Alternatives to Nominatim

An open-source geocoder that finds places by name or address and addresses by coordinates using OpenStreetMap. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

The original

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Nominatim.

  • Photon

    An open-source search-as-you-type geocoder for OpenStreetMap data, built on OpenSearch.

    Photon provides search-as-you-type geocoding with typo tolerance on OpenStreetMap data, built on OpenSearch, with a throttled public API for light use.

  • Pelias

    A modular open-source geocoder built on Elasticsearch that searches places worldwide using open data.

    Pelias is a modular geocoder on Elasticsearch that combines OpenStreetMap, OpenAddresses, GeoNames and other sources, but requires running several services.

  • openrouteservice

    An open-source routing, isochrone and geocoding service built on OpenStreetMap data, usable online or self-hosted.

    openrouteservice bundles geocoding with directions, isochrones and matrices in one API, hosted with daily limits or self-hosted with Docker Compose.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.