openrouteservice vs OSRM
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted maps & gis options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | openrouteservice | OSRM |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Java | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 8,192 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,975 | ★ 8,099 |
| First released | 2017 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Google Directions API | Google Directions API |
What are openrouteservice and OSRM?
openrouteservice
openrouteservice provides routing, isochrones, distance matrices, and more as a self-hostable API. It supports many travel modes and is built on the GraphHopper engine with OpenStreetMap data.
- Routing and isochrones
- Distance matrices
- Many travel profiles
- Self-hostable API
OSRM
OSRM, the Open Source Routing Machine, is a fast routing engine for shortest paths in road networks using OpenStreetMap data. It computes routes, travel times, and distance matrices in milliseconds.
- Millisecond routing
- Distance matrices
- Map matching
- Customizable profiles
openrouteservice vs OSRM: key differences
Openrouteservice is written in Java, while OSRM is built with C++. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for openrouteservice versus BSD-2-Clause for OSRM. OSRM is the more established project (first released 2012), while openrouteservice arrived in 2017. OSRM has the considerably larger community, at 8,099 GitHub stars versus 1,975.
Why pick each one
Choose openrouteservice if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Java
Choose OSRM if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8.1k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is openrouteservice 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 openrouteservice and OSRM free and open-source?
Yes. openrouteservice is licensed under GPL-3.0 and OSRM under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run openrouteservice and OSRM with Docker?
openrouteservice: yes. OSRM: yes.