I would love to see an alternative option for a maps widget that we can use without having to pay Google for an API. For example, the Salient theme uses Leaflet as an alternative to Google(Leaflet Map – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org).
It may not be quite as pretty as Google maps, but the option to use this for smaller clients with smaller budgets would be a huge win for me.
@user1444 I’d like to let you know that Google won’t charge you after creating a billing account: after accepting the terms you automatically start a 12-month trial with a $200 positive balance as a free credit per month.
Inserting your credit card information is Google’s requirement: you won’t be able to use your API key unless you do it.
However, I agree that it would be awesome to avoid using API Key and our devs are looking for a map solution that doesn’t require an API key and fulfills all the necessary criteria. All the updates will be posted here
Thank you! I did read that, I was just hoping to offer an alternative solution that won’t cost my clients. Some of them are very small businesses or just very new ones with small budgets, so cost is a big deal.
Thank you for replying and hopefully your dev team will be successful in finding another option!