Category: mapping

The very best way to display location data is on a map. You can see patterns visually before you’d ever understand them in data. The human brain is built for spatial relation, so we can use geographic visualization to help people understand proximity, plan routes, and make decisions. It’s no wonder that web and mobile maps have gained in popularity and usage in recent years. Customers have come to expect a map-based interface for location results.

Making maps for your website or mobile app does not need to be difficult, nor expensive. Among the platforms you can use to create maps are Google Maps, Mapbox, and BatchGeo. Based on your needs and volume of usage, the pricing can range from free to hundreds or even thousands per month,

In this article, we’ll look at Google Maps pricing compared to Mapbox and BatchGeo across various levels of usage. We’ll also break the price down by the two most common ways to use location data: to display maps and to perform address geocoding.

You’ll see that, despite some “free” usage at low levels, Google Maps and Mapbox quickly become expensive with their usage-based pricing. The simple pricing of BatchGeo, plus its additional features like Excel integration and code-free implementation, make it preferable to these geographic juggernauts. 

Map Display Pricing by Volume

For many years, the standard Google Maps API was completely free. Developers could create and display as many maps as they wanted. And many did, which led to an uproar when the company began charging in 2011. Around the same time, Mapbox was founded to provide an alternative to Google Maps based on OpenStreetMap data.

The table below shows the cost to display maps on a web page or in a mobile app (per 1,000 views) at various numbers of views per month.

	50,000	250,000	500,000
Google Maps	$3	$6	$7
MapBox	$0	$3	$3
BatchGeo Pro	$4	$4	$4

Cost per 1,000 views based on total views per month

Each provider has a defined amount of free usage:

• Google Maps offers $200 per month across its Maps Platform, which translates to about 25,000 map views without charge. The $200 discount is included in the numbers in the table.
• Mapbox includes about double the amount of free usage, not charging for the first 50,000 map views.
• BatchGeo is free for maps up to 250 locations with limited views

To create a Google Maps or Mapbox map, you’ll likely need to write some code. Both provide SDKs for JavaScript, which can be used to embed the map into a web page. You’ll either need a programming background yourself or will have to hire a web developer to add Google Maps or Mapbox to your website.

BatchGeo provides an easier way to embed maps on the web without writing any code. Using a simple Excel spreadsheet or comma-separated values (CSV) file, you can copy-paste or upload location data. Then, after declaring a few options, BatchGeo builds embeddable maps automatically.

Regardless of the map platform you use, you’ll need to use a geocoder in addition to display maps. Google Maps and Mapbox charge for it separately, as shown in the next section.

Geocoder Pricing by Volume

Displaying a map is only half of the equation if you have addresses that need to be added to a map. Google Maps, Mapbox, and BatchGeo all offer geocoding to convert human-readable locations into coordinates to plot on a map. As with display maps, there is free usage and some other terms to consider.

The table below shows the cost to geocode (per 1,000 geocodes) at various numbers of geocodes per month.

	50000	250000	500000
Google Maps	$1	$4	$5
MapBox	$5	$5	$5
BatchGeo Pro	$0.30	$0.40	$0.39

Cost per 1,000 geocodes based on total geocodes per month

Something to consider with geocoding APIs is that you may come up against rate limits. Both Google Maps and Mapbox restrict the number of geocode requests that can happen during a period of time. Google Maps usage limits are 50 per second. Mapbox is more restrictive, with only 600 per minute allowed. BatchGeo allows up 25,000 geocodes per map and will automatically run them 100 geocodes at a time.

In addition to writing the code to access the Google Maps or Mapbox geocoding APIs, you’ll need to make sure your code handles caching and rate limiting. As with display maps, BatchGeo handles every aspect of geocoding when you upload or copy your location data to our mapping and geocoding tool.

Finally, a note on combined pricing: there is some potential undercounting for Google Maps and over-counting for BatchGeo. Google Maps $200 free usage also applies to geocoding, but it can only be used once per month. The two tables in this article each count the discount. Depending on your usage, the actual cost of Google Maps may be slightly (or substantially) more.

BatchGeo pricing is inclusive of both map views and geocodes, with the larger usage determining the price. That can make the already-inexpensive BatchGeo look even more affordable. In the next section, you’ll see what else is included in the BatchGeo Pro monthly pricing.

BatchGeo: Easy Maps with Advanced Features

For many map projects, BatchGeo is easier to create and cheaper to operate. Depending on your usage level of display maps and geocoding, you could save hundreds or thousands of dollars by using BatchGeo. In addition, your maps will automatically include handy tools you’d otherwise need to code yourself.

Each BatchGeo map can include additional data about each location, so you can visualize other data in your spreadsheet. Display the name in a box when each marker is clicked, and filter which markers are displayed with built-in data grouping.

To achieve a similar approach with the Google Maps or Mapbox display APIs, you’d need to write a lot of additional code. And this is only one of several BatchGeo features, which includes custom colors, different map styles, and mobile access for your entire team.

If you wish to provide a store locator map (to discover your multiple locations or retailers who carry your product), you’ll save a bunch of time with BatchGeo. A location finder and full text search can be included with every BatchGeo map. Simply enable the store locator, with either a left-side or below-map list of locations, when you create or edit your map.

Finally, you can embed any map seamlessly into your own site. Similar to sharing a YouTube video, you just copy some simple HTML code and paste it where you want the map to be displayed. The embedded map is fully functional and completely interactive, with a much richer “out of the box” experience than Google Maps or Mapbox. And all without coding, for a much lower price.

Try BatchGeo for free and add your data to create a map today. We’ll do all the mapping and geocoding for you (no code, rate limits, or coordinate refreshes). Then pay one monthly price that stays affordable as you grow.

Spreadsheets are often the best place to store and manipulate data. Most spreadsheet tools, like Excel, have many ways to analyze, filter, and transform said data. One common task is to identify duplicate data, like the same pizza place listed twice in a list of your favorite places. Once you’ve found any duplicates, you can either remove them or count them.

In this article, you’ll learn:

1. How to highlight duplicates in Excel
2. How to find duplicate values in Excel by using formula like COUNTIF or VLOOKUP

The popular methods of finding duplicates in Excel are ordered from easiest to most difficult. Let’s begin by taking a look at the first (and easiest!) method.

How to Highlight Duplicates in Excel

One of the most popular ways to identify duplicate data is to highlight them. Highlighting also happens to be the easiest of the three approaches to find duplicates in Excel and it provides a visual aspect other duplication identification methods lack. So, for all the visual learners out there, let’s get started e-highlighting with the simple steps outlined below.

1. Select the cell range in which you want to highlight duplicates
2. Ensure you’re in the Home tab (on the upper left), then select the Conditional Formatting dropdown
3. Opt for Highlight Cells Rules and click on Duplicate Values…

As shown above, the default settings include a Classic Style while 2 and 3-Color Scale, Data Bar, or Icon Sets are additional options. You may opt to keep the default Format only unique or duplicate values and subsequent duplicate when it comes to choosing which values in the selected range you want.

Light Red Fill with Dark Red Text is the default Format with setting. This is where you determine the text and fill color for your highlighting. There are other suggested options, and Excel also allows for a Custom Format… Once you’re satisfied with the settings, click OK and you’re done!

A similar method of highlighting duplicates in Excel is available in Google Sheets and other spreadsheet tools. And, though a well-liked method, there are advantages to instead using an Excel formula to identify duplicates.

How to Find Duplicate Values in Excel Using Formulas

Another way data analysts can check for duplicates is via Excel formula. While the thought of a page-long formula including various spreadsheet cells and mathematical symbols is daunting, the formulas used to check for duplicates in Excel are actually quite simple. In fact, they’re a great way to dip your toe into other Excel formulas, such as =CONCATENATE, which we describe in Advanced Excel Skills and Formulas to Impress Your Boss.

COUNTIF to Find Duplicates

The duplicate-checking formula uses =COUNTIF to “count” which cells contain data that appears more than once throughout the spreadsheet. Resulting values can either be “TRUE” (indicating duplicate data) or “FALSE” (showing non-duplicate data).

You may wish to begin by adding a heading like “Count” (or something similar) to a blank column, though this is optional. Then, do the following:

1. Copy and paste this formula into the first cell of a blank column: =COUNTIF(A:A,A1)>1
2. Change the A in the formula to coincide with the letter of the cell column you wish to find duplicates
3. Drag the cell’s contents down to the cells below

That’s it; any duplicate data will be identified in the new column as “TRUE” while non-duplicate data is indicated as “FALSE.” Next, you can sort by your count column and see all of the duplicates (or non-dupes) bunched together. In contrast to the visual method, this is a quick way to not only identify but remove, duplicates.

There are tweaks you can make to this general formula if you wish to customize the value results. For instance, you may want duplicate data to be identified as “Duplicate” instead of the default “TRUE” or “Unique” instead of “FALSE.” Or, remove the >1 and you’ll see the number of copies, which could be more than two.

Those customizations aside, we still haven’t covered all the ways you can find duplicates in Excel.

How to Find Duplicate Values in Excel Using VLOOKUP

The final manner of finding duplicates in Excel applies if you have two data columns. Another formula, the method uses =VLOOKUP to compare two separate columns for shared data and displays the commonalities in a third column.

In a third, blank column, add some sort of heading such as “Vlookup.” Then, get started with the following steps:

1. Copy and paste =VLOOKUP(B2,$A$2:$A$14 ,1,FALSE) into the second cell of the third, blank column
2. Adjust the cell letters and numbers to fit your data
3. Drag the original cell down to the rest of the rows

With the VLOOKUP formula, data unique to columns A and B are shown as “#N/A” while duplicates appear as themselves. And this concludes the most popular ways to find duplicates in Excel. What you do next is up to you, though we have a few suggestions. First, you may want to remove any duplicate data. Then, if your data contains location information, you can always map it for better visualization.

Make A Map with Your Data

Finally, make use of our Excel mapping tool to copy and paste your data from your spreadsheet directly to a custom interactive map like the one below, no coding required.

View Make a Map of My Location and Favorite Places in a full screen map

You can change the map’s base style and markers, group by multiple data columns, and more. Get started today.

Who doesn’t love an outing to a national or state park? The only downside of visiting these locations is that you often have to plan a road trip—unless you live in a rural area. But a majority of the world’s population lives in cities. Perhaps this is why the prevalence of urban parks continues to grow. City dwellers deserve accessible nature escapes too, even if they must trek down six flights of stairs from their apartment above a Subway to get there. But not all city parks are created equal.

Let’s take a look at the largest of these that park planners managed to squeeze into their city’s limits. We’ll identify the ten with the most acres in the world, the cities and countries with the most of these massive parks, and the easiest way to find them on the map below.

View Metropolitan parks by size in a full screen map

We plotted Wikipedia’s List of urban parks 1,000 acres or more on a map. An urban park, also known as metro park, city park, or municipal park, is a park contained entirely within a location’s city or metropolitan boundary.

Let’s take a peek at the ten largest city parks in the US and elsewhere in the world below.

The Ten Largest Urban Parks Worldwide

Football fields are 1.32 acres. Yet several massive metro parks measure in at almost 375,151 times that size. You may as well bring a tent, portable toilet, and three bottles of ibuprofen with you as you’ll be strolling for days before you make your first loop of any of the ten largest urban parks.

Name	City/Metropolitan area	Country	Size in acres
Chugach State Park	Anchorage	United States	495,199.20
Table Mountain National Park	Cape Town	South Africa	54,610.30
Izmaylovsky Park	Moscow	Russia	39,536.80
Pedra Branca State Park	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	30,626.20
McDowell Sonoran Preserve	Scottsdale	United States	30,394.00
Losiny Ostrov National Park	Moscow	Russia	28,664.20
Sanjay Gandhi National Park	Mumbai	India	25,659.40
Franklin Mountains State Park	El Paso	United States	24,246.00
Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge	New Orleans	United States	22,758.40
Bukhansan National Park	Seoul	South Korea	19,748.70

Alaska’s Chugach State Park is easily the largest metro park contained entirely within a city’s boundaries—Anchorage, in this case. Chugach’s nearly half a million acres make it over nine times the size of even the second-largest city park. However, Chugach is only the third-largest of all states park in the U.S.

South Africa’s Table Mountain National Park in Cape Town is 54,610.30 acres. Table Mountain is also the last park in the top ten to span more than 50,000 acres.

The top ten largest city parks in the world consist of four located in the U.S. Also in the top ten are two metro parks in Russia and one in each of the following five countries: South Korea, South Africa, India, Canada, and Brazil. Now that we know where exactly the top ten are located, let’s take a look at the locations of the rest of the large city parks.

Cities & Countries With the Most Massive Metro Parks

We noted the ten largest city parks in the US and the world above. However, every single one of the 168 parks on the map is pretty dang big at 1,000 acres or more. So let’s see, location-wise, where they tend to reside.

Cities

There are plenty of cities worldwide that are home to city parks of 1,000+ acres. However, likely foreshadowing of the country with the most of these massive parks, only the following U.S. cities contain four or more:

• San Diego (7 large metro parks)
• Jacksonville (5)
• Phoenix (5)
• Los Angeles (4)
• Houston (4)
• Dallas (4)

The cities noted above are joined by 11 others with three 1,000+ acre metropolitan parks. This includes three international cities: Moscow, Madrid, and London. Plus, many cities have one or two massive parks, for a total of 168 unique cities after we counted the duplicates.

Countries

As for countries, the U.S. contains 115 large metro parks, more than any other country on Wikipedia’s list. Canada is where the next most (12) are located while the United Kingdom and Brazil are each home to four. Now let’s find out the easiest way to visualize these analyses.

Map Your Data Alongside Locations

When mapping data, you often have more than just a location. It’s easy to find insights into that additional data with BatchGeo’s grouping functionality.

With grouping, you’re able to select only the markers that meet certain requirements, filtering out the rest. Groups can be combined to zero in on very specific results, giving you insight into the story behind the map. For example, you can group our map of the largest metropolitan parks by ranking, managing authority, and size. You’re also able to set your desired default grouping of the map. See for yourself the insights you can gain with grouping at batchgeo.com.