Her’s my personal comparison on different static maps apis. As Example, we want to show a road map image for Enkhuizen (lat: 52.70468296296834, lon: 5.300731658935547), with a zoom 13, using a free account and having nice map style.

UPDATE: Her’s a nice website for this: http://staticmapmaker.com

Google Maps

Google Maps

  • Pros: Google-style maps
  • Cons: Max size limit (640x640)
  • Limitations: 25 000 views per day

Mapbox

Mapbox Map

Uses nicely-styled OpenStreet maps

  • Pros: Very clean API
  • Cons: Reversed lat & lon in request
  • Limitations: 3000 map views per month (???)

Nokia Here Maps

Nokia Here Map

Supports 2 endpoints - short Nokia m.nok.it (probably deprecated), and a more modern Here image.maps.api.here.com/mia/1.6/mapview which require api keys.

  • Pros: Has a “Map-in-map view”
  • Cons: Not common for people
  • Limitations: 2500 views per day

Any better solutions?