Slick Google Map vs WP Go Maps – Google Map, OpenStreetMap, Leaflet Map

A simple, intuitive Google Map / OpenStreetMap plugin that installs as a Gutenberg block and a shortcode. Packed with useful features — geo-mashup of posts, KML overlays, marker icons, address geocoding — and fully free and open source. No subscriptions, no SaaS, no telemetry. Slick Google Map lets you embed maps using either: Google Maps — requires your own API key (configurable per-site). Leaflet / OpenStreetMap — no key required, free tile service. Features: Insert maps via the Slick Google Map Gutenberg block (with a multi-marker repeater) or the [slick_map] shortcode. Classic Editor users get a Slick Map media button above the editor that opens a dialog with the same repeater. Marker geo-mashup — aggregate every post/page that has lat/lng custom fields onto a single map. KML and GPX overlays — drop a track or boundary onto any map. KML works on both providers; GPX is Leaflet-only. Address geocoding — write address="Vienna, Austria" instead of coordinates. Geocoded once per address and cached for 30 days. Uses your Google Geocoding API key if set, falls back to Nominatim/OSM otherwise. Coordinate formats — accepts decimal (48.2082) and DMS (48°12'29.5"N) in any marker. Marker icons — bundled set of 13 modern SVG pins (default, restaurant, lodging, cafe, bar, museum, airport, rail, shop, camera, mountain, castle, religious), plus your own URL. Legacy filenames from the 2014-era plugin are auto-aliased. Map controls — toggle the zoom / map-type / street-view / scroll-wheel / drag controls per map. Layers — Google bicycling and traffic overlays on demand. 45° aerial tilt — passed through to Google as tilt: 45. Only takes visible effect on vector Map IDs, or on satellite/hybrid view over the specific cities where Google has 45° aerial imagery. No effect on raster maps or on Leaflet. Custom Google styles JSON — for branded maps without cloud-styled Map IDs. Wiki-style links in marker titles: [[https://example.com|Display text]] becomes a real link. Compatible with WordPress page caches — no per-visitor state in the rendered HTML, no AJAX side-effects. No fixed-cost dependencies — Leaflet / OSM is free; Google Maps is pay-as-you-go with a generous monthly free tier (≈28k map loads/month at no charge). History: Slick Google Map 1.0 is a rewrite of the original plugin version 0.3, which was itself a fork of the Comprehensive Google Map Plugin by Alexander Zagniotov (2011–2014). Version 1.0.0 is a complete rewrite for WordPress 6.4+ and PHP 8.1+ — see the “Parity & rewrite” section below for what changed. Insert a map via the Slick Google Map Gutenberg block, the Slick Map media button in the Classic Editor, or the [slick_map] shortcode. Optionally aggregate posts/pages that have lat/lng custom fields onto a single map (“geo-mashup”), and overlay a KML or GPX file. Shortcode [slick_map lat="48.2082" lng="16.3738" zoom="13" height="400px" provider="leaflet"] Geo-mashup of posts and pages: [slick_map mashup="post,page"] KML or GPX overlay: [slick_map kml="https://example.com/track.kml"] [slick_map provider="leaflet" gpx="https://example.com/hike.gpx"] KML works with both providers; GPX requires the Leaflet provider (Google’s Maps JS API does not natively render GPX). Markers with addresses and custom icons (nested [marker] children): [slick_map zoom="6"] [marker address="Vienna, Austria" title="Home"] [marker lat="52.5" lng="13.4" title="Berlin" icon="https://example.com/star.png"] [/slick_map] Each [marker] accepts address (geocoded once and cached) or explicit lat/lng, plus optional title and icon. The icon attribute accepts either an https://… URL pointing to your own image, or one of the bundled short names: default, restaurant, lodging, cafe, bar, museum, airport, rail, shop, camera, mountain, castle, religious. Legacy filenames from the 2014-era plugin (1-default.png, museum_naval.png, hotel_0star.png, …) are auto-aliased to the nearest modern equivalent. For geo-mashup markers, set a marker_icon custom field on each post to override the default pin for just that post. Map controls and layers Toggle Google’s built-in UI: zoomcontrol, maptypecontrol, streetviewcontrol, scrollwheel, draggable (all default true). Google-only overlays: showbike="true", showtraffic="true". 45° aerial tilt: tilt="45". Only takes visible effect on a Google vector Map ID, or in satellite/hybrid view over cities where Google has 45° imagery. Ignored elsewhere. Custom Google map styles JSON: styles='[{"featureType":"poi","stylers":[{"visibility":"off"}]}]' (ignored when a Map ID is configured — cloud styling takes precedence). DMS coordinates Marker lat / lng values accept either decimal (48.2082) or DMS form (48°12'29.5"N). Wiki-style links Marker titles support [[https://example.com|Display text]] to embed real links, or [[Plain Page]] for unlinked highlighted text. Geocoding When a Google Maps API key is configured the plugin uses the Google Geocoding API (same Cloud project as Maps; enable Geocoding API alongside Maps JavaScript). Otherwise it falls back to Nominatim/OpenStreetMap. Results are cached in a 30-day transient per address, so each unique address is geocoded at most once. Privacy Using the Google provider loads scripts and tiles from maps.googleapis.com. Using the Leaflet/OSM provider loads tiles from tile.openstreetmap.org and the Leaflet library from unpkg.com. Choose the provider that matches your site’s privacy posture. Parity & rewrite Version 1.0.0 is a complete rewrite of the 2015 codebase. The old plugin’s PHP and JavaScript were written against WordPress 3.6 and PHP 5, used the long-retired Google JSAPI loader, geocoded addresses on every page view, shipped 300+ marker PNGs of mixed provenance, and had several unauthenticated AJAX write paths in wp-admin. Re-issuing it as-is on a modern stack was not viable, so the codebase was rewritten from scratch around the same shortcode vocabulary. What you keep. Posts written against the very old [google-map-v3 ...] shortcode still render. The plugin registers google-map-v3 as a back-compatibility alias that maps the still-useful attributes (width, height, zoom, kml, maptype, addmarkermashup, addmarkerlist, maptypecontrol, zoomcontrol, streetviewcontrol, scrollwheel, draggable, showbike, showtraffic, tiltfourtyfive, styles) onto the new renderer. The Google provider is selected by default for these legacy shortcodes, the old addmarkerlist="addr{}icon{}desc|..." packed format is parsed transparently, and the most-used legacy icon filenames (1-default.png, museum_naval.png, hotel_0star.png, …) are aliased to the bundled modern SVG set. What’s gone for good. Some features can’t come back because the upstream services or APIs disappeared: panoramio — Google shut Panoramio down in November 2016. pancontrol — Google removed panControl from the Maps API in 2017; there is no flag to set anymore. google.maps.KmlLayer — deprecated April 2026; replaced internally with a fetch + KML→GeoJSON renderer. The old https://www.google.com/jsapi loader — retired by Google in 2017; the modern loader requires a user-supplied API key. What’s not yet back. Marker clustering, directions/routing, geolocation marker, and marker drop/bounce animations are reachable from the rewrite but not yet wired up. See PARITY.md on GitHub for the full, categorised list (restored / new / missing-but-doable / deprecated-by-upstream / deliberately-dropped) plus a migration cheat-sheet. What was dropped on purpose. The sidebar widget (Classic Widgets is in long-term legacy mode), the saved-shortcodes admin library (it was the largest single security surface in the old plugin), and the 300+ marker PNG library (replaced with 13 modern SVGs plus a legacy-filename alias map) — see PARITY.md for the rationale on each. Contributors Current maintainer Norbert Preining Original author of the upstream “Comprehensive Google Map Plugin” (2011–2014) Alexander Zagniotov — thanks for the original work, released under GPL. Additional contributors Honza Rameš

The easiest to use Google Maps, Leaflet and Open Layers Map Plugin (including a Map Block)! Formerly WP Google Maps. Add a customized Google map, map block or Store Locator to your WordPress posts and/or pages quickly and easily with the supplied shortcode. No fuss. No iFrames and super easy to use! Perfect for contact page maps, routes, maps showing delivery areas and any other use you can think of! While the free version of WP Go Maps allows you to create a Google map with as many markers as you like, the Pro version allows you to do so much more! Create Elementor Maps, map blocks and map widgets easily with our WP Go Maps Elementor map block integration, straight out the box! Do you use the classic editor? We still support map widgets for classic WordPress installations. No need to compromise, the map widget includes the same functionality as our map blocks! The WP Go Maps Pro Version version allows you create custom Google maps with high quality markers containing locations, descriptions, images, categories, links and directions. Lite Version (Free) The most popular WordPress map plugin Choose between Google Maps, Leaflet, Azure Maps, Stadia Maps, Maptiler, LocationIQ, Zero Cost or Open Layers Maps Super easy to use, no coding required! Create as many map markers as you need by simply typing in the address Responsive maps Elementor Map block Edit your map markers with the click of a button 9 popular map themes to choose from Create or add your own map theme Drag map markers to an exact location Add a map block to your page Google Maps Streetview supported UTF-8 character support Map widget functionality Full screen map functionality Support for localization Choose from four Google maps types: roadmap, terrain, satellite and hybrid Define your own width, height and zoom level for your map Add animations to your map markers! Store locator functionality Restrict a store locator search by country Add Polygons to your Map Add Polylines / Routes to your map Create a map in less than a 30 seconds! Right click to add a marker to your map No advertising or links Google Maps Autocomplete Google Maps Transport Layer Set the max zoom level for your map Serve your map marker data via your database or an XML file Compatible with caching plugins Compatible with Cloudfare Latest Google Maps API Latest OpenLayers API Latest Leaflet API Professional Edition Create multiple maps! Allow your visitors to get directions to your markers. Add descriptions, links and images to your map markers. Add categories to your map markers Filter markers by category Mashup multiple maps Advanced map blocks Store locator map block Directions map block Infowindow block Map block (filter) Add different marker icons, or your own icons to make your map really stand out! List your map markers in the four ways; basic list, basic table, carousel, advanced table Allow visitors to use their map location as the starting or ending point for the directions Choose between the Default Google Maps Infowindow and the new Modern Infowindow Export/Import your markers to a CSV file for quick editing. Link Fusion tables to your Google Maps Show your visitor’s location on the Map Import KML/KMZ files to your map More advanced options for the Store Locator Allow users to use their map location for the store locator Store locator search by category Hide all map markers until a store locator search is done Move your marker list inside the map window Multiple map widget functionality Add retina-ready map marker icons WordPress Network friendly Get the WP Go Maps Professional Edition Translations Get a free copy of the WP Go Maps Pro version in exchange for translating our plugin! English – default Russian (Alexandra Bondareva) German French (Arnaud Thomas) Polish (Michal Kotnowski) Finnish (Johanna Joutti) Dutch (Jan Wind) Hebrew (Gal Dotan) Danish (Patrick Jepsen) Italian (Tommaso Mori & Massimo Bregani) Croatian (Sven Kopun) Greek (Konstantinos Koukoulakis) Romanian (Cosmin Stroe) Spanish (Carmelo Villegas Cruz) Portuguese (Jose Antonio Ribeiro) Brazilian Portuguese (Roberto Costa) Turkish (Suha Karalar) Swedish (Martin Sleipner) Bulgarian (Lyubomir Kolev) Indonesian (Neno) Lithuanian Czechoslovakian^ ^Language file needs to be updated Demos WP Go Maps Lite Basic Google Map with Markers Store Locator Polygons & Polyines/Routes Google Maps Transit Layer Google Maps Traffic Layer Google Maps Bicycle Layer WP Go Maps Pro Google map with advanced markers Marker listings – Simple Marker listings – Advanced Google Maps Directions Responsive Map Marker Categories (Filtering) Advanced Store Locator WP Go Maps Editor (Back-end Screenshots) Visitor Generated Markers – (WP Go Maps VGM Add-on) Custom Map Styling (WP Go Maps Gold Add-on) Documentation Installing WP Go Maps Creating your first map Adding a map block to your page or post Google Maps mashup (Pro) Exporting and importing map markers (Pro) Changing the Google Maps language Create a google map and marker using custom fields (Pro) View all documentation Troubleshooting My Google Map is not showing on my website My markers are not showing View all troubleshooting articles