Google Routes API Alternatives: Route Optimization APIs For 2024

Key takeaways

• Google Routes API is a well-established and popular Route Optimization API, but it doesn’t meet every business's needs.
• When the quality of route optimization is most important, and your need goes beyond simple routing questions, Solvice beats Google Routes API. It's also developer-friendly and has great customer support.
• Routific offers a great end-to-end routing solution but lacks the more advanced features needed by field service businesses.
• NextBillion has an extensive suite of location-based solutions, but Solvice typically delivers 20% better route optimization solutions.
• GraphHopper is the original route optimization API and Google Routes API alternative but lacks advanced features like job relations.

Google Routes API, with its extensive user base, is one of the pioneering tools in route planning and optimization. Its wide range of associated products allows for easy customization to cater to diverse needs, from last-mile delivery businesses to field sales and service.

In this article, we’ll talk about the major strengths and weaknesses of Google Routes API, and how it stacks up against its competitors. Then, we’ll look at the best Google Routes API alternatives for different business needs.

Choosing route optimization algorithms can be difficult because everybody promises the same things: streamlined operations, lower costs, less drive time, and so on. Everybody has fast route optimization capabilities. But it's surprisingly hard to find concrete information when digging beneath the surface. Each Route Optimization API app is different under the hood, they have different pricing models, and they meet different business needs. 

To add to the confusion, software review sites tend to group last-mile delivery management, e-commerce shipping, third-party logistics (3PL), and field services all into the same category. That makes it hard to filter out what’s actually relevant.

It's important to note that Google Routes API is primarily designed for mapping and driving instructions, with a secondary focus on optimizing delivery and service routes. Our discussion will revolve around these aspects, while long-distance shipping, 3PL operations, and fleet management will be beyond the scope of this article.

We’ll cut through the confusion, based on information from these different sources:

• The different API suppliers’ company websites
• Published reviews on software recommendation sites like Capterra and G2. 
• Our own tests of Google Routes API alternatives. 
• Information we’ve gained from working with customers.

Google Routes API’s main strengths and weaknesses

Google Routes API Strengths

#Google Routes API’s major strength is its flexibility. Customers can mix and match APIs to create a software solution that suits their needs. For example, you can combine APIs for:

• Geocoding
• Places
• Maps
• Directions

Although its website has a techie Google look, some users report that Google Routes API’s interface is relatively simple and friendly—especially if you’ve never used route planning APIs before.

There are also several options for feeding the API with data: Google Routes API offers the usual form-based user interface for experimentation and the possibility to send data through an HTTP POST request or gRPC.

Computing a route matrix is another possibility. Given a list of origins and destinations, the method calculates the distance and duration of a route starting at each origin and ending at each destination.

What users say about Google Routes API:

“I like how concise it is and how it gives me different routes to the same location.. — G2 verified user in accounting, SMB.”

Google Routes API Weaknesses

Google Routes API users report mapping issues, inaccurate geolocation, and connection issues, which is surprising considering that Google Maps is generally considered to be of the highest quality in the market.

Google Routes API is expensive, and pricing is complex. Google Maps APIs are priced on a ”pay-per-use” basis based on the number of “requests” made using the different APIs and SDKs. Although there is a free tier, the cost rises quickly once you use the API at full power (check out detailed pricing here). To help you find the right price, it is recommended that you engage a specialized location intelligence and certified Google Maps reseller like Localyse.

Finally, Google Routes API’s actual route optimization is limited. The maximum allowed number of intermediate waypoints per routes request is 25, which limits the use of the Google Maps platform for this use case to a limited number of small customers.

There are other problems with Google Routes API’s route optimization:

• Customization options are limited compared to competitors, which might be a dealbreaker depending on your specific needs.
• It's not open-source, so you’re bound to use what Google offers, and adjusting it to your peculiar needs might require workarounds or be impossible.
• After Google’s infamous spike in pricing back in 2018, many businesses are cautious of heavily relying on Google Maps services and potentially subjecting themselves to a sudden increase in overall usage costs.

Google Routes API pricing

Google requires a credit card on file to start using its platform. It provides up to $200 per month credit. For example, any API usage that stays below $200 in value is free. Google Maps APIs are priced on a ”pay-per-use” basis, based on the number of “requests” made using the different APIs and SDKs.

How the Routes API is billed

The Routes API uses a pay-as-you-go pricing model. The Google Maps Platform APIs and SDKs are billed by SKU. Usage is tracked for each SKU, and any API or SDK may have more than one product SKU.

Cost is calculated by SKU usage × Price per use

Pricing for the Routes API

Compute Routes and Compute Route Matrix each have three SKUs that determine the cost of a request. The SKU used to determine the cost is based on the service you request, Compute Routes or Compute Route Matrix, and the features that you use in the request.

For example:

• A request to Compute Routes is billed as a single QUERY.
• A request to Compute Route Matrix is billed per ELEMENT of the request, where the number of elements is equal to the number of origins multiplied by the number of destinations. If a request contains two origins and three destinations, then the single request is billed for six elements.
• A request that uses only basic features and fewer than 11 intermediate waypoints is charged based on the Basic SKU.
• A request that uses an advanced feature, such as the TRAFFIC_AWARE or TRAFFIC_AWARE_OPTIMAL route modifiers, is charged based on the Advanced SKU.
• A request that uses a preferred feature, such as two-wheel routing, is charged based on the Preferred SKU.

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Top Google Routes API alternatives

Solvice: For the best route optimization in Field Services

Designed for sophisticated scheduling questions

Solvice is designed specifically for all businesses with a deskless workforce delivering goods or services or for software vendors building solutions for this market. Field Service is notoriously the most complex part of the supply chain, and more efficient routing can have a massive impact on profitability.

Based on our testing, we’re confident that Solvice offers much more sophisticated route optimization than Google Routes API.

In particular:

• Solvice can generate suggestions in real-time, allowing for flexibility in changing conditions or when new orders need to be added to a schedule
• Unlike Google Routes API, Solvice gives you a choice of what to prioritize during route optimization. Do you want to use the minimum number of vehicles, balance workloads across a number of drivers, minimize the number of visits per vehicle, or choose the shortest overall distance? Any of these options and many more are possible.
• Combine different orders to streamline more sophisticated operations. Think of people with different skills that need to complete a job together, or complex tasks that require one skill after another to be performed. Similarly, pickup-and-delivery orders can be optimized.
• Our routes are clean and untangled. There is less crisscrossing, which annoys drivers and undermines their faith in a route management solution.

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💡 Want to see for yourself? Check out our 30-day free trial, or contact our onboarding team for an introduction to our more advanced features.

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Other advantages of using Solvice

1. We are focused only on delivering results through an API. We are fully stateless and offer an easy-to-use API.
2. Our customer service is superb, and our customer support team features developers who actually work on our algorithms and APIs daily.
3. Our pricing structure is simple and flexible. Most of our features, including full route optimization, are available on our lowest price tier. We price per monthly active resource (vehicle/driver) and you can change at will, so you don’t pay for vehicles you don’t use.

Solvice customer reviews

Implementing Solvice into our systems was seamless. Their APIs meshed well with our existing framework, significantly boosting our efficiency and scheduling capabilities. The results were almost immediate – we observed a marked improvement in our route planning and resource scheduling, with decisions being made more quickly and accurately than ever before. Mark G., Product Manager

The implementation of the Route Optimization API, led by our in-house IT team, was seamless, taking about a month to integrate the API to then build a user-friendly interface. Ole-André R., CTO

Solvice Pricing

Solvice pricing is very straightforward. It is based on the number of resources (vehicles or people) that are actually scheduled over the course of one month.

• Starts at € 14 per resource per month, with a minimum of 10 resources
• € 28 per resource per month for real-time scheduling
• Prices go down for larger volumes, and as of 500 resources, custom pricing is agreed upon

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Routific: End-to-end routing solution for your basic delivery business

The Routific engine Route optimization API has been developed for last-mile logistics and couriers, focussing on accurate ETAs. The API is designed to fit any business and sports a reliable and scalable architecture

If your delivery business and route optimization needs are simple, Routific does those basics well. It’s easy to set up and manage and has an equally user-friendly driver app.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop reordering of stops
• One-click dispatch to drivers
• Automated customer notifications
• Flexible driver break scheduling
• Reassigning of stops among drivers
• ML-based ETAs

Routific Strengths

Routific is a well-respected player in the market, with over a decade of development behind its route optimization algorithm. Customers appreciate the platform’s efficiency, ease of understanding and use, automated notifications, and extensive reporting features.

Capterra Reviews

Customer support was fast, clear and helpful as I was testing and then implementing. And it turned out our volunteers love the app and having the route dispatched to their phone.

You don't have to create accounts for them or share passwords or anything like that. The driver app is also attractive with a clean and intuitive UI.

Routific Weaknesses

The absence of truck routing and real-time traffic data is considered a disadvantage. Some users mention occasional technical glitches and bugs, which may be a turn-off for you. Also, not being able to force certain stops to start first, think of starting downtown deliveries first to avoid bad afternoon traffic.

Feature-wise, customer complaints would be regarding customer notifications--you can only choose SMS or email.

Routific Pricing

Routific offers flexible pricing plans that scale with customer needs. The “Essential” package, which does not include these features, starts at $49 per vehicle per month.

Not included

• Live GPS + progress tracking to see what’s going on in real-time
• API integrations to integrate systems and automate workflows

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NextBillion: Route Optimization as part of a location technology toolkit

NextBillion.ai is on a mission to make location technology work for businesses of all sizes and industries. They offer to build tailored enterprise-grade solutions that meet business needs and solve business-specific use cases. They provide a location technology toolkit to build systems that keep vehicles, people, or goods moving.

They offer, among other APIs, a quality route optimization API that is specifically built for specialty logistics and generates routes for delivery and service routes.

Key Features

• Geocoding
• Geofencing
• Location Tracking
• Data Visualization
• Predictive Analytics

NextBillion Strengths

NextBillion.ai offers a modern solution designed for businesses of all sizes. AI-powered map APIs and SDKs incorporate all operational and business variables to generate precise ETAs and routes.

Developers can easily integrate this into their applications using industry-standard protocols.

What customers say about NextBillion:

Great Route Optimization solutions with flexible options and good support from NB team. Nitin R. on G2

Nexbillion is an affordable API first route optimization platform. Morne V. on G2

NextBillion Weaknesses

In terms of quality of route optimization, real-live testing has shown that the Solvice route optimization API delivers 20% better solutions than the NextBillion API.

Users report that the travel mode options are limited in terms of types of vehicles in some markets. https://www.capterra.com/p/235173/nextbillion-ai/reviews/3652133/

NextBillion Pricing

Nextbillion pricing is determined by specialists who choose the optimal plan for your business.

Their pricing plans are linked to business needs, each with features suited to different use cases. Within each plan, products are priced based on usage. Usage determines your cost, calculated based on a per-order, per-asset, or per-API call basis.

Prices start at $ 100 per month, and a free trial is available upon request.

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GraphHopper: Open Source Route Optimization

GraphHopper is an independent software provider of its open-source projects and the GraphHopper Directions API. They help small app companies to large companies in the logistics industry solve some difficult routing problems with optimization technology.

With the GraphHopper Directions API and the Routing and Navigation product being their number one product, Route Optimization is their call to solving the traveling salesman problem. Their solution best fits use cases in logistics and navigation for automotive, tourism, and food delivery.

Key Features

• Vehicle routing profiles from scooters to trucks
• Multiple objective functions
• Global data coverage
• Elevation, road class, and surface data

GraphHopper Strengths

GraphHopper is a routing API provider without an end-user application. However, its APIs can be used to create branded applications with route planning, navigation, and traffic-aware route optimization capabilities. GraphHopper’s routing performance is generally quite competent. Like Solvice, its platform is based on OpenStreetMap data, so it has good global coverage for high-quality location data. 

GraphHopper Weaknesses

Customers have remarked, though, that GraphHopper’s reverse geocoding feature is not as straightforward as it could be.

GraphHopper Pricing

GraphHopper works with credits that can be spent on all Directions API products. For example, if you buy a Standard subscription, you will receive 15 000 credits per day. These credits can be used for the Routing API, Route Optimization API, and all other APIs. Each request to a service costs credits.

For € 160 per month, you get 15 000 credits per day, for a maximum of 10 vehicles per request and a maximum of 80 locations per request.

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