Addrova

How to choose a geocoding API: a checklist of ten questions

Feature lists look alike. The differences that cost you money or a compliance review later are rarely on the landing page. These ten questions work for any provider, Addrova included, and each one says where to find the answer.

The ten questions

  1. What is the data source? An official register, a crowd-sourced map, or a licensed commercial base? The source decides coverage and the licence you inherit.
  2. May you store the results? Permanently, or only for a short time? Many providers forbid keeping results beyond a cache window. Read the terms, not the marketing. See Can you store geocoding results?.
  3. What does the licence ask you to show? Attribution text, a logo, a share-alike obligation? See open address data licences.
  4. Where is the data processed? And by which sub-processors? Ask for the list and for a data processing agreement. See GDPR and geocoding.
  5. What does the provider log? Whether addresses end up in logs is a yes-or-no question. For Addrova, each claim is numbered and tied to an automated test: see compliance.
  6. Is there evidence of accuracy, with its limits? A provider that quotes one number without a method, a date and a test set tells you little. Ask for the protocol, the sample and the known weaknesses. Ours is on the benchmark page.
  7. Does the result tell you how much to trust it? A precision level and a confidence you can threshold, not just a point. See precision levels and confidence thresholds.
  8. How is it priced when you grow? Free tier limits, what happens past the cap, and whether reverse, batch and repair cost the same. See pricing and the cost of the Google API.
  9. How hard is it to leave? A compatible request format and stored results with their licence make switching a base-URL change. See Google compatibility and Nominatim compatibility.
  10. Does it cover your countries, today? Not "planned". Check live coverage, not a roadmap: coverage.

Check coverage yourself

Ask the provider's API instead of reading a map. For Addrova, the public /coverage endpoint answers without a key:

curl -s https://api.addrova.eu/coverage

The base URL https://api.addrova.eu is not live yet. [À VÉRIFIER : service ouvert, URL de base définitive.]

What not to conclude from this list

No checklist picks the winner. Free public services such as the national address registers can be the right answer for a single country and a modest volume; see BAN or a commercial geocoding API?. Addrova is pre-launch and covers one country first, so check coverage before you plan around it. The alternatives pages compare providers plainly, with sources and dates.