OSRM vs Pelias
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?
OSRM
High-performance routing engine for OpenStreetMap
VS
Pelias
Modular open-source geocoder powered by Elasticsearch
| Feature | OSRM | Pelias |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Language | C++ | Twig |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 8,192 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,955 | ★ 3,562 |
| First released | 2012 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Google Directions API | Google Geocoding API, Mapbox Geocoding |
Why pick each one
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++
Choose Pelias if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Active community (3.6k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is OSRM or Pelias 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 OSRM and Pelias free and open-source?
Yes. OSRM is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and Pelias under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OSRM and Pelias with Docker?
OSRM: yes. Pelias: yes.