Meeting your location API and base map needs is a journey. The path is mainly divided into popular, costly options (Google Maps, Mapbox) and more cost-effective, emerging alternatives.
Among these alternatives, Radar has emerged as a leader in the space. Compelling factors like ease of integration, accuracy and reliability, and robust privacy features make them a popular choice, particularly among developers.
But there’s more to their platform than that. Radar has the cost efficiency businesses today are pushing for, with the capabilities dev teams need. With rising costs and usage restrictions, some might have an eyebrow raised at this best-of-both-worlds option. So let’s explore the platform a bit more to see how it works.
APIs galore
When Radar says their Maps Platform has a complete set of APIs, they mean it. They’ve got geocoding APIs, search APIs, routing APIs—you name it.
The geocoding API is particularly helpful because it helps businesses validate addresses, conduct location-based searches, and trigger proximity-based notifications. And Radar offers the three most common types of geocoding: forward, reverse, and IP.
The search APIs then allow developers to set the rules for applications across a range of use cases, using various filters and proximity-based parameters to do things like autocomplete and places search. So, the use cases? Seemingly endless.
Hyper-customizable geofences
This ain’t your average circular geofence. Radar uses precise shapes like polygons for accurate boundaries around the complex area, plus advanced triggers like “dwell time” that show how long someone stays within a geofence.
There are also chained geofences that trigger different actions based on the sequences of geofences, as well as time-based geofences that activate during specific times. If this sounds like a superpower, it is—Radar has best-in-class accuracy down to just 5 meters.
But the best part? You can easily create and manage thousands of geofences through Radar’s dashboard, API, CSV import, or nightly sync.
Privacy compliant
Radar doesn’t mess around when it comes to compliance or privacy. It’s GDPR- and CCPA-compliant and has customizable tracking options that help you retain control of your location data. A few other security highlights:
- They’re SOC 2 type II-certified.
- There’s encryption at rest and in transit.
- They’re GLI-audited.
- The platform has audit logs + role-based access controls.
In Radar’s case, strong compliance also means strong fraud detection. They allow you to detect location spoofing, proxy and VPN usage, device tampering, and much more. Plus, accurate jurisdictional polygons detect device country and state for geolocation compliance.
A developer’s dream
Makes sense why technical teams love Radar, right? All those capabilities come at a price tag that’s 50%–90% less than Google Maps and Mapbox (and it’s enterprise-ready).
Radar is free for up to 100k requests per month, and they offer volume discounts after that. One customer, Bojangles, cut their maps bill by 60% when they switched over. Radar’s open-source SKDs and flexible APIs process over 100 billion API calls per year from over 100 million devices with 99.99% uptime.
Experience these capabilities for yourself. Take a demo of Radar, or jump right in and get started for free.