Since Google Maps jacked up their prices a few days ago, I've been exploring alternatives, including Mapbox. Unfortunately Mapbox is also very steep for a solo developer developer who wants to build a side project - at least if it's considered 'commercial'. $500 / month for only 250 users, and no way to plan beyond that without inquiring with them about an "enterprise" plan.

Also, if anyone from Mapbox is reading this, you need to be more clear about what is considered "commercial". At the top of the pricing page you define a commercial app as:

  Paid web app or website (fee or subscription)
  Private web app or website with restricted access
  Asset tracking app or website to monitor people or things

But then lower down on the page, you seem to indicate a more permissive definition:

  If your app is for internal business use by employees,
  or if it is not accessible or functional for members
  of the general public then we consider that a
  Commercial app.

Even with these two definitions, it's not clear how this pricing works for freemium websites or websites paid for by advertising.

There are some other alternatives that are more truly "pay as you go" or have affordable tiers for commercial apps:

TomTom - https://developer.tomtom.com/store/maps-api

MapQuest - https://developer.mapquest.com/plans

Stadia Maps - https://stadiamaps.com/

There is also MapFit, which says it has "Clear pricing that scales with you" but doesn't actually explain any of their pricing:

https://mapfit.com/pricing

If anyone else has good alternatives that are affordable for solo devs, especially ones with good alternatives to the Google Maps Places API, I'd love to hear about them.