Frequently asked questions

Sign up for Mapji, choose one of 10 map types, add your data by importing a file or connecting a Google Sheet, style the map, and publish it to a subdomain or your own custom domain. The whole flow is point-and-click in the browser — there is nothing to install and no code to write.

• Interactive map maker →
• Which map type fits my data? →

No. Mapji is entirely point-and-click. You build, style, and publish maps in the browser without writing JavaScript, learning a GIS package, or touching a config file. Embedding a finished map on your own site is a copy-paste iframe snippet.

• How to embed a map →

Yes — Mapji is free to start and no credit card is required. You can build maps, import data, connect a Google Sheet, and publish to a yourmap.mapji.com subdomain at no cost.

No. Everything runs in the browser. If you already work in QGIS or ArcGIS you can export your layers as GeoJSON, a zipped Shapefile, KML or TopoJSON and import them straight into Mapji, but nothing needs to be installed to build a map from scratch.

• Supported formats →

A basic map from a clean spreadsheet takes a few minutes: create the site, upload the file, confirm the detected latitude and longitude columns, and publish. Styling, filters, and custom themes are optional refinements you can make at any time afterwards.

It depends on the shape of your data. Individual points where density matters call for a heatmap or cluster map; values aggregated per region call for a choropleth; a list of branches or venues calls for a store locator; a narrative sequence of places calls for a story map. You can build several map types from the same dataset and compare.

• All 10 map types explained →
• Choropleth vs heatmap →

A choropleth map shades geographic regions — countries, states, counties, or European NUTS regions — by a data value, making patterns in demographic, economic, or election data easy to see. In Mapji you pick a geography, join your data by region name or code, and choose a color scale.

• Choropleth map maker →
• Choropleth docs →

Create a Heatmap in Mapji, add your point data by uploading a file or connecting a Google Sheet, then tune the radius, intensity, and color gradient. There are 10 built-in gradients. By default every point counts equally, but you can weight by any numeric column so higher values burn hotter.

• Heatmap maker →
• Step-by-step guide →

A cluster map groups nearby markers into a single numbered circle that splits apart as you zoom in, so a dataset with thousands of points stays readable. Mapji can also render clusters as donut charts broken down by a category column, and spread overlapping pins apart on click.

• Cluster map docs →
• Mapping thousands of points →

An isochrone map shows everywhere reachable within a given travel time — a 10-minute drive, say — from a starting point. Mapji supports walking, cycling, driving, and public transit, and can draw bands by distance instead of time. You can place up to 5 origin points on one map.

• Isochrone map maker →
• Travel-time maps explained →

A story map is a scroll-driven presentation: as the reader scrolls, the map flies between locations while text and images appear alongside. Each chapter has its own camera position, including zoom, bearing, and tilt, and its own entrance animation.

• Story map maker →
• How to build one →

A time slider map animates your data across a timeline. You point Mapji at a date or timestamp column, and visitors can play, pause, and scrub through the sequence. Each step can be one distinct value from that column or a calendar period — hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly — so a column of exact timestamps still makes a timeline you can drag. Choose whether the map shows only the current step, everything up to it, or a rolling window; trailing periods fade with age so movement is easy to follow. Markers can be circles or icons, coloured by a category column and sized by a number column.

• Time slider docs →

A store locator is a searchable, filterable map of your locations with a results sidebar beside it. Mapji supports category filters, per-category marker icons, opening-hours badges that show whether a branch is open right now, and a Near Me button that sorts results by distance from the visitor.

• Store locator →
• Build one without code →

A draw map lets you sketch markers, lines, and polygons directly onto the map — useful for annotating a location, outlining a service area, or building a simple custom map from scratch. It also builds multistop routes that follow the real road network, with each stop added by address search or by clicking the map. Everything you draw is standard GeoJSON, so you can export it and use it elsewhere.

• Draw map docs →

A crowdsourced map lets your visitors drop a pin and fill in a form you designed — for reporting potholes, submitting business listings, logging sightings, or running a photo contest. Submissions land in a moderation queue, and only the ones you approve appear on the public map.

• Crowdsourced maps →
• Collecting submissions →

A compare map puts two datasets on the same viewport and keeps both maps locked to the same camera, so you can hold one against the other. Drag a swipe divider across to reveal what is underneath, or split the screen and give each map its own half. It suits before-and-after pairs — land use in two years, coverage from two providers, a proposal against what is there today.

• Compare map docs →

Yes. Only the camera is shared. Each side takes its own file, draws it its own way — raw geometry, a heatmap, clusters, or a travel-time area — and picks its own basemap, so satellite on one side against a street map on the other is a normal setup.

• Compare map docs →

Every map type reads the same set: CSV, Excel (.xlsx and .xls), GeoJSON, TopoJSON, KML, KMZ, GPX, and zipped Shapefiles. That covers exports from QGIS, ArcGIS, Google Earth and most GPS units without converting anything first. Coordinates are reprojected to WGS84 wherever the file records which projection it uses. You can also skip files entirely and connect a Google Sheet as a live source.

• Turn a spreadsheet into a map →

Create a map, choose Import Data, and upload the file. Mapji reads the first sheet of a workbook, detects your latitude and longitude columns automatically, and lets you pick which columns become the title, description, and popup fields. Confirm the mapping and your points appear.

• CSV and Excel to map guide →
• Data maps →

Yes. Mapji recognises the usual naming patterns — lat, latitude, lng, long, longitude, y, x and similar — and pre-selects them. If your columns are named something unexpected you can pick them manually from a dropdown.

Mapji plots points from latitude and longitude columns and does not convert street addresses into coordinates for you. Run your addresses through a geocoder first — many are free for modest volumes — then import the file with the resulting lat/lng columns. You can still keep the address as a text column and display it in popups or search. The one place an address is resolved for you is the Draw map's route builder, where typing one picks a single stop for a route; it is a stop picker, not a way to import an address column.

Up to 10,000 features per data source, from an import file of up to 25 MB. Cluster maps and heatmaps stay smooth well into the thousands. If your file is larger, filter or aggregate it before importing — for regional totals a choropleth is usually the clearer choice anyway.

• Choropleth vs heatmap →

They are skipped rather than silently plotted in the wrong place. Rows with no geometry, or with coordinates outside the valid range of real-world latitude and longitude, are filtered out during import so a stray zero or a swapped lat/lng pair doesn't drop a marker off the coast of Africa.

Yes, on Draw maps and Compare maps. Paste the service URL and Mapji reads what it publishes, then lets you pick which layers to draw. WMS 1.1.1 and 1.3.0, ArcGIS MapServer and ImageServer, PMTiles archives and plain {z}/{x}/{y} tile templates all work. This is not an import — the tiles are fetched live from the publisher each time your map loads, so the layer stays current, nothing is stored on your map, and it doesn't count toward the 10,000-feature limit.

• Adding a background layer →

Yes. Paste the URL of a .pmtiles archive hosted anywhere that supports byte-range requests — S3, Cloudflare R2, or most static hosts. Image archives draw as imagery. Vector archives list their layers so you can choose which to show and pick a colour; they are drawn as shapes in that one colour rather than fully styled, so they work as a reference layer rather than as a basemap replacement.

• Adding a background layer →

Almost always because the service doesn't allow browser access. Web maps fetch tiles from the browser, so the publisher has to send CORS headers — and plenty of services that work fine in QGIS or ArcGIS Pro don't. Mapji fetches a real tile when you add the layer and refuses it with an explanation rather than saving something that would silently render nothing. The other common causes are a service offered only over HTTP (HTTPS is required) or one that doesn't publish in Web Mercator.

Yes. Draw maps export the features you've created as a standard GeoJSON file, and crowdsourced map submissions export as CSV from the moderation dashboard. Data you connected from a Google Sheet already lives in your own spreadsheet.

Yes. Choropleth maps have an inline editable data table for region values, store locator entries can be edited and added individually, draw map features can be reshaped and relabelled, and form submissions can be corrected — including their coordinates — before you approve them.

Yes. Paste the spreadsheet URL, pick which tab to use, and map your columns to latitude, longitude, title, and any other fields. Mapji then keeps the map in sync with the sheet, so editing a row updates the published map without re-uploading anything.

• Google Sheets to map guide →

Cluster, Heatmap, Store Locator, Choropleth, and Time Slider maps can all be driven by a sheet. Choropleth maps map a region-code column and a value column instead of latitude and longitude; time slider maps additionally map a time column. Draw, Isochrone, Story Map, Crowdsourced Map, and Compare use their own data flows — Compare holds two datasets, and a sync pairs one map with one spreadsheet.

Never. Mapji requests read-only access to Sheets and treats your spreadsheet as the single source of truth. Nothing Mapji does can modify, reformat, or delete your data.

Mapji checks connected sheets roughly every 5 minutes and updates the map when the content has actually changed. There is also a Sync Now button for an immediate refresh when you don't want to wait.

Yes. The sheet does not need to be public — it only needs to be readable by the Google account you signed in with. You'll be asked to grant read-only Sheets access the first time you connect one.

The first 10,000 mappable rows are synced and the rest are skipped, with the sync status reporting how many were left out. Filter the sheet down, or aggregate it into regional totals and use a choropleth instead.

Yes, extensively. Start from one of 7 built-in themes — light, dark, white, black, grayscale, satellite, or hybrid (satellite imagery with roads and labels over it) — then adjust colors, widgets, and interactions. For full control, the custom theme editor exposes 45+ color keys with a live preview.

Yes. The custom theme editor covers colors for water, land, parks, roads, buildings and labels; per-class road widths and casings; dash patterns; label halo and text sizing; zoom bands controlling when each layer appears; and tileable fill textures for parks, water, and beaches. Themes are saved by name and reusable across your maps.

Yes. Markers can use icons from the Maki and Lucide icon sets, set globally for the map or per category — so each filter option on a store locator can carry its own pin. Draw map features and story map chapters can also be colored individually.

Yes. Turn on 3D terrain for real elevation and hillshading, and enable extruded 3D buildings and contour lines. Combined with per-chapter tilt and bearing this works well for hiking routes, property tours, and urban planning.

Choropleth maps show a legend for the color scale and its value breaks, and cluster maps show one for donut categories when donut clustering is turned on. Choropleth maps offer 8 color scales, including diverging ones for data with a meaningful midpoint. Other map types don't render a legend, so add one in the surrounding page if the colors need explaining.

On Draw and Compare maps, yes — up to 5 background layers each, from any published WMS, ArcGIS, PMTiles or tile service. Reorder them, fade each one with an opacity slider, and hide one without deleting it. They always draw beneath your own markers and shapes, and beneath the basemap's place names, so nothing you added ends up hidden behind a backdrop.

• Adding a background layer →

Yes. A search and filter panel can be enabled on most map types, letting visitors search across the fields you choose and narrow results with dropdown, multi-select, or numeric-range filters. Matches can be highlighted and flown to, and you can pick which corner the panel sits in.

Every published Mapji map has an embed page and a generated iframe snippet you paste into your own site. Set a fixed width and height or let it fill the container. It works in any CMS that accepts an HTML embed, including WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace, and Notion.

• Embedding guide →

It can. Alongside the iframe snippet Mapji generates a small optional listener script; with it in place the embed reports its content height to the parent page and the iframe resizes to match, so there's no inner scrollbar.

Yes. Every map gets a free yourmap.mapji.com subdomain, and you can connect your own domain or subdomain instead for a fully branded URL. You'll be given the DNS record to add, and Mapji verifies it and issues the certificate.

• Create a custom map online →

Yes. Scroll zoom, drag pan, rotation, double-click zoom, box zoom, touch gestures, and keyboard navigation can each be switched off independently — useful for a kiosk display or for stopping a scroll-wheel from hijacking the page an embed sits in. These settings apply to visitors, not just the editor preview.

Zoom buttons, a compass, a scale bar, a locate-me button, fullscreen, a minimap, and an image export button can each be toggled on or off. Zoom, compass, and scale are on by default; the rest are opt-in.

Maps published on your own subdomain or custom domain are crawlable, so they can be indexed like any other page. The dedicated embed URL is deliberately excluded from search engines instead, so that the page you embed the map into — yours — is the one that ranks.

Every published map is reachable by anyone with its URL, so treat the link itself as the access control and don't put confidential data on a map you have shared. There is no password-protected or private publishing mode.

Use the Crowdsourced Map type. You define where pins may be dropped — anywhere, inside a country, state or county you pick by name, inside a bounding box, or inside a polygon you draw — and design the form visitors fill in after dropping one. Submissions arrive in a moderation queue for you to review.

• Crowdsourced maps →
• Full walkthrough →

Fourteen: text, long text, number, email, URL, date, time, phone, star rating, dropdown, radio buttons, multi-select, checkbox, and image upload. Fields can be spread across multiple steps, validated with minimums, maximums, length limits and patterns, and shown or hidden based on an earlier answer.

New submissions arrive as pending. You can approve, reject, or mark them as spam, individually or in bulk, and correct field values or a misplaced pin before approving. Only approved submissions are published to the map, and you choose whether they appear as plain pins or open a popup with details. Auto-approval is available if you'd rather not review each one.

Yes, several layers: an optional CAPTCHA, per-IP rate limiting with a daily cap, a hidden honeypot field, an optional allowlist of domains permitted to submit, and content checks on uploaded images. Each submission also records the visitor's IP, its reverse-DNS hostname, browser and device, and approximate location, so you can spot a flood coming from one source or a datacenter.

Yes. Submissions export as CSV from the dashboard, and you can register a webhook that fires when a submission is created, approved, rejected, or marked as spam — so new reports can flow straight into your own systems. Deliveries are signed, retried on failure, and logged where you can see them.

10,000 features per data source, 25 MB per import file, and 10 MB per uploaded image. Isochrone maps support up to 5 origin points, store locator entries can show up to 5 extra display fields, and a drawn route takes up to 10 stops. There is no cap on how many maps you create.

Yes, for crowdsourced map submissions. Each submission records the submitter's IP address, a salted hash of it used for rate limiting, its reverse-DNS hostname where one exists, and an approximate country, region and city. Only the site owner can see this, and it is never published to the public map. If your form collects submissions from the EU or UK, treat it as personal data in your own privacy notice.

Yes. Imported data can be cleared from a map at any time, and deleting a site removes it along with its map data and takes the published URL offline. Disconnecting a Google Sheet stops the sync and leaves your spreadsheet untouched.

Administrative boundaries come from geoBoundaries.org (CC BY 4.0), covering 230 countries, with state or province outlines for 197 and county-level outlines for 178. European NUTS 1, 2, and 3 regions come from Eurostat/GISCO (© EuroGeographics) and cover 37 countries.

• Choropleth map maker →