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Top 10 Map APIs: Google Maps, BING Maps, Mapbox and other geolocation APIs

Jed Ng
Rakuten RapidAPI
Published in
16 min readNov 26, 2018

Maps have become an essential tracking tool that you can’t do without. They’re an integral part of any company’s logistics planning and geolocation services. Maps are used to increase overall business efficiency as they allow you to accurately track traffic (and schedule delivery avoiding peak traffic), measure distance and hence, feed accurate time estimates into your logistics schedule.

In the last 10 years, the transition from paper-maps to voice based services (guiding you in each and every turn) has been a big advancement. Now mostly people use Google Maps to get such information. In this blog we show some other alternatives to Google Map API. This is especially relevant given their recent price increases.

Use Cases

Here are some of the use cases on how you could leverage these maps APIs to do amazing things.

  • Get driving instructions for single or multileg journey
  • Track vehicle Realtime
  • Give directions to your customer to help them come to your store or office location
  • Using static, dynamic maps on your website, phone applications
  • Integrate with 3rd party applications

Some of the business benefits of incorporating maps features & functionality are:

  • Improved customer satisfaction
  • by reducing wait time and eliminating unknown aspect of your travel/delivery time
  • by leveraging geocoding, routing, imagery
  • Share your location easily and effectively with your customers
  • Enable search of nearby places and specific services which can be integrated and inbuilt to your native application
  • Leverage auto-complete in your application to update address specific details so such errors can be minimised/eliminated

Rakuten RapidAPI’s Top 10 Maps and Location Services APIs

Rakuten RapidAPI has created this list of ‘Top 10 Map APIs’. You can leverage this to understand how you can utilize these APIs in your applications and hence how it can make your work easier. Ready to start building awesome apps? Get started today using the Rakuten RapidAPI Marketplace.

Here are the top 10 APIs which we’ll discuss today

  1. GoogleMaps- https://english.api.rakuten.net/montanaflynn/api/Google%20Maps%20Driving%20Directions
  2. Bing Maps- https://english.api.rakuten.net/zakutynsky/api/BingMaps
  3. MapBox- https://www.mapbox.com/api-documentation/#introduction
  4. Foursquare- https://english.api.rakuten.net/serg.osipchuk/api/Foursquare
  5. Yelp- https://english.api.rakuten.net/serg.osipchuk/api/YelpAPI
  6. Yandex- https://tech.yandex.com/maps/
  7. Fencer- https://english.api.rakuten.net/dimashirokov/api/Fencer
  8. Mapillary- https://english.api.rakuten.net/stefan.skliarov/api/Mapillary
  9. Naver- https://developers.naver.com/main/
  10. CartoDB- https://carto.com/docs/carto-engine/maps-api/

Google Maps

Google maps is one of the most widely used map services. It is built on reliable navigation information and has more than 1 billion active users monthly making it the most popular service. Google has got many API service offerings linked to the maps. Its common to have the navigation app on your smartphone.

Advantages:

  • Best in class maps with Google premium support services and industry specific solutions
  • A huge support from community and developers in terms of how the service can be used in multiple ways
  • Interactive street view which enhances the map functionality and it has the capability to visualize KML and GeoRSS data on map
  • Supports multiple languages

Limitations

  • Google API support is browser specific. Read the link here to confirm the browsers that are supported
  • Google Maps Platform free tier plan has usage limits which means it is limited to queries per second and has a very complicated pricing model
  • You need to ensure the value is within the specific queries per second else the account is blocked

Use cases:

  • Separate SDK for android, iOS
  • Using maps to search for directions
  • Embedd to your website as a static/dynamic object
  • Distance matrix API which allows you to calculate travel time and destination for multiple destinations
  • Tracking API to monitor travel times and forecast and plan in advance
  • Use time zone to view the specific user time based on latitude or Longitude
  • Use Geo location coding for accurate address to be created based on User location

Bing Maps

After Google maps, the next best map services are provided by Microsoft’s Bing maps. It comes with the Microsoft package solution which consists of Web Control, a Windows Store apps control, a WPF control, REST Services, and Spatial Data Services. They have most of the services similar to Google Map API to display maps using 2D, 3D and street view and offer various integration options to include with existing or new applications.

Their pricing model is flexible mainly due to the fact that they are still evolving. On the website it says ‘Subscription based programs offering entry level at 100K transactions per month for $4,500’

Advantages:

  • Allows much more transactional usage as compared to Google Maps APIs
  • Integration with Azure qualified for a higher usage band. In addition, allows you to integrate with the company and enterprise version easily, specifically with your Active directory ID
  • Offers route optimization services as Bing maps is partner with OnTerra Systemsand EasyTerritory that have route optimization solutions, customers can supplement their Bing Maps service to have route optimization.

Limitations

  • Offline street maps are limited to Windows 10 Apps and require users to download the maps ahead of time
  • Not as accurate and fast when compared to similar features and functions provided by google maps especially in the mobile application integration and development of maps related services

Use cases:

  • Add Point of interest using Pushpins, images and shapes or either UI elements
  • Display maps using 2D, 3D or street view
  • Integrate camera, microphone, maps using location services
  • Access user location in different Microsoft apps and tools and get insights into user segmentation based demographic data
  • Supported for all apps on standard PC and Browsers
  • Industry specific solutions like fleet management services allows you to do fleet management and vehicle tracking real time.

Mapbox

This is one of the fastest growing services for asset tracking and measuring distances. It has got some advanced level features such as geospatial mapping and augmented reality that can be activated on top of the app. The company has made some tremendous progress and boasts of 420 million active users every month

Advantages:

  • Numerous web and mobile applications as use cases which are already used for both B2B and B2C customers. Thus, you can leverage this as a starting point to build your own app or leverage the blogs for ideas
  • Their open source APIs SDK ease the process of designing, building and implementing applications by using custom Apps and their inbuilt functionality makes the overall task much easier
  • Competitively priced when compared with Google and offers 50,000 map views/mo whereas Google offers Up to 40,000 directions requests in their free plan per month and is relatively simpler when compared with Google Maps
  • They have Uber, National geographic and lonely planet listed as their customer base which gives them a strong reputation as a service which is used by both small and major businesses

Limitations

  • When compared to Google Maps, it has less coverage as it is built using OpenStreetMap which is a open source project

Use cases:

  • There are 3D worlds and maps which can be easily created and added to the Unity to create custom worlds and is used extensively in gaming applications
  • Used for travel apps, apps such as Uber which uses map-based services and to create personalized travel experience for the customers
  • Interactive router planner for fleet management services

Foursquare

Foursquare uses maps and technology to gather information about customer behavior and customer reviews for various places. The app has a feature which allows people to geo-tag their photos and give contextually relevant information to the service providers. They in-turn collate and create a DB which is then used to suggest places to anyone who searches for a place to eat, drink or just hang-out.

Advantages:

  • They have a rich database for information related to specific locations with their photos and actual consumer experiences that gives its users and business a unique advantage
  • Using their search and location services you can find places to visit based on ranking and finding nearby recommend places. This is a must have application for travelers
  • Their pilgrim SDK enables to track user behaviors and allows connected devices to track user movement in real world
  • They have better personalized experiences for users as compared to Google maps; in addition to showing website and operating hours, it shows what your social circle is up to and also adjusts according to your previous places visited
  • It is a trusted name with reputed clients and their website quotes 125,000 customers which includes Airbnb, Uber and Twitter along with many more

Limitations

  • This is not useful if you are searching for regular places such as offices or home address
  • Their data is heavily reliant on user inputs and updates, so if you are looking to experiment with new places it might not serve the purpose well.

Use cases:

  • Use the APIs to track specific place of interest or nearby places like get venue recommendation, Get a venue Tips, hours, menu items
  • Manager your own venue reputation by using get venue stats over time API or using get venues you manage to get the whole list
  • Use coupons and build a measurement system to attract visitors to your place
  • Enhanced business listing services based on customer segmentation data available with them

Yelp

Yelp uses maps to promote local services by helping people find nearby gyms, hotels, cleaning services etc. These service providers are ranked and searched based on reviews and paid marketing. They have a local yelp site specific to each country which makes them unique as they can be used not just for searching for services but even for placing orders (such as food delivery), creating events or free/paid promotions of your business.

Advantages:

  • If you are a business owner trying to target local customers Yelp is the best way to reach out to your target audience using both their free and paid services
  • Create call-to-action campaigns and get insights on how your ads and ranking are performing using the Yelp Fusion API which targets 32 international markets and 50 million businesses
  • They have a flexible GraphQL API which allows you to search via specific parameters and to customize the request and response that you receive
  • They have a free tier for 5000 calls per day and then you get billed on a per call basis

Limitations

  • This is not useful if you are searching for offices or home address as it is more related to finding business related information for consumer-based services
  • Yelp relies on the data updated on its site. So, in order to be ranked higher, you need to maintain your up-to-date information on their site
  • API includes information for only reviewed businesses. So if you have a new business, it is important to direct your customers to give feedback on Yelp
  • The API can only return up to 1,000 results at a time. So, the API doesn’t allow more than 50 calls per request. So keep this into consideration if you have a requirement for a larger number of responses from the APIs

Use cases:

  • Find businesses which starts with a specific phone number, string, location, price, store opening hours etc.
  • Specific API for transactional search for Food delivery transactions. Currently this is only supported for food delivery in the US
  • Get the list of reviews for a business. Use this API to check your business performance on Yelp over a period.

Yandex

Russia’s search market is largely dominated by Yandex and is giving Google a run for their money. They provide the map across the world and is the most widely used map service in Russia. It allows for same features and functionality such as searching for directions, street and panorama views, getting distances etc. You can use the maps and layout feature to improve the appearance of any displayed elements on the maps.

Advantages:

  • If you are a business owner trying to target Russian or European clients, Yandex is your go-to-service.
  • You can use the map to embed on your own site, apps or to direct user to your store location
  • Get quick and accurate information about traffic jams, road events and parking for Russian regions
  • Yandex.Direct can be used for paid and organic marketing similar to Google AdWords and gives businesses a definite competitive advantage.

Limitations

  • To be able to use the free map service, it comes with specific terms and conditions according to which you cannot store the data from the API and you need to show the Yandex logo on the map at all times.
  • It cannot be used for internet and any paid services
  • Many of the documentation are available in Russian only. So language may be an issue if you are not familiar with Russian
  • IE11 is the only supported IE browser. So, if you have to use Yandex maps on any other IE, then it may be an issue
  • According to their terms of service, you need to be able to show all received data from the API on a map this includes information about traffic routes, user location and other data. If however you do not plan to do so it comes under a commercial version
  • You cannot display Yandex via 3rd Party APIs
  • It is not allowed to store the response from the Geocoder HTTP API

Use cases:

  • Create and use events API to work with events. You can use specific events API to create events, distribute events and manage the triggering of specific events
  • It has got Geocoding APIs which are useful to determine an object’s geographical coordinates. This also enables the search functionality by which a user can enter a query on the search box for a specific business or address and it would display the result on the map
  • Use the map to guide customers to your storefront and help users with directions
  • Highlight specific regions on the map where you have your stores
  • You can add a map with various functionalities such as search, zoom, full-screen control as well as custom-control or drop-down control which makes the map interactive

Fencer

It uses geofencing services to create a virtual area or boundary that can be used for IoT based services and to provide context to location-based applications and services used in web and Mobile applications. It helps in decision making, navigation to find the user specific information relative to the geofence such as devices operating in a specific boundary or location

Advantages:

  • If you are building applications using IoT devices or if you want to query your users’ or devices’ location relative to a geofence, then Fencer is the right choice
  • As examples mentioned on their site, you could use this application for smartwatches or Drones. Think of application and devices in which the functionality is restricted to working within a specific radius or area

Limitations

  • It may be useful for only specific requirement of restricting or creating a virtual boundary but is not useful if you want to leverage maps for directions and access
  • Most of their services are still under development and the APIs are not covering all scenarios
  • You cannot create a Geo Fence using the APIs as this is still under development

Use cases:

  • Check the position and distance of the object from the Geofence
  • Get information about all the nearby Geo fence available for a specific API key that you pass
  • Get the position and details of the shortest route out of Geo Fence

Mapillary

Mapillary is extensively used for creating maps for smart cities. With the computer vision processes in their maps, it makes it easy to create and use the map to extract additional useful data as per your requirement. Add workflows to your extracted map data, integrate imagery into any app, tool or web page. It has got powerful computer vision techniques that helps in object recognition, traffic sign extraction and image visualization.

Advantages:

  • You can use the maps to visualize, query and interact with set of vectors and raster tiles
  • Extract workflow-based maps and imagery and get it integrated into web apps, mobile and designs
  • You can use their APIs for maps, crowdsourced photos, to collaborate on Social media or understand social behavior
  • Mapillary for ArcGIS integrations are currently free in beta version and ability to recognize traffic signs and labels is up to 90%
  • It has a free tier plan and is available as an open data which can be used by everyone
  • They are focused on creating maps for those areas which are remotely located or sparsely populated

Limitations

  • Mapillary has sensitive information that they ensure gets blurred but if you still want some of the images with personal information, there needs to be a careful consideration before you plan to commercialize it
  • As per online reviews, the loading time of the maps is much more than Google due to multiple images which needs to be shown. Also, given they have multiple user-interfaces as compared to Google, this may make users uncomfortable in understanding the application

Use cases:

  • Get access to images around a specific location or a sequence of images
  • Show maps with images which can be objects recognized from the images or manually added to the image to the map. Currently Mapillary recognizes traffic sign features and line features
  • Do image detection for specific features and able to remotely monitor the road network and other places
  • Used by Government organizations and Department of road and transportation. It provides useful information which can be distributed publicly. Also, it can be integrated into other apps which helps in monitoring, creating plans for future and doing mocking up models for traffic analysis.

Naver

This service is mainly used in Korea where Koreans navigate across the cities using local maps which are provided by Naver which has replaced other conventional app services like google and apple maps even though they exist but do not provide the same level of information and details as provided by Naver.

Advantages:

  • If you are a business owner trying to target Korean market this is a must have app for managing maps, routes and direction services
  • Naver API is a free service but based on certain terms and conditions you can also apply for partnership to be able to use the service if you exceed the quote limit.
  • Naver map is more updated with the bus and subway information so local people prefer to use it more than Google maps.

Limitations

  • This service is only available in Korea and no other place
  • It is only available in Korean language. However, if you have a login credential, then depending on the browser language, they do support English and Chinese as well.
  • As other map service providers do (as a part of their agreement), you cannot save or reuse the search API results separately

Use cases:

  • Use the map services to create a 360 degree view of the Korean streets and places
  • Search for Naver blog, image, web, news, encyclopedia, book, cafe, knowledge etc.
  • They have user contextual information API which tells you about shopping insights, views and trends
  • Use Naver maps to use address coordinates for conversion and use artificial neural network-based machine translations

Carto

Carto is focused on providing location intelligence service where you could create easy map visualization and combine with location data to do analytics, site planning, territory management and logistics optimization services. Their services help to integrate financial, transactional and traffic data in a stream and help in prediction of most profitable new sites or taking important business decisions.

Advantages:

  • They combine location services with analytics and help you determine upfront details about different data streams and provide actionable insights on consumer behavior for creating geomarketing campaigns
  • Helps to optimize supply chain design and logistics planning and execution
  • Their software can be integrated with any CRM database (on-premise or cloud)

Limitations

  • CARTO needs an internet connection. The application uses several services and libraries that cannot be hosted locally.
  • Need to ensure timely processing of queries to avoid timeouts

Use cases:

  • Used for building infrastructure based services and helps in analyzing Return of investment by providing analytical data for site planning processes
  • It has been used by government and policy makers to promote Go green initiative by use of alternate transportation methods. The result of the policy and how beneficial it has been can be easily seen using data visualization services and reports and dashboards which can be sliced over time and region.
  • Create static images for web design, graphic, print and field work

That’s Rakuten RapidAPI’s list of top maps and geolocation APIs. We hope you found this resource useful!

Google Maps
Bing
Mapbox
API
Api Integration

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Jed Ng
Rakuten RapidAPI

Written by Jed Ng

204 Followers
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Founder @ AngelSchool.vc | 2x Seed --> Unicorn | Leading 1000+ LP Syndicate

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