fine for files smaller than 500 MB, but it has terrible latency and caching issues for full planet datasets.
> If PMTiles implements splitting to <10 MB files, it can be a valid alternative to running servers.
[1] https://github.com/hyperknot/openfreemap
In Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map HostingShow HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting
Hi HN,
After 9 years of running my own OpenStreetMap tile server infra for MapHub (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11389989), I've open-sourced it and launched OpenFreeMap.
You can either self-host or use our public instance. Everything is open-source, including the full production setup — there’s no 'open-core' model here. Check out the repo (https://github.com/hyperknot/openfreemap). The map data comes from OpenStreetMap.
I also provide weekly full planet downloads both in Btrfs and MBTiles formats.
I aim to cover the running costs of the public instance through donations.
Looking forwards for your feedback.
848 points · Open discussionShow HN: OpenFreeMap – Free OpenStreetMap Vector Tile Hosting
Hi HN,
After 9 years of running my own OpenStreetMap tile server infra for MapHub (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11389989), I’ve open-sourced it and launched OpenFreeMap — offering free, unlimited map tile hosting.
OpenFreeMap provides free map hosting for websites and apps with no limits, no registration, no API keys, and no cookies. It’s also fully open-source: see the code at https://github.com/hyperknot/openfreemap and the styles at https://github.com/hyperknot/openfreemap-styles.
Why?
Using OpenStreetMap data usually requires paying for hosting or dealing with complex self-hosting. I wanted to make it easy and accessible for everyone.
How does it work?
Tiles are served directly from Btrfs partition images containing 300 million hard-linked files, avoiding the overhead of a tile server and leveraging Linux kernel file caching.
Read the rest
Key components:
- Tile Generation: Planetiler (https://github.com/onthegomap/planetiler)
- Hosting: Nginx serving tiles from Btrfs images on dedicated Hetzner servers.
- No Cloud Services: Optimized file serving on dedicated hardware.
How is it free and unlimited?
With enough donations and subscriptions, I hope to cover bandwidth costs.
Looking forward to your feedback!