# HERE Location Services vs Nominatim (slim)

> 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.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim.md (~5,700 tokens) · this version ~3,430 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/here-location-services-vs-nominatim
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

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 & documentation, agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do geocoding.

- HERE Location Services: C 58.4, rank #753 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/here-location-services.min.md
- Nominatim: B 63.5, rank #513 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nominatim.min.md
- HERE Location Services, good for Fleet and logistics work that needs truck routing, large matrices, isolines, traffic and transit from one vendor with an SLA. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 89 against 51; Agent ergonomics, 93 against 75; Security & auth, 65 against 50. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- Nominatim, good for Self-hosted worldwide geocoding from OpenStreetMap data with no per-call cost or storage limits beyond ODbL. Ahead on Reliability, 82 against 55; Payments & pricing, 60 against 0; Maintenance & 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.

| Category | HERE Location Services | Nominatim |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 55 | 82 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 89 | 51 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 93 | 75 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 65 | 50 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 0 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 45 | 60 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 59 |

| Fact (where they differ) | HERE Location Services | Nominatim |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | HERE Technologies | Nominatim project (osm-search) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://geocode.search.hereapi.com/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the HERE Platform Terms | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Tools exposed | 13 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-09 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | 2023-09-18 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-08-29 | no document linked |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 2.1k PyPI/wk |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, Nominatim +60: 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.); 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.)
- Schema & documentation, HERE Location Services +38: 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.); 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.)
- Reliability, Nominatim +27: 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.); 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.)
- Agent ergonomics, HERE Location Services +18: 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.); 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.)
- Security & auth, HERE Location Services +15: 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.); 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.)
- Maintenance & community, Nominatim +15: 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.); 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.)