Nominatim vs OSRM
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted maps & gis options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Nominatim
Geocoding and reverse geocoding for OpenStreetMap data
VS
OSRM
High-performance routing engine for OpenStreetMap
| Feature | Nominatim | OSRM |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Python | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 16,384 MB | 8,192 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,406 | ★ 7,955 |
| First released | 2008 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Google Geocoding API | Google Directions API |
Why pick each one
Choose Nominatim if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Choose OSRM if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Nominatim or OSRM better?
Neither is universally better. OSRM has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Nominatim and OSRM free and open-source?
Yes. Nominatim is licensed under GPL-3.0 and OSRM under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Nominatim and OSRM with Docker?
Nominatim: yes. OSRM: yes.