An Affordable HERE Geocoding API Alternative

HERE Technologies builds location services for the automotive and logistics industries, and its proprietary map data is excellent - if you are routing trucks with height restrictions, HERE belongs on your shortlist. For the much more common job of turning addresses into coordinates for a web or mobile app, its enterprise pricing model is often more machinery than the task needs. This page compares HERE Geocoding & Search with ExoAPI's geocoding API.

HERE vs ExoAPI at a Glance

	HERE Geocoding & Search	ExoAPI Geocoding
Pricing model	Pay per transaction after a free monthly allowance	Flat monthly subscription
Price	~30,000 free transactions/month, then ~$1 per 1,000	From 9€/month for 1,000 requests/day (~30,000/month)
Price predictability	Grows with traffic; list prices vary by account/region	Fixed per plan
Storing / caching results	Restricted - permanent storage generally needs a specific license	Allowed - keep results in your own database forever
Data source	Proprietary (automotive-grade)	OpenStreetMap, refreshed regularly
Contract style	Self-serve freemium up to enterprise agreements	Self-serve subscription, cancel anytime
Other APIs included	Billed per service	All ExoAPI APIs included in the same subscription

Pricing last checked October 2026 - HERE's exact rates render per account and region, so always verify in your HERE account and against the providers' official pricing pages.

Metered Transactions vs a Flat Plan

HERE's free monthly allowance (around 30,000 geocoding transactions) is genuinely useful, and the overage (~$1 per 1,000) sounds small. The catch is the shape, not the number: costs track traffic, every feature that touches a HERE service bills its own transactions, and budgeting means forecasting usage across services. For an enterprise fleet product with a procurement team, that is normal. For a product team that just needs addresses geocoded, it is overhead.

The second difference is what you may do with the output. Like Google and Mapbox, HERE's standard terms restrict permanently storing geocoding results - the geocode-once-reuse-forever optimization generally requires a separate arrangement. ExoAPI's OpenStreetMap results are open data: store them, build search indexes on them, keep them after you cancel.

When HERE Is the Better Choice

• Automotive and logistics-grade needs: truck attributes, hazardous-goods routing, lane-level data - this is HERE's home turf and open data does not match it.
• You already have a HERE enterprise agreement covering maps and routing, and geocoding rides along.
• You need their coverage guarantees and SLAs with a vendor built for procurement processes.

When ExoAPI Is the Better Choice

• You are geocoding addresses for an application - orders, customers, stores - and want the result in your own database without a licensing discussion.
• You want a bill that looks the same every month, starting at 9€ for 1,000 requests/day and scaling by plan up to 50,000/day.
• You'd rather have the same subscription also cover reverse geocoding, HTML to PDF, barcodes and AI content moderation than meter each service separately.

Migrating From HERE

Replace the HERE geocoding request:

const res = await fetch(`https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1/geocode?q=${encodeURIComponent(address)}&apiKey=${HERE_KEY}`);
const data = await res.json();
const { lat, lng } = data.items[0].position;

With the ExoAPI call:

import { ExoAPI } from "@flower-digital/exoapi-sdk";

const exoapi = new ExoAPI({ apiKey: "<your-api-key>" });
const { lat, lon, postalCode, city, country } = await exoapi.geocoding({
  address,
});

And this time, writing the coordinates into your database is the intended workflow, not a license question.

Try It on Your Own Addresses

Start a free 14-day trial (no credit card required), geocode a sample of your real addresses, and compare the results for your regions before deciding.