01 — THE PROBLEMThe map we wanted, we could never get.
Designers screenshot Google Maps and pray. Scholars maintain three Wikipedia tabs and a notebook. Travelers redraw routes on the back of a guidebook. None of them got the tool they actually wanted.
So we built it ourselves.
02 — THE FIRSTThe first prompt-to-map platform.
Bettermaps can fairly be called the first platform designed to create and style digital maps using natural language. When founder Pablo Viejo established the company in 2020, the vision was to solve a major problem: mapmaking had always required deep technical skills in coding or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software.
Why we're the first.
While other platforms have used AI to analyze map data behind the scenes, Bettermaps was the world's first conversational, prompt-to-map software. It was built from day one to let you type normal, everyday language to generate, edit and style geographic maps. By late 2022 we openly launched testing for what we explicitly called “the first platform to create maps using natural language,” connecting our own cartography tools with OpenAI's technology.
How it changed mapmaking.
Before Bettermaps, no-code map tools only let you upload a spreadsheet of pre-formatted addresses or manually drop pins. Bettermaps changed the rules with an AI assistant that can:
- Interpret broad requests in almost any language or dialect.
- Automatically pull relevant data layers from thousands of open-source public registries.
- Instantly restyle the look, colors and layout of a map from a typed description.
03 — WHAT WE'RE BUILDINGCartography, design, and AI.
Cartography. Design-grade maps — your colors, your type, your brand. The craft of mapmaking, made fast.
AI. Describe a place and get a map. The AI does the heavy lifting; you keep control of every layer.
Print & export. PNG, print-ready PDF, HTML embed. The web is great for publishing; print is still the test.
One engine. Many kinds of maps.
04 — WHERE WE AREA small team in Asturias.
Bettermaps started in 2020. Between us, more than 25 years in research and development. We are cartography obsessives, building from a small studio in Asturias.
We're bootstrapped. We're hiring. We answer email.
05 — WHAT WE BELIEVEFour working principles.
- A map is a design object. It deserves the same craft as the rest of your brand.
- Tools should disappear. The map should not be the hard part of making the map.
- AI helps. It is not the point. The point is the map.
- The web is a great place to publish. Print is still the test.