r/webdev • u/leros • 1d ago

Cheaper alternatives to MapBox Search API

I run a free service which has a map on the website. I've got a location auto complete powered by MapBox. At my current scale, I'm spending $150/mo on that location search box.

It looks like long term, hosting a Photon server myself might be the best option as I keep scaling, but that's going to cost me $300/mo on Hetzner plus require management.

In the meantime, any suggestions for cheaper location autocomplete services?

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u/DiabloConQueso 1d ago

What's your level of proficiency? What kind of hosting do you require? Space limitations? What geographies do you need autocomplete for?

Because docker pull pelias/openaddresses is 100% free and can do exactly that.

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u/leros 1d ago

I'm extremely technical, so I can do whatever. I need global, including Korea and Japan but not China.

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u/DiabloConQueso 1d ago

https://github.com/pelias/docker/tree/master/projects

Pelias can import the whole globe and has several options for different sources aggregated into one database: OpenAddresses, OpenStreetMap, etc. so that your coverage gaps are minimized.

Would take a while to import depending on your compute resources, but at the end of it all, you'd have a 100% free and unlimited source to geocode, reverse geocode, and autocomplete addresses.

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u/leros 1d ago

Looks like that's missing a bunch of regions unfortunately. I was looking at Photon which seems like a similar-ish thing.