Best Self Hosted Alternatives to NextBillion.ai Directions API

openrouteservice is an open-source routing platform that exposes a REST API for directions, isochrones, matrix calculations, geocoding and related geospatial services. It consumes OpenStreetMap data and runs a Java-based routing engine (forked from GraphHopper) with multiple client SDKs and web map frontends.

Key Features

• Multi-modal directions API supporting driving, trucking, cycling, walking, hiking and wheelchair profiles with route restrictions and vehicle-dimension options
• Isochrones endpoint to compute time/distance-based reachable areas for accessibility and service-area analysis
• Matrix endpoint for many-to-many travel time and distance calculations optimized for logistics and analysis
• Geocoding built on the Pelias stack, plus Points-of-Interest and elevation enrichment services
• Optimization endpoint for vehicle routing problems (based on VROOM) including constraints and time windows
• Snap/match endpoint to snap coordinates to the road network and map-match traces
• Interactive API playground and client SDKs (Python, JavaScript, R) and ready-to-use web map clients for demos and integration
• Dockerized deployment, Maven build, and configurable profiles; supports running as a JAR or via container orchestration

Use Cases

• Logistics and fleet planning: compute optimized delivery routes, distance/time matrices and vehicle routing with constraints
• Urban planning and accessibility: generate isochrones and reachability analyses for healthcare, transit and walkability studies
• Disaster response and humanitarian mapping: fast rerouting and map-based tools for responders in changing environments

Limitations and Considerations

• Building routing graphs from large OSM extracts requires substantial memory and compute; very large planet/region datasets can need tens to hundreds of GB of RAM during preprocessing
• Some operational endpoints (health/status) and certain export capabilities are available only when running a self-hosted instance rather than the public hosted API
• The routing backend uses a custom graph format (derived from GraphHopper); the graph is not a direct PostGIS/SQL store and is not intended as a general-purpose spatial database

openrouteservice is a comprehensive, open-source option for integrating routing, reachability and routing-optimization capabilities into applications. It is suitable for research, production deployments and community-driven mapping projects, with ready SDKs and containerized deployment options.