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Photon vs Pelias: catalog facts
Photon	Pelias

Best for: Developers adding OpenStreetMap place search to a map or app	Best for: Running your own geocoder that combines several open data sources
Free Free and open source; the public API is free for fair use.	Free Free and open source to self-host; a separate cloud webservice is also offered.
Web, Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Typeahead search with typo tolerance Multilingual results and reverse geocoding Simple HTTP API returning GeoJSON Public API available for light use	Imports OpenStreetMap, OpenAddresses, Who's On First, GeoNames and CSV data Forward and reverse geocoding Docker setup for local installation
Public API is throttled under heavy use and has no availability guarantee Self-hosting requires running OpenSearch with OSM data	Several services and Elasticsearch to run and maintain Aimed at developers rather than end users
Self-hosted, Hosted service	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License not stated	License not stated
No account needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Photon photon.komoot.io Catalog checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Pelias pelias.io Catalog checked September 23, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.