Digital mapping has long been dominated by commercial providers, creating barriers of cost, complexity, and privacy concerns. This talk introduces Protomaps, an open-source project that reimagines how web maps are delivered and consumed. Using the innovative PMTiles format – a single-file approach to vector tiles – Protomaps eliminates complex server infrastructure while reducing bandwidth usage and improving performance. We'll explore how this technology democratizes cartography by making self-hosted maps accessible without API keys, usage quotas, or recurring costs. The presentation will demonstrate implementations with Leaflet and MapLibre, showcase customization options, and highlight cases where Protomaps enables privacy-conscious, offline-capable mapping solutions. Discover how this technology puts mapping control back in the hands of developers while maintaining the rich experiences modern applications demand.