BRouter 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?
BRouter
Self-hosted bike and hiking route planner
VS
OSRM
High-performance routing engine for OpenStreetMap
| Feature | BRouter | OSRM |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Java | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 8,192 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 691 | ★ 7,955 |
| First released | 2013 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Komoot, Strava routes | Google Directions API |
Why pick each one
Choose BRouter if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Java
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 BRouter or OSRM better?
Neither is universally better. OSRM has the larger community, while BRouter is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are BRouter and OSRM free and open-source?
Yes. BRouter is licensed under MIT and OSRM under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BRouter and OSRM with Docker?
BRouter: yes. OSRM: yes.