10 Free Tools For Creating Your Own Maps

Maps are handy for a lot of reasons. Not only do they help us navigate through certain areas, they also enable us to learn more about the world and what it has to offer. What if you’re someone who wants to create a map instead?

Sure, there’s Google Map and Google Earth to help you out but there are actually other tools to choose from as well. Here we’ve gathered 10 free amazing tools that you can use to create your own maps. From maps that are conveniently made for sharing to ones that are quite interactive, the selection below has a range of things to satisfy your mapping needs.

Recommended Reading: 40 Creative Remakes Of The World Map

1. Animaps

If you’re looking to create and view beautifully informative animated maps then this is the tool for you. Animaps basically extends the My Maps feature of Google Maps so that you create maps with markers that move, lines and shapes that change over time and images and texts that pop up on cue. The final result is an animated map.

If you send an Animap to your friends then it will display like a video which they can play, pause, slow and speed up. It’s simple to learn if you go through the basic tutorials. You can easily sign up for a new account on Animap or even sign up via your Facebook account. [Visit site here]

2. UMapper

UMapper is a useful map creation tool used by publications like National Geographic, Star Tribune, USA Today and other well-known organizations. UMapper provides an effortless approach in creating Flash maps that are easy to embed and distribute through a website or blog.

You can use any one of the top map providers such as Bing Maps, Google Maps, and Open Street Map to get your map out there. With the help of UMapper, you can also make money by displaying advertisements. If you’re keen on more features, you can have a look at the premium packages. [Visit site here]

3. Scribble Maps

Scribble Maps is a mapping tool that provides a comfortable platform for drawing and sharing maps. Using this tool, you can easily add custom images, place text and markers, draw shapes, calulcate distance, save a map in PDF format and much more.

You can also send maps to your friends or embed them on your website. The basic Scribble service is free while Pro Scribble Maps allows you to import KML files, spreadsheets and SHP files at a certain price. [Visit site here]

4.Click2Map

Click2Map is an easy to use mapping tool which allows you to create customized maps according to your needs. Click2Map conveniently lets you place built-in markers from their huge library to make your map more informative and interactive.

You can also add lines and polygons on your maps for various purposes such as to indicate a particular geographical area. Once you are done with creating your map, you can download your newly-designed map and publish it on your website/blog at no charge. [Visit site here]

5. ZeeMaps

ZeeMaps enables you to design and publish your interactive maps without having to sign up. By using ZeeMaps, you can place customizable markers and highlight countries, states and cities too.

A cool feature is that you can add video, audio or sound clips along with the markers. In addition to that, you can add customizable search fields for your map as well. ZeeMaps is offering free as well as paid versions at different prices which you can check out here. [Visit site here]

6. MapTiler

MapTiler is a mapping tool with lots of rich features. The features are top-notch as this tool is used by Google, NASA, Apple and other big organizations. With MapTiler, you can effectually render the geodata into map tiles that are highly suitable for Google Maps API mashups, MapQuest, Microsoft Bing and Google Earth amongst many others.

You can use MapTiler on Windows, Linux and Mac making this tool quite versatile. If this sounds interesting to you, there’s a free version that you can try out as well as 4 paid versions with different prices and different bundles of features. [Visit site here]

7. TargetMap

TargetMap is a handy tool for creating and publishing your maps. The website encourages a sense of community as sharing maps help to enrich and boost the knowledge of the participants. This is because once your map is published, you can compare it with similar maps done by others and this helps you improve.

You can also embed your maps into your website or blog. To use TargetMap as a free tool, you have to share your maps with others but if you want to keep your maps private then you can opt for the ‘Not to Share’ option. The free version of this option comes with limited features as opposed to the premium version, so what you decide on really depends on your needs and capabilities. [Visit site here]

8. HeatmapTool

HeatmapTool is a nice and easy tool for making attractive heat maps from a CVS file. You can scale the heat map as you like and conveniently update it in real-time. You can also cool down the heat map by dimming it accordingly and sharpen or soften the edges of the heated area as well.

Another handy feature is that you can create an overlay for the Google Maps API. Like the other tools, this one is free but if you’d like more advanced features, you can check the pricing here. [Visit site here]

9. GmapGIS

GmapGIS is a simple tool which is used for mapping purposes. You can easily draw lines, shapes, add labels, add markers and measure the distance on maps without using a Google account.

Once you are done drawing and labeling a map, a link is automatically generated for your map which you can share with others. With GmapGIS, you can choose to save the map in a KML format or view it in Google Earth. [Visit site here]

10. geoCommons

GeoCommons allows us to create, use and share rich interactive maps regardless of your experience with mapping tools. It lets you map real-time social data and over 50,000 available open source data sets. This is a great tool to view a large amount of data and to animate a map in just a few seconds.

You can also filter the data and maps in the GeoCommons database using any number, string or date attribute of database. If you’re interested in sharing your map, you can embed it within your website or blog and share it via social media. You can sign up
for free and start using its services right away. [Visit site here]