PositionStack API Review

Some businesses and apps require stout and scalable forward and reverse geocoding API. Geocoding is a process where you transform a location’s description – such as an address, name of a place, or a pair of coordinates – to a location on the surface of the earth. The resulting locations can be used for spatial analysis or mapping.

Now geocoding and mapping can be quite a challenge when it comes to app and website development. But when you have the right tools, the geocoding and mapping becomes easier. Here is where PositionStack API comes in.

What is PositionStack API?

The PositionStack geocoding API by apilayer is an application that offers a reliable and free alternative to the affluent Enterprise-grade geocoding software by combining extensive datasets available on the market and a series of innovative technologies making them into a one powerful geocoding API service that has global coverage. PositionStack processes more than a billion geocode lookups in a day and offers a dataset containing more than 2 billion addresses and places worldwide.

PositionStack offers an easy-to-use and affordable API interface for global reverse and forward geocoding in real-time.

Forward geocoding

The process where you search for a plain-text address or name of a place. For example, Old Trafford, Manchester. The API then provides you with all the indispensable information about the place.

Reverse geocoding

The process where you use longitudinal and latitudinal values to search and get information about an exact location in a place.

PositionStack connects businesses and developers to stronger location technologies and mapping. And since it is a scalable geocoding API, any website can benefit from using it – from a simple blog to a major enterprise.

Why use PositionStack API

PositionStack provides a straightforward and affordable REST API interface for global reverse and forward geocoding in real-time. Also, it is highly scalable, providing and handling between millions of requests per hour to thousands of requests per month. It’s multiple and highly reliable sources such as OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Nominatim and Pelias make PositionStack API exceedingly accurate.

Who should use Position API?

One of the hottest online tools is geolocation. Everything is made easy for users because through a little imagination calculating shipping rates to showing correct time is done automatically. A few examples of the uses include:

Developing a sun module
Putting information about a location in a bounding box module
Embeddable maps creating
Using the end-users’ time zone
Using pinpoint locations such as a country

PositionStack API key features

Real-Time geocoding

PositionStack can – either forward or reverse geocoding – geocode any address in the world in real-time, providing all the crucial information around that location like time zone, location components, country and many more.

Worldwide coverage

As earlier mentioned, PositionStack API is based on an extensive set of global geocoding data that is updated multiple times in a day and sourced from high-quality data vendors.

Scalable infrastructure

The cloud infrastructure powering PositionStack API is capable of handling millions to a billions requests of geocoding at once with a response time of 10 to 100 milliseconds. You can get any level of requests you want per day depending on your needs.

Fair pricing

PositionStack allows you to send 25,000 geo-code requests per monthly. In a scenario where you might need more requests, premium geocoding plans and subscriptions start at just $9.99 per month.

Other Position Stack’s API features include:

Batch requests
Multiple languages
Embeddable maps
JSON, XML & GeoJSON
Reverse geocoding
Forward geocoding

How to get started with PositionStack API

Getting started with PositionStack is an easy process. You get started by registering at their official website where a unique API access key is generated for you. You can get the access key from your account’s dashboard. The purpose of the key is to authenticate you while geocoding.

For forward geocoding – processes on plaint text location – you need to use a forward endpoint

And for reverse geocoding, you need to use a reverse endpoint – provide latitude and longitude of the exact location.

Position Stack Pricing

PositionStack provides four pricing plans. They are:

Free plan
Basic plan
Professional plan
Business plan
Enterprise plan

Free plan

The plan is recommended for personal use. It is not charged, and therefore a credit card is not required. Among the features you can access include:

Up to 25,000 requests
Reverse geocoding
Limited support
Forward geocoding
Personal license

Basic plan

The Basic plan is ideal for the basic commercial level and allows up to 100, 000 requests. It is available for $9.99 per month or $7.99 per month if billed yearly. The following are the features you can access on this plan:

Up to 100,000 requests
Multiple languages
Unlimited support
Embeddable maps
Commercial license
JSON, XML & GeoJSON
Forward geocoding
Extended rate limit
Reverse geocoding
HTTPS encryption

Professional plan

The Professional plan – most popular – has extended access limits and up to 1,000,000 monthly flight data requests. It is available for $49.99 per month or $39.99 per month if billed yearly. The following are the features you can access on this plan:

Up to 1,000,000 requests
Batch requests
Unlimited support
Multiple languages
Commercial license
Embeddable maps
Forward geocoding
JSON, XML & GeoJSON
Reverse geocoding
Extended rate limit
HTTPS encryption

Business plan

The Business plan – full suite – has everything we can offer and up to 3,000,000 monthly requests. It is available for $99.99 per month or $79.99 per month if billed yearly. The following are the features you can access on this plan:

Up to 3,000,000 requests
Batch requests
Premium support
Multiple languages
Commercial license
Embeddable maps
Forward geocoding
JSON, XML & Geo JSON
Reverse geocoding
Extended rate limit
HTTPS encryption

Enterprise plan

The Enterprise plan is tailored according to your needs, and therefore the pricing varies from the features you want. You, therefore, contact the customer support for a quote. The following are the features you can access on this plan:

Volume requests
Custom solutions
Dedicated support
Batch request
Commercial license
Multiple languages
Forward geocoding
Embeddable maps
Reverse geocoding
JSON, XML & Geo JSON
HTTPS encryption
Flexible rate limit

Conclusion

Geolocation has been made easy by PositionStack API. If you are a business or a person who needs location data, then this tool is highly functional for you. It integrates easily, and its documentation allows almost everyone to integrate it. Give a trial with its free plan and you will not be disappointed.

FAQs

Can I embed a map on my website?

Yes. You can only embed if your subscription plan supports embeddable maps. You will use a URL named “map_url” that embeds your website using an iFrame.

Which countries does PositionStack support?

The API supports all countries worldwide. The only difference is that some countries have better coverage than the others but the API always gets the exact location of the location you are looking for

Can I pay yearly?

Yes. Payment can be made either monthly or a yearly basis, where the annual basis is 20% lower than the monthly basis. Switching from monthly to yearly billing can be done anytime.

What happens in a scenario I exceed request volume?

First, you will get an automatic email and on the account dashboard you receive notifications of the usage of the requests, that is, 75%, 90% and 100%. You will find that your quota is exceeded a maximum of 20% and then the API is disabled.