LocationIQ Alternative — maps.guru Compared (2026)
- Pricing verified July 2026
# LocationIQ Alternative
The LocationIQ alternative, geocoding + tiles in one API key
Compare maps.guru vs LocationIQ: free tier limits, INR pricing, attribution requirements, and what you get beyond geocoding.
LocationIQ pricing in 2026: 5,000 free requests per day (about 150,000 per month) with a mandatory attribution link, and the Developer plan at ₹7,000/month for 25,000 requests per day. Tiles are raster only, where 16 tiles equal one map view. maps.guru pricing: free forever with 50,000 vector tile requests and 10,000 geocoding requests per month with no attribution requirement, and Pro at ₹3,999/month ($49) for 1,000,000 vector tiles plus 200,000 geocoding requests.
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## Pricing comparison
MetricLocationIQmaps.guru
Free requests / day5,000 requests/day (≈150K/month) with attribution link50,000 tiles + 10,000 geocoding/month, no attribution
Attribution on free plan"Search by LocationIQ.com" link mandatoryNo attribution required
INR pricingYes, Developer ₹7,000/mo (25K req/day)Yes, Pro ₹3,999/mo (1M tiles + 200K geo)
Tile servingRaster tiles only (16 tiles = 1 map view)Vector tiles: MapLibre GL JS native, retina support
Entry paid plan (INR)Maps Lite ₹3,500/mo (10K map views/day, geocoding only)Pro ₹3,999/mo: 1M vector tiles + 200K geocoding
Routing APIsIncluded in paid plansComing soon
Overage billingYes, strict daily request limits; upgrade requiredNone: monthly hard quota enforced

## Honest tradeoffs

### When LocationIQ wins
Daily free tier (5K/day ≈ 150K/month) is 3× maps.guru's 50K monthly tile limit
- Multi-currency pricing, USD, EUR, INR, CAD, GBP, AUD, BRL
- Routing APIs available on paid plans, not yet in maps.guru
- Annual plans with 2 months free (~17% discount)
- Higher request rates on paid plans, Growth Plus 30 req/sec
- Forward, reverse, autocomplete, and batch geocoding all in one plan

### When maps.guru wins

- Vector tiles: LocationIQ is raster-only; maps.guru serves MapLibre-native MVT
- No attribution link required, LocationIQ Free mandates "Search by LocationIQ.com"
- Larger monthly tile quota at Pro: 1M tiles vs LocationIQ's 10K map views/day (~300K views/mo at Maps Lite)
- No daily rate limits, maps.guru is monthly, no per-day spike surprises
- Flat monthly billing, LocationIQ enforces per-day limits that can cut off usage mid-month
- No overage, hard quota, predictable bill

## Documented gotchas

### Daily request limits, traffic spike mid-day can cut off service
LocationIQ enforces per-day request limits (e.g., 5K/day on Free, 25K/day on Developer). A traffic spike on a single day can exhaust the daily quota, making the API return 429 for the rest of that day. maps.guru uses monthly quotas, a single busy day will not cut off service.
Source: LocationIQ Pricing

### Free plan requires a "Search by LocationIQ.com" attribution link
LocationIQ Free requires embedding a visible "Search by LocationIQ.com" link in the UI for any search or geocoding result displayed. This is a branding requirement that affects UI design freedom, especially for search-box and autocomplete implementations.
Source: LocationIQ Pricing

### Tile API serves raster only, not MapLibre GL JS vector tiles
LocationIQ's map tiles are raster (PNG/image tiles). MapLibre GL JS requires vector tiles (MVT format) for interactive, retina-quality maps with layer-level styling control. To use LocationIQ for tile serving with MapLibre GL JS, you would need to use a separate vector tile source, negating the single-provider benefit.
Source: LocationIQ Pricing

## Frequently asked questions

### Is LocationIQ or maps.guru better for geocoding on a budget?
LocationIQ's free tier offers 5K requests/day (≈150K/month) which is 15× maps.guru's 10K geocoding free tier. If geocoding volume is your primary need and you're comfortable with the attribution requirement and daily limits, LocationIQ's free tier is more generous. maps.guru's advantage is bundled tile serving in the same plan with no attribution requirement.

### Can maps.guru handle forward and reverse geocoding?
Yes, maps.guru includes both forward geocoding (address → coordinates) and reverse geocoding (coordinates → address) in all plans. Autocomplete and batch geocoding are not currently offered; for those use cases, LocationIQ or Mapbox geocoding APIs are dedicated alternatives.

### I need INR pricing, how does LocationIQ's ₹7,000/mo compare to maps.guru's ₹3,999/mo?
maps.guru Pro at ₹3,999/mo includes 1M vector tile requests and 200K geocoding calls. LocationIQ Developer at ₹7,000/mo includes 25K requests/day (≈750K/month) for geocoding only, raster map tiles are a separate counter. For teams needing both tiles and geocoding in one plan, maps.guru is ~43% cheaper at the entry paid tier.

## Mapping terms in this LocationIQ comparison, defined
The vocabulary behind tiles, geocoding, and API pricing, in plain language.

### What is Vector tile?
A vector tile is a compressed binary chunk of map geometry (roads, buildings, labels) that the browser styles and renders at runtime, instead of downloading a pre-drawn image. Vector tiles let one dataset power unlimited visual styles and stay sharp at every zoom level.

### What is Basemap?
A basemap is the background map layer (roads, water, landuse, place labels) that your own data is drawn on top of. maps.guru serves basemaps as MapLibre-compatible vector tiles.

### What is Map style?
A map style is a JSON document that tells a renderer which colours, fonts, widths, and zoom rules to apply to each layer of a vector tile. maps.guru styles follow the MapLibre Style Specification, so they work in any MapLibre or Mapbox GL JS compatible renderer.

### What is Geocoding?
Geocoding is the process of converting a text address or place name into latitude and longitude coordinates. Reverse geocoding does the opposite: it converts coordinates into the nearest human-readable address.

### What is PMTiles?
PMTiles is a single-file archive format for map tiles that supports HTTP range requests, so a tile server can read one tile out of a multi-gigabyte archive without unpacking it. maps.guru stores its tile archives as PMTiles on Cloudflare R2.

### What is MapLibre GL JS?
MapLibre GL JS is an open-source WebGL map renderer, forked from Mapbox GL JS v1 after that project moved to a proprietary licence. It is the reference renderer for maps.guru styles and carries no per-render licence fee.

### What is Tile request?
A tile request is one HTTP fetch of a single map tile. A typical desktop map view loads roughly 10 to 20 tiles, and panning or zooming loads more, which is why tile quotas are counted in tens of thousands rather than page views.

### What is Static map?
A static map is a server-rendered PNG or JPEG image of a map at a fixed centre, zoom, and size. Static maps are used where an interactive map cannot run: email, PDF exports, Open Graph share cards, and AI chat replies.

## Sources

- LocationIQ Pricing — LocationIQ

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