Needs significant engineering before serving a single request: 600 GB planet import, PostgreSQL + PostGIS setup, and an ongoing diff pipeline. The public instance prohibits commercial use and caps at 1 req/s. Right tool for open-source projects with the infrastructure capacity to run it.
NominatimPickPoint
Planet import ~600 GB, PostgreSQL + PostGIS, ongoing diff
pipeline. Significant upfront engineering before serving a single request.
Setup
Sign up, copy an API key, make a request. No database, no ops, no imports. Live in 2 minutes.
Public instance: 1 req/s, commercial use prohibited. Self-hosted: no cap, but full infrastructure ownership.
Rate limits
No per-minute caps on any plan. Burst your full daily quota whenever the workload demands it.
Forward and reverse geocoding only. Routing (OSRM), autocomplete
(Pelias), and tracking each require a separate system.
Scope
Geocoding, routing (10+ modes), address autocomplete, and WebSocket device tracking - one key.
Self-managed. Your team owns availability, backups, and incident response. No SLA by definition.
Reliability
99.9% uptime SLA. Incidents published to the API Status page within 30 minutes.
Free (server costs yours). ODbL attribution required in public-facing products.
Cost
From $50/month - all four APIs, SLA, and support included. No per-request billing.
When Nominatim makes more sense: open-source apps, internal tooling, or hobby projects where ops capacity exists, commercial use is not required, and zero licensing cost is the priority.
Per-request billing means every feature you ship increases the invoice - $5/1k for geocoding, $10/1k for Directions, $17-32/1k for Places. Beyond the cost, Google's ToS restricts caching and storing geocoding results, and the platform requires a full GCP billing account with IAM - tying your product to Google's ecosystem and pricing decisions.
Google Maps PlatformPickPoint
$5/1k for Geocoding, $10/1k for Directions, $17–32/1k for Places. Each service is a separate billing line compounding per user action.
Pricing
Flat monthly plan. All four APIs under one quota. Costs don't spike with traffic or batch jobs.
No per-minute cap on any plan. Batch geocoding jobs run at whatever rate your infrastructure can push.
Geocoding, Directions, Places, Maps - each a separate product, separate billing, separate documentation, own usage policies.
Scope
One key: geocoding, routing, address autocomplete, and WebSocket tracking. One dashboard, one invoice.
Fleet Engine (GPS tracking) is enterprise-only, sold separately, requires a dedicated sales onboarding.
Tracking
WebSocket device tracking at 50 Hz included on every paid plan. REST device management and track history included.
Google Cloud billing account, IAM configuration, platform TOS - ties your product to Google's ecosystem and pricing decisions.
Lock-in
Standard REST + OpenAPI 3.0 spec. Import into Postman, generate a client in any language, migrate any time.
When Google makes more sense: brand-name POI disambiguation is the non-negotiable requirement - finding obscure venues, disambiguating business names, or resolving real-time business listings. Google's commercial data quality for POI lookup is genuinely unmatched.
The free tier of 30,000 requests/month sounds reasonable until you calculate that it's roughly 1,000 requests per day - barely enough for development. Beyond that, per-request billing kicks in, and at enterprise volume you're redirected to a sales conversation with opaque pricing. The data is premium quality - but the commercial model is built for automotive OEMs and governments, not SaaS startups.
HERE TechnologiesPickPoint
30k requests/month free, then €0.70/1k up to 5M, €0.56/1k up to 10M, contact sales above that. Costs grow with every geocode call.
Pricing
Flat monthly plan. Predictable bill regardless of volume spikes. No per-request billing.
Free tier throttled per-second and per-day. Enterprise limits depend on the negotiated contract.
Rate limits
No per-minute cap on any plan. Daily quota consumable in a burst.
HERE Tracking is a separate IoT platform with its own setup, pricing, and enterprise contract. Not bundled with geocoding.
Tracking
WebSocket at 50 Hz, REST device management, track history - included on all paid plans.
Proprietary map data built over decades. Strong in Europe, Japan, and Australia. Best-in-class for precision navigation.
Data quality
OSM + commercial data feeds. Strong address and routing accuracy, continuously updated from live changesets.
Free tier: self-serve. Production scale: typically requires engaging the enterprise sales team.
Onboarding
API key in 2 minutes. No sales process to go from zero to production.
When HERE makes more sense: automotive navigation, government systems, or enterprise contracts where the deepest possible global dataset and regulatory compliance outweigh cost and simplicity.
TomTom is primarily a navigation platform built for in-car and embedded systems - the web APIs are secondary to their SDK-first product. Strong live traffic feeds, but the geocoding API is less mature than competitors, documentation is SDK-centric, and there is no device tracking API at any price point. Per-request billing scales linearly with every route calculation your users trigger.
TomTomPickPoint
2,500 requests/day free per API. Beyond that, per-request billing - costs scale linearly with usage across geocoding, routing, and traffic.
Pricing
Flat monthly plan. Predictable billing whether traffic is steady or bursty.
Per-second and per-day limits on free tier. Paid tiers raise the ceiling but per-minute throttles remain.
Rate limits
No per-minute cap. Batch jobs and traffic spikes handled by the same quota without throttling.
Real-time traffic from a global fleet of probe vehicles. One of the strongest live congestion feeds available.
Traffic data
Routing uses a static road graph. No live traffic layer - better suited for logistics planning than real-time congestion avoidance.
No device tracking API, no WebSocket GPS streaming, no device management. Not available at any tier.
Tracking
WebSocket at 50 Hz, REST device API, stored track history - included from the first paid plan.
Geocoding, routing, live traffic, Maps SDK. Strong European address precision from decades of navigation data.
Scope
Geocoding, routing (10+ modes, multi-stop), address autocomplete, and device tracking - one key, one plan.
When TomTom makes more sense: live congestion-aware routing or real-time traffic incident feeds are the product's core value, and you need the strongest probe vehicle network for ETAs.
The pricing model has a trap most teams discover on their first invoice: "Temporary" geocoding (results cannot be stored or cached) gives 100k free requests, but "Permanent" geocoding - which any production app needs - costs $5/1k from request one with no free tier at all. Add a 600 req/min cap and zero device tracking at any price, and Mapbox becomes expensive for geocoding-heavy products that don't use their map renderer.
MapboxPickPoint
Temporary (no caching, no storing): 100k free then $0.75/1k. Permanent (results you can save to your DB): $5.00/1k from request one - no free tier, no grace period.
Pricing
Flat monthly plan. Store geocoding results forever at no extra cost - no tier distinction, no re-geocoding fees.
600 requests/minute. Rollouts, batch geocoding jobs, or a traffic spike can hit this ceiling quickly.
Rate limits
No per-minute cap. Full daily quota available in a burst.
No WebSocket GPS streaming, no device registration, no track history. Fleet tracking is not in the product catalog.
Tracking
WebSocket at 50 Hz, REST device management, historical track queries - included on all paid plans.
Optimization API ($2.00/1k after 100k free) for multi-stop route ordering.
Route optimization
Multi-stop optimization with time-window support included in the routing quota - no separate endpoint billing.
Industry-leading rendering SDKs: vector tiles, custom styles, 3D terrain. Mapbox's core product - if you're not rendering their map, you're paying for a feature you don't use.
Map rendering
API-only. Integrate with Leaflet, MapLibre, deck.gl, or any library - no renderer lock-in.
Mapbox restructured pricing in 2022 with little notice, leaving teams with unexpected bills. Proprietary token system ties your integration to their platform.
Stability
Standard REST + OpenAPI 3.0 spec. Self-serve pricing, no sales process. Migrate to another provider without changing your data model.
When Mapbox makes more sense: your product is primarily a beautiful interactive map and Mapbox's rendering SDK is the actual feature you're selling to users.
Built for
Products that ship geo features without managing infrastructure or watching an invoice grow.
Production SaaS
Geocoding, routing, and autocomplete in one integration
Forward & reverse geocoding worldwide
Address autocomplete for search fields and checkout
Turn-by-turn routing with 10+ vehicle modes
One API key, one flat monthly bill - costs don't spike with traffic
Fleet & Logistics
Real-time tracking and routing on a single plan
WebSocket GPS streaming at up to 50 Hz
Device registration, live status, and track history
Multi-stop route optimization with time-window support
