{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "here-location-services", "name": "HERE Location Services", "vendor": "HERE Technologies", "vendorUrl": "https://www.here.com", "kind": "http-api", "category": "maps", "summary": "HERE Technologies' REST APIs for geocoding, place search, routing, matrix and isoline routing, traffic, transit and map tiles, called with an API key or OAuth token. A hosted MCP server, HERE Location Reasoning, exposes 13 of these operations as tools.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/here-location-services", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/here-location-services.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/here-location-services.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/here-location-services.json", "dns": "here-location-services.grade.anchorterminal.com", "license": "Proprietary service under the HERE Platform Terms", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1", "packages": [], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Self-serve. A HERE platform account, created in a browser with email verification, lets a person register an app and create up to two API keys, OAuth 2.0 credentials or OAuth 2.1 `private_key_jwt` credentials. REST calls take the key as the `apiKey` query parameter or a bearer token from https://account.api.here.com/oauth2/token. Location Reasoning needs a bearer token on `tools/call` and an account entitlement, and returns 403 without one.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "HERE's docs say a new organisation can get started for free on the Base Plan. The price table at here.com/get-started/pricing is drawn by script and was not read, so no allowance or per-request price is quoted. Support plans run from $50 a month (Developer). Location Reasoning is also sold through AWS Marketplace (checked 2026-10-09).", "priceSummary": "Freemium", "where": "hosted", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs index, the Location Reasoning guides or the Platform Terms (checked 2026-10-09).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 13, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-09" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.here.com", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.here.com/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://docs.here.com/geocoding-and-search/reference/get_geocode.md", "capabilities": [ "geo.geocode", "geo.reverse", "geo.places", "geo.routing", "geo.tiles" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "mcp", "official", "openapi", "llms-txt", "oauth", "free-tier", "enterprise", "eu", "sla", "closed-source" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-09", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 58.4, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 753, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1510, "categoryRank": 13, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 93, "maintenance": 45, "payments": 0, "reliability": 55, "schema": 89, "security": 65, "transparency": 63 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "low", "date": "2026-11-04" }, "negative": -3, "negativeNotes": [ "10 July 2026. The Routing v8 changelog marks `mlDuration` as Deprecated and says `return=mlDuration` is still accepted but no longer returns a value. HERE's lifecycle policy says a deprecated feature continues to operate for 6 to 12 months after notice. Three points (https://docs.here.com/routing/docs/routing-v8-changelog.md)" ], "verdict": "Each endpoint page carries an OpenAPI 3.0 definition as Markdown, and HERE publishes 99.9 per cent monthly availability targets and a six-month deprecation policy. No numeric rate limit or retry guidance was found, prices were unreadable, and HERE's terms bar using its materials with an AI system and bar scraping, so its pages could not be re-read.", "bestFor": "Fleet and logistics work that needs truck routing, large matrices, isolines, traffic and transit from one vendor with an SLA.", "strengths": [ "Every endpoint page has a Markdown twin holding its OpenAPI 3.0 definition, indexed from `llms.txt` files per product", "99.9 per cent monthly availability targets published for Geocoding and Search v7 and Routing v8", "Lifecycle policy promises six months' notice before a product is discontinued and 6 to 12 months for a deprecated feature", "OAuth 2.1 `private_key_jwt` credentials alongside API keys, with two keys an app for rotation and trusted-domain limits", "ISO 27001, 27701, 27017, 27018 and 42001 certificates, TISAX AL3, and SOC 2 Type 2 for Platform Foundation and Workspace" ], "weaknesses": [ "Platform Terms section f forbids using HERE Materials in connection with a machine learning or AI system, generative AI included. This matters before any probe is run", "The Base Plan price table is drawn by script, so per-request prices, free allowances and rate limits were not read", "API keys travel in the `apiKey` query parameter", "Results may be cached or stored outside the platform for 30 days at most, and only as HTTP caching headers allow", "Location Reasoning returns 403 unless the account is entitled, and the docs send the reader to an account representative or AWS Marketplace", "The acceptable use policy of January 2022 lists benchmarking, scraping and data mining among prohibited uses of HERE Materials, websites included" ], "agentNotes": [ "Send `Authorization: Bearer` with an OAuth token where logs are kept. The `apiKey` query parameter puts the secret in every URL", "Do not store results for more than 30 days, and follow the HTTP caching headers on each response", "Treat 429 and 503 as throttling. HERE says a traffic surge can be throttled for about 10 minutes below the account's quota", "Read `code`, `cause` and `action` in the error body, and quote `correlationId` to support", "For Location Reasoning, send `initialize`, keep the `Mcp-Session-Id` header on later calls, and send a bearer token on `tools/call`" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "low", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 58.4 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 93, "maintenance": 45, "payments": 0, "reliability": 55, "schema": 89, "security": 65, "transparency": 52 }, "provenanceScore": 73, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-04", "maintenance": "2026-11-04", "payments": "2026-11-04", "reliability": "2026-11-04", "schema": "2026-11-04", "security": "2026-11-04", "transparency": "2026-11-04" }, "last": "2026-11-04", "lastMoved": "2026-11-04", "oldest": "2026-11-04", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "http": "curl \"https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1/geocode?q=240+Washington+St.%2C+Boston\u0026limit=4\u0026apiKey=$HERE_API_KEY\"" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/geo.geocode", "tool": "https://letme.dev/here-location-services" }, "area": "everyday", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "HERE Europe B.V.", "domain": "here.com", "domainRegistered": "1995-06-11", "endpointOnVendorDomain": false, "terms": "https://www.here.com/en-gb/terms/here-platform-terms-september-2023", "privacy": "https://www.here.com/en-gb/privacy", "statusPage": "https://status.here.com/status", "changelog": "https://docs.here.com/routing/docs/routing-v8-changelog", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-09", "notes": [ "The HERE Platform Terms, effective 18 September 2023, name HERE Europe B.V., Kennedyplein 222-226, 5611 ZT Eindhoven, as contracting party, and HERE North America, LLC, Chicago, for customers in the Americas.", "The privacy policy, effective 29 August 2024, names HERE Global B.V. as controller and says it does not apply to personal data processed on behalf of customers. The Platform Terms incorporate it and a Data Processing Agreement published as a PDF.", "The APIs answer on hereapi.com (for example geocode.search.hereapi.com and router.hereapi.com) and the MCP server on hlr.here.ai, both second domains of the vendor.", "www.here.com/.well-known/security.txt returned the site's error page. The security page gives security@here.com and a 90-day disclosure window.", "RDAP for here.com gives a registration date of 1995-06-11.", "legal.here.com/en-gb/terms/here-platform redirects to the September 2023 terms on www.here.com." ], "score": 73 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/here-location-services.json", "live": { "slug": "here-location-services", "probe": { "target": "https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-11-07T19:22:11.517202892Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 404, "lastMs": 208, "authRequired": false, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 99.99, "p50ms24h": 125, "p95ms24h": 206, "samples24h": 238, "samples30d": 7215, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 85, "ok": 85 }, { "date": "2026-10-10", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-11", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-12", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-13", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-14", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-15", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-16", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-17", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-18", "probes": 256, "ok": 256 }, { "date": "2026-10-19", "probes": 255, "ok": 255 }, { "date": "2026-10-20", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-21", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-22", "probes": 253, "ok": 253 }, { "date": "2026-10-23", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-24", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-10-25", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-26", "probes": 252, "ok": 252 }, { "date": "2026-10-27", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-28", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-10-29", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-30", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-31", "probes": 251, "ok": 251 }, { "date": "2026-11-01", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-11-02", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-11-03", "probes": 248, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-11-04", "probes": 246, "ok": 246 }, { "date": "2026-11-05", "probes": 185, "ok": 185 }, { "date": "2026-11-06", "probes": 241, "ok": 241 }, { "date": "2026-11-07", "probes": 197, "ok": 197 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.here.com/status", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T04:47:54.513837106Z" }, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://here.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:38.375401065Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.here.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T15:32:41.618757298Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "here.com", "registered": "1995-06-11", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/here.com", "checkedAt": "2026-11-01T14:19:40.338365968Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://docs.here.com/routing/docs/routing-v8-changelog", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:06:33.22290386Z", "changedAt": "2026-11-06T13:28:56.804164156Z", "fingerprint": "41722ae10c3c" }, { "url": "https://www.here.com/en-gb/privacy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:29:44.517212853Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-27T04:01:29.602111544Z", "fingerprint": "a34c0fdaf19e" }, { "url": "https://www.here.com/en-gb/terms/here-platform-terms-september-2023", "kind": "terms", "status": 404, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:29:46.565606645Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "466d77d5e000" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T19:22:11.517202892Z" } }, "answer": "Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against HERE Location Services's 58.4 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. HERE Location Services leads on schema \u0026 documentation, agent ergonomics and security \u0026 auth.", "b": { "slug": "nominatim", "name": "Nominatim", "vendor": "Nominatim project (osm-search)", "vendorUrl": "https://nominatim.org", "kind": "http-api", "category": "maps", "summary": "Nominatim is open-source geocoding software that searches OpenStreetMap data by name and address and reverse geocodes coordinates. Operators self-host its HTTP API; the OpenStreetMap Foundation runs a free public instance under a strict usage policy.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nominatim", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nominatim.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nominatim.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nominatim.json", "dns": "nominatim.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/osm-search/Nominatim", "license": "GPL-3.0-or-later", "transports": [ "http" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "nominatim-api" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "nominatim-db" } ], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "The server has no authentication; operators add it with their own proxy. The public instance at nominatim.openstreetmap.org takes no key but requires a valid User-Agent or Referer identifying the application.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free software. The public instance is free within its usage policy (at most 1 request a second, no bulk or systematic use). Commercial hosted Nominatim is sold by third parties, not by the project.", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No payment protocol in the server or the docs (checked 2026-11-06). The software is free.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": 2052, "asOf": "2026-11-06" }, "docsUrl": "https://nominatim.org/release-docs/latest/api/Overview/", "capabilities": [ "geo.geocode", "geo.reverse", "geo.places" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "self-hosted", "free", "no-auth", "no-key", "python", "open-data", "local" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-14", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 63.5, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 513, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1510, "categoryRank": 9, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 75, "maintenance": 60, "payments": 60, "reliability": 82, "schema": 51, "security": 50, "transparency": 59 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-11-06" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Nominatim is the open-source OpenStreetMap geocoder, free to run with a documented search, reverse and lookup API, tested releases and two years of security support per release. It has no OpenAPI spec, no built-in authentication, and the public instance allows one request a second and restricts LLM-suggested use, so agents at scale need their own server.", "bestFor": "Self-hosted worldwide geocoding from OpenStreetMap data with no per-call cost or storage limits beyond ODbL.", "strengths": [ "Open source under GPL, free to self-host with no key and nothing to buy", "Search, reverse, lookup and status endpoints with limit, layer, country and viewbox filters", "Release 5.3.3 on 14 October 2026, with a ChangeLog and two years of security updates per release line", "SECURITY.md with a security address, a 3-work-day acknowledgement and a disclosure process", "CI runs unit and BDD tests on every push across PostgreSQL 13 to 18" ], "weaknesses": [ "No OpenAPI spec and no llms.txt", "The public instance allows at most one request a second, no autocomplete, no systematic queries and no reselling", "The usage policy says LLMs may suggest the public API only while pointing to the policy, and bars it from no-code and vibe-coding platforms", "No authentication in the server, so access control is the operator's job", "A full planet import needs substantial hardware and time to set up" ], "agentNotes": [ "Don't send bulk or repeated queries to nominatim.openstreetmap.org; keep to one request a second, cache results and set an identifying User-Agent", "Tell the user about the OSMF usage policy before suggesting the public instance, as the policy requires", "For regular or large jobs, run your own Nominatim or use a commercial provider listed on the Nominatim wiki", "Pass format=jsonv2 or geojson and limit, since omitting format sends the request to the web UI", "Attribute OpenStreetMap and respect the ODbL share-alike terms when storing results" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 63.5 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 75, "maintenance": 60, "payments": 60, "reliability": 82, "schema": 51, "security": 50, "transparency": 81 }, "provenanceScore": 37, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-06", "maintenance": "2026-11-06", "payments": "2026-11-06", "reliability": "2026-11-06", "schema": "2026-11-06", "security": "2026-11-06", "transparency": "2026-11-06" }, "last": "2026-11-06", "oldest": "2026-11-06", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "install": "pip install nominatim-db nominatim-api", "http": "curl -A \"my-app/1.0 (contact@example.com)\" \"https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=Dresden\u0026format=jsonv2\u0026limit=1\"" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/geo.geocode", "tool": "https://letme.dev/nominatim" }, "area": "everyday", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "", "domain": "nominatim.org", "domainRegistered": "2010-05-20", "endpointOnVendorDomain": false, "terms": "https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/nominatim/", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://github.com/osm-search/Nominatim/blob/master/ChangeLog", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-11-06", "notes": [ "No company stands behind the software. The nominatim.org imprint names its maintainer Sarah Hoffmann as the person who runs the site.", "The terms listed are the OSMF usage policy for the public instance, which is run by the OpenStreetMap Foundation and is also governed by the OSMF Terms of Use. The licence governs the software.", "nominatim.openstreetmap.org's robots.txt disallows /search, /reverse, /lookup, /details and /status, so no request was sent there.", "nominatim.org has no robots.txt (404) and no llms.txt. Security reports go to security@nominatim.org per SECURITY.md; no security.txt was looked for beyond that file.", "RDAP gives nominatim.org a registration date of 20 May 2010.", "A request to pypi.org/pypi/nominatim-api/json, disallowed by PyPI's robots.txt, was sent by mistake on 6 November 2026; release dates are taken from PyPI's allowed RSS release feed instead." ], "score": 37 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nominatim.json", "live": { "slug": "nominatim", "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "osm-search/Nominatim", "version": "v5.3.3", "released": "2026-10-14", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:49:38.546585976Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "nominatim-api", "version": "5.3.3", "released": "2026-10-14", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:49:36.460811725Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "nominatim-db", "version": "5.3.3", "released": "2026-10-14", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:49:36.677899359Z" } ], "githubStars": 4553, "pypiWeekly": 2052, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://nominatim.org/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:00:36.659918342Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/osm-search/Nominatim/master/ChangeLog", "kind": "changelog", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:22:43.498875362Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "d293d5592f9f" }, { "url": "https://operations.osmfoundation.org/policies/nominatim/", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T14:15:39.38384818Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "e7342ba42b14" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T16:00:36.659918342Z" } }, "edges": [ { "by": 60, "category": "payments", "leads": "nominatim", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "reasons": { "a": "Readings per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November (HERE's hosts paused). No x402, MPP or L402 was found in the docs index or the terms (0). The Base Plan price page is public, but its table is drawn by script and showed no prices to our reader, so per-request prices score as absent, a limit of our reading and not a finding that prices are hidden (0). HERE's docs say a new organisation can get started for free, but whether a card is asked for was not established, so the free-tier line can't be credited (0; the 10 carried isn't a checklist value). Sign-up is a browser flow with email verification (0). Support plans are priced in public, from $50 a month for the Developer plan. 0+0+0+0 = 0.", "b": "Self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0). Free software with nothing to buy (20 + 20 + 20). The public instance is also free and keyless, within its usage policy. 0+20+20+20 = 60." }, "scores": { "a": 0, "b": 60 } }, { "by": 38, "category": "schema", "leads": "here-location-services", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "reasons": { "a": "All readings per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November, because HERE's hosts are paused under its acceptable use policy. Each endpoint page has a Markdown twin holding an OpenAPI 3.0.0 definition, read for `/geocode` at version 7.157 (25). docs.here.com has a site `llms.txt` and one for each product and section (10). Endpoint descriptions state the purpose, and parameter descriptions are long, with ALPHA, BETA and RESTRICTED maturity tags. Little says when not to use an endpoint (14 of 20). Parameters are typed with 34 enums in the geocode definition, ranges such as `limit` 1 to 100 and defaults (13 of 15). 400, 405, 429 and 503 share an `ErrorResponse` schema, and the developer guide has code examples for each endpoint (12 of 15). The Routing v8 changelog is dated by entry up to 8.162.0 on 7 September 2026, with versioned APIs; the Geocoding and Search release notes are numbered without dates. The line lists 15, the nearest value to the 13 carried. The Location Reasoning tool schemas come only from `tools/list` and were not read. 25+10+14+13+12+15 = 89.", "b": "No OpenAPI or machine-readable contract (0). nominatim.org/llms.txt returns 404, and the manual is HTML, though its Markdown sources sit in the repository's docs folder (0). The API reference explains each endpoint and parameter and when not to use one, such as the details endpoint being for debugging (14). Types, enums and limits are documented, such as format, layer and limit (at most 40), but there's no schema to validate against (12). Example queries and outputs per endpoint, with errors described in prose (10). A versioned manual per release, a ChangeLog and a migration guide (15). 0+0+14+12+10+15 = 51." }, "scores": { "a": 89, "b": 51 } }, { "by": 27, "category": "reliability", "leads": "nominatim", "name": "Reliability", "reasons": { "a": "Graded on the REST APIs (Geocoding and Search v7, Routing v8) with the hosted lines. HERE's acceptable use policy bars data mining and scraping of HERE Materials, websites included, so HERE's hosts were not requested on 4 November and the 9 October readings stand. HERE's docs describe a public status page at status.here.com/status with current status, a status history tab and scheduled maintenance (per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November) (20). The page was drawn by script on 9 October and is now paused, so the record from 6 August is unread (5). No rate limit with a number was found in the docs; the Base Plan limits sit on a price page drawn by script (0; the 5 carried isn't a checklist value). The Limits and Quotas page says an exceeded quota returns 429 or 503 and that a surge can be throttled for about 10 minutes, and the OpenAPI definition lists 429, with no Retry-After header or backoff guidance and only reads involved (per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November). Documented 429 handling without backoff guidance reads at the line's 10 (the 7 carried isn't a checklist value). Monthly availability targets of 99.9 per cent are published for Geocoding and Search v7 and Routing v8, with service credits for the Essential support plan and above (per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November) (10). Both APIs are in the Active lifecycle stage (10). 20+5+0+10+10+10 = 55.", "b": "Read with the local-software lines, since the listing is the Nominatim server an operator runs. The public instance at nominatim.openstreetmap.org belongs to the OpenStreetMap Foundation and its usage policy caps it at one request a second, so it isn't graded as a hosted service. Official packages nominatim-db and nominatim-api on PyPI (5.3.3 on 14 October 2026, Python 3.9 or later) and installation guides for Ubuntu 22 and 24 (20). A public CI workflow runs unit and BDD tests on every push across Ubuntu 24 and 26 with PostgreSQL 13 to 18, and Windows unit tests. We couldn't see run results (20). Issue counts and reply times couldn't be read because the GitHub API was rate-limited for us; Sarah Hoffmann made 76 of the 106 commits since 8 August (12). A ChangeLog per release and semantic version numbers (15). Version 5.3.3 (15). 20+20+12+15+15 = 82." }, "scores": { "a": 55, "b": 82 } }, { "by": 18, "category": "ergonomics", "leads": "here-location-services", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "reasons": { "a": "All readings per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November (HERE's hosts paused). `limit` sizes geocoding responses (1 to 100, default 20), and `show` and `return` parameters add optional blocks only when asked for. The MCP server lists 13 tools, two of them experimental, and passes cached route and isoline IDs between tools so geometry is not returned twice (18 of 25). Filters by country, result type, position and bounding area and a result limit are documented, with no offset or cursor paging for geocoding (20; the 15 carried isn't a checklist value, and filters with a size limit meet the line). Errors carry `status`, `title`, `code`, `cause`, `action` and `correlationId`, and the routing changelog names error codes such as `E605502` (20; the 17 carried isn't a checklist value). The location calls are reads and safe to repeat (20; the 14 carried isn't a checklist value; MCP annotations were not read). A geocode needs only `q` and a credential, and HERE publishes SDKs in JavaScript, Android, iOS and Flutter, for maps rather than as REST clients (15; the 10 carried isn't a checklist value). 18+20+20+20+15 = 93.", "b": "API reading. limit, addressdetails, extratags, namedetails and the polygon options size responses, and geocodejson, geojson and jsonv2 formats are available (22). countrycodes, viewbox, bounded, layer, featureType and exclude_place_ids filter results, the last one standing in for pagination (18). Bad parameters return an error rather than a silent default in current versions, but there's no error code reference (12). Every endpoint reads and is safe to retry (15). Few required parameters, and the Python library exposes the same search API in-process, but there are no other official clients (8). 22+18+12+15+8 = 75." }, "scores": { "a": 93, "b": 75 } }, { "by": 15, "category": "security", "leads": "here-location-services", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "reasons": { "a": "All readings per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November (HERE's hosts paused). Credentials are API keys, OAuth 2.0 client credentials and OAuth 2.1 `private_key_jwt` with a registered JWK, where the private key stays with the customer. Tokens are short-lived and can be scoped to a project, and an app holds two API keys or two JWKs for rotation (30). Less 10 because the documented API key method is the `apiKey` query parameter (20). The location services only read. Trusted domains limit where a key works, and app credentials do not inherit the user's permissions (15 of 20). Results carry place names from third-party sources. The Location Reasoning examples load a `guardrails://location-reasoning-usage-policy` resource and a `hlr___secure_location_reasoning` prompt, whose text was not read (7 of 15). A Usage API reports billable usage by app and project. Per-call logs were not found (6 of 15). ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 27701, 27017, 27018 and 42001 certificates, SOC 2 Type 2 scoped to Platform Foundation and Workspace, TISAX AL3 and CSA STAR Level 2 are listed. A disclosure policy of 13 July 2023 names security@here.com with a 90-day window. No bug bounty and no security.txt were found (17 of 20). Total 65.", "b": "The server has no authentication of its own; an operator puts it behind their own proxy. The public instance takes no key and identifies callers by User-Agent or Referer (5). Every endpoint reads, so there's nothing to approve (18). Results are OpenStreetMap names and tags, community-edited text, with no prompt-injection guidance (7). Query logging to a file is available through NOMINATIM_LOG_FILE and off by default (8). SECURITY.md gives security@nominatim.org, an acknowledgement within 3 work days, a disclosure process and two years of security updates per release. No bug bounty (12). 5+18+7+8+12 = 50." }, "scores": { "a": 65, "b": 50 } }, { "by": 15, "category": "maintenance", "leads": "nominatim", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "reasons": { "a": "HERE's changelogs sit on docs.here.com, paused under the acceptable use policy, so entries after 9 October are unread. On the 9 October reading the newest dated entries are Matrix Routing 8.49.0 on 9 September 2026 (a documentation change) and Routing 8.162.0 on 7 September 2026, 58 days before this check (20). From 6 August only Routing 8.161.0 (11 August) and 8.162.0 (7 September) fall in the window, with the Matrix documentation change at half, 2.5 in all and short of three (0, cause time; 8.160.0 of 16 July has left the window). Changelogs are public for each API, and paid support plans state response times from 72 hours down to 4 (10 of 15). HERE's GitHub repositories, read as a third-party host, show the HERE SDK for Android, iOS and Flutter current, with example apps tagged for releases 4.27.2.0 (17 August), 4.27.3.0 (3 September), 4.28.0.0 (1 October) and 4.28.1.0 (2 November 2026), and their search and routing engines are the SDKs the ergonomics note credits. The Python client for the REST APIs has carried a deprecation notice since 5 September 2023. These SDK releases aren't counted on the release lines, because their release notes sit on HERE's paused pages and nothing read shows them changing the location services (15; the 5 carried isn't a checklist value). Package health isn't visible for a closed service, and the SDK examples repository has no CI workflow (0; the 5 carried isn't a checklist value). 20+0+10+15+0 = 45.", "b": "Release 5.3.3 on 14 October 2026, 23 days before this check (30). Only one release in the 90 days from 8 August, against 106 commits on the default branch; commits aren't counted as releases (0). Commits from the lead maintainer and seven or more contributors since August, but we couldn't read issue reply times (12). The nominatim-api Python library is current with the server (10). CI on every push, current PostgreSQL and Python versions (8). 30+0+12+10+8 = 60." }, "scores": { "a": 45, "b": 60 } } ], "facts": [ { "a": "HTTP API", "b": "HTTP API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "HERE Technologies", "b": "Nominatim project (osm-search)", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "None", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Freemium", "b": "Free", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "Proprietary service under the HERE Platform Terms", "b": "GPL-3.0-or-later", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "13", "b": "none", "name": "Tools exposed" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "no", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-09-09", "b": "2026-10-14", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "2023-09-18", "b": "no date given", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "2024-08-29", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "none", "b": "2.1k PyPI/wk", "name": "Popularity" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against HERE Location Services's 58.4 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. HERE Location Services leads on schema \u0026 documentation, agent ergonomics and security \u0026 auth.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, HERE Location Services or Nominatim?" }, { "answer": "HERE Location Services takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Nominatim needs no key.", "question": "Do HERE Location Services and Nominatim need an API key?" }, { "answer": "HERE Location Services has a hosted endpoint at https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Nominatim.", "question": "Can an agent call HERE Location Services and Nominatim without installing anything?" }, { "answer": "No open-source release is listed for HERE Location Services. Nominatim is open source (GPL-3.0-or-later).", "question": "Are HERE Location Services and Nominatim open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Schema \u0026 documentation, 89 against 51", "Agent ergonomics, 93 against 75", "Security \u0026 auth, 65 against 50" ], "also": [ "A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install" ], "goodFor": "Fleet and logistics work that needs truck routing, large matrices, isolines, traffic and transit from one vendor with an SLA.", "slug": "here-location-services", "watchFor": "Platform Terms section f forbids using HERE Materials in connection with a machine learning or AI system, generative AI included. This matters before any probe is run" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 82 against 55", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 0", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 60 against 45" ], "also": [ "No key needed to call it", "Open source", "No incidents deducted, where HERE Location Services loses 3 points for them" ], "goodFor": "Self-hosted worldwide geocoding from OpenStreetMap data with no per-call cost or storage limits beyond ODbL.", "slug": "nominatim", "watchFor": "No OpenAPI spec and no llms.txt" } ], "history": { "here-location-services": [ { "causes": [ "correction", "time" ], "date": "2026-11-04", "delta": 0.4, "from": 58, "fromGrade": "C", "to": 58.4, "toGrade": "C" } ], "nominatim": null }, "job": { "capability": "geo.geocode", "name": "Geocoding" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-here-location-services.json", "title": "Amazon Location Service vs HERE Location Services", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-here-location-services" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "Amazon Location Service vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-here-location-services.json", "title": "ArcGIS Location Platform vs HERE Location Services", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-here-location-services" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "ArcGIS Location Platform vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-here-location-services.json", "title": "Azure Maps vs HERE Location Services", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-here-location-services" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "Azure Maps vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-here-location-services.json", "title": "Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs HERE Location Services", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-here-location-services" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geocodio-vs-here-location-services.json", "title": "Geocodio vs HERE Location Services", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geocodio-vs-here-location-services" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geocodio-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "Geocodio vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geocodio-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-here-location-services.json", "title": "Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs HERE Location Services", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-here-location-services" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-locationiq.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs LocationIQ", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-locationiq" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapbox.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs Mapbox APIs + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapbox" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapquest.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs MapQuest", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapquest" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-maptiler.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs MapTiler Cloud", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-maptiler" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nextbillion.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs NextBillion.ai", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nextbillion" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-opencage.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs OpenCage Geocoding API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-opencage" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-radar.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs Radar", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-radar" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-stadia-maps.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs Stadia Maps", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-stadia-maps" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-tomtom.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-tomtom" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-woosmap.json", "title": "HERE Location Services vs Woosmap", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-woosmap" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "LocationIQ vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapbox-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "Mapbox APIs + MCP vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapbox-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapquest-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "MapQuest vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapquest-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maptiler-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "MapTiler Cloud vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maptiler-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nextbillion-vs-nominatim.json", "title": "NextBillion.ai vs Nominatim", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nextbillion-vs-nominatim" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-opencage.json", "title": "Nominatim vs OpenCage Geocoding API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-opencage" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-radar.json", "title": "Nominatim vs Radar", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-radar" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-stadia-maps.json", "title": "Nominatim vs Stadia Maps", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-stadia-maps" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-tomtom.json", "title": "Nominatim vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-tomtom" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-woosmap.json", "title": "Nominatim vs Woosmap", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-woosmap" } ], "panel": null, "scores": [ { "by": 27, "edge": "nominatim", "here-location-services": 55, "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "nominatim": 82, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 38, "edge": "here-location-services", "here-location-services": 89, "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "nominatim": 51, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 18, "edge": "here-location-services", "here-location-services": 93, "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "nominatim": 75, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 15, "edge": "here-location-services", "here-location-services": 65, "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "nominatim": 50, "weight": 14 }, { "by": 60, "edge": "nominatim", "here-location-services": 0, "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "nominatim": 60, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 15, "edge": "nominatim", "here-location-services": 45, "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "nominatim": 60, "weight": 7 }, { "by": 4, "edge": "here-location-services", "here-location-services": 63, "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "nominatim": 59, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against HERE Location Services's 58.4 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. HERE Location Services leads on schema \u0026 documentation, agent ergonomics and security \u0026 auth. Both do geocoding.", "tasks": null, "tutorials": [], "verdicts": { "here-location-services": "Each endpoint page carries an OpenAPI 3.0 definition as Markdown, and HERE publishes 99.9 per cent monthly availability targets and a six-month deprecation policy. No numeric rate limit or retry guidance was found, prices were unreadable, and HERE's terms bar using its materials with an AI system and bar scraping, so its pages could not be re-read.", "nominatim": "Nominatim is the open-source OpenStreetMap geocoder, free to run with a documented search, reverse and lookup API, tested releases and two years of security support per release. It has no OpenAPI spec, no built-in authentication, and the public instance allows one request a second and restricts LLM-suggested use, so agents at scale need their own server." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim.min.md" }, "markdown": "Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against HERE Location Services's 58.4 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. HERE Location Services leads on schema \u0026 documentation, agent ergonomics and security \u0026 auth. Both do geocoding.\n\n- HERE Location Services: grade C, 58.4/100, rank #753 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/here-location-services.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/here-location-services.json\n- Nominatim: grade B, 63.5/100, rank #513 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nominatim.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nominatim.json\n- Best maps, geocoding and places APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/maps/index.md\n- All 153 maps comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maps/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### HERE Location Services (C)\n\nGood for: Fleet and logistics work that needs truck routing, large matrices, isolines, traffic and transit from one vendor with an SLA.\n\nAhead on:\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 89 against 51\n- Agent ergonomics, 93 against 75\n- Security \u0026 auth, 65 against 50\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install\n\nWatch for: Platform Terms section f forbids using HERE Materials in connection with a machine learning or AI system, generative AI included. This matters before any probe is run\n\n### Nominatim (B)\n\nGood for: Self-hosted worldwide geocoding from OpenStreetMap data with no per-call cost or storage limits beyond ODbL.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 82 against 55\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 0\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 60 against 45\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No key needed to call it\n- Open source\n- No incidents deducted, where HERE Location Services loses 3 points for them\n\nWatch for: No OpenAPI spec and no llms.txt\n\n\n## Why the edge\n\n### Payments \u0026 pricing: Nominatim +60\n\n- HERE Location Services (0): Readings per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November (HERE's hosts paused). No x402, MPP or L402 was found in the docs index or the terms (0). The Base Plan price page is public, but its table is drawn by script and showed no prices to our reader, so per-request prices score as absent, a limit of our reading and not a finding that prices are hidden (0). HERE's docs say a new organisation can get started for free, but whether a card is asked for was not established, so the free-tier line can't be credited (0; the 10 carried isn't a checklist value). Sign-up is a browser flow with email verification (0). Support plans are priced in public, from $50 a month for the Developer plan. 0+0+0+0 = 0.\n- Nominatim (60): Self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0). Free software with nothing to buy (20 + 20 + 20). The public instance is also free and keyless, within its usage policy. 0+20+20+20 = 60.\n\n### Schema \u0026 documentation: HERE Location Services +38\n\n- HERE Location Services (89): All readings per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November, because HERE's hosts are paused under its acceptable use policy. Each endpoint page has a Markdown twin holding an OpenAPI 3.0.0 definition, read for `/geocode` at version 7.157 (25). docs.here.com has a site `llms.txt` and one for each product and section (10). Endpoint descriptions state the purpose, and parameter descriptions are long, with ALPHA, BETA and RESTRICTED maturity tags. Little says when not to use an endpoint (14 of 20). Parameters are typed with 34 enums in the geocode definition, ranges such as `limit` 1 to 100 and defaults (13 of 15). 400, 405, 429 and 503 share an `ErrorResponse` schema, and the developer guide has code examples for each endpoint (12 of 15). The Routing v8 changelog is dated by entry up to 8.162.0 on 7 September 2026, with versioned APIs; the Geocoding and Search release notes are numbered without dates. The line lists 15, the nearest value to the 13 carried. The Location Reasoning tool schemas come only from `tools/list` and were not read. 25+10+14+13+12+15 = 89.\n- Nominatim (51): No OpenAPI or machine-readable contract (0). nominatim.org/llms.txt returns 404, and the manual is HTML, though its Markdown sources sit in the repository's docs folder (0). The API reference explains each endpoint and parameter and when not to use one, such as the details endpoint being for debugging (14). Types, enums and limits are documented, such as format, layer and limit (at most 40), but there's no schema to validate against (12). Example queries and outputs per endpoint, with errors described in prose (10). A versioned manual per release, a ChangeLog and a migration guide (15). 0+0+14+12+10+15 = 51.\n\n### Reliability: Nominatim +27\n\n- HERE Location Services (55): Graded on the REST APIs (Geocoding and Search v7, Routing v8) with the hosted lines. HERE's acceptable use policy bars data mining and scraping of HERE Materials, websites included, so HERE's hosts were not requested on 4 November and the 9 October readings stand. HERE's docs describe a public status page at status.here.com/status with current status, a status history tab and scheduled maintenance (per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November) (20). The page was drawn by script on 9 October and is now paused, so the record from 6 August is unread (5). No rate limit with a number was found in the docs; the Base Plan limits sit on a price page drawn by script (0; the 5 carried isn't a checklist value). The Limits and Quotas page says an exceeded quota returns 429 or 503 and that a surge can be throttled for about 10 minutes, and the OpenAPI definition lists 429, with no Retry-After header or backoff guidance and only reads involved (per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November). Documented 429 handling without backoff guidance reads at the line's 10 (the 7 carried isn't a checklist value). Monthly availability targets of 99.9 per cent are published for Geocoding and Search v7 and Routing v8, with service credits for the Essential support plan and above (per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November) (10). Both APIs are in the Active lifecycle stage (10). 20+5+0+10+10+10 = 55.\n- Nominatim (82): Read with the local-software lines, since the listing is the Nominatim server an operator runs. The public instance at nominatim.openstreetmap.org belongs to the OpenStreetMap Foundation and its usage policy caps it at one request a second, so it isn't graded as a hosted service. Official packages nominatim-db and nominatim-api on PyPI (5.3.3 on 14 October 2026, Python 3.9 or later) and installation guides for Ubuntu 22 and 24 (20). A public CI workflow runs unit and BDD tests on every push across Ubuntu 24 and 26 with PostgreSQL 13 to 18, and Windows unit tests. We couldn't see run results (20). Issue counts and reply times couldn't be read because the GitHub API was rate-limited for us; Sarah Hoffmann made 76 of the 106 commits since 8 August (12). A ChangeLog per release and semantic version numbers (15). Version 5.3.3 (15). 20+20+12+15+15 = 82.\n\n### Agent ergonomics: HERE Location Services +18\n\n- HERE Location Services (93): All readings per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November (HERE's hosts paused). `limit` sizes geocoding responses (1 to 100, default 20), and `show` and `return` parameters add optional blocks only when asked for. The MCP server lists 13 tools, two of them experimental, and passes cached route and isoline IDs between tools so geometry is not returned twice (18 of 25). Filters by country, result type, position and bounding area and a result limit are documented, with no offset or cursor paging for geocoding (20; the 15 carried isn't a checklist value, and filters with a size limit meet the line). Errors carry `status`, `title`, `code`, `cause`, `action` and `correlationId`, and the routing changelog names error codes such as `E605502` (20; the 17 carried isn't a checklist value). The location calls are reads and safe to repeat (20; the 14 carried isn't a checklist value; MCP annotations were not read). A geocode needs only `q` and a credential, and HERE publishes SDKs in JavaScript, Android, iOS and Flutter, for maps rather than as REST clients (15; the 10 carried isn't a checklist value). 18+20+20+20+15 = 93.\n- Nominatim (75): API reading. limit, addressdetails, extratags, namedetails and the polygon options size responses, and geocodejson, geojson and jsonv2 formats are available (22). countrycodes, viewbox, bounded, layer, featureType and exclude_place_ids filter results, the last one standing in for pagination (18). Bad parameters return an error rather than a silent default in current versions, but there's no error code reference (12). Every endpoint reads and is safe to retry (15). Few required parameters, and the Python library exposes the same search API in-process, but there are no other official clients (8). 22+18+12+15+8 = 75.\n\n### Security \u0026 auth: HERE Location Services +15\n\n- HERE Location Services (65): All readings per the 9 October check, not re-read on 4 November (HERE's hosts paused). Credentials are API keys, OAuth 2.0 client credentials and OAuth 2.1 `private_key_jwt` with a registered JWK, where the private key stays with the customer. Tokens are short-lived and can be scoped to a project, and an app holds two API keys or two JWKs for rotation (30). Less 10 because the documented API key method is the `apiKey` query parameter (20). The location services only read. Trusted domains limit where a key works, and app credentials do not inherit the user's permissions (15 of 20). Results carry place names from third-party sources. The Location Reasoning examples load a `guardrails://location-reasoning-usage-policy` resource and a `hlr___secure_location_reasoning` prompt, whose text was not read (7 of 15). A Usage API reports billable usage by app and project. Per-call logs were not found (6 of 15). ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 27701, 27017, 27018 and 42001 certificates, SOC 2 Type 2 scoped to Platform Foundation and Workspace, TISAX AL3 and CSA STAR Level 2 are listed. A disclosure policy of 13 July 2023 names security@here.com with a 90-day window. No bug bounty and no security.txt were found (17 of 20). Total 65.\n- Nominatim (50): The server has no authentication of its own; an operator puts it behind their own proxy. The public instance takes no key and identifies callers by User-Agent or Referer (5). Every endpoint reads, so there's nothing to approve (18). Results are OpenStreetMap names and tags, community-edited text, with no prompt-injection guidance (7). Query logging to a file is available through NOMINATIM_LOG_FILE and off by default (8). SECURITY.md gives security@nominatim.org, an acknowledgement within 3 work days, a disclosure process and two years of security updates per release. No bug bounty (12). 5+18+7+8+12 = 50.\n\n### Maintenance \u0026 community: Nominatim +15\n\n- HERE Location Services (45): HERE's changelogs sit on docs.here.com, paused under the acceptable use policy, so entries after 9 October are unread. On the 9 October reading the newest dated entries are Matrix Routing 8.49.0 on 9 September 2026 (a documentation change) and Routing 8.162.0 on 7 September 2026, 58 days before this check (20). From 6 August only Routing 8.161.0 (11 August) and 8.162.0 (7 September) fall in the window, with the Matrix documentation change at half, 2.5 in all and short of three (0, cause time; 8.160.0 of 16 July has left the window). Changelogs are public for each API, and paid support plans state response times from 72 hours down to 4 (10 of 15). HERE's GitHub repositories, read as a third-party host, show the HERE SDK for Android, iOS and Flutter current, with example apps tagged for releases 4.27.2.0 (17 August), 4.27.3.0 (3 September), 4.28.0.0 (1 October) and 4.28.1.0 (2 November 2026), and their search and routing engines are the SDKs the ergonomics note credits. The Python client for the REST APIs has carried a deprecation notice since 5 September 2023. These SDK releases aren't counted on the release lines, because their release notes sit on HERE's paused pages and nothing read shows them changing the location services (15; the 5 carried isn't a checklist value). Package health isn't visible for a closed service, and the SDK examples repository has no CI workflow (0; the 5 carried isn't a checklist value). 20+0+10+15+0 = 45.\n- Nominatim (60): Release 5.3.3 on 14 October 2026, 23 days before this check (30). Only one release in the 90 days from 8 August, against 106 commits on the default branch; commits aren't counted as releases (0). Commits from the lead maintainer and seven or more contributors since August, but we couldn't read issue reply times (12). The nominatim-api Python library is current with the server (10). CI on every push, current PostgreSQL and Python versions (8). 30+0+12+10+8 = 60.\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | HERE Location Services | Nominatim | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 82 | Nominatim +27 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 51 | HERE Location Services +38 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 93 | 75 | HERE Location Services +18 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 50 | HERE Location Services +15 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 60 | Nominatim +60 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 45 | 60 | Nominatim +15 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 59 | HERE Location Services +4 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **58.4 · C** | **63.5 · B** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | HERE Location Services | Nominatim |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | HERE Technologies | Nominatim project (osm-search) |\n| Hosted endpoint | `https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1` | no (local only) |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | None |\n| Pricing | Freemium | Free |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | Proprietary service under the HERE Platform Terms | GPL-3.0-or-later |\n| Tools exposed | 13 | none |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | no |\n| Last release | 2026-09-09 | 2026-10-14 |\n| Terms last updated | 2023-09-18 | no date given |\n| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-08-29 | no document linked |\n| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Popularity | none | 2.1k PyPI/wk |\n\n## How the scores have moved\n\n### HERE Location Services\n\n- +0.4 on 4 November 2026: correction, time\n\n### Nominatim\n\nNo score change since it was listed.\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**HERE Location Services.** Each endpoint page carries an OpenAPI 3.0 definition as Markdown, and HERE publishes 99.9 per cent monthly availability targets and a six-month deprecation policy. No numeric rate limit or retry guidance was found, prices were unreadable, and HERE's terms bar using its materials with an AI system and bar scraping, so its pages could not be re-read.\n\n**Nominatim.** Nominatim is the open-source OpenStreetMap geocoder, free to run with a documented search, reverse and lookup API, tested releases and two years of security support per release. It has no OpenAPI spec, no built-in authentication, and the public instance allows one request a second and restricts LLM-suggested use, so agents at scale need their own server.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### HERE Location Services\n\n1. Send `Authorization: Bearer` with an OAuth token where logs are kept. The `apiKey` query parameter puts the secret in every URL\n2. Do not store results for more than 30 days, and follow the HTTP caching headers on each response\n3. Treat 429 and 503 as throttling. HERE says a traffic surge can be throttled for about 10 minutes below the account's quota\n4. Read `code`, `cause` and `action` in the error body, and quote `correlationId` to support\n5. For Location Reasoning, send `initialize`, keep the `Mcp-Session-Id` header on later calls, and send a bearer token on `tools/call`\n\n### Nominatim\n\n1. Don't send bulk or repeated queries to nominatim.openstreetmap.org; keep to one request a second, cache results and set an identifying User-Agent\n2. Tell the user about the OSMF usage policy before suggesting the public instance, as the policy requires\n3. For regular or large jobs, run your own Nominatim or use a commercial provider listed on the Nominatim wiki\n4. Pass format=jsonv2 or geojson and limit, since omitting format sends the request to the web UI\n5. Attribute OpenStreetMap and respect the ODbL share-alike terms when storing results\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, HERE Location Services or Nominatim?\n\nNominatim scores 63.5 (B) on agent readiness against HERE Location Services's 58.4 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. HERE Location Services leads on schema \u0026 documentation, agent ergonomics and security \u0026 auth.\n\n### Do HERE Location Services and Nominatim need an API key?\n\nHERE Location Services takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Nominatim needs no key.\n\n### Can an agent call HERE Location Services and Nominatim without installing anything?\n\nHERE Location Services has a hosted endpoint at https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Nominatim.\n\n### Are HERE Location Services and Nominatim open source?\n\nNo open-source release is listed for HERE Location Services. Nominatim is open source (GPL-3.0-or-later).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"here-location-services\", \"b\": \"nominatim\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare here-location-services nominatim`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/here-location-services.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nominatim.json\n\n## Other comparisons with HERE Location Services or Nominatim\n\n- [Amazon Location Service vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-here-location-services.md)\n- [Amazon Location Service vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-location-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [ArcGIS Location Platform vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-here-location-services.md)\n- [ArcGIS Location Platform vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcgis-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [Azure Maps vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-here-location-services.md)\n- [Azure Maps vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-maps-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-here-location-services.md)\n- [Geoapify Location Platform + MCP vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geoapify-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [Geocodio vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geocodio-vs-here-location-services.md)\n- [Geocodio vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/geocodio-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs HERE Location Services](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-here-location-services.md)\n- [Google Maps Platform + Grounding Lite MCP vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-maps-platform-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs LocationIQ](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-locationiq.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs Mapbox APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapbox.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs MapQuest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-mapquest.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs MapTiler Cloud](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-maptiler.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs NextBillion.ai](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nextbillion.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs OpenCage Geocoding API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-opencage.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-radar.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-stadia-maps.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-tomtom.md)\n- [HERE Location Services vs Woosmap](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-woosmap.md)\n- [LocationIQ vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/locationiq-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [Mapbox APIs + MCP vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapbox-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [MapQuest vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mapquest-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [MapTiler Cloud vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/maptiler-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [NextBillion.ai vs Nominatim](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nextbillion-vs-nominatim.md)\n- [Nominatim vs OpenCage Geocoding API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-opencage.md)\n- [Nominatim vs Radar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-radar.md)\n- [Nominatim vs Stadia Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-stadia-maps.md)\n- [Nominatim vs TomTom Maps APIs + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-tomtom.md)\n- [Nominatim vs Woosmap](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nominatim-vs-woosmap.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link the page or API address you took it from (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-11-07", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.7", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "terms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "HERE Location Services vs Nominatim", "url": "" } ], "description": "Nominatim scores 63.5 (B) to HERE Location Services's 58.4 (C) for geocoding. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "HERE Location Services C 58.4", "Nominatim B 63.5", "scores" ], "h1": "HERE Location Services vs Nominatim", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/default.png", "path": "/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "HERE Location Services vs Nominatim for AI agents (2026)", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-11-07", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 5700, "slim": 3430 }, "version": 1 }