Is there an comparison of the various mapping libraries for Android?

Question

I am currently looking at the various libraries that I can use to show a map in my custom Android App. I have found several like Mapsforge, OSMDroid, ArcGIS runtime for Android, Google Maps for Android and so on. I'm sure that I am missing a few.

Is there a comparison chart somewhere about the differences in functionalities and pros and cons of each one?

If there isn't one, we could make this question community wiki, to serve alongside Comparison of Open Source Desktop GIS Packages & Comparison of JavaScript mapping libraries.

Answer 1

Here are the results of my brief research on this Issue:

1. ArcGIS runtime for Android. Seems to be oriented towards showing ArcGIS Server's Mapservices. It can show data in an offline mode, by storing tiles in the compact cache storage format, or by using tile packages.

2. OSMDroid A component which can be used to show data from Open Street Maps when on-line, and can use tiles for off-line access. It is a raster based option, and you can use Mobile Atlas creator to create tiles from pretty much any WMS service.

3. MapsForge An excellent library for rendering OSM data on the fly. It has a special optimized tile format, and it's rendering performance is quite good.

4. Google Maps Android API This is the default mapView in Android, and uses the data from Google Maps. As far as I am aware, it is not possible to use this in off-line mode.