Protomaps: Self-hosting map tiles has gotten cheap and easy

PMTiles is a new tile format that enables self-hosted map deployment as a single file accessible via HTTP Range requests, making it significantly cheaper and easier than commercial alternatives like Mapbox. The format can be deployed to CDNs like Bunny.net for approximately $0.05 per 1,000 map loads—potentially 100 times cheaper than Mapbox—with storage of a global map costing around $5/month. This approach is particularly valuable for non-commercial projects that risk prohibitive costs if traffic spikes under commercial API pricing models.