Alternative basemaps for leaflet

Question

I am interested in creating a web map application, that will display a map of my country and various files (.tif, shp) on top of it as layers and I decided to build it on top of Leaflet.

So when I started, I used a standard map from OpenStreetMaps, using the following code:

var map = L.map('map').setView([50, 9], 10);
L.tileLayer('http://{s}.tile.osm.org/{z}/{x}/{y}.png', {
  attribution: '&copy; <a href="http://osm.org/copyright">OpenStreetMap</a> contributors',
}).addTo( map );

However, my supervisor said that the map is "too detailed", so we are looking for an alternative base map that is less detailed and may be of more help.

So is there an alternative source of free maps, like OpenStreetMaps that I can use?

Answer 1

There are plenty of free and/or commercial alternative base maps, aka "Tile Sources / Servers".

A very nice live demo is available here, which lists many of the "free" ones:

https://leaflet-extras.github.io/leaflet-providers/preview/

Contains configurations for various free tile providers — OSM, OpenCycleMap, Stamen, Esri, etc.

However, "free" does not necessarily mean that you can do whatever you want with them. You should look for their Terms and Conditions to get the exact extent of what you can do. Typically, services will require some usage restriction.

Most of commercial services also offer free plans (e.g. mapbox, MapQuest, etc.) that may still meet your needs.