Waymorphic Map vs Stadia Maps: Free Vector Tiles Without Credits

At a glance

The short version, row by row. The Waymorphic column is the same on every comparison.

	Waymorphic Map	Stadia Maps
Price	Waymorphic MapFree. No plan, no quota set in advance, no invoice.	Stadia MapsA free tier of 200,000 credits a month for non-commercial use; commercial plans from $20 a month, with overage per 1,000 credits.
API key	Waymorphic MapNone. A style URL is the whole setup.	Stadia MapsAn API key, or a domain allow-list for web pages.
Usage limits	Waymorphic MapFair use: normal maps in browsers and apps. Bulk downloads and scraping are blocked.	Stadia MapsMetered in credits: a vector tile is one credit, a geocode twenty.
Commercial use	Waymorphic MapYes. Personal, commercial, public sector, hobby.	Stadia MapsOn the paid plans.
Map data	Waymorphic MapOpenStreetMap, in the OpenMapTiles schema, refreshed from new planet builds.	Stadia MapsOpenStreetMap in the OpenMapTiles schema, plus the Stamen and Alidade raster styles and other open data.
Styles	Waymorphic MapFive: Positron, Bright, Liberty, Dark and Fiord. Any MapLibre style written for the OpenMapTiles schema also works.	Stadia MapsVector styles such as OSM Bright and Outdoors, and raster styles including Stamen Toner, Terrain and Watercolor.
Coverage	Waymorphic MapThe whole planet, zoom 0 to 14 (the tiles overzoom cleanly to street level).	Stadia MapsThe whole planet to street level.
Works with	Waymorphic MapMapLibre GL JS, MapLibre Native, Leaflet with a plugin, QGIS, anything that reads a MapLibre style or TileJSON.	Stadia MapsMapLibre GL JS, Leaflet, OpenLayers, QGIS and the native SDKs; raster tiles for anything that draws PNGs.
Self-hosting	Waymorphic MapNot this service itself: it is not open source. But it is built from open-source parts and follows open formats, so you can run a compatible server of your own that answers the same URLs.	Stadia MapsNo.
Beyond the basemap	Waymorphic MapTiles, styles, fonts, sprites and shaded relief, plus search, address lookup and place lookups, all free and keyless. No routing; the examples show free public services for that.	Stadia MapsGeocoding, routing, isochrones, elevation, time zones and static maps.
Support	Waymorphic MapBest effort. It is fast and stable, but there is no contract or uptime guarantee.	Stadia MapsSupport on the paid plans.

Where Stadia Maps is the better choice

The honest list. If one of these is what you need, this is not the page that talks you out of it.

One account for everything
Tiles, search, routes, drive-time areas and elevation from one key with one bill. Waymorphic Map covers the tiles, search and address lookup; routing and elevation come from separate free services.
Raster tiles
PNG tiles for Leaflet and other raster-only clients, with no plugin. Waymorphic Map is vector only.
The Stamen styles
Toner, Terrain and Watercolor are Stadia's to serve. Nothing on Waymorphic Map looks like them.
A commercial contract
Paid plans with support and terms for business use.

Where Waymorphic Map fits

What you gain by pointing the map here instead.

Free for commercial use
Stadia's free tier is for non-commercial projects. Waymorphic Map has no such line: a shop, a startup or a council site pays nothing.
No credits to count
No monthly credit total to watch and no overage. A popular page is not a problem.
No key at all
Nothing to register, restrict or rotate.
The same schema
Both serve the OpenMapTiles schema, so a vector style moves between them with a source URL change.

How to switch

For a vector style, change the style URL. For a raster style in Leaflet, add the MapLibre Leaflet plugin and use a vector style instead, or keep Leaflet as it is and change only the layer.

stadia.jsbefore

const map = new maplibregl.Map({
  container: 'map',
  style: 'https://tiles.stadiamaps.com/styles/osm_bright.json?api_key=YOUR_KEY',
  center: [-122.4194, 37.7749],
  zoom: 11,
});

waymorphic.jsafter

const map = new maplibregl.Map({
  container: 'map',
  style: 'https://tiles.waymorphic.com/styles/bright',
  center: [-122.4194, 37.7749],
  zoom: 11,
});

Stadia's OSM Bright and Waymorphic's Bright are both builds of the OpenMapTiles Bright style; Outdoors is closest to Liberty.
Search and address lookup are Waymorphic Map's own, free and keyless. For routing and isochrones the examples use OSRM and Valhalla, free public services with usage policies of their own.
In Leaflet, L.maplibreGL({ style: 'https://tiles.waymorphic.com/styles/bright' }) from the maplibre-gl-leaflet plugin draws the vector tiles in a Leaflet map.

Questions and answers

I am on Stadia's free tier for a personal site. Should I move?

Only if you want to. If the site stays non-commercial and under the credit limit, nothing is wrong. If it might grow or make money, Waymorphic Map removes both questions.

Does Waymorphic Map have Stamen Watercolor?

No. Stadia serves the Stamen styles, and they are raster. Waymorphic Map has five vector styles.

Can I use Stadia for routing and Waymorphic Map for tiles?

Yes. They are independent services; the tiles do not care where the routes come from.

More comparisons

vs MapboxWaymorphic Map vs MapboxThe commercial standard, billed per map load. vs Google MapsWaymorphic Map vs Google Maps PlatformThe map everyone knows, billed per load. vs MapTilerWaymorphic Map vs MapTiler CloudThe company behind OpenMapTiles, with a quota and a key. vs ProtomapsWaymorphic Map vs ProtomapsThe whole map in one file you host yourself. vs OSM standard tilesWaymorphic Map vs the OpenStreetMap standard tilesThe map on openstreetmap.org, which is not a tile service for your app. vs Self-hostingWaymorphic Map vs hosting your own tilesFull control, at the cost of running it.