PMTiles is a modern serverless tile format, MBTiles is the classic SQLite-based format. PMTiles needs no server, MBTiles requires a tile server. PMTiles carries vector tiles, MBTiles carries rendered raster ones; if you need SQLite AND vector at once, that is the MBTiles Vector format.
| Criteria | PMTiles | MBTiles |
|---|---|---|
| Tile type | Vector | Raster (vector: MBTiles Vector) |
| Serverless | ✓ | ✗ |
| HTTP Range requests | ✓ | ✗ |
| SQLite-based | ✗ | ✓ |
| Tool support | New, growing | Mature, wide |
| Cloud storage | ✓ | ✗ |
For static hosting (S3, Cloudflare R2), serverless architecture.
For local tile servers, offline maps, mobile applications.