Comparison of editors

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Comparison of editors - Other languages

Comparison table

Comparison of OSM Editors
Name For novice users Platform Programming language Editor type Development is active Windows Linux Mac OS X Android iOS Free Advantages Disadvantages
iD yes web based JavaScript fully featured yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Works almost everywhere, low entrance level poor support for small screens such as smartphones, abstracts tagging away with sometimes confusing outcomes
JOSM yes desktop Java fully featured yes yes yes yes no no yes Extremely powerful and complex, highly configurable and extendable via plugins. Changeset reverting support Extremely powerful and complex, requires JRE installation, requires learning
Potlatch 3 yes desktop ActionScript fully featured yes yes only with WINE yes no no yes Requires Adobe AIR runtime
Merkaartor no desktop C++ with Qt fully featured yes yes yes yes no no yes Sometimes can damage relations
Vespucci no mobile Java fully featured yes no no no yes no yes Allows to make all edits while surveying, without creating notes Basically "mobile JOSM" with all disadvantages and advantages it implies. Available only for Android.
Go Map!! no mobile Objective-C, Cocoa, and Swift fully featured yes no no no no yes yes Allows to make all edits while surveying, without creating notes Available only on iOS
StreetComplete yes mobile Kotlin and Java quests solution and overlays only yes no no no yes no yes Easiest editor available - Android phone, ability to read and OSM account are required, OSM knowledge and training to use editor is not required Available only on Android, limited to predefined edits that refine existing objects and adding new predefined POI nodes
StreetComplete EE (SCEE) no mobile Kotlin and Java limited geometry editing, can't create ways/relations yes no no no yes no yes As with StreetComplete, but advanced functionality like raw tag editor and customs overlays requires OSM knowledge As with StreetComplete, and also additional "expert" functionality makes it significantly more error-prone
OsmAnd no mobile Java and C++ map viewer with POI editing yes no no no yes yes limited Integrates with JOSM It is mainly used for navigation instead of editing
Maps.Me yes mobile C++ map viewer with POI editing yes no no no yes yes yes Poor interface, limited types of objects that can be added, plus horrible privacy policy
Organic Maps yes mobile C++, Java, Objective C, Swift map viewer with POI editing yes compiles but needs UI compiles but needs UI yes, but need mac with arm yes yes yes Open-source, privacy-focused, actively developed Limited types of POI that can be added, editor UX is not improved yet
Locus no mobile unknown map viewer with POI editing yes no no no yes no no
Level0 no web based PHP low level text-based object editing stable, editor is completed yes yes yes yes yes yes access to raw data in simplified text interface access to raw data in simplified text interface
ArcGIS no GIS plugin unknown fully featured yes yes yes yes no no no Proprietary software, very expensive
Every Door yes mobile Dart(Flutter) map viewer with POI editing yes no no no yes yes yes Optimized for fast POI addition

Simple online↙ editor in browser

iD

iD screenshot
Summary
Online editor.
Pros
  • It is currently the pre-set editor for www.openstreetmap.org's 'Edit' tab, and runs in your web browser
  • It has a 'walkthrough' feature and has been designed to be an easy introduction for brand new OSM contributors
  • A lot of effort was put into development, with significant attention paid to user experience
  • Wiki help can be displayed directly in editor when editing tags
  • You can use custom aerial imagery
  • Street-level photos directly available in editor
Cons
  • It's not intended for power users (who are already excellently served by JOSM) or those who want the speed of a desktop client
  • Consumes most processing power (compared with JOSM), so if the CPU/browser is slow, lags may occur
  • Zooming and panning prompts a map fetch (not as fluid)
  • The interface departs from normal OpenStreetMap terminology ("point", "line" and "area" instead of "node", "way" and "relation"), which can cause confusion, and editing accidents
  • It is not possible to work offline

Rapid

Rapid screenshot
Summary
Rapid is a web-based modern editor for OpenStreetMap. Rapid integrates advanced mapping tools, authoritative geospatial open data, and cutting-edge technology to empower mappers at all levels to get started quickly, making accurate and fresh edits to maps.
Pros
  • Runs in any web browser, with fastest browser editor speed and responsiveness thanks to PixiJS based rendering
  • Features an onboarding introduction for new users
  • Is integrated with Tasking Manager software from HOTOSM and others for collaborative projects
  • Is backed by a professional team including multiple web developers, UX researchers, and several regular OSM contributors with data and community expertise
  • Developer team is more available and responsive to feature requests and evolving the editor for future use cases
  • Has all features of iD editor as of April 2023, plus extra features and increased performance
  • Allows editing when zoomed out to city scale
  • Provides extra data sources for users to validate one-by-one, including AI-generated buildings and roads, and authoritative open GIS data
  • Mapillary photos directly available in editor with special collaboration directly to Mapillary development team for future compatibility
Cons
  • Not overly specialized with power user features that would be seen in JOSM
  • Requires web connection and does not work offline
  • Can risk users working too quickly and not taking care to validate individual objects from external sources, despite the UX being designed for 1-by-1 validation
  • Is not yet visible in OpenStreetMap.org
  • Lacks open data or AI data in some countries
  • not mobile device friendly

Desktop↙ and offline↙

JOSM

JOSM screenshot, showing photomapping features.
Summary
JOSM offers a large set of features and useful tools for a wide range of editing styles: It will either read in GPX tracks from your hard disk, or download them from OSM. Aerial imagery can easily be downloaded as a background for tracing. JOSM also supports photo mapping and audio mapping. Once you have completed your edits, you can upload them to OSM.
Pros
  • Fast fluid panning and zooming. Near-infinite zooming for super-precise mapping.
  • Highly configurable and extendible via plugins, Map Styles, Presets or Validator Rules .
  • Advanced editing functionality e.g. changeset reverting.
  • A big selection of aerial imagery and third-party GPS traces immediately available as backgrounds for tracing. Custom TMS, WMS and WMTS aerial imagery can be added too (please check the permissions).
  • Built in validator, which checks for common mapping errors before data upload
  • Can work offline using downloaded data files, and can work with local photo and GPX files
  • Tags are shown to user directly. Many tags are recognized by the "presets" which then show description, a translated/localized form and links to the OSM wiki page about a tag for more info.
  • Very active development. Bugs are often fixed fast and a new stable version with new features appears usually every month.
Cons
  • The finer points of the interface take a while to learn.
  • You have to download the software to run it, unlike the following online options (although there is a "Java Web Start" option)
  • It requires Java 11 or better to work (not a big problem for most people).
  • No help text when editing tags

Merkaartor

Merkaartor screenshot
Summary
Merkaartor is a fully featured editor for OpenStreetMap available under the GNU General Public License and developed using the Qt toolkit.
Pros
  • Has some unique features like transparent display of map features like roads and true curved roads.
  • Intuitive user interface
  • Binaries for Windows, Mac OS X and some Linux platforms are available. Source for the rest.
  • Easy to set up satellite imagery from Bing or any other WMS/TMS source.
  • Tag styles can be customized
  • Save rendered maps as SVG or bitmap graphic
Cons
  • Merkaartor development is a bit slow, which makes bugfixes and new features available only by grabbing the source.
  • Small userbase. Developer community is tiny.
  • Slow on large number of loaded gps points.

Potlatch 3

Potlatch 3 screenshot. Showing OSM data and background imagery
Summary
Adobe AIR desktop editor (replacement of Potlatch2).
Pros
  • Not currently available via the 'Edit' tab's drop-down arrow
  • Familiar interface inherited from Potlatch2 suitable for both beginners & advanced users
  • Modeless user interace
  • Displaying of GPS traces in a separate layer
  • Some advanced features including vector backgrounds, tasks, and merging/conflation functionality for specialists
  • Several aerial imagery backgrounds preconfigured and option for custom TMS imagery (please check the permissions)
Cons
  • Requires a flash runtime
  • does not work offline
  • Beta development stage

Mobile

Vespucci

Summary
Vespucci is the only full OpenStreetMap editor for Android. It is also the first one, having been available and developed since 2009.
Pros
  1. mobility
  2. a full editor for OpenStreetMap that works both on small (phones) and large (tablet) screen Android devices
  3. supports editing with keyboard and mouse if available
  4. create/edit nodes, ways, tags, and relations, with all the usual geometry related operations
  5. built-in support for Imagery Offset Database
  6. all editing can be done on the ground - no need to rely on memory
  7. helpful lead developer who is considerate of users' input
  8. useful display of all the changes you have made, down to a tag- and relation-level diff
  9. support for offline editing with pre-downloaded dataset in progress
Cons
  1. UI can sometimes be a little dated-looking, and clumsy/cryptic to use
  2. Not currently ideal for editing of large relations (e.g. routes)
  3. No built-in object history at the moment (opens osm.org history in browser)
  4. Bad mobile data coverage will bring your mobile survey-edit session to a halt (unless you downloaded the area in advance; see also Pro #9)

Go Map!!

Go Map!! - way object selected
Summary
Go Map!! is an iOS app that lets you create and edit information in OpenStreetMap. Go Map!! supports editing nodes and ways and arbitrary tagging.
Pros
  • Mobile
  • Clean but powerful UI
  • Filterable objects to improve load speeds
  • Utilizes the preset library from iD
  • User friendly Turn Restriction editing GUI
  • Ability to clear caches for imagery, OSM data, GPX Traces and more
  • Continuous OSM data download
Cons
  • Can be resource intensive when cache gets large
  • Clunky workflow to edit most relation types


StreetComplete

StreetComplete - question about a missing street name
Summary
StreetComplete is a specialized editor of OpenStreetMap data. It allows to easily add some specific information.
Pros
  • Mobility.
  • Very easy to add predefined data - user is asked simple questions, easy to verify for somebody near object, app handles entirety of tagging and making edit
  • allows to create notes
  • Ability to edit without Internet connection - quests and map may be cached
Cons
  • Is not intended as a general purpose editor, it can specify additional properties for existing objects only.


StreetComplete EE (SCEE)

SCEE - street raw tag editor
Summary
SCEE is an "Expert Edition" fork of StreetComplete, enhanced with raw tag editor, custom overlays, custom quests, Osmose problem detection and more.
Pros
  • Mobility.
  • Very easy to add predefined data (as in StreetComplete), but also allows full range of custom tags and customizable ways to display data
  • allows to create notes (with pictures)
  • toggleable satellite view in addition to regular OSM vector display
  • Ability to edit without Internet connection - quests and map may be cached
Cons
  • more advanced editing features it incorporates make them harder to learn and significantly more prone to human errors than StreetComplete
  • While more advanced than StreetComplete, it is still not a general purpose editor (editing geometries is limited, and there is no way to create new ways/relations, only nodes)

OsmAnd

Summary
Navigation app that allows you to add, delete or change POIs.
Pros
  • Fully offline
  • Relatively simple user interface
  • Also supports Notes
Cons
  • Node and closed way edits only (and only for common tag combinations)
  • Offline means time lag: downloaded map might be old, might take some time for user to upload changes
  • Editing on a mapview, not a dataview. So you might add things that are there but not rendered.
  • Usually no sat pic background, so POIs might be some distance from real location.

Every Door

Summary
Mobile editor for adding shops and amenities, but also addresses or street objects
Pros
  • Optimised to add shops or amenities quickly, for instance when walking along a street with several shops
  • Ability to edit without Internet connection - quests and map may be cached
  • Ample choice of presets and ability
  • User can use aerial imagery or osm-carto to be sure to locate POI correctly
  • Can create notes
Cons
  • Even on relative large screens (5.65") it might be difficult to tap the right object accurately

GIS

ArcGIS Editor for OSM

Summary
ESRI has released a plugin for editing OSM data.
Pros
  • Industry standard GIS Program
  • Very comprehensive GIS capabilities
Cons
  • Proprietary
  • "ArcGIS for Home Use" will cost you 100$/year
  • Works only with ArcGIS 10
  • Editing relations are not supported

See also

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