gpx.studio moves to Open Collective, and other news! 🎉
Published on April 2, 2026 by vcoppe
Open Collective 🫶
For the past 5 years, gpx.studio has been funded by you — the users — on the Ko-fi platform. First of all, a huge thank you to all of you who felt the project deserved their financial support, and for all the kind messages you've sent!
Like Ko-fi, Open Collective makes it easy to accept donations from around the world. However, it comes with several important benefits:
☂️ Our collective is under the Open Source Europe umbrella, which provides a legal structure for the project, helps manage its funds, and clearly establishes its nonprofit nature.
🧾 On Open Collective, finances are fully transparent, so you can see exactly how your donations are used.
This collective will also allow gpx.studio to give back to the foundational open source and open data projects that power the website — namely OpenStreetMap and MapLibre (see below).
MapLibre 🌍
The second major change for gpx.studio is the switch to a new map rendering engine (the software that allows maps to be displayed and interacted with in a web browser). Until now, we relied on Mapbox GL JS from Mapbox, which was also kindly supporting the project through discounts. From now on, gpx.studio will be based on MapLibre GL JS, the open source alternative created after Mapbox GL JS became proprietary. This removes our only critical dependency on proprietary software. Because of their shared origins, this change should be almost unnoticeable from a user experience perspective.
This transition also comes with a new main map provider for the website. For this, we’ve logically chosen MapTiler, which both sponsors and contributes to MapLibre and other projects we depend on, and offers high-quality maps for outdoor activities.
GraphHopper 🧭
Finally, we are replacing our BRouter routing engine with GraphHopper. This brings better performance for longer routes and elevation data for the whole planet, finally!
Additionally, some of GraphHopper's capabilities will allow us to implement a few frequently requested features:
- routing customization (avoid highways, prefer flat roads, etc.)
- map matching = snapping an entire route on the road network
Stay tuned for updates about these developments!
🏁
We hope these changes make as much sense to you as they do to us.
Cheers, and once again, thank you all for your support! 🙌
For the past 5 years, gpx.studio has been funded by you — the users — on the Ko-fi platform. First of all, a huge thank you to all of you who felt the project deserved their financial support, and for all the kind messages you've sent!
Like Ko-fi, Open Collective makes it easy to accept donations from around the world. However, it comes with several important benefits:
☂️ Our collective is under the Open Source Europe umbrella, which provides a legal structure for the project, helps manage its funds, and clearly establishes its nonprofit nature.
🧾 On Open Collective, finances are fully transparent, so you can see exactly how your donations are used.
This collective will also allow gpx.studio to give back to the foundational open source and open data projects that power the website — namely OpenStreetMap and MapLibre (see below).
MapLibre 🌍
The second major change for gpx.studio is the switch to a new map rendering engine (the software that allows maps to be displayed and interacted with in a web browser). Until now, we relied on Mapbox GL JS from Mapbox, which was also kindly supporting the project through discounts. From now on, gpx.studio will be based on MapLibre GL JS, the open source alternative created after Mapbox GL JS became proprietary. This removes our only critical dependency on proprietary software. Because of their shared origins, this change should be almost unnoticeable from a user experience perspective.
This transition also comes with a new main map provider for the website. For this, we’ve logically chosen MapTiler, which both sponsors and contributes to MapLibre and other projects we depend on, and offers high-quality maps for outdoor activities.
GraphHopper 🧭
Finally, we are replacing our BRouter routing engine with GraphHopper. This brings better performance for longer routes and elevation data for the whole planet, finally!
Additionally, some of GraphHopper's capabilities will allow us to implement a few frequently requested features:
- routing customization (avoid highways, prefer flat roads, etc.)
- map matching = snapping an entire route on the road network
Stay tuned for updates about these developments!
🏁
We hope these changes make as much sense to you as they do to us.
Cheers, and once again, thank you all for your support! 🙌
❤️ 4🎉 3