Head to head · Geocoding · October 2026 research run
ArcGIS Location Platform vs Woosmap
ArcGIS Location Platform scores 66.1 (B) on agent readiness against Woosmap's 59.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Woosmap leads on reliability and schema & documentation. Both do geocoding.
Best maps, geocoding and places APIs for AI agents · All 153 maps comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Organisations already on Esri software, and work that needs demographic enrichment, service areas or fleet routing beside geocoding.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 64 against 43
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 26
- Transparency & trust, 69 against 54
Watch for
The agreement bars benchmarking availability, performance or functionality, and publishing benchmark results, without prior written permission from Esri and its licensors (sections 3.1.b.6 and 3.1.c.6.F).
Woosmap C
Best for Store locators, address autocomplete and distance for retail and logistics teams that keep their own location data in the platform, with an MCP server for agents.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 78 against 70
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 61
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
No public changelog or release notes for the APIs
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Maintenance & community ArcGIS Location Platform +57
ArcGIS Location Platform 83
The latest dated change is MCP server 1.0.0-beta.1.9 on 27 October 2026, which added stored and unstored geocoding and a service area tool (30). Dated entries in the 90 days to 2 November include MCP releases on 10 August, 1, 15 and 29 September, 9 and 27 October, the September 2026 platform and geocoding release notes, ArcGIS REST JS 4.11.0 on 7 August and 4.11.1 on 12 August, and the ArcGIS API for Python tag v2.4.4 on 22 September (20). Public release notes and the Esri Community forum exist, technical support is a paid extra, and we didn't read reply times. The 8 October check counted 60 open issues on the ArcGIS REST JS repository; github.com pages weren't readable on 2 November, and the clone's main branch was last changed on 7 August 2026 (10 of 15). Official SDKs are current, ArcGIS REST JS 4.11.1 and the ArcGIS API for Python 2.4.4 (15). The JS repository has pull-request test and release workflows, and we didn't check that they pass (8 of 10). Total 83.
Woosmap 26
No dated API release, changelog or release note found. The newest dated activity we saw is the public woosmap-samples repository on 16 September 2026, which isn't an API release (10). No dated changes to count in the last 90 days (0). Support by email and a support centre, with no public changelog (5). Official JavaScript, iOS and Android SDKs exist, but we couldn't check their versions because the GitHub API was rate-limited and two SDK repository names didn't resolve; the MCP server isn't in the official MCP registry (8). The samples carry tests, per the rate-limits page (3). 10+0+5+8+3 = 26.
Security & auth ArcGIS Location Platform +21
ArcGIS Location Platform 64
API key credentials carry selected privileges, an expiry date of at most one year, optional referrer limits and two tokens for rotation, and OAuth 2.0 user and app authentication are supported, which earns 30. Less 10 because the documented examples send the token as a token request parameter, although headers are accepted and recommended (20). Privileges are chosen per key, down to stored or unstored geocoding and simple or optimised routing, and the MCP server filters tools by them (16 of 20). Results include place names and addresses from third-party data, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (5 of 15). The dashboard shows usage by service and by credential per day, with no per-call log found (10 of 15). The trust centre has a coordinated disclosure programme with a safe harbour statement and a PGP key, and says Online Services are covered by FedRAMP moderate and ISO 27001, without naming ArcGIS Location Platform. No security.txt (404 on developers.arcgis.com and location.arcgis.com on 2 November) and no bug bounty were found (13 of 20). Total 64.
Woosmap 43
Public keys are read-only and must carry a domain or IP restriction. Private keys are read-only or read and write (fixed at creation), restricted by IP, iOS or Android, and can go in an X-Api-Key header. Less 10 because private_key in the query string is a documented option and the default in the spec (17). Read-only keys and the read/write split give least privilege; no confirmation step on dataset deletes was found (16). find_nearby and get_place_details return public POI data, ratings and opening hours, with no prompt-injection guidance (7). Console usage per project wasn't checked (3). www.woosmap.com/.well-known/security.txt returns 404, and we found no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification (0). 17+16+7+3+0 = 43.
Schema & documentation Woosmap +20
ArcGIS Location Platform 61
No OpenAPI description was found for geocoding, places or routing. The geocoding service description at GeocodeServer?f=pjson lists each parameter with its type, allowed values and supported operations, which earns 8 of 25. /llms.txt returns 404 on developers.arcgis.com and location.arcgis.com (0). The reference explains when to use a direct request or a job, and stored or unstored geocoding (16 of 20). Parameters carry types, defaults, allowed values and maximums, such as maxLocations up to 50 and pageSize up to 20 (12 of 15). Each operation has request and response examples, and the geocoding output page lists error codes with extended codes and causes (13 of 15). Geocoding has dated release notes back to 2023 and the platform has release notes by month, but the geocoding path carries no version while places uses /v1 (12 of 15). Total 61.
Woosmap 81
OpenAPI 3.1 spec, version 1.46.3, with 47 paths across Localities, Stores, Distance, Datasets, Indoor, Map and what3words endpoints (25). llms.txt as a routing index, llms-full.txt and a Markdown twin of every page (10). llms.txt says which pages are authoritative for parameters and which explain products, and endpoint pages describe purpose, with little on when not to call one (15). Typed parameters from the spec with enums and required fields (13). The spec documents 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 409, 422 and 429 responses, and pages carry examples (13). The spec is versioned, but no public changelog or release notes were found (developers.woosmap.com/changelog/ and /release-notes/ return 404) (5). 25+10+15+13+13+5 = 81.
Transparency & trust ArcGIS Location Platform +15
ArcGIS Location Platform 69
A closed service with a dated agreement that states what may be stored, cached and shared, and an Apache-2.0 client library (15 of 30). The privacy statement was revised on 31 July 2026, the Products & Services supplement on 9 September 2025 and the Data Processing Addendum on 12 March 2024. None states a retention period, and neither the supplement nor the addendum names ArcGIS Location Platform (14 of 30). The agreement promises 90 days' notice for deprecations, and the July 2026 release notes record the retirement of legacy API keys (16 of 20). The addendum names four sub-processors as examples and the GDPR page says information is stored in the United States, with no list specific to this product (9 of 20). Total 54.
Woosmap 54
Editorial half only. Closed service under online terms that name WOOSMAP SAS of Montpellier and the Commercial Court of Paris (15). The privacy policy covers website visitors only, and we found no statement on how long API request data is kept (5). The pricing page says the Address API is 'being deprecated for Pro Plan subscriptions', with no date (5). The legal notice says the site is hosted by Amazon Web Services; no sub-processor list or data location for the APIs was found (6). 15+5+5+6 = 31.
Payments & pricing ArcGIS Location Platform +10
ArcGIS Location Platform 40
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Unit prices for every service are public without a login (20). A monthly free tier of 20,000 geocodes, 20,000 routes and 500 place searches, and the billing help says a payment method is needed only to turn on pay-as-you-go. The sign-up form is drawn by script and we couldn't read it, so the no-card reading rests on the billing help (20). An account is created by a person in a browser (0). Total 40.
Woosmap 30
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plans and per-API tier breakpoints are public, but per-request prices sit in a script-driven calculator we couldn't read, so plan-only credit (10). Free plan up to 10,000 requests a month with 'No Credit Card Required' (20). A person signs up and creates a key in the console (0). 0+10+20+0 = 30.
Reliability Woosmap +8
ArcGIS Location Platform 70
Graded as a hosted service on the REST location services, which are generally available. Esri runs its own status page at status.location.arcgis.com with current status and an event history (20). The history is drawn by script, so we read the platform's RSS feed at /admin/api/rss/all.rss, titled ArcGIS Location Platform Services Status. The page's own "all services RSS feed" link (location_platform.rss) answered 404 on 2 November. On 2 November its newest entry is still an intermittent basemap tile slowdown on 16 June 2026, outside the 90 days to 2 November. A readable feed that posts incidents, with none touching the product in the window, is a clean record (30). The 8 October check gave 25 and held back 5 for the feed's unknown depth, which isn't a checklist value. No request rate limits with numbers were found in the geocoding, places or routing reference (0, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 2 November). No 429 or backoff guidance was found. The geocoding output page says only that a timeout after 60 seconds may be retried later (0). The SLA of 23 December 2025 commits to 99.9 per cent monthly uptime for ten services (10). The REST services are generally available, and the MCP server is a beta (10). Total 70.
Woosmap 78
Hosted lines. Atlassian Statuspage at status.woosmap.com with seven components (Localities, Store Search, Geolocation, Distance, Address, Map and Indoor APIs) (20). The status home page lists no incidents from 23 October to 6 November 2026. The full history page loads by script and the site's robots.txt disallows /api/, so the rest of the 90 days wasn't read and the line is held between the unreadable and minor tiers (10). Each endpoint's reference states its own rate limit, such as 50 a second, shared by a project's keys (15). Every response carries RateLimit-Policy and RateLimit headers, and the rate-limits page says to wait t seconds after a 429, retry at most three times and back off 1, 2 and 4 seconds when the header is missing, with sample code (15). A 99.9% SLA on the Enterprise plan per the pricing page; we didn't read its terms (8). GA (10). 20+10+15+15+8+10 = 78.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | ArcGIS Location Platform | Woosmap | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 70 | 78 | Woosmap +8 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 61 | 81 | Woosmap +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 78 | 76 | ArcGIS Location Platform +2 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 64 | 43 | ArcGIS Location Platform +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 30 | ArcGIS Location Platform +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 83 | 26 | ArcGIS Location Platform +57 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 69 | 54 | ArcGIS Location Platform +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | B 66.1/100 | C 59.4/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | ArcGIS Location Platform | Woosmap |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Esri | WOOSMAP SAS |
| Hosted endpoint | https://geocode-api.arcgis.com | https://api.woosmap.com/mcp |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Price for geocoding | $0.50 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the ArcGIS Location Platform Agreement. The ArcGIS REST JS client library is Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | 9 | 9 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-27 | none |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-31 | 2024-07-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 392 stars, 65k npm/wk, 33k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (4) | none |
How the scores have moved
Woosmap
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
ArcGIS Location Platform
Per-unit prices are public for every service, with a monthly free tier of 20,000 geocodes and 20,000 routes, keys limited to chosen privileges and a 99.9 per cent SLA. No rate limits or OpenAPI description were found, results may not be stored unless the dearer stored geocode is bought, and the agreement bars benchmarking without written permission.
Woosmap
Woosmap publishes an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, llms.txt with Markdown pages, per-endpoint rate limits and 429 retry rules, plus a hosted nine-tool MCP server. No changelog, security.txt, API data retention statement or readable per-request price was found, and private keys can travel in the query string.
Before you call either
ArcGIS Location Platform
- Send the token in an
X-Esri-Authorization: BearerorAuthorizationheader. The docs' examples put it in atokenparameter, which Esri's own best-practice page calls less secure. - Set
forStorage=trueonfindAddressCandidatesorreverseGeocodeonly when results will be kept. It needs pay-as-you-go and the Geocode (stored) privilege, and costs eight times the unstored rate. - Cap geocoding output with
maxLocations(default and maximum 50) andoutFields, because billing counts results returned and the default returns every field. - Page place searches with
pageSize(maximum 20) andoffset. A nearby or extent search costs $8 per 1,000 requests after 500 free a month. - Check the JSON body for an
errorobject withcode,messageanddetails. Code 499 means the token is missing and 403 means it lacks the privilege.
Woosmap
- Send the private key in the X-Api-Key header, not the private_key query parameter
- Use a read-only private key for the MCP server unless the task writes stores or datasets
- On 429 wait the
tseconds from the RateLimit header, retry at most three times, and pause batches whenrreaches 0 - Use find_stores_nearby for the customer's own locations and find_nearby for public POIs
- Read endpoint parameters from the /api-reference/ Markdown pages, which llms.txt marks as authoritative
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, ArcGIS Location Platform or Woosmap?
ArcGIS Location Platform scores 66.1 (B) on agent readiness against Woosmap's 59.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Woosmap leads on reliability and schema & documentation.
Do ArcGIS Location Platform and Woosmap need an API key?
ArcGIS Location Platform takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Woosmap needs an API key.
Can an agent call ArcGIS Location Platform and Woosmap without installing anything?
Yes. ArcGIS Location Platform has a hosted endpoint at https://geocode-api.arcgis.com and Woosmap at https://api.woosmap.com/mcp.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/arcgis-vs-woosmap.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/arcgis.json·/api/v1/tools/woosmap.json - From a terminal
anchor compare arcgis woosmap(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "arcgis", "b": "woosmap"}at/mcp, no key