16 March 2022
Algolia Places Sunset
At the end of 2020, Algolia announced that they will be discontinuing their Algolia Places service in May 2022.
Our autocomplete service is a great alternative for Algolia Places which can be set up in just a couple of minutes.
Since Algolia was nice enough to highlight Geocode Earth as a replacement in their sunset post, we thought we’d help make the transition as easy as possible by summarizing the similarities (and differences!) relevant to anyone looking for a new address autocomplete solution.
Functionality
Core geocoding features.
| Algolia Places | Geocode Earth | |
| Address Autocomplete | ||
| Places Autocomplete | ||
| Reverse Geocoding | ||
| Structured Geocoding | ||
| Batch Geocoding | ||
| Address Interpolation | ||
| Street Intersections |
Data Sources
Data sets imported & available for search.
| Algolia Places | Geocode Earth | |
| OpenStreetMap | ||
| Geonames | ||
| OpenAddresses | ||
| Who's on First | ||
| US Census |
Data Coverage
Global data coverage per-layer (in millions).
| Algolia Places * | Geocode Earth | |
| Administrative Regions | ~4 MM | ~10 MM |
| Addresses | ~50 MM ** | ~630 MM |
| Streets | ~20 MM | ~30 MM |
| Venues / POIs | <1 MM | ~40 MM |
| Intersections | 0 | ~12.5 MM |
| Total | ~75 MM | ~720 MM |
* Counts for Algolia Places come from their blog posts, or best estimates based on our in-depth knowledge of their data sources.
** Addresses in Algolia Places have street-level accuracy (all addresses on the same street have the same lat/lon coordinates).
Geocode Earth addresses have rooftop-level accuracy.
Software Tools
Libraries you can use to simplify integration.
| Algolia Places | Geocode Earth | |
| Browser Library | ||
| NPM Module (React) | ||
| LeafletJS Integration | ||
| Command-line batch tools |
Company
General policy & pricing information.
| Algolia Places | Geocode Earth | |
| Company Focus | General Search | Autocomplete Geocoding |
| Retention Policy | Permissive / Permanent | Permissive / Permanent |
| Data Update Frequency | Last updated 2019 | Minimum once per month |
| Cost per request | $0.40 per 1000 | As low as $0.25 per 1000 |
Making the Switch
You can use Geocode Earth autocomplete with your existing Autocomplete.js code, or with our React-based Autocomplete element.
👋 Reach out if you need any help evaluating Geocode Earth as a replacement for your existing Algolia Places integration.
Image credit: Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan at sunset by Giuseppe Milo.