The best geocoding API: Choosing between Radar, Google Maps, and others

There are many geocoding APIs to choose from. In this guide, we explain some factors to consider when choosing a geocoding API, popular geocoding APIs and their pros and cons, and Radar's geocoding APIs and Maps Platform.

Unfamiliar with geocoding? Check out one of our other guides, What is geocoding? Geocoding explained: Definitions, applications, solutions, and more.

Factors to consider when choosing a geocoding API

When choosing a geocoding API, consider the following factors:

• Accuracy: How accurate are the results returned by the geocoding API?
• Speed: Is the geocoding API fast? What is the average latency? (typically measured in milliseconds)
• Coverage and data sources: Does the geocoding API have good address coverage? Does it have better coverage in some countries than others? Does the geocoding API use only open datasets like OpenStreetMap (which often have coverage or quality issues), or does it also use commercial or proprietary datasets?
• Restrictions: Are you permitted to cache or store the data? If so, for how long? Are you required to display the data on any map, or only maps from the geocoding API provider?
• Response completeness: What fields are returned in the response? Structured address components (e.g., street, city, state, country, postal code) are standard, but additional fields (school district, congressional district, etc.) may also be supported.
• Pricing: How expensive is the geocoding API? Is pricing easy to understand? Are there volume discounts as you scale?
• Other features: Is the geocoding API part of a broader suite of APIs? For example, does the geocoding API provider also support search, routing, base maps, or geofencing?
• Reliability: Is the geocoding API reliable? What is typical uptime? (typically measured in %, like 99.99%)
• Developer-friendliness: Are developer docs modern, clear, and complete? Can you get started in a few minutes with an API key, or are there multiple steps before you can make your first API request?
• Enterprise-readiness: Is the geocoding API suitable for enterprise use? Does the geocoding API provider offer enterprise support, SLAs, and so on?

Popular geocoding APIs

There are many popular geocoding APIs. In this section, we provide a brief overview of each, with pros and cons.

• Radar: We're biased, but we think Radar is the best all-around geocoding API, with high accuracy, enterprise-readiness, simple pricing (up to 90% cheaper than Google Maps), minimal restrictions, 100% address coverage in the United States. Radar's geocoding API is part of Radar Maps Platform, which also includes search APIs, routing APIs, and base maps. Radar's Geofencing Platform also supports geofencing, trip tracking, place visit detection, and more.
• Google Maps: One of the most popular geocoding APIs with the best coverage. Extremely expensive (whereas Radar's geocoding API starts at $0.50 per 1,000 API calls, Google starts at $5 per 1,000 API calls) and restrictive (results must be displayed on a Google Map). Part of Google Maps Platform, which also includes search APIs, routing APIs, and base maps.
• Mapbox: One of the most developer-friendly geocoding APIs. More expensive than Radar, less expensive and restrictive than Google Maps. Also includes search APIs, routing APIs, and base maps.
• Geocodio: An affordable option that also supports bulk geocoding. Less enterprise-ready than Radar or Google Maps.
• Geoapify: An affordable option that also includes search APIs, routing APIs, and base maps. Less enterprise-ready than Radar or Google Maps.
• OpenCage: An affordable option based on OpenStreetMap data. Least restrictive. Less enterprise-ready than Radar or Google Maps.

Radar's geocoding APIs

Radar offers a full suite of enterprise-ready geocoding APIs, including forward geocoding, reverse geocoding, and IP geocoding.

Our geocoding APIs are part of our broader Maps Platform, which also supports address autocomplete, address verification, places search, routing, base maps, and more.

Our Maps Platform is also complemented by our industry-leading Geofencing Platform, which supports geofencing, trip tracking, place visit detection, and location spoofing detection. All of these are also useful for logistics, e-commerce, and retail apps and websites that may need geocoding.

Radar is up to 90% cheaper than alternatives, with geocoding pricing that starts at $0.50 per 1,000 API calls, compared to $5 per 1,000 API calls from Google Maps Platform.

Try out our forward geocoding API

Visit our geocoding API product page to try out our geocoding API.

You can also sign up for a developer account and try out the API explorer in the dashboard.

After you sign up, you can use your API key to make a geocoding request:

curl "https://api.radar.io/v1/geocode/forward?query=841+broadway+new+york+ny&layers=address" \
  -H "Authorization: prj_live_pk_..."

And here's a sample API response:

{
  "meta": {
    "code": 200
  },
  "addresses": [
    {
      "latitude": 40.734288,
      "longitude": -73.991057,
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Point",
        "coordinates": [
          -73.991057,
          40.734288
        ]
      },
      "country": "United States",
      "countryCode": "US",
      "countryFlag": "🇺🇸",
      "county": "New York County",
      "distance": 4,
      "borough": "Manhattan",
      "city": "New York",
      "number": "841",
      "neighborhood": "Greenwich Village",
      "postalCode": "10003",
      "stateCode": "NY",
      "state": "New York",
      "street": "Broadway",
      "layer": "address",
      "formattedAddress": "841 Broadway, Manhattan, New York, NY 10003 USA",
      "addressLabel": "841 Broadway"
    }
  ]
}

Or, on iOS, in Swift:

Radar.geocode(
    query: "841 broadway new york ny"
) { (status: RadarStatus, addresses: [RadarAddress]?) in
    // do something with addresses
}

On Android, in Kotlin:

Radar.geocode("841 broadway new york ny") { status, addresses ->
    // do something with addresses
}

The response will include a structured address for the coordinates, including street address, city, postal code, and country.

Optionally, to return a specific type or granularity of address result you can specify layers, including one or more of place, address, postalCode, locality, county, state, country, coarse, and fine. Note that coarse includes all of postalCode, locality, county, state, and country, whereas fine includes address and place.

See our geocoding API documentation for more details.

Get started

To learn more, check out our docs, get started for free, or request a demo.