Subscriptions

EasyRoute 5 contains a change to its revenue model. In a nutshell, all features that are free to me, are now free to you.

A few years ago EasyRoute switched away from Google Maps because its monthly cost was unsustainable. It switched to Mapbox, which is a great map and far more affordable, but still not free.

Nowadays, I process and host my own routing and elevation data, cutting those costs down very significantly. The other advantage this brought was EasyRoute was now free to use any map. When it was getting routing and elevation data from Google and then Mapbox, it was bound by their terms-of-service to display it on their maps. Since that is no longer the case, I’ve made Apple Maps the default map which doesn’t me cost anything to integrate.

However, there are reasons Mapbox and Google maps are still desirable. They’re both great maps with their own strengths. If you feel they’re worth having, you can subscribe which will offset their costs and help with other costs, such as this website, developer programs and equipment.

Also, using Google Maps enables direct integration of Street View, which is something I’ve personally missed since EasyRoute switched from Google years ago.

Since Mapbox was the default map when the Premium purchase was offered and offline use requires Mapbox, existing Premium users may continue to use Mapbox. The aim is to give premium users everything they paid for.

While I’m not crazy about subscriptions, it’s better than having the ad (which is now eliminated) and it’s now a lot closer to what I was trying to do a long time ago when I offered it for free, but then got overrun by a rush of users blasting through my Google Maps quotas.

I hope that seems fair to everyone. Any questions, comments, concerns, etc. contact me.