New: Ultimaps is now in ChatGPT and Claude →

MapChart alternatives: 9 map makers compared

MapChart is free and quick for coloring maps by hand. People look for a MapChart alternative when they want to color a map from a spreadsheet, add pins, embed an interactive map on a website, or save maps without paying. These 9 map makers do some or all of that. Each entry says what it costs, what its free plan includes and where it beats Ultimaps.

Compared on by the Ultimaps team. Sources below.

We make Ultimaps, so it comes first. Every other entry is written from the tool’s own website, linked in the sources at the bottom of the page.

At a glance

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

The alternatives at a glance
ToolBest forFree planPaid plans
Ultimapscoloring regions from a spreadsheet, with pins, popups and embedsYes. Unlimited maps saved to a free account, interactive maps with popups, publish and embed, PNG export€12.50 ($14.90) for one map (24-hour pass), or Pro €49/month or €499/year
PaintMapsfree country and county map charts from typed valuesYes. Every map free[1]No pricing page on its site[1]
PaintMyMaphand-painted maps, including on your own uploaded boundariesYes. All built-in maps free[2]Free. No paid plan mentioned on its site[2]
Datawrappernewsroom charts and maps, with thousands of basemapsYes. Unlimited charts, maps and embeds and PNG export, with its credit. Team workspace[3]Pro: US$21 per user a month, billed annually[3]
Flourishanimated and filterable data storiesPartly. All templates, unlimited projects. Published projects are public and carry attribution[4]No public prices. Presenter comes with Canva Business or Enterprise[5]
amCharts Map Makerchart-style maps such as bubbles, flows and globesPartly. Save up to 5 charts. Export to JSON and HTML[6]Pro: $9 a month or $90 a year[6]
Feltteams that style and share their own geographic dataPartly. 3 seats, 10k map views a month. No uploads, data styling, exports or embeds[7]Not stated
Scribble Mapsdrawing territories and plotting pins on street mapsPartly. Five maps, drawing tools, 450×450 px image export[8]Not stated
Google My Mapspins and routes on a Google street mapYes. Free. No paid plan in its help pages[9]No paid plan[9]

Not stated means the tool’s own pages do not say, or we could not confirm it. Numbers in brackets link to the source.

  1. 1. Ultimaps (Our product)

    Best for: coloring regions from a spreadsheet, with pins, popups and embeds

    Ultimaps imports CSV, Excel, Google Sheets or Notion data, or a pasted table, matches each row to a region by name or code, and builds the color scale and legend. AI can also fill a map from a prompt or from a picture of an existing map. You can still color regions by hand with the Bucket Fill tool, drag or rename any label on the map, and add text, arrows and callouts anywhere on it. It adds pins from addresses and publishes interactive maps with tooltips, popups and click-through links that you embed with an iframe. It has 250+ base maps, including a map of every US county, a county map for every state, and ZIP code maps for every state, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands, each checked by hand, kept current and cleared for commercial use. Cities, roads and rivers can be added to some of them, a beta feature we are still improving. Ultimaps also works inside ChatGPT and Claude through its MCP server. Maps save to a free account. Free PNGs are at screen resolution with a small "made with ultimaps.com" credit, and a €12.50 one-map pass lets you export a clean print-size PNG, SVG and PDF of that map for 24 hours. Where MapChart wins: free SVG and PDF files up to 10,000 px with its credit, and maps such as EU NUTS 3 regions and historical maps that Ultimaps does not have.

    Try Ultimaps free

  2. 2. PaintMaps

    Best for: free country and county map charts from typed values

    PaintMaps is a free map chart maker with about 225 country maps and US state maps divided into counties. You type or paste a value next to each region name, set up to 8 thresholds yourself, and download PNG, PDF or SVG. Published SVGs must keep the paintmaps.com line. Where it beats Ultimaps: free SVG and PDF downloads. Ultimaps matches data to regions automatically, suggests the color breaks, adds pins and publishes interactive maps. PaintMaps does not mention these.

    paintmaps.com

  3. 3. PaintMyMap

    Best for: hand-painted maps, including on your own uploaded boundaries

    PaintMyMap is a free, no-account painter for world, continent and country maps. You set up legend groups and paint regions by hand, and you can upload your own boundaries as GeoJSON or TopoJSON. It exports PNG, JPG and PDF, with vector PDF in beta, and attribution is recommended rather than required. Where it beats Ultimaps: uploading your own boundaries, and no credit required on downloads. It has no data import, so maps colored from a spreadsheet are an Ultimaps job.

    paintmymap.com

  4. 4. Datawrapper

    Best for: newsroom charts and maps, with thousands of basemaps

    Datawrapper builds choropleth, symbol and locator maps from a pasted or uploaded table, matches rows by name or ID, and classifies with quantile, Jenks and other methods. It has 4,749 basemaps, including US counties and ZIP maps per state, and accepts your own TopoJSON or GeoJSON. The free plan publishes unlimited maps and embeds and downloads PNG, all with the Datawrapper credit. SVG and PDF need Pro at US$21 per user a month, billed annually. Where it beats Ultimaps: far more basemaps, custom boundaries, and charts and tables in the same tool. Ultimaps adds popups, click-through links, hand coloring next to your data and a one-map pass.

    Ultimaps vs Datawrapper

  5. 5. Flourish

    Best for: animated and filterable data stories

    Flourish, a Canva brand, has projection maps, 3D maps and globes with popups, filters, time sliders and animation. You upload or paste data, and region IDs must match its geometry exactly. Built-in regions cover 65 countries and areas, and you can upload GeoJSON. The free plan publishes with attribution, its published projects are public, and it has no image download. Prices are not published. Where it beats Ultimaps: storytelling, animation and 3D. Ultimaps has free PNGs, US counties and ZIP maps built in, and listed prices.

    Ultimaps vs Flourish

  6. 6. amCharts Map Maker

    Best for: chart-style maps such as bubbles, flows and globes

    amCharts Map Maker offers 16 map templates, including choropleth, bubble, flow and globe maps, for any country with its states, provinces or counties. The free plan saves up to 5 charts and exports to JSON and HTML. Pro costs $9 a month or $90 a year and adds publishing, embeds and removal of the amCharts credit. Where it beats Ultimaps: flow and bubble map types and a lower Pro price. Ultimaps embeds maps on its free plan and exports PNG files for free.

    live.amcharts.com

  7. 7. Felt

    Best for: teams that style and share their own geographic data

    Felt is a web GIS for teams. Its Global Library has countries, states, US counties, ZIP codes and census geographies, and it joins spreadsheet rows to them by name or code, with Jenks, quantile and other classifications. On the free plan you can create and annotate maps, but uploads, data styling, exports and embeds need a paid plan, and exports always carry the Felt logo. Felt does not export SVG. Where it beats Ultimaps: uploads of your own GIS data (Shapefile, GeoJSON, KML) on Team and up, and real-time collaboration on every plan. For one map colored from a spreadsheet, Ultimaps does it on its free plan.

    felt.com

  8. 8. Scribble Maps

    Best for: drawing territories and plotting pins on street maps

    Scribble Maps draws shapes, territories and pins on street maps. A CSV list becomes geocoded pins or a heatmap, and preset region shapes for countries, states, cities and ZIP codes come with Pro. The free plan includes five maps and image export at 450 by 450 px, and embeds work on the free plan with its branding. Where it beats Ultimaps: drawing on a street map, plus heatmaps and route optimization on its paid plans. For a map of regions colored by value, Ultimaps fits better.

    scribblemaps.com

  9. 9. Google My Maps

    Best for: pins and routes on a Google street map

    Google My Maps is free with a Google account. It imports CSV, Excel, Google Sheets, KML or GPX files of up to 2,000 rows and places pins from addresses or coordinates, in up to 10 layers. Its help pages describe no built-in region boundaries, so to shade states or counties you draw shapes or import polygons. It exports KML and prints, with no image export, and embeds public maps. Where it beats Ultimaps: pins on a live Google street map. For shading regions by data, Ultimaps fits better.

    google.com/maps/about/mymaps

Which one should you choose?

Pick a tool by the job
If you needUseWhy
Color regions from a spreadsheet, with pins and popupsUltimapsImport, automatic matching and a suggested color scale, then publish and embed.
Paint a map on your own boundariesPaintMyMapUpload GeoJSON or TopoJSON and paint by hand.
Newsroom charts and mapsDatawrapper4,749 basemaps, with charts and tables in the same tool.
Animated or filterable data storiesFlourishTime sliders, filters, animation and 3D globes.
Team GIS on your own dataFeltUploads, GIS styling and real-time collaboration.
Pins on a street mapGoogle My MapsFree, with addresses placed on Google Maps.

Weighing just the two? Ultimaps vs MapChart goes feature by feature, with prices and the same data made in both tools.

Questions

It depends on what you want MapChart to do differently. To color maps from a spreadsheet, Ultimaps is free for importing data, matching it to regions, saving maps, publishing them and embedding them, with PNG exports at screen resolution that carry a small "made with ultimaps.com" credit. For a free SVG, PaintMaps offers SVG downloads at no cost, along with PNG and PDF. For newsroom work, Datawrapper publishes unlimited maps and embeds for free and exports PNG, with its credit. To paint your own boundaries by hand, PaintMyMap takes GeoJSON or TopoJSON uploads, and its built-in maps are free. For pins on a street map, Google My Maps is free. MapChart itself stays the simplest free tool for coloring by hand, with every map and tool free and supported by ads.

Most of them, in different ways. Ultimaps imports Excel, CSV, TSV, Google Sheets and Notion data or a pasted table, matches rows to regions by name or code, and builds a choropleth or category coloring with its legend. Datawrapper accepts CSV and Excel uploads, pasted tables, Google Sheets and live links. Felt imports CSV, Excel or a Google Sheets link on its Team plan and up. Flourish takes Excel or CSV, but its region IDs must match exactly. Google My Maps imports Excel and Sheets as pins, or as shapes if a column holds WKT. MapChart itself has no import in its editor. Instead it offers an Excel macro workbook in which you fill each region's color by hand, plus a Google Sheets add-on and an Airtable extension.

Yes, several. MapChart only produces images, so a website can show a picture of a MapChart map but not a live one. Ultimaps publishes interactive maps with tooltips, popups, click-through links and zoom, embeds them with one iframe on its free plan, and turns a pasted link into a live map in Notion, WordPress, Ghost or Substack. Free embeds carry a small "made with ultimaps.com" credit that Pro removes. Datawrapper embeds maps with tooltips for free, with its credit, including through a WordPress plugin. Flourish embeds with popups, filters and animation, with attribution on the free plan. Google My Maps embeds public maps, and Scribble Maps embeds on its free plan with its branding. Felt and amCharts Map Maker embed on paid plans only.

Ultimaps has all ~3,100 US counties in one map, plus a county map for each of the 50 states, ready to color by hand or from a spreadsheet of county names or codes. Datawrapper has US county basemaps in several census vintages. Felt includes US counties in its Global Library, PaintMaps has state maps divided into counties, and MapChart has a county map you color by hand. Flourish has no built-in county map, so you upload GeoJSON. For ZIP codes, Ultimaps has ZIP maps for every state and Datawrapper has them per state, and both have a national 3-digit map. Felt has ZIP codes in its Global Library.

More comparisons

Ultimaps vs MapChart

Hand coloring and free 10,000 px exports, or data import, pins and maps you embed.

Ultimaps vs Datawrapper

Thousands of basemaps and charts in one tool, or popups, hand coloring and one clean map without a subscription.

Ultimaps vs Flourish

Animated data stories and 3D globes, or map files, built-in county and ZIP maps and public prices.

Sources

  1. [1]paintmaps.com/, checked November 6, 2026
  2. [2]paintmymap.com/about.html, checked November 6, 2026
  3. [3]www.datawrapper.de/pricing, checked November 6, 2026
  4. [4]helpcenter.flourish.studio/hc/en-us/articles/8761536676111-Free-accounts-vs-paid-accounts, checked November 6, 2026
  5. [5]flourish.studio/pricing/, checked November 6, 2026
  6. [6]live.amcharts.com/pricing, checked November 6, 2026
  7. [7]felt.com/pricing, checked November 7, 2026
  8. [8]www.scribblemaps.com/, checked November 7, 2026
  9. [9]support.google.com/mymaps/answer/3024454, checked November 6, 2026

Ultimaps figures are from our own product as of November 8, 2026.

Ultimaps is not affiliated with any other tool named here. Their names are trademarks of their owners. Figures were read from each tool’s own pages, linked above, on the dates shown. If something here is wrong or out of date, write to [email protected] and we will correct it.

  • : Re-checked: free-plan credits stated for every tool, and claims where other tools lead re-verified.
  • : First published. Facts checked on each tool’s own site on November 6 and 7, 2026.