It's weird, 10 years ago I implemented using Google Maps API a website with dynamic maps, distance matrix, geolocation, map overlays and address autocomplete completely free also at high traffic. It was also easy to use.
Five years ago Google started to charge an outrageous amount > $1000/month and we could not continue so we switched to something that cost $100/month. And that was for only the maps. We had to scrap the distance matrix and address autocomplete.
Today it's still the same status, and if you want something cheaper then you have to work on putting pieces together like the Washington Post does.
This site made a little bit of money, but not that much. But then 5 years ago google raised their prices so much that we were suddenly in the red. We had to drop the places API (replaced with Yelp) and the autocomplete API (we don't even use that anymore). Recently we've been moving to Apple Maps API which has a pretty generous free tier. Stadia Maps also looks interesting.
Hey guys not affiliated with Stadia but I can vouch for them, I use it in one of my products for a few years now and never heard a complaint, only nice things.
You can't go wrong with them.
Five years ago Google started to charge an outrageous amount > $1000/month and we could not continue so we switched to something that cost $100/month. And that was for only the maps. We had to scrap the distance matrix and address autocomplete.
Today it's still the same status, and if you want something cheaper then you have to work on putting pieces together like the Washington Post does.