Mapbox, Leaflet and OpenLayers are the three most popular open source JavaScript libraries used to build web mapping applications. In our new article, let’s have a look at features that all these libraries have in common as well as their main distinctions.
What are these platforms?
Leaflet is an open source JavaScript library for mobile-friendly interactive maps. It is small in size (only 38KB of JS) and has all the features that most developers ever need for online maps. Moreover, it supports both mobile and desktop platforms. Leaflet is very good for building web map applications.
Mapbox is provider of custom online maps for websites. Mapbox GL JS (standing for Graphics Library) is a JavaScript library that allows you to create maps that can include interactive data.
OpenLayers is an open source JavaScript library used for displaying map data in web browsers. It allows putting dynamic maps in web pages. OpenLayers can display map tiles, vector data and markers loaded from any source. Additionally, it provides API for building rich web-based geographic applications.
Things we all love about these platforms
Of course each platform has its own highlights but before that, we should mention all the great features that these platforms share:
Dynamic styling
Dynamic styling is the key factor in changing the look of your web GIS. Mapbox, Leaflet and OpenLayers all support dynamic styling. Developers can style layers depending on values of your features.
Mapbox visualizes data beautifully and vectorably. However, it is not so easy to style your layers with Mapbox since you don’t have full control. Check out the Mapbox Style Specification here for more information on how to style your layers.
OpenLayers allows users to style elements using the style function and the style class. It is not as powerful as the Mapbox Style Spec though and developers need to write more code.
Leaflet is a mix between Mapbox and OpenLayers. Users can use a style function along with its core set of featured elements.
Image Tiles
Mapbox, OpenLayers and Leaflet all support for integrating images via the tile server. For example satellite images from sentinel data.