Google Maps API and bandwidth consumption

Question

I have a site that uses 2 Google Maps APIs.

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js

and

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/json

This "mapper" site communicates with 2 Google Maps APIs, geolocates the user, and extracts data from a MySQL database to display markers in a Google Map around the user.

The site was hosted on Digital Ocean / DigitalOcean. A few days after the site was up Digital Ocean claimed that my site was doing a DDOS attack and took it offline.

It's all original code I wrote and there's nothing malicious in the code.

When I put the site up a second time, a few days later Digital Ocean took it offline again, this time claiming it was "too active" and "disrupting traffic."

I do have the cheapest plan ($5 a month), but their the sign-up process doesn't contain anything explicit and obvious about data transfer caps.

Apparently, Google Maps API queries do something to make your site "too active" and "disrupt traffic". When comparing hosting plans and services, what kinds of features should I focus on to evaluate a host that is better suited for this "mapper" website's needs?

Answer 1

It's likely less about the traffic that it is creating and more about the server load it's creating. Without seeing the code, I can't be of much help but I'd look into how often you are polling and things like that. Try putting it in a VM and seeing what kind of performance impact it's having on the system.