Geocoding Services - limits - Google vs Yahoo vs others? [closed]

Answer 1

I've used Yahoo before specifically because their allowed rate of requests was so much higher. It is very easy to use and free. There are some restrictions so you will need to read carefully, but for most things it is a great service.

I have NOT used the Google api, but reading their documentation of rate limits led me to the same conclusion when we were searching for a geocoding api. Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Yahoo's limit is per application.

Google's limit is per IP.

This means:

For Server-Side geocoding: Yahoo > Google

For Client-Side geocoding: Google > Yahoo

If you won't display the results on a map, then neither Google nor Yahoo will do. You'll violate their terms of service.

The Geonames Search web service might fit your bill though.

Answer 3

I've been working a lot with geocoding, and I've been looking at Yahoo, mapquest, google, bing and navteq. The free versions are all pretty similar except for the geocode requests. I think you have it right. If you want more requests you need to pay for them. I would also suggest looking at reliability and accuracy. I like google maps the best, but it's been pretty inaccurate compared to bing which is right on. Navteq seems to be one of the better ones but their API isn't as user friendly it seems like. There are some restrictions for the free map service. Usually, the site needs to be publicly accessible and free, as in you cant charge for service. There are some other ones, but those seem like the ones that catch people up the most.

Answer 4

Ok I know this is an old question but you could also consider http://open.mapquestapi.com/nominatim.

Jim