Alternatives
Felt alternative when the map has to answer a question
Felt is a fast, collaborative way to make and share maps of your own data. MapBees is a map that already holds the data for 147 cities and answers a question with it: where to open, what's missing, whether a cluster is real.
Where Felt fits
Felt makes web maps easy to build together: bring in your layers, style them, annotate them and share them. It is a great home for maps of data you already have. MapBees starts somewhere else. You don't bring layers; you pick a city and a question, and the map draws the answer from places, buildings and census data that are already there.
Where Felt is the better fit
- You want to map your own data, from a spreadsheet of stores to a set of survey points.
- Your team needs to draw on, comment on and edit the same map together.
- Cartography, annotation or embedding a styled map in a page matter more than analysis.
What you can answer in MapBees today
| Your question | Where in MapBees | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| Where is best overall for a bakery? | Score | Weigh residents, other bakeries and transit stops. Every hex is scored 0–100 and ranked. |
| How mixed is this neighborhood's food scene? | Variety (Simpson) | How mixed a set of cuisines is in each hex, from one kind of place to many. |
| How many pharmacies is this neighborhood short of? | Missing (gap analysis) | The shortfall against the city's rate, hex by hex. |
| Do my two territories overlap? | Territory · Areas | Catchments or drawn shapes side by side, a dashboard for each, and the overlap highlighted. |
| Which neighborhoods should I visit first? | Standouts | Find Standouts outlines the top groups of hexes and lists them by neighborhood. |
Try it on a real map
Each button opens the example in the map app, ready to change.
Bring a question, not a layer
Most maps show where things are. A MapBees map compares them: with the city average on Fair share, with what the city's rate predicts on Missing, and with chance on Clusters. Every hex is about 350 m across, so any two neighborhoods compare like for like, and Hex details shows the numbers behind any hex you click.
What MapBees does differently
- The data comes with the map: 1,014 kinds of place, 14 building types and census population for every hex.
- Each map type answers a question: Score, Amount, Variety, Fair share, Missing, Clusters and Cross two.
- Standouts outline the top groups of nearby hexes on any map and name them by neighborhood.
- A link keeps the logic: Copy link reopens the same factors and weights, so whoever opens it can change them and watch the map move.
Frequently asked questions
Can I upload my own layers to MapBees?
Not as layers. A CSV of your own points, with lat and lon or an h3 column, can be added under Your data and becomes a measure, and a GeoJSON or KML file of areas opens each one as an area in the Territory tool; both stay in your browser. For your own layers, Felt or another web mapping tool is the better fit.
Can several people work on one MapBees map?
Not together in real time. You share a map with Copy link, and whoever opens it gets the same map to explore and change on their own.
What is a hex?
One hexagon on the map, about 350 m across and roughly 0.1 km². Every measure is counted per hex, so any two neighborhoods compare like for like.
Is MapBees free to use?
The map app runs in your browser on the Free Tier.
Keep reading
How mixed: the Simpson diversity index, explained simply
Forty restaurants that are all Italian and forty split across six cuisines are the same forty on a plain count. 'How mixed' (the Simpson index) tells them apart. Here it is, worked through with Italian, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Mexican and Lebanese restaurants in London.
Read the guideHow to use Territory Mapping (step by step)
Want to draw a sales territory, franchise area, or store catchment - or bring yours in from a file - and see how many people, shops, and buildings are inside, and where two areas overlap? This guide walks you through Territory Mapping in London, from the first pin to the full dashboard, with no jargon.
Read the guideMeet Scout Bee (a map you can just talk to)
Type what you're actually trying to do - "a coffee shop somewhere busy in Houston" - and Scout Bee sets up the map, shows you exactly what it changed, keeps your own changes, and lets you undo it. Here is everything it can do, using Houston throughout.
Read the guideFelt is a trademark of its respective owner. This comparison describes each product's public positioning as of October 3, 2026, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Felt.
About the author
Tinkal Gogoi(LinkedIn profile, opens in a new tab)Founder & Location Data Engineer
Builds MapBees's location-intelligence pipeline end to end — census and Overture Maps ingestion, H3 hex scoring, and the map interface — and writes the methodology behind every number on the site.