Pelias vs Photon
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted maps & gis options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Pelias | Photon |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 81 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Maps & GIS | Maps & GIS |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Twig | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,592 | ★ 3,068 |
| First released | 2014 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Google Geocoding API, Mapbox Geocoding | Google Geocoding API |
What are Pelias and Photon?
Pelias
Pelias is a modular, open-source geocoder that searches and ranks place names and addresses from multiple data sources. It runs on Elasticsearch and can be fully self-hosted for privacy.
- Multi-source data ingest
- Autocomplete search
- Reverse geocoding
- Elasticsearch backend
Photon
Photon is an open-source geocoder built for OpenStreetMap data that supports search-as-you-type and typo tolerance. Built on Elasticsearch, it returns results in multiple languages.
- Search-as-you-type
- Typo tolerance
- Multilingual results
- Downloadable prebuilt index
Pelias vs Photon: key differences
Pelias is written in Twig, while Photon is built with Java. Licensing differs — MIT for Pelias versus Apache-2.0 for Photon.
Why pick each one
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)
Choose Photon if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Java
Frequently asked questions
Is Pelias or Photon better?
Neither is universally better. Pelias has the larger community, while Photon is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Pelias and Photon free and open-source?
Yes. Pelias is licensed under MIT and Photon under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pelias and Photon with Docker?
Pelias: yes. Photon: yes.