Getting Started with Mappinest

Platform Overview

Mappinest is a developer-focused map platform that simplifies hosting map tiles, source datasets, and ready-to-use map styles via simple URLs. It supports tiled formats like MBTiles and PMTiles, accepts source datasets such as GeoJSON and zipped Shapefile uploads through the console.

Tiles are typically generated using several different approaches. Many teams upload raw data to Mapbox or MapTiler cloud services for automated processing. Others generate MBTiles locally using tools like Tippecanoe, GDAL or Planetiler, then host or distribute them directly. With the development of the PMTiles format, tile hosting has become significantly cheaper and simpler, often requiring nothing more than a CDN. If you host PMTiles directly on a CDN, access control is not strictly required. PMTiles reduces infrastructure, but it does not remove operational responsibility.

Mappinest adds caching, access control, analytics, and usage limits for teams that need access and cost control, and the ability to manage who uses which datasets and styles. Mappinest combines tile hosting and map styles into a single, URL-based platform with zero-infra management for tile hosting, map styles, caching, and access control. It's a practical solution for devs that want to ship maps faster.

Why this exists ?

Mappinest was built to eliminate the DevOps burden of running map infrastructure. Upload datasets, generate tiles, and serve basemap styles through simple APIs. Think of it as zero-infra management for hosting geospatial data, tiles, and map styles in production.

Self-hosting tiles usuallly means:

• managing PMTiles or MBTiles storage
• designing and maintaining basemap styles
• hosting sprites, fonts, and glyphs for map styles
• configuring CDN + other caching layers
• uploading and organizing geospatial datasets
• handling access control yourself
• debugging performance under load

Core concepts

Think of these as the four building blocks you will see throughout the docs and API examples. Once this model is clear, integration and troubleshooting become much faster.

• Tileset

  Your dataset (MBTiles / PMTiles), served as raster .png or vector .pbf tiles.

• Style

  In most map clients, you initialize a Map by attaching it to a container and providing either a StyleJSON URL or explicit tile sources. A StyleJSON document defines sources, layers, and visual rules, and it can reference raster tiles like /{z}/{x}/{y}.png or vector tiles like /{z}/{x}/{y}.pbf. For vector basemaps, those layers often roughly follow the OpenMapTiles schema.

• API key

  Controls who can access what (tiles, styles, datasets). In this API, authentication is passed via the key query parameter (for example ?key=YOUR_API_KEY) in the URL.

• URL-first architecture

  Tiles, styles, datasets, and TileJSON metadata are consumed through standard URL templates with ?key= access control, not SDK-specific clients. The same endpoints plug directly into web map libraries and desktop GIS tools.

What Mappinest provides

Where to go next

• Quickstart (5 min): show a map using a style or tiles>
• Styles API: use basemaps instantly>
• Tiles API: host your own data>