Google Maps Price IncreaseFORUMS HOME SEARCH FORUMS

Due to a sudden very large increase in the costs of using Google maps on our website, we have been forced to make a number of changes to plotaroute.com, to ensure that it continues to remain viable. This has included a large investment to bring the hosting of our main maps in-house and to redevelop core functionality.

The changes will not affect the way the site operates but we've replaced most of our Google maps features with open source alternatives to keep costs under control and avoid the need for passing on Google's huge price increases. The exception is our main desktop route planner, which will continue to use Google Maps technology for Premium members. 

These are the main changes, which have been implemented with immediate effect:

• There are now two versions of our desktop route planner: Standard and Premium. The Premium version will continue to use Google maps and the Standard version will be based mainly on open source maps.
    
• Our mobile route planner will now use open source maps in place of Google maps.  Non-Google maps, including our popular Paths map, will continue to be available.
   
• Our Route Viewer (used for viewing routes on plotaroute.com and when embedded on other websites) will now use open source maps in place of Google maps. Non-Google maps will continue to be available.
  
  
• Google Map Layers (Bike Paths, Traffic, Transport Networks and Street View Coverage) are no longer available when viewing a route or editing a route on a mobile device.  They will continue to be available for Premium members on the desktop route planner.
  
  
• A new "Cycle Map" option has been added to the Map Types on the Route Viewer and mobile Route Planner.  This cycle map is available to Premium members on the desktop route planner by selecting the Bike Paths layer on the Paths map.
  
  
• Google Street View is now only available to Premium members on the desktop route planner.
  
  
• Our "Locate Map" tool has switched from Google to an alternative provider.
  
  
• The Auto-Plot feature will be 'throttled' for Standard members to limit auto-plots to a maximum of 60 per minute.
  
  
• You will now need to sign in first before editing existing routes.
  
  
• The maximum number of points you can plot per route under Standard membership has been reduced to 2,500. The limit for Premium members remains unchanged at 50,000.
  
  
• We have made a small increase to the GBP and EUR prices for annual Premium membership (by £1 and €1) to bring them in line with the current price in USD.

While we're sad to have to reduce our use of Google Maps, we believe that in the longer term the investment and changes we've made will provide opportunities to offer additional features that weren't feasible under Google's technology, so we're also excited about the road ahead.  

On a practical note, due to the scale of the changes and the short timeframe we have had to do this, it is possible that some bugs have slipped through testing. Please bear with us while we iron these out.  You can check the status of any bugs and report new ones on the Bug Reports section of the Forums.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for their continued support; it's only with your support that we can continue to exist!

I wish you all continued health and fitness.

John
Founder, plotaroute.com

Additional Background

Over the last 13 years Google has made its maps technology available to websites like plotaroute.com, largely for free; until now, only the largest 2% of websites have had to pay to use Google Maps. This changed on 2 May 2018 after Google announced a major revision to its pricing model, with effect from 11 June 2018 (subsequently delayed until 16 July 2018).  The new pricing model virtually eliminated free use of Google Maps and increased unit prices by a minimum of 1400%; our own costs were set to rise from virtually $0 to around $180,000 a year! As you'll appreciate, we would have been bankrupt and forced to shut down the site if we had not made changes to mitigate this cost increase.

We are fortunate that Google has given us some extra time to prepare for the new pricing, but Google was not able to offer prices that were viable for plotaroute.com to continue in it's current form. However, we believe that the changes we've made will enable us to continue to offer both a free and competitively priced Premium service using a combinaton of Google Maps, other mapping providers and open source technologies.