Rijwind vs MapTiler.
Both European, both MapLibre-friendly, both serious about privacy, so this page won't pretend otherwise. The real difference is shape: MapTiler is a broad mapping platform; Rijwind is a focused API with one unit pool, one bill, and routing built in.
One meter, not two
MapTiler bills sessions and tile requests on separate meters, each with its own limit. Rijwind has a single unit pool: a map session, a geocode and a route all draw from the same monthly number.
A cap, not a correction
MapTiler charges retroactively for overuse beyond your plan. Rijwind's soft-cap plans bill overage too, but against a spending cap you set, with a hard stop we never exceed. The maximum bill is known in advance.
Routing included
Directions, distance matrices, isochrones, GPS-trace matching and stop-order optimization come from the same API and the same pool; no second provider needed for the routing half of your product.
Side by side
MapTiler figures as published on maptiler.com, June 2026; check their pricing page for current numbers. We've kept this table honest in both directions; the product-breadth row is theirs to win.
A worked example
An app with 20,000 map sessions and 100,000 geocoding requests per month.
Flex plan: 20k sessions and 100k requests fit within Flex's included volumes.
120k units total, inside Starter's 500,000 included units. Routing is there when you need it, from the same pool.
Estimates, not quotes: at this volume both products are affordable. The difference compounds when routing enters the picture or when usage spikes: one pool plus a hard spending cap keeps the worst-case bill fixed.
When is MapTiler the better choice?
Satellite and aerial imagery, weather visualization, on-premise self-hosting, and a decade of track record: if you need any of those, MapTiler is genuinely the better pick today. If you need maps, search and routing on one bill from a provider you can actually talk to, that's exactly what Rijwind is.
FAQ
- Why pick the smaller provider?
- Focus and risk symmetry. Your map code is MapLibre either way, so switching later is cheap in both directions; trying Rijwind costs an afternoon, not a rewrite. What you get from the smaller side is pricing built for one pool, routing included, and support from the person who built the system.
- Is Rijwind GDPR-compliant like MapTiler?
- Yes. Requests are processed on infrastructure in the Netherlands, no cookies are set for map delivery, and a signed DPA is available on paid plans. Both companies take this seriously; it's not the differentiator here.
- Can I reuse my MapLibre styles?
- Largely, yes. Both platforms serve MapLibre-compatible vector styles. Layer names and source structure differ, so a custom style needs remapping to our tile schema; the built-in themes (light, dark, grayscale, white, black) work out of the box.
- What about tile requests from third-party SDKs?
- Rijwind bills per map session regardless of how many tiles the session loads; there's no separate tile-request meter to watch.
Try it on the free tier.
Every endpoint, no card required. If it doesn't fit, you've lost an afternoon. Your map code is MapLibre either way.
Also comparing: Rijwind vs Mapbox · Rijwind vs Google Maps · Maps without a cookie banner