Closeby is built using cutting-edge mapping technology called Mapbox.
Unfortunately, as great as Mapbox is, it costs money to use every month based on volume (of map views and location geocoding).
Using Your Own Mapbox Access Token
Because of this variable and sometime expensive cost, Closeby requires customers to add their own Mapbox access token and pay for any volume fees incurred by using their technology. It's a few extra steps, but it's free to set up your own Mapbox account and plug it into Closeby.
The good news is that Mapbox has a very generous free tier (currently 50k map views/month) and the vast majority of our users fall into this category.
So, if a user does not go above their free tier limitations every month, the cost for your custom map every month is essentially just Closeby's subscription cost. No overage or volume fees.
To learn how to add your Mapbox access token, click here.
Without A Mapbox Access Token
If a user fails to provide a Mapbox access token to their account, then Closeby will incur the Mapbox fees for all of their additional usage. Because this quickly becomes quite expensive (since Closeby is above the Mapbox free tier limitations), the fees are then passed along to the customer every month.
If a user does not add their access token, they will experience overage fees for any usage beyond the base subscription of 100 locations and 1000 map views a month.
Overage fees will cost an additional $3 for every 100 locations or 1000 map views added for that month. For most users, this ends up being a more expensive proposition, so we encourage them to add their Mapbox access token when possible.
For newer users, this is no longer an option as a Mapbox access token is required to activate their map.