Draw Map
A Draw Map lets you sketch markers, lines, and polygons straight onto an interactive base map — no GIS software required. It's the fastest way to annotate a location, outline a service area, or build a simple custom map from scratch.
It also draws routes for you: with Add Route, build a list of up to 10 stops — search each one by address or click it on the map — pick one of 10 travel modes, and the path is calculated along the real road network and added as an editable line carrying its distance and travel time.
Every stop lands as its own marker, numbered in order by default, and any stop can be switched to an icon of your choice. Everything you draw is standard GeoJSON, so you can import existing data or export your work to use elsewhere, and each feature can carry its own title, description, and styled popup.
You can also draw on top of someone else's map. Add a published WMS, ArcGIS, PMTiles or XYZ tile service as a background layer and it renders live beneath your own features — aerial imagery to trace from, a cadastral or zoning layer to align against, a scanned historical sheet to georeference your notes to.
What you can do
- Place markers with custom popups
- Draw polygons and lines
- Multistop routes by address or click
- Add a WMS, ArcGIS or PMTiles layer underneath
How to create a draw map
- 1
Create a Draw map
Start a new site and pick the Draw map type.
- 2
Add features
Drop markers, trace lines, and draw polygons with the editing toolbar — or import a GeoJSON, Shapefile, KML, GPX or spreadsheet file.
- 3
Add a route
Click Add Route, then build your stop list — type an address to search for a stop, or switch to Pick on map and click it. Choose a travel mode and the route is calculated along the road network.
- 4
Add a background layer (optional)
Open Layers and paste a WMS, ArcGIS, PMTiles or {z}/{x}/{y} tile service URL to draw over live imagery or a reference dataset.
- 5
Style & describe
Give each feature a title, description, and color, then customize popups.
- 6
Publish
Publish to your free subdomain or connect a custom domain.
Draw Map FAQ
Can I import existing GeoJSON?
Yes — along with TopoJSON, KML, KMZ, GPX, zipped Shapefiles and spreadsheets. Imported features are added to whatever you have already drawn and every one of them stays editable on the canvas, and you can export your work back out as GeoJSON.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Drawing is entirely point-and-click — Mapji is a no-code map maker.
Can I trace over aerial imagery or an official dataset?
Yes. A Draw map can carry up to 5 background layers from published map services — WMS, ArcGIS MapServer or ImageServer, a PMTiles archive, or a plain {z}/{x}/{y} tile template. They are fetched live from the publisher rather than imported, so they never count against your feature limit and they stay current, and they always render beneath what you have drawn. Set each layer's opacity to fade it back while you trace.
Can I add a driving route between several places?
Yes. Add Route takes up to 10 stops in order and follows the real road network between them, across 10 travel modes — car, truck, bus, motorcycle, scooter, bicycle, mountain bike, road bike, walking, and hiking. The finished route lands on the map as a normal line feature carrying its distance and travel time, so you can restyle, rename, or delete it like anything else you drew.
Can I type an address instead of clicking each stop?
Yes. The stop list has a search box: start typing a street, place, or city and pick a suggestion to add it as a stop. Suggestions are biased toward the area you are currently looking at, so a bare street name resolves near your map rather than on another continent. You can mix the two — search some stops, click others on the map — and insert a new stop between two existing ones at any point.
Can I change how the stops look?
Yes. Each stop is a numbered badge by default, and any stop can be switched to a Maki or Lucide icon with its own color and size — either while you are building the route or afterwards from the marker properties panel. Switching back to the numbered badge restores its original position number.
Step-by-step guides
Draw over live aerial imagery or an official dataset without importing it — and why a service that works in QGIS can still refuse to load on the web.
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