Felt's JavaScript SDK — Custom Map Apps Made Easy?

Creating Maps Without the Complexity

Creating a map — a digital, interactive, and functional map — is a process that goes far beyond pinning locations on a screen. It requires several components: a map rendering engine, geospatial data, a user interface, and often, a lot of custom code to bring everything together. For many, it's a daunting task.

So, what if creating a map could be as simple as using Google Docs or Figma? What if the tools required to build a geospatial app didn’t require extensive configuration and months of effort? This is where Felt wants to make a difference.

The Felt Approach: Mapping, Simplified

Felt is a collaborative, cloud-native platform designed to make map-making accessible to everyone. Founded in 2021, this American company has grown into a popular solution for digital mapping. According to Felt, businesses use it to manage complex challenges in their logistics. Advocacy groups use it to connect communities with governments. Educators and investigative journalists rely on Felt to create and share maps that tell meaningful stories.

At its core, Felt is about lowering the barriers to entry. Users can upload a variety of geospatial datasets — shapefiles, spreadsheets, GeoJSON, and more — and see them instantly rendered. Additionally, Felt provides a rich library of ready-to-use datasets, including demographic information, environmental data, and transportation networks, making it even easier to start building insightful maps right away. The interface tools allow users to style layers, annotate maps, and collaborate in real time. We tested it and we must agree; Felt has made it wildly fast to create digital maps and dashboards out-of-the-box!

Today, they’re aiming to do the same for custom mapping applications. The Felt JavaScript SDK empowers developers to "build geospatial apps with the same time-saving ease that Felt users have come to love".

Introducing the Felt JavaScript SDK

The Felt SDK is all about enhancing the viewer experience while dividing responsibilities: visual and data setups can be configured, leaving developers to focus on building the functionality that is related to their core business — applying filters, reading layer features, configuring interactions.

Felt's SDK hast the potential to eliminate much of the complexity traditionally associated with geospatial app development. By leveraging Felt’s intuitive platform, developers can gain a significant head start: styling maps without code, integrating diverse datasets seamlessly, and focusing on core business problems instead of boilerplate tasks. The SDK lets you focus on delivering value rather than reinventing the wheel. Combined with the excellent documentation and a gallery of examples, this makes the Felt SDK a game-changer for rapid map app development.

Conclusion: Is Felt the Right Choice for You?

Felt has quickly emerged as a powerful player in the digital mapping space, offering an intuitive and collaborative platform that simplifies map creation. With its cloud-native approach, extensive dataset support, and the new JavaScript SDK, it provides a compelling solution for businesses, advocacy groups, educators, and developers looking for an easy-to-use mapping tool.

However, as with any platform, it comes with trade-offs. While Felt makes mapping accessible and fast, users seeking deep customization, on-premise control, or highly scalable real-time applications may encounter limitations. Its cloud dependency and integration challenges should also be factored into decision-making.

Nazka Mapps + Felt SDK: A Complementary Match

At Nazka Mapps, we specialize in creating custom geospatial solutions, and the Felt SDK is a new powerful tool in our toolbox. Especially when you need an interactive map for fast prototyping or limited customisation, we can help you harness the full potential of Felt’s technology.

If you’re building with Felt and want expert guidance, reach out to us at Nazka Mapps. We can build something incredible together!