Your readers know places you don't. Put them on the map.
Embed a Cartaveo map in any WordPress post with a block or shortcode. If you allow it, readers can add new places straight from the map, and you approve what goes live before it's public. Free, GPL, no API keys.
It's on the WordPress.org plugin directory: in your dashboard go to Plugins → Add New, search for "Cartaveo Maps", and install it with one click. Updates arrive through your dashboard like any other plugin.
One line in any post
[cartaveo collection="your-collection-slug" height="500"]Swap the underlined slug for your own and you're done. It's whatever follows /collections/ in the collection's address on Cartaveo. height is optional: leave it out and the map comes out 500 pixels tall.
Prefer the editor? Add the Cartaveo Map block and type the same slug into it — no shortcode, no HTML. Either way there are no API keys and nothing to configure. Cartaveo serves the map and OpenFreeMap serves its tiles, so there is no key to rotate and no bill that grows with your traffic.
Six designs, one per map
- ClassicA list slides up. The default.
- GuideList beside the map, for wide articles.
- AtlasMono type, drawn pins, scale bar.
- GalleryPhoto cards under the map.
- LedgerList first, with status counts.
- CompactMap only. For sidebars and short frames.
Pick the layout that suits the post: a list beside the map for a long walking guide, photo cards for a mural trail, or just the map for a sidebar. In the block it's the Design setting; in the shortcode, add style="gallery" or any of the six names.
Every map can use a different design, so one site can run a Guide in its city article and a Compact in the sidebar. Want to see one with your own collection first? The embed guide previews each design live.
How it works
Create a collection on Cartaveo
Pick who can contribute and whether new locations need your approval.
Add the block or shortcode
Paste the collection's slug into the Cartaveo Map block, or drop the shortcode anywhere shortcodes run.
Approve what goes live
New submissions wait in your moderation queue on Cartaveo until you say yes.
How a reader adds a place
On collections that accept open contribution, an "Add a place" link sits right in the map's footer. A reader clicks it, fills in a description and photo, and passes a quick captcha check.
The submission lands in your moderation queue on Cartaveo, not in your WordPress dashboard. Nothing appears on your site until you approve it.
Who it's for
Any site whose readers know places the site doesn't. A few of the shapes that takes:
Neighborhood blogs
A map readers point at when a new lunch spot opens, a mural goes up over the weekend, or a bench finally gets fixed.
Trail and outdoor guides
A trailhead map that updates the moment a bridge washes out or a trail closes for the season, reported by someone who was just there.
Food and drink writing
Where the good coffee actually is, kept honest by the people drinking it, including the place that opened last week.
Street art archives
An archive that grows every time a reader spots a piece you haven't logged yet, photo included.
Heritage projects
A heritage map where a local historian can add the marker your archive missed, with the detail only they knew.
Civic and local news
Potholes, flooding, broken streetlights, each one carrying a status from open to resolved so readers can see what actually got fixed.
Festival and event sites
Every stage, stall and entrance on one map for the weekend, corrected by the people standing in front of them.
Travel and city guides
The places a local would send you to, added by locals, instead of the same ten a search engine already gave you.
Maps that search engines can actually read
Interactive maps run inside an iframe, which usually means search engines see nothing where your map is. Cartaveo Maps prints a plain HTML list of the collection's places directly under the map: name, description, category. It's cached for an hour, so it costs your site nothing on repeat page loads, and it's what lets a map your readers built actually turn up in search.
Prefer to do it yourself? The same map works as a script tag or iframe on any site, and the read API serves the same places as JSON or GeoJSON.
Beside the other map plugins
What each plugin's own pages say it does. For the full list of what Cartaveo Maps does, see every feature.
Checked against each vendor's own pages on 2 November 2026. "Not stated" means those pages don't say, not that the feature is missing. Sources: MapSamurai wordpress.org, features; Open User Map wordpress.org, site; MapifyPro wordpress.org, pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Start the collection now, the plugin is ready when you are.
Collections work on their own from the first entry: a page readers can visit, a map you can share, and an embed for any site you already run.
Create a collection