Good Enough Maps Nearby search API: build or buy?
Nearby search looks deceptively small: query text, latitude, longitude, radius, results. The hard part is not the HTTP handler. The hard part is keeping the data searchable, current, relevant, and online.
Short version: buy when nearby search supports a feature; build when search quality is the product.
So the build-or-buy question is not “can we write an endpoint?” You can. The question is whether nearby search is infrastructure you want to own.
What building really means
Start with the data. You can use OpenStreetMap, Overture Places, Foursquare’s open Places dataset (FSQ OS Places), commercial POI feeds, your own records, or a mix.
Overture, for example, publishes Places as GeoParquet data files and currently documents more than 75 million place point representations in the theme (Overture Places guide). That is a strong base. It is not an API.
To build the API, you still need:
- data work: ingest, validation, normalization, duplicate handling
- search work: geospatial indexing, category mapping, relevance ranking
- operations work: deployment, observability, abuse controls, update strategy
- commercial work: quota and billing logic if customers use it
None of that is exotic. It is normal software. It is also ongoing software.
When building is the right call
Build your own nearby search when:
- search quality is a core differentiator
- you need custom ranking no vendor will expose
- you already run geospatial data pipelines
- you need full control over source licensing and attribution
- your volume is high enough that vendor markup costs more than running it yourself
- you can tolerate the operational responsibility
If your company is a logistics platform, marketplace, mapping company, or data vendor, the answer may be build. Owning the data path may be part of the moat.
When buying is the right call
Buy a hosted API when:
- nearby search supports another product feature
- you need to ship quickly
- predictable cost matters more than perfect control
- your team does not want monthly data refresh work
- your expected query volume fits an existing plan
- downtime in the search stack would distract from the core product
This is the store locator case, the “find vendors near a job” case, the AI-agent local search case, and the internal ops tool case. The product needs answers, not a geospatial platform team.
The open-data trap
Open data can make the license cost zero. It does not make serving free.
Public OSM services, for example, are shared community infrastructure with usage policies. The Overpass documentation explicitly warns against relying on public instances as an app backend and points heavy users toward running their own infrastructure (Overpass commons).
The same principle applies broadly: if the feature is live and user-facing, someone owns the serving layer.
Where Good Enough Maps fits
Good Enough Maps is for teams that want the open-data path without owning the serving path. We host selected Overture-backed coverage, expose a single search endpoint, and keep pricing flat with hard caps.
It is not the answer when you need global coverage, autocomplete, routing, tiles, photos, ratings, reviews, or bespoke ranking control. It is the answer when “find places near this coordinate” is useful enough and predictable spend matters.
FAQ
Should I build my own nearby search API?
Build it when search is core infrastructure, you need deep ranking control, and your team is ready to own ingestion, indexing, refreshes, and uptime.
When should I buy a hosted API?
Buy when nearby search is a product feature rather than your infrastructure differentiator. That is especially true for store locators, internal tools, marketplaces, and AI agent tools.
Can open data make self-hosting cheap?
It can remove license cost. It does not remove indexing, hosting, refresh, relevance, monitoring, and maintenance cost.
Last validated 2026-06-23.