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Libraries · head to head

Leafmap vs Lonboard

Leafmap logo

Leafmap

Libraries

Python package for interactive geospatial mapping and analysis inside Jupyter notebooks

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Lonboard logo

Lonboard

Maps

Python map rendering in Jupyter that skips GeoJSON and moves millions of features without choking

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Leafmap it is a Python library rather than an application, so there is nothing to buy, nothing to install for a non-technical colleague and no interface outside a notebook environment.; Lonboard it is a notebook visualisation library, not a mapping application, so there is no editing, no layout, no map export for print and no sharing beyond distributing the notebook or an HTML file
  • They diverge on capability: Leafmap covers Multiple mapping backends, Lonboard covers GeoArrow binary transfer.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Leafmap and Lonboard actually diverge.

Attributes where Leafmap and Lonboard differ
AttributeLeafmapLonboard
PlatformsLinux, Windows, macOSLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryLibrariesMaps

Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (Open source, no licence fee), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Leafmap

  • Multiple mapping backends
  • Notebook interactivity
  • Raster and COG support
  • STAC catalogue access
  • Earth Engine integration
  • Basemap library
  • Vector data handling
  • Split map comparison

Only in Lonboard

  • GeoArrow binary transfer
  • GeoPandas input
  • deck.gl layers
  • Jupyter widget
  • Large dataset handling
  • Styling by attribute
  • Open source licence

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Leafmap

  • A remote sensing course where students need interactive maps without learning JavaScript or a desktop GISnot Lonboard
  • A researcher exploring STAC-hosted satellite imagery inside a notebook before committing to a processing pipelinenot Lonboard
  • An analyst producing a shareable interactive map from a GeoDataFrame in a handful of linesnot Lonboard
  • A team prototyping a geospatial visualisation before deciding whether to build it properly in a web frameworknot Lonboard

Lonboard

  • An analyst exploring a national road or parcel dataset in a notebook where pydeck or ipyleaflet becomes unusable at that sizenot Leafmap
  • A researcher publishing a reproducible analysis where the visualisation must run from the same script as the processingnot Leafmap
  • A data scientist joining spatial data to model outputs in pandas and needing to see the result immediately without exporting to a GISnot Leafmap
  • A team building an internal analysis pipeline on GeoParquet that wants rendering without a serialisation step in the middlenot Leafmap

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Leafmap

  • It is a Python library rather than an application, so there is nothing to buy, nothing to install for a non-technical colleague and no interface outside a notebook environment.
  • Maintenance rests largely on one academic maintainer with grant funding, which makes long-term continuity a real consideration for anything beyond research use.
  • The API has moved quickly across releases, so notebooks written against an older version can break on upgrade, which undermines reproducibility in exactly the research settings where it is popular.
  • It abstracts over several third-party backends, so a bug or a rendering limitation is often in ipyleaflet, folium or MapLibre rather than in Leafmap, and diagnosing it means understanding the layer underneath anyway.
  • Large datasets rendered through notebook widgets become slow or unresponsive, so it does not scale to the data volumes a dedicated tiling service or desktop GIS handles comfortably.

Lonboard

  • It is a notebook visualisation library, not a mapping application, so there is no editing, no layout, no map export for print and no sharing beyond distributing the notebook or an HTML file
  • Maintenance sits with Development Seed as an open source side output of a consultancy, so roadmap priorities follow client projects and there is no support contract to buy
  • Layer coverage is a subset of deck.gl, so an analyst needing a less common layer type has to drop to pydeck or write JavaScript rather than staying in Python
  • It expects data already in GeoPandas or Arrow form, which means the performance benefit depends on the rest of your pipeline being Arrow-friendly; reading a large Shapefile is still the slow step
  • Rendering happens in the browser, so very large datasets are ultimately limited by the client machine's memory and GPU rather than by the server, and a laptop will still fail on data a workstation handles

Pricing, plan by plan

Leafmap

Free
  • LeafmapFree
    • MIT licence
    • Installed from PyPI or conda-forge
    • No usage limits

Lonboard

Free
  • LonboardFree
    • Open source, no licence fee
    • No usage limits
    • Installed from PyPI or conda

Which should you pick?

Choose Leafmap if

  • You need multiple mapping backends.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, macOS.
  • You also want notebook interactivity.
Leafmap review

Choose Lonboard if

  • You need geoarrow binary transfer.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want geopandas input.
Lonboard review

Questions people ask

Is Leafmap or Lonboard better?
Neither clearly leads. Leafmap starts at Free and Lonboard at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Leafmap or Lonboard?
Leafmap starts at Free and Lonboard at Free.
Does Leafmap or Lonboard run on more platforms?
Leafmap runs on Linux, Windows, macOS. Lonboard runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Leafmap for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Leafmap best used for?
Leafmap is most often used for a remote sensing course where students need interactive maps without learning javascript or a desktop gis, a researcher exploring stac-hosted satellite imagery inside a notebook before committing to a processing pipeline, an analyst producing a shareable interactive map from a geodataframe in a handful of lines, a team prototyping a geospatial visualisation before deciding whether to build it properly in a web framework. Of those, a remote sensing course where students need interactive maps without learning javascript or a desktop gis and a researcher exploring stac-hosted satellite imagery inside a notebook before committing to a processing pipeline are not what Lonboard is typically brought in for.
What can Leafmap do that Lonboard cannot?
Leafmap covers Multiple mapping backends, Notebook interactivity, Raster and COG support, STAC catalogue access. Lonboard covers GeoArrow binary transfer, GeoPandas input, deck.gl layers, Jupyter widget.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Leafmap: Is Leafmap a product?

No. It is an MIT-licensed Python package installed from PyPI or conda-forge. There is nothing to purchase.

Lonboard: Why not just use pydeck?

pydeck serialises geometry to GeoJSON to reach the browser. Lonboard uses a binary GeoArrow pipeline, which is the reason it handles far larger datasets in the same notebook.

Leafmap: Who maintains it?

Primarily Qiusheng Wu at the University of Tennessee, with community contributors, funded through research grants rather than sales.

Lonboard: Who maintains it?

Development Seed, a geospatial engineering consultancy, as an open source project. There is no commercial support offering.

Leafmap: Can I buy support?

No commercial support offering exists. Help comes from GitHub issues and the community.

Lonboard: Does it work outside Jupyter?

It is built as a Jupyter widget. Exporting to standalone HTML is possible, but the intended environment is a notebook.

Leafmap: Is it suitable for a production web application?

It is not designed for that. Use it for analysis and prototyping, then build production maps on MapLibre, deck.gl or a hosted service.

Lonboard: Is it free for commercial use?

Yes, it is open source with no licence fee.

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