[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":392},["ShallowReactive",2],{"footer-learn-links":3,"site-prefooter-cta":16,"customer-story-\u002Fcustomer-stories\u002Flandsearch\u002F":24,"related-customer-story-\u002Fcustomer-stories\u002Flandsearch\u002F":383,"customer-story-author-\u002Fcustomer-stories\u002Flandsearch\u002F":27},[4,7,10,13],{"title":5,"path":6},"What Does a \"Free\" Map API Actually Cost?","\u002Flearn\u002Fwhat-does-a-free-map-api-cost",{"title":8,"path":9},"What Is the Best Geocoding API?","\u002Flearn\u002Fbest-geocoding-api",{"title":11,"path":12},"What Is the Best Routing API?","\u002Flearn\u002Fbest-routing-api",{"title":14,"path":15},"What Is a GDPR-Compliant Mapping API?","\u002Flearn\u002Fgdpr-compliant-mapping-api",{"id":17,"extension":18,"heading":19,"meta":20,"stem":21,"text":22,"__hash__":23},"site\u002Fsite\u002Fprefooter-cta.yml","yml","Business Outcomes That Fuel Your Growth",{},"site\u002Fprefooter-cta","With Stadia Maps, you build the solutions that matter. Logistics platforms provide accurate ETAs, fleet management apps reduce fuel costs, and emergency dispatch systems improve response times.","XztWiZDFyAC0XCoeYLLQrcyaVmP8uvGWALRS354c9I4",{"id":25,"title":26,"author":27,"body":28,"company":56,"companyLogo":309,"companyUrl":52,"description":310,"extension":311,"head":312,"image":314,"imageAlt":315,"industry":316,"keywords":317,"meta":323,"modified":27,"navigation":324,"path":325,"products":326,"published":327,"rawbody":328,"schemaOrg":329,"section":333,"seo":378,"stem":381,"__hash__":382},"customerStories\u002Fcustomer-stories\u002Flandsearch.md","How LandSearch Uses Stadia Maps Satellite Imagery to Show Millions of Acres of Land",null,{"type":29,"value":30,"toc":288},"minimark",[31,35,42,47,58,61,65,104,107,125,129,132,135,138,141,145,148,156,159,162,165,169,172,175,178,181,185,188,191,194,197,201,204,207,210,213,217,220,223,230,233,235,239,244,247,251,254,258,265,269,276,280],[32,33,26],"h1",{"id":34},"how-landsearch-uses-stadia-maps-satellite-imagery-to-show-millions-of-acres-of-land",[36,37,38],"blockquote",{},[39,40,41],"p",{},"LandSearch switched from Mapbox to Stadia Maps for satellite imagery, resulting in high-quality images at a lower cost.",[43,44,46],"h2",{"id":45},"summary","Summary",[39,48,49,57],{},[50,51,56],"a",{"href":52,"rel":53,"target":55},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.landsearch.com\u002F",[54],"external","_blank","LandSearch"," is a land and lifestyle real estate marketplace covering hundreds of thousands of listings across millions of acres for sale or lease. Launched in March 2020, the website receives millions of visits per month from buyers looking for farmland, hunting ground, homesteads, cabins, tiny homes, and raw acreage.",[39,59,60],{},"After scaling with Mapbox, mapping became one of LandSearch's largest application expenses. For a short time, LandSearch served satellite tiles from Amazon Location Service, until they decided to switch to Stadia Maps for its high-quality satellite imagery and responsive customer support.",[43,62,64],{"id":63},"highlights","Highlights",[66,67,68,77,84,91,97],"ul",{},[69,70,71,72,76],"li",{},"Satellite imagery sometimes serves as the ",[73,74,75],"strong",{},"listing photo for rural properties"," on landsearch.com, making image quality a direct part of the buyer's first impression",[69,78,79,80,83],{},"Left Mapbox to ",[73,81,82],{},"save thousands of dollars per month"," and avoid annual commitments",[69,85,86,87,90],{},"Chose Stadia Maps for image quality described as ",[73,88,89],{},"consistently better than Amazon Location Service"," at comparable costs",[69,92,93,94],{},"Access to the Stadia Maps team ",[73,95,96],{},"without a paid support tier",[69,98,99,100,103],{},"Stadia Maps' ",[73,101,102],{},"Isochrone API"," is being considered next, powering drive-time search for buyers who care about how long drives take between properties and places",[105,106],"hr",{},[108,109,111,119],"div",{"style":110},"text-align: center; margin: 2rem 0;",[39,112,113],{},[114,115],"img",{"alt":116,"src":117,"style":118},"LandSearch listing map showing satellite imagery with parcel boundaries","\u002Fimages\u002Fscreenshots\u002Flandsearch-screenshot.png","display: block; margin-inline: auto; max-width: 100%; width: auto;",[39,120,121],{},[122,123,124],"em",{},"LandSearch shows Stadia Maps satellite imagery under its own parcel tiles.",[43,126,128],{"id":127},"land-is-different-than-residential-real-estate","Land Is Different Than Residential Real Estate",[39,130,131],{},"Michael Leigeber co-founded and later exited a digital marketing agency. One of his clients was a large land brokerage, which gave him a front-row seat to the marketplaces serving it. \"Real estate marketplaces in general have been behind the curve in terms of UX and innovation,\" he says. \"It felt like there was an opening to do better.\"",[39,133,134],{},"So he launched LandSearch, which curates land into four types: agricultural, commercial, recreational, and residential, because inventory behaves differently in each. In addition, Zillow, a popular American online real estate marketplace, doesn't show many commercial properties, and agricultural listings are often absent from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the backbone of real estate in America.",[39,136,137],{},"LandSearch represents the listings of tens of thousands of agents, alongside a large for-sale-by-owner base, and is monetized through advertising and subscriptions. \"Part of being a land marketplace is trying to pull together disparate inventory and get all of it normalized into one platform,\" Michael says.",[39,139,140],{},"Users differ as much as the inventory. A farmer expanding an operation, someone looking for hunting property, and a buyer planning to place a mobile home are three different searches, each with a different definition of a good result.",[43,142,144],{"id":143},"why-satellite-imagery-is-not-optional","Why Satellite Imagery Is Not Optional",[39,146,147],{},"For most real estate products, satellite view is a toggle. LandSearch doesn't work without it.",[39,149,150,151,155],{},"Past a certain zoom level, a LandSearch map automatically switches to ",[50,152,154],{"href":153},"\u002Fproducts\u002Fmaps\u002Fmap-styles\u002Fsatellite-imagery\u002F","satellite view",". The reason is that vector data stops answering the questions land buyers actually have. \"You get to a certain point where users want to actually see how dense the land is,\" he explains. \"Is there development nearby? What does access look like? You learn a lot about the property looking at satellite imagery.\"",[39,157,158],{},"Paired with parcel data that LandSearch bakes into its own tiles, the picture gets even more specific. Where do improvements sit on the lot? Are they set back from the road, or 10 feet from the nearest neighbor? What is the topography? Buyers can also toggle between alternate satellite sources because imagery is often captured in different seasons and years.",[39,160,161],{},"On remote land, it's often not economical for anyone to go take photos. When a listing arrives with no cover image, LandSearch uses satellite imagery as the preview in search results. \"It's invaluable,\" Michael says. \"I can't imagine not having the satellite component, because if you just have vector tiles all the way, and that's kind of where you stop, you've lost even the high-level basics like whether the property is wooded or cleared.\"",[39,163,164],{},"Michael is careful not to claim a clean attribution line from LandSearch's satellite imagery spend to business outcomes, and says building that correlation would be difficult. The consequence is more direct: for a meaningful share of inventory, satellite imagery is the only visual available for a listing. And with 75% of landsearch.com traffic on mobile, that imagery has to load fast.",[43,166,168],{"id":167},"the-transition-from-mapbox","The Transition from Mapbox",[39,170,171],{},"LandSearch came to Stadia Maps from Mapbox, and Michael tells that story with credit rather than complaint. He used Mapbox at his marketing agency and found them easy to work with. Two things changed at LandSearch.",[39,173,174],{},"The first was the billing structure. Mapbox counts a map load each time Mapbox GL JS initializes, which resulted in additional expense and engineering to optimize against. \"We're popping up maps all over the place,\" Michael explains. \"You may have a map behind a modal that has another map in it, so you end up creating multiple sessions for one user.\"",[39,176,177],{},"Mapping grew into roughly the company's second-largest single vendor expense, with, in Michael's words, \"no end in sight.\" So LandSearch went looking for volume pricing but came away disappointed with the options.",[39,179,180],{},"The second was support. \"As a small customer, we just couldn't get attention,\" Michael says. Not implementation hand-holding, which LandSearch doesn't need, but bugs. \"It could take months to get a resolution.\"",[43,182,184],{"id":183},"a-detour-through-another-vendor","A Detour Through Another Vendor",[39,186,187],{},"LandSearch already ran significant infrastructure on AWS, so Amazon Location Service was the natural next stop. That didn't work for them either.",[39,189,190],{},"\"It really just came down to quality,\" Michael admits. \"In major urban areas, everybody seemed to have, give or take, good resolution. But where Stadia Maps really stood out is the consistent quality, especially as you get more rural.\"",[39,192,193],{},"Rural is not an edge case for LandSearch. It is a large part of the business. \"We could just count on a much higher average quality across the United States than we could with Amazon map tiles.\"",[39,195,196],{},"Support also reared its head again. With Amazon, \"unless you have an expensive support contract, you kind of have to pay to report bugs, let alone actually get help with something,\" Michael says. With Stadia Maps, \"when we reach out, we get answers.\"",[43,198,200],{"id":199},"build-or-buy","Build or Buy?",[39,202,203],{},"LandSearch runs a distributed infrastructure, building their own tiles using PMTiles and serving them through CloudFront, drawing on Overture and other open data.",[39,205,206],{},"That is also the reason LandSearch doesn't use vector tiles from Stadia Maps. \"We have a few different datasets that are unique to us, and we could show them in a different layer, but if we're going to be serving those tiles anyway, it makes sense to build it all out on our end and serve it together.\"",[39,208,209],{},"There aren't many real estate marketplaces at LandSearch's scale, and they keep their data close. Once you go beyond localities and postal codes into parcels and properties, the datasets become proprietary. So LandSearch builds there.",[39,211,212],{},"Satellite imagery sits firmly on the buy side. It is expensive to source, expensive to keep fresh, and no part of it is proprietary to LandSearch. \"With enough money, you can license whatever you want,\" Michael says. \"But there aren't many pay-as-you-go options out there.\"",[43,214,216],{"id":215},"whats-next-drive-times-and-an-ongoing-partnership","What's Next: Drive Times and an Ongoing Partnership",[39,218,219],{},"Since launching in 2020, LandSearch has delivered more than a million leads, giving the team a clear view of what its customer base needs. Much of what buyers ask about is proximity, and not to an address but to a category of place, like a grocery store or a hospital.",[39,221,222],{},"The next problem LandSearch wants to solve is land-specific accessibility. \"Let's say that you want to live outside of town. Drive time may be more important than miles,\" Michael explains. \"Something can look deceivingly close to town, but it's a long, winding, slow road to get there.\"",[39,224,225,226,229],{},"The plan is to let buyers search by commute time and to show nearby points of interest on the property detail page. \"For the drive time, we would likely use the Stadia Maps ",[50,227,102],{"href":228},"\u002Fproducts\u002Frouting-navigation\u002Fisochrones\u002F"," to build out that geometry,\" Michael says.",[39,231,232],{},"LandSearch and Stadia Maps continue to grow together, and Michael's default recommendation has changed. \"Anytime that I run across somebody that needs mapping at scale, I recommend Stadia Maps,\" he says. The reason is not a feature list. \"I email Stadia Maps and get answers from their team. They've also been responsive to the feedback that I have,\" Michael says. \"I've been very happy with how Stadia Maps has evolved with us and matured as a company.\"",[105,234],{},[43,236,238],{"id":237},"frequently-asked-questions","Frequently Asked Questions",[240,241,243],"h3",{"id":242},"who-is-landsearch","Who is LandSearch?",[39,245,246],{},"LandSearch is a leading land and lifestyle real estate marketplace. Listings include homes with land, commercial lots, farmland, recreational acreage, and more.",[240,248,250],{"id":249},"who-is-stadia-maps","Who is Stadia Maps?",[39,252,253],{},"Stadia Maps provides APIs for maps, geocoding, search, routing, and navigation for developers building location-based applications. The platform is privacy-first: no tracking, no telemetry requirements, and GDPR- and CCPA-compliant by default. Pricing is credit-based, usage-driven, with no hidden multipliers for active users. LandSearch has worked with Stadia Maps since 2024.",[240,255,257],{"id":256},"what-is-satellite-imagery-resolution","What is satellite imagery resolution?",[39,259,260,264],{},[50,261,263],{"href":262},"\u002Flearn\u002Fsatellite-imagery-resolution\u002F","Satellite imagery resolution"," is the ground distance represented by a single pixel in an image. It is usually written in centimeters or meters, so 30cm resolution means one pixel covers a 30cm by 30cm square of ground. Lower numbers mean finer detail.",[240,266,268],{"id":267},"why-does-satellite-imagery-quality-matter-for-land-listings","Why does satellite imagery quality matter for land listings?",[39,270,271,272,275],{},"Because on remote land, photography is often not feasible, the satellite tile becomes the only image of the property and serves as the listing preview. It's also how buyers answer questions vector data cannot: tree cover, topography, density, what sits on neighboring parcels, and where improvements actually sit on the lot. Stadia Maps ",[50,273,274],{"href":153},"satellite imagery"," offers 1.5m or better resolution globally, 50cm across most of North America and Europe, zoom 18 global coverage, and an area-weighted average image age of about 1.6 years.",[240,277,279],{"id":278},"can-a-small-team-use-satellite-imagery-without-an-enterprise-contract","Can a small team use satellite imagery without an enterprise contract?",[39,281,282,283,287],{},"Yes. Stadia Maps provides satellite tiles on the same credit-based, pay-as-you-go ",[50,284,286],{"href":285},"\u002Fpricing\u002F","pricing"," model as its other APIs, with no enterprise minimum and no annual commitment required to get list pricing.",{"title":289,"searchDepth":290,"depth":290,"links":291},"",4,[292,294,295,296,297,298,299,300,301],{"id":45,"depth":293,"text":46},2,{"id":63,"depth":293,"text":64},{"id":127,"depth":293,"text":128},{"id":143,"depth":293,"text":144},{"id":167,"depth":293,"text":168},{"id":183,"depth":293,"text":184},{"id":199,"depth":293,"text":200},{"id":215,"depth":293,"text":216},{"id":237,"depth":293,"text":238,"children":302},[303,305,306,307,308],{"id":242,"depth":304,"text":243},3,{"id":249,"depth":304,"text":250},{"id":256,"depth":304,"text":257},{"id":267,"depth":304,"text":268},{"id":278,"depth":304,"text":279},"\u002Fimages\u002Fpartners\u002Flandsearch-logo.png","How LandSearch switched from Mapbox to Stadia Maps satellite imagery, cutting thousands of dollars a month while raising image quality across rural America.","md",{"script":313},[],"\u002Fimages\u002Fog\u002Flandsearch-og-image.png","LandSearch customer story — Stadia Maps","Property Technology",[318,56,319,320,321,322],"Customer Story","Satellite Imagery","Real Estate","Land","Map Tiles",{},true,"\u002Fcustomer-stories\u002Flandsearch",[319],"2026-09-14","---\ntitle: How LandSearch Uses Stadia Maps Satellite Imagery to Show Millions of Acres of Land\ndescription: How LandSearch switched from Mapbox to Stadia Maps satellite imagery, cutting thousands of dollars a month while raising image quality across rural America.\ncompany: LandSearch\ncompanyLogo: \u002Fimages\u002Fpartners\u002Flandsearch-logo.png\ncompanyUrl: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.landsearch.com\u002F\nhead:\n  script: []\nimage: \u002Fimages\u002Fog\u002Flandsearch-og-image.png\nimageAlt: LandSearch customer story — Stadia Maps\nindustry: Property Technology\nkeywords:\n  - Customer Story\n  - LandSearch\n  - Satellite Imagery\n  - Real Estate\n  - Land\n  - Map Tiles\nproducts:\n  - Satellite Imagery\npublished: 2026-09-14\nschemaOrg:\n  - \"@type\": Article\n    headline: How LandSearch Uses Stadia Maps Satellite Imagery to Show Millions of Acres of Land\n    description: How LandSearch switched from Mapbox to Stadia Maps satellite imagery, cutting thousands of dollars a month while raising image quality across rural America.\n    image: https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002Fimages\u002Fog\u002Flandsearch-og-image.png\n    datePublished: 2026-09-14\n    dateModified: 2026-09-14\n    articleSection: Customer Stories\n    publisher:\n      \"@type\": Organization\n      name: Stadia Maps\n      url: https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002F\n      sameAs:\n        - https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fstadia-maps\n        - https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fstadiamaps\n      logo:\n        \"@type\": ImageObject\n        url: https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002F_nuxt\u002Flogo-with-text.CfA93B9e.svg\n    about:\n      - \"@type\": Organization\n        name: LandSearch\n        url: https:\u002F\u002Fwww.landsearch.com\u002F\n        description: Land and lifestyle real estate marketplace covering hundreds of thousands of listings across millions of acres for sale or lease.\n        founder:\n          \"@type\": Person\n          name: Michael Leigeber\n    mentions:\n      - \"@type\": Organization\n        name: Mapbox\n      - \"@type\": Organization\n        name: Amazon Location Service\n      - \"@type\": SoftwareApplication\n        name: PMTiles\n      - \"@type\": Organization\n        name: Overture Maps Foundation\n  - \"@type\": FAQPage\n    mainEntity:\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: Who is LandSearch?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: LandSearch is a leading land and lifestyle real estate marketplace. Listings include homes with land, commercial lots, farmland, recreational acreage, and more.\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: Who is Stadia Maps?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: \"Stadia Maps provides APIs for maps, geocoding, search, routing, and navigation for developers building location-based applications. The platform is privacy-first: no tracking, no telemetry requirements, and GDPR- and CCPA-compliant by default. Pricing is credit-based, usage-driven, with no hidden multipliers for active users. LandSearch has worked with Stadia Maps since 2024.\"\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: What is satellite imagery resolution?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: Satellite imagery resolution is the ground distance represented by a single pixel in an image. It is usually written in centimeters or meters, so 30cm resolution means one pixel covers a 30cm by 30cm square of ground. Lower numbers mean finer detail.\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: Why does satellite imagery quality matter for land listings?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: \"Because on remote land, photography is often not feasible, the satellite tile becomes the only image of the property and serves as the listing preview. It's also how buyers answer questions vector data cannot: tree cover, topography, density, what sits on neighboring parcels, and where improvements actually sit on the lot. Stadia Maps satellite imagery offers 1.5m or better resolution globally, 50cm across most of North America and Europe, zoom 18 global coverage, and an area-weighted average image age of about 1.6 years.\"\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: Can a small team use satellite imagery without an enterprise contract?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: Yes. Stadia Maps provides satellite tiles on the same credit-based, pay-as-you-go pricing model as its other APIs, with no enterprise minimum and no annual commitment required to get list pricing.\nsection: Customer Stories\nseo:\n  title: LandSearch Case Study | Stadia Maps\n  ogTitle: How LandSearch Uses Stadia Maps Satellite Imagery to Show Millions of Acres of Land\n  ogImage: https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002Fimages\u002Fog\u002Flandsearch-og-image.png\n  description: Why LandSearch left Mapbox and Amazon Location Service for Stadia Maps satellite imagery, and how it uses tiles as listing photos for remote land.\n---\n\n# How LandSearch Uses Stadia Maps Satellite Imagery to Show Millions of Acres of Land\n\n> LandSearch switched from Mapbox to Stadia Maps for satellite imagery, resulting in high-quality images at a lower cost.\n\n## Summary\n\n[LandSearch](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.landsearch.com\u002F) is a land and lifestyle real estate marketplace covering hundreds of thousands of listings across millions of acres for sale or lease. Launched in March 2020, the website receives millions of visits per month from buyers looking for farmland, hunting ground, homesteads, cabins, tiny homes, and raw acreage.\n\nAfter scaling with Mapbox, mapping became one of LandSearch's largest application expenses. For a short time, LandSearch served satellite tiles from Amazon Location Service, until they decided to switch to Stadia Maps for its high-quality satellite imagery and responsive customer support.\n\n## Highlights\n\n- Satellite imagery sometimes serves as the **listing photo for rural properties** on landsearch.com, making image quality a direct part of the buyer's first impression\n- Left Mapbox to **save thousands of dollars per month** and avoid annual commitments\n- Chose Stadia Maps for image quality described as **consistently better than Amazon Location Service** at comparable costs\n- Access to the Stadia Maps team **without a paid support tier**\n- Stadia Maps' **Isochrone API** is being considered next, powering drive-time search for buyers who care about how long drives take between properties and places\n\n---\n\n::div{style=\"text-align: center; margin: 2rem 0;\"}\n![LandSearch listing map showing satellite imagery with parcel boundaries](\u002Fimages\u002Fscreenshots\u002Flandsearch-screenshot.png){style=\"display: block; margin-inline: auto; max-width: 100%; width: auto;\"}\n\n*LandSearch shows Stadia Maps satellite imagery under its own parcel tiles.*\n::\n\n## Land Is Different Than Residential Real Estate\n\nMichael Leigeber co-founded and later exited a digital marketing agency. One of his clients was a large land brokerage, which gave him a front-row seat to the marketplaces serving it. \"Real estate marketplaces in general have been behind the curve in terms of UX and innovation,\" he says. \"It felt like there was an opening to do better.\"\n\nSo he launched LandSearch, which curates land into four types: agricultural, commercial, recreational, and residential, because inventory behaves differently in each. In addition, Zillow, a popular American online real estate marketplace, doesn't show many commercial properties, and agricultural listings are often absent from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), the backbone of real estate in America.\n\nLandSearch represents the listings of tens of thousands of agents, alongside a large for-sale-by-owner base, and is monetized through advertising and subscriptions. \"Part of being a land marketplace is trying to pull together disparate inventory and get all of it normalized into one platform,\" Michael says.\n\nUsers differ as much as the inventory. A farmer expanding an operation, someone looking for hunting property, and a buyer planning to place a mobile home are three different searches, each with a different definition of a good result.\n\n## Why Satellite Imagery Is Not Optional\n\nFor most real estate products, satellite view is a toggle. LandSearch doesn't work without it.\n\nPast a certain zoom level, a LandSearch map automatically switches to [satellite view](\u002Fproducts\u002Fmaps\u002Fmap-styles\u002Fsatellite-imagery\u002F). The reason is that vector data stops answering the questions land buyers actually have. \"You get to a certain point where users want to actually see how dense the land is,\" he explains. \"Is there development nearby? What does access look like? You learn a lot about the property looking at satellite imagery.\"\n\nPaired with parcel data that LandSearch bakes into its own tiles, the picture gets even more specific. Where do improvements sit on the lot? Are they set back from the road, or 10 feet from the nearest neighbor? What is the topography? Buyers can also toggle between alternate satellite sources because imagery is often captured in different seasons and years.\n\nOn remote land, it's often not economical for anyone to go take photos. When a listing arrives with no cover image, LandSearch uses satellite imagery as the preview in search results. \"It's invaluable,\" Michael says. \"I can't imagine not having the satellite component, because if you just have vector tiles all the way, and that's kind of where you stop, you've lost even the high-level basics like whether the property is wooded or cleared.\"\n\nMichael is careful not to claim a clean attribution line from LandSearch's satellite imagery spend to business outcomes, and says building that correlation would be difficult. The consequence is more direct: for a meaningful share of inventory, satellite imagery is the only visual available for a listing. And with 75% of landsearch.com traffic on mobile, that imagery has to load fast.\n\n## The Transition from Mapbox\n\nLandSearch came to Stadia Maps from Mapbox, and Michael tells that story with credit rather than complaint. He used Mapbox at his marketing agency and found them easy to work with. Two things changed at LandSearch.\n\nThe first was the billing structure. Mapbox counts a map load each time Mapbox GL JS initializes, which resulted in additional expense and engineering to optimize against. \"We're popping up maps all over the place,\" Michael explains. \"You may have a map behind a modal that has another map in it, so you end up creating multiple sessions for one user.\"\n\nMapping grew into roughly the company's second-largest single vendor expense, with, in Michael's words, \"no end in sight.\" So LandSearch went looking for volume pricing but came away disappointed with the options.\n\nThe second was support. \"As a small customer, we just couldn't get attention,\" Michael says. Not implementation hand-holding, which LandSearch doesn't need, but bugs. \"It could take months to get a resolution.\"\n\n## A Detour Through Another Vendor\n\nLandSearch already ran significant infrastructure on AWS, so Amazon Location Service was the natural next stop. That didn't work for them either.\n\n\"It really just came down to quality,\" Michael admits. \"In major urban areas, everybody seemed to have, give or take, good resolution. But where Stadia Maps really stood out is the consistent quality, especially as you get more rural.\"\n\nRural is not an edge case for LandSearch. It is a large part of the business. \"We could just count on a much higher average quality across the United States than we could with Amazon map tiles.\"\n\nSupport also reared its head again. With Amazon, \"unless you have an expensive support contract, you kind of have to pay to report bugs, let alone actually get help with something,\" Michael says. With Stadia Maps, \"when we reach out, we get answers.\"\n\n## Build or Buy?\n\nLandSearch runs a distributed infrastructure, building their own tiles using PMTiles and serving them through CloudFront, drawing on Overture and other open data.\n\nThat is also the reason LandSearch doesn't use vector tiles from Stadia Maps. \"We have a few different datasets that are unique to us, and we could show them in a different layer, but if we're going to be serving those tiles anyway, it makes sense to build it all out on our end and serve it together.\"\n\nThere aren't many real estate marketplaces at LandSearch's scale, and they keep their data close. Once you go beyond localities and postal codes into parcels and properties, the datasets become proprietary. So LandSearch builds there.\n\nSatellite imagery sits firmly on the buy side. It is expensive to source, expensive to keep fresh, and no part of it is proprietary to LandSearch. \"With enough money, you can license whatever you want,\" Michael says. \"But there aren't many pay-as-you-go options out there.\"\n\n## What's Next: Drive Times and an Ongoing Partnership\n\nSince launching in 2020, LandSearch has delivered more than a million leads, giving the team a clear view of what its customer base needs. Much of what buyers ask about is proximity, and not to an address but to a category of place, like a grocery store or a hospital.\n\nThe next problem LandSearch wants to solve is land-specific accessibility. \"Let's say that you want to live outside of town. Drive time may be more important than miles,\" Michael explains. \"Something can look deceivingly close to town, but it's a long, winding, slow road to get there.\"\n\nThe plan is to let buyers search by commute time and to show nearby points of interest on the property detail page. \"For the drive time, we would likely use the Stadia Maps [Isochrone API](\u002Fproducts\u002Frouting-navigation\u002Fisochrones\u002F) to build out that geometry,\" Michael says.\n\nLandSearch and Stadia Maps continue to grow together, and Michael's default recommendation has changed. \"Anytime that I run across somebody that needs mapping at scale, I recommend Stadia Maps,\" he says. The reason is not a feature list. \"I email Stadia Maps and get answers from their team. They've also been responsive to the feedback that I have,\" Michael says. \"I've been very happy with how Stadia Maps has evolved with us and matured as a company.\"\n\n---\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### Who is LandSearch?\n\nLandSearch is a leading land and lifestyle real estate marketplace. Listings include homes with land, commercial lots, farmland, recreational acreage, and more.\n\n### Who is Stadia Maps?\n\nStadia Maps provides APIs for maps, geocoding, search, routing, and navigation for developers building location-based applications. The platform is privacy-first: no tracking, no telemetry requirements, and GDPR- and CCPA-compliant by default. Pricing is credit-based, usage-driven, with no hidden multipliers for active users. LandSearch has worked with Stadia Maps since 2024.\n\n### What is satellite imagery resolution?\n\n[Satellite imagery resolution](\u002Flearn\u002Fsatellite-imagery-resolution\u002F) is the ground distance represented by a single pixel in an image. It is usually written in centimeters or meters, so 30cm resolution means one pixel covers a 30cm by 30cm square of ground. Lower numbers mean finer detail.\n\n### Why does satellite imagery quality matter for land listings?\n\nBecause on remote land, photography is often not feasible, the satellite tile becomes the only image of the property and serves as the listing preview. It's also how buyers answer questions vector data cannot: tree cover, topography, density, what sits on neighboring parcels, and where improvements actually sit on the lot. Stadia Maps [satellite imagery](\u002Fproducts\u002Fmaps\u002Fmap-styles\u002Fsatellite-imagery\u002F) offers 1.5m or better resolution globally, 50cm across most of North America and Europe, zoom 18 global coverage, and an area-weighted average image age of about 1.6 years.\n\n### Can a small team use satellite imagery without an enterprise contract?\n\nYes. Stadia Maps provides satellite tiles on the same credit-based, pay-as-you-go [pricing](\u002Fpricing\u002F) model as its other APIs, with no enterprise minimum and no annual commitment required to get list pricing.\n",[330,360],{"@type":331,"headline":26,"description":310,"image":332,"datePublished":327,"dateModified":327,"articleSection":333,"publisher":334,"about":344,"mentions":350},"Article","https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002Fimages\u002Fog\u002Flandsearch-og-image.png","Customer Stories",{"@type":335,"name":336,"url":337,"sameAs":338,"logo":341},"Organization","Stadia Maps","https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002F",[339,340],"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fstadia-maps","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fstadiamaps",{"@type":342,"url":343},"ImageObject","https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002F_nuxt\u002Flogo-with-text.CfA93B9e.svg",[345],{"@type":335,"name":56,"url":52,"description":346,"founder":347},"Land and lifestyle real estate marketplace covering hundreds of thousands of listings across millions of acres for sale or lease.",{"@type":348,"name":349},"Person","Michael Leigeber",[351,353,355,358],{"@type":335,"name":352},"Mapbox",{"@type":335,"name":354},"Amazon Location Service",{"@type":356,"name":357},"SoftwareApplication","PMTiles",{"@type":335,"name":359},"Overture Maps Foundation",{"@type":361,"mainEntity":362},"FAQPage",[363,367,369,372,375],{"@type":364,"name":243,"acceptedAnswer":365},"Question",{"@type":366,"text":246},"Answer",{"@type":364,"name":250,"acceptedAnswer":368},{"@type":366,"text":253},{"@type":364,"name":257,"acceptedAnswer":370},{"@type":366,"text":371},"Satellite imagery resolution is the ground distance represented by a single pixel in an image. It is usually written in centimeters or meters, so 30cm resolution means one pixel covers a 30cm by 30cm square of ground. Lower numbers mean finer detail.",{"@type":364,"name":268,"acceptedAnswer":373},{"@type":366,"text":374},"Because on remote land, photography is often not feasible, the satellite tile becomes the only image of the property and serves as the listing preview. It's also how buyers answer questions vector data cannot: tree cover, topography, density, what sits on neighboring parcels, and where improvements actually sit on the lot. Stadia Maps satellite imagery offers 1.5m or better resolution globally, 50cm across most of North America and Europe, zoom 18 global coverage, and an area-weighted average image age of about 1.6 years.",{"@type":364,"name":279,"acceptedAnswer":376},{"@type":366,"text":377},"Yes. Stadia Maps provides satellite tiles on the same credit-based, pay-as-you-go pricing model as its other APIs, with no enterprise minimum and no annual commitment required to get list pricing.",{"title":379,"ogTitle":26,"ogImage":332,"description":380},"LandSearch Case Study | Stadia Maps","Why LandSearch left Mapbox and Amazon Location Service for Stadia Maps satellite imagery, and how it uses tiles as listing photos for remote land.","customer-stories\u002Flandsearch","5Fg8a-CEFhmjYVbXMAT8YdxtUPEpb5uzhvNuPbjoxuQ",[384],{"title":385,"description":386,"path":387,"published":388,"products":389,"rawbody":391},"The Platform to the Sun: How Shadowmap Uses Stadia Maps to Power Sunlight Simulation at Global Scale","How Shadowmap serves 3D sunlight simulation to 700,000+ monthly users — and powers Redfin's sunlight scores — with map tiles from Stadia Maps.","\u002Fcustomer-stories\u002Fshadowmap","2026-07-08",[390],"Maps","---\ntitle: \"The Platform to the Sun: How Shadowmap Uses Stadia Maps to Power Sunlight Simulation at Global Scale\"\ndescription: How Shadowmap serves 3D sunlight simulation to 700,000+ monthly users — and powers Redfin's sunlight scores — with map tiles from Stadia Maps.\ncompany: Shadowmap\ncompanyLogo: \u002Fimages\u002Fpartners\u002Fshadowmap-logo.png\ncompanyUrl: https:\u002F\u002Fshadowmap.org\u002F\nhead:\n  script: []\nimage: \u002Fimages\u002Fog\u002Fshadowmap-og-image.png\nimageAlt: Shadowmap customer story — Stadia Maps\nindustry: Property Technology\nkeywords:\n  - Customer Story\n  - Shadowmap\n  - Map Tiles\n  - Real Estate\n  - Solar Energy\n  - 3D Maps\nproducts:\n  - Maps\npublished: 2026-07-08\nschemaOrg:\n  - \"@type\": Article\n    headline: How Shadowmap Uses Stadia Maps to Power Sunlight Simulation at Global Scale\n    description: How Shadowmap serves 3D sunlight simulation to 700,000+ monthly users — and powers Redfin's sunlight scores — with map tiles from Stadia Maps.\n    image: https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002Fimages\u002Fog\u002Fshadowmap-og-image.png\n    datePublished: 2026-07-08\n    dateModified: 2026-07-08\n    articleSection: Customer Stories\n    publisher:\n      \"@type\": Organization\n      name: Stadia Maps\n      url: https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002F\n      sameAs:\n        - https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fcompany\u002Fstadia-maps\n        - https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fstadiamaps\n      logo:\n        \"@type\": ImageObject\n        url: https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002F_nuxt\u002Flogo-with-text.CfA93B9e.svg\n    about:\n      - \"@type\": Organization\n        name: Shadowmap\n        url: https:\u002F\u002Fshadowmap.org\u002F\n        description: Precision 3D sunlight simulation platform serving home buyers, architects, solar installers, and urban planners worldwide.\n        founder:\n          \"@type\": Person\n          name: Georg Molzer\n        location:\n          \"@type\": Place\n          name: Vienna, Austria\n    mentions:\n      - \"@type\": Organization\n        name: Redfin\n      - \"@type\": Organization\n        name: Willhaben\n      - \"@type\": SoftwareApplication\n        name: Three.js\n      - \"@type\": SoftwareApplication\n        name: MapLibre\n  - \"@type\": FAQPage\n    mainEntity:\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: What is Shadowmap?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: Shadowmap strives to provide a platform that connects humanity with the natural benefits of the Sun, enabling people to better understand, utilize, and plan with the Sun as a source of life, energy, and light.\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: What is Stadia Maps?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: \"Stadia Maps provides APIs for maps, geocoding, search, routing, and navigation for developers building location-based applications. The platform is privacy-first: no tracking, no telemetry requirements, and GDPR\u002FCCPA compliant by default. Pricing is request-based and transparent, with no hidden multipliers for active users. Shadowmap has run on Stadia Maps since 2021.\"\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: How does Stadia Maps compare to Google Maps API and Mapbox?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: \"While other providers charge unpredictable map load fees or require mandatory telemetry, Stadia Maps offers simple request-based billing with no hidden multipliers and is GDPR\u002FCCPA compliant by default with no tracking or telemetry requirements. Stadia Maps is built on open formats, including Mapbox Vector Tiles and the OpenMapTiles schema, so you can use open-source renderers like MapLibre and Leaflet without lock-in. Support is developer-to-developer: you talk directly to the people who wrote the code. As Georg Molzer of Shadowmap puts it: \\\"The Stadia Maps team is competent, their APIs are affordable, and there's no (BS). The dashboard has anything you want, and it's clear what you're going to pay.\\\"\"\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: Can Stadia Maps support high-traffic consumer applications?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: Yes. Shadowmap serves 700,000+ monthly active users (as of mid-2026) globally and powers sunlight features on Redfin, one of the largest real estate platforms in the United States, all on Stadia Maps APIs. Shadowmap's tile usage in the first six months of 2026 surpassed everything it consumed in all of 2025.\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: Does Stadia Maps support custom map styles?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: Yes. Stadia Maps offers a range of built-in map styles and supports custom styles for teams with specific design requirements. When Shadowmap's design team developed a color scheme, Stadia Maps collaborated with them to build a bespoke tile style, which is now available to all Stadia Maps customers.\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: What kinds of applications are built on Stadia Maps?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: \"Stadia Maps powers a wide range of location-based applications, from consumer tools to enterprise platforms. Use cases include real estate and property search, solar energy analysis, urban planning, logistics, photography tooling, and data visualization. Shadowmap is one example: a precision 3D sunlight simulation platform serving home buyers, architects, solar installers, and urban planners worldwide.\"\n      - \"@type\": Question\n        name: Is Stadia Maps a good choice for startups and early-stage companies?\n        acceptedAnswer:\n          \"@type\": Answer\n          text: Yes. Georg Molzer chose Stadia Maps when Shadowmap was a solo project with a minimal budget, and Stadia Maps worked with him on pricing that made continued development possible. \"It was like a sigh of relief,\" he says. Four years later, Shadowmap is profitable and integrated into major real estate platforms on both sides of the Atlantic, and it still runs proudly on Stadia Maps.\nsection: Customer Stories\nseo:\n  title: Shadowmap Case Study | Stadia Maps\n  ogTitle: \"The Platform to the Sun: How Shadowmap Uses Stadia Maps to Power Sunlight Simulation at Global Scale\"\n  ogImage: https:\u002F\u002Fstadiamaps.com\u002Fimages\u002Fog\u002Fshadowmap-og-image.png\n  description: How Shadowmap serves 3D sunlight simulation to 700,000+ monthly users — and powers Redfin's sunlight scores — with map tiles from Stadia Maps.\n---\n\n# The Platform to the Sun: How Shadowmap Uses Stadia Maps to Power Sunlight Simulation at Global Scale\n\n> Starting from a thesis and a crisis, Georg Molzer built Shadowmap into the definitive tool for understanding sunlight. Here's how Location APIs and vector map tiles from Stadia Maps help.\n\n## Summary\n\n[Shadowmap](https:\u002F\u002Fshadowmap.org\u002F) is a Vienna-based company that uses Stadia Maps for map tiles. Founded by Georg Molzer, Shadowmap lets users simulate the sun's position and shadow patterns anywhere on Earth, in real time and in 3D. It also powers sunlight-scoring features for major real estate platforms, including Redfin and Willhaben. Shadowmap serves 700,000+ monthly active users across use cases that include home buying, solar energy planning, architecture, urban planning, and photography.\n\n## Highlights\n\n- More than **700,000** monthly active users globally\n- **Key integrations, including Redfin**, the third-largest U.S. real estate platform, powering sunlight scores across its listings, and **Willhaben**, Austria's largest real estate platform\n- Offers the **Sunscore API**, what Shadowmap refers to as the first building-level sun exposure rating system (0-100) of its kind, and **3D Solar Analytics**, which calculates solar potential in real time for rooftops and vertical surfaces\n- Driven by Redfin integration and Sunscore API adoption, **Shadowmap doubled its full-year 2025 Stadia Maps API usage in just the first half of 2026**\n\n---\n\nIt started with a window.\n\nIn the winter of 2010, Georg Molzer was sitting in his dark apartment in Vienna. Two weeks had passed without seeing the sun. He wanted one simple thing: a tool that could tell him, at noon, exactly where on the street he could find a bench in the sunlight to spend half an hour.\n\nThat tool didn't exist. So Georg decided to build it.\n\nMore than a decade later, Shadowmap now has more than 700,000 monthly active users, a partnership with Redfin that powers sunlight scores for millions of U.S. home listings, and a profitable business built on an original insight: where sunlight falls is knowable, but until Shadowmap, almost nobody had the tools to see it.\n\n::div{style=\"text-align: center; margin: 2rem 0;\"}\n![Shadowmap displaying over our Alidade Smooth map style](\u002Fimages\u002Fscreenshots\u002Fshadow-map-screenshot.png){style=\"display: block; margin-inline: auto; max-width: 100%; width: auto;\"}\n\n*Shadowmap displaying over our Alidade Smooth map style.*\n::\n\n## Building Something That Didn't Exist\n\nGeorg studied computer science at the Vienna University of Technology, specializing in visual computing. \"I've always been passionate about programming and making data more understandable for humans,\" he says. \"Technology should really work for humans. Not the other way around.\"\n\nWhen he finally started building in earnest in 2018, Georg made a deliberate choice to write his master's thesis on Shadowmap, not just as a forcing function, but as a kind of public declaration. Most theses get shelved the moment the degree is awarded. Georg was betting his wouldn't, because he built in a reason it couldn't. \"I always knew that if I didn't work on something that ends up being used by people, I wouldn't really finish it.\"\n\nThe Shadowmap beta launched on Product Hunt in summer 2021. People liked it immediately. An investor followed shortly after.\n\n## A Tool for Every Use Case Involving the Sun\n\nShadowmap's user base is intentionally broad and includes consumers and businesses.\n\nConsumer use cases range from people evaluating how much sunlight a home gets in December to photographers scouting locations to gardeners planning beds. \"We built an interface to the sun,\" Georg says. \"You can simulate the sun's position and the shadows it casts based on 3D data, for any location on Earth, at any time or time period.\"\n\nOn the B2B side, Shadowmap works with solar installers who calculate energy potential and with architects who analyze shadows at scale. The company has partnerships with Willhaben, Austria's largest real estate platform, and Redfin, the [third-largest U.S. real estate platform](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.rubyhome.com\u002Fblog\u002Fmost-visited-real-estate-websites\u002F). Redfin integrated Shadowmap's full suite, including interactive 3D sunlight simulation, solar analytics, photorealistic Google 3D Buildings, and the Sunscore API, which rates any building's sun exposure from 0 to 100. \"Nobody else has done this yet,\" Georg says. \"It's a cool way to not only visualize, but to get a single metric. You can ask the system: show me the five brightest homes in San Francisco.\"\n\n## Building a 3D Sunlight Engine with Three.js\n\nWhen Georg started building, existing 3D map engines fell short. Cesium, MapLibre, and Mapbox all missed on at least one dimension: mobile performance, shadow rendering quality, or rendering range.\n\n\"I was really stubborn,\" he says. \"I'm navigating in a 3D world with 3D structures casting shadows. Of course, it needs to be 3D.\"\n\nHe evaluated the available engines and chose Three.js and TypeScript. A web-first architecture means the same rendering engine runs in browsers and inside native apps on iOS and Android.\n\nOne thing Georg is clear about for other developers building in this space: don't shortcut the rendering pipeline. \"Some competitors only let buildings receive shadows from other buildings. They don't receive shadows cast by mountains because the pipeline wasn't designed for it from the ground up. Ask yourself honestly: do you really want to solve the problem, or just part of it?\"\n\n## Why Shadowmap Chose Stadia Maps\n\nLike many early-stage decisions, the move to Stadia Maps began with a crisis. Georg had been using a small Austrian maps provider that offered data at no cost. \"I decided to part ways, and then I was just looking for an alternative.\"\n\nA Google search surfaced Stadia Maps. He'd never heard of the company before. \"It sounded almost too good to be true: really affordable pricing, and the map style fit. Not crazy colorful, which I liked.\"\n\nFor a team running a custom Three.js renderer on mobile, tile performance and reliability weren't optional. He reached out. The Stadia Maps team offered pricing that made it feel possible to continue building. \"It was, honestly, a sigh of relief,\" he recalls.\n\nWhat's kept the relationship strong goes beyond just pricing: it's how Stadia Maps actually behaves as a partner to Shadowmap. \"Response times are legendary. Always super quick, always super friendly, always solution-oriented.\" When Shadowmap's designer developed a custom color scheme that didn't match any existing tile style, Stadia Maps worked to create a bespoke [map style](\u002Fproducts\u002Fmaps\u002Fmap-styles\u002F), which is now offered to all Stadia Maps customers.\n\nShadowmap and Stadia Maps are growing together. Shadowmap's API usage doubled in the first six months of 2026, surpassing what it used in all of 2025.\n\nFor a developer evaluating location API providers, Georg is direct: \"The Stadia Maps team is competent, their APIs are affordable, and there's no bullshit. The dashboard has anything you want, and it's clear what you're going to pay.\"\n\n## A Mission Behind the Product\n\nAsk Georg what drives Shadowmap, and he'll talk about health before product-market fit.\n\nSunlight, he argues, is important for human health in ways most people underestimate. Shadowmap runs a podcast called *[Sunlight Matters](https:\u002F\u002Fshadowmap.org\u002Flearn\u002Fpodcast)* and connects with scientists, doctors, and astronomers working on the frontier of that research. \"We want to nudge the whole industry in a better direction, where architects and developers plan in a way that makes a healthier, happier, more creative choice for humans.\"\n\nThe profitable company now has nine employees, spread across Vienna, the UK, Amsterdam, and Florida.\n\n\"Sunlight is crucial for your cells,\" Georg says. \"If you're going to buy an apartment, you should know how it's lit in December, not just June. That's all we're trying to help with.\"\n\n---\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What is Shadowmap?\n\nShadowmap strives to provide a platform that connects humanity with the natural benefits of the Sun, enabling people to better understand, utilize, and plan with the Sun as a source of life, energy, and light.\n\n### What is Stadia Maps?\n\nStadia Maps provides APIs for maps, geocoding, search, routing, and navigation for developers building location-based applications. The platform is privacy-first: no tracking, no telemetry requirements, and GDPR\u002FCCPA compliant by default. Pricing is credit-based, usage-driven, with no hidden multipliers for active users. Shadowmap has run on Stadia Maps since 2021.\n\n### How does Stadia Maps compare to Google Maps API and Mapbox?\n\nWhile other providers charge unpredictable map load fees or require mandatory telemetry, Stadia Maps offers simple request-based billing with no hidden multipliers and is GDPR\u002FCCPA compliant by default with no tracking or telemetry requirements. Stadia Maps is built on open formats, including Mapbox Vector Tiles and the OpenMapTiles schema, so you can use open-source renderers like MapLibre and Leaflet without lock-in. Support is developer-to-developer: you talk directly to the people who wrote the code. As Georg Molzer of Shadowmap puts it: \"The Stadia Maps team is competent, their APIs are affordable, and there's no (BS). The dashboard has anything you want, and it's clear what you're going to pay.\"\n\n### Can Stadia Maps support high-traffic consumer applications?\n\nYes. Shadowmap serves 700,000+ monthly active users (as of mid-2026) globally and powers sunlight features on Redfin, one of the largest real estate platforms in the United States, all on Stadia Maps APIs. Shadowmap's tile usage in the first six months of 2026 surpassed everything it consumed in all of 2025.\n\n### Does Stadia Maps support custom map styles?\n\nYes. Stadia Maps offers a range of built-in map styles and supports custom styles for teams with specific design requirements. When Shadowmap's design team developed a color scheme, Stadia Maps collaborated with them to build a bespoke tile style, which is now available to all Stadia Maps customers.\n\n### What kinds of applications are built on Stadia Maps?\n\nStadia Maps powers a wide range of location-based applications, from consumer tools to enterprise platforms. Use cases include real estate and property search, solar energy analysis, urban planning, logistics, photography tooling, and data visualization. Shadowmap is one example: a precision 3D sunlight simulation platform serving home buyers, architects, solar installers, and urban planners worldwide.\n\n### Is Stadia Maps a good choice for startups and early-stage companies?\n\nYes. Georg Molzer chose Stadia Maps when Shadowmap was a solo project with a minimal budget, and Stadia Maps worked with him on pricing that made continued development possible. \"It was like a sigh of relief,\" he says. Four years later, Shadowmap is profitable and integrated into major real estate platforms on both sides of the Atlantic, and it still runs proudly on Stadia Maps.\n",1789405580475]