Logistics Route Optimization: Guide in 2025
April 29, 2025
- BLOG
The Ultimate Guide to Routing APIs
Published: August 22, 2025
Table of Contents
In today’s hyper-connected world, Routing APIs are powering everything from ridesharing apps to international supply chain operations. These APIs handle route calculation, travel time prediction, traffic avoidance, and waypoint optimization that are all essential for modern mobility solutions. Choosing the right routing API is critical for any application that needs to calculate directions, optimize journeys, or manage logistics.
Developers have multiple choices including the Google Routes API, HERE Routing API, and MapQuest API. In this guide, we’ll explore what each API offers, their strengths and limitations, real-world usage examples, pricing considerations, and code examples to help you decide which API fits your needs.
What is a Routing API?
A Routing API is a cloud-based service that calculates the best route between two or more points. It’s not just about finding the shortest distance; it’s about finding the most efficient, context-aware path using real-time traffic data, historical patterns, and constraints.
Core capabilities of a Routing API:
- Route Calculation: Calculates ideal routes between two or more locations. Generates turn-by-turn directions.
- Multiple Transport Modes: Drive, walk, cycle, public transit, trucks, and EVs.
- Traffic Awareness: Incorporates live and predicted traffic conditions.
- Multi-Stop Optimization: Reorders waypoints to reduce travel time.
- Advanced controls: eco-friendly route calculation, toll fee estimates, traffic-aware polylines, and stopover qualifiers.
- Geospatial Data Integration: Works with geocoding to turn addresses into coordinates.
- Search Along Route: find places of interest (restaurants, gas stations) along a journey.
Google Routes API
The Google Routes API is part of the Google Maps Platform and is ideal for developers building applications that need reliable and precise routing capabilities.
Key Features:
- Compute Routes: Calculates optimal routes between two or multiple waypoints, returning ETAs, turn-by-turn directions, and distances. Real-time traffic conditions are factored into the calculations.
- Compute Route Matrix: Provides distances and travel times between multiple origins and destinations, useful for fleet dispatch and delivery management.
- Search Along Route: Finds points of interest (restaurants, gas stations, etc.) along a planned route.
- Advanced Controls: Specify routing preferences (avoid tolls, eco-friendly routes, pass-through waypoints vs. stops) and enable performance optimizations such as gRPC for lower latency.
- Modes Supported: Car, walking, transit, cycling, and two-wheeler motorized vehicles.
- Real-Time Traffic, Tolls, Eco Routing: Includes data about current traffic, toll costs, and optionally eco-friendly alternatives for eligible regions.
Example Request
GET
https://routes.googleapis.com/directions/v2:computeRoutes
?origin=Berlin
&destination=Munich
&travelMode=DRIVE
&trafficModel=best_guess
&key=YOUR_API_KEY
Example Response (Partial)
{
"routes": [
{
"distanceMeters": 584000,
"duration": "PT5H50M",
"polyline": "...",
"legs": [
{
"startLocation": { "latLng": { "latitude": 52.5200, "longitude": 13.4050 } },
"endLocation": { "latLng": { "latitude": 48.1351, "longitude": 11.5820 } }
}
}
}
Best For: Delivery routing, taxi dispatch, travel apps, logistics platforms.
Pricing Highlights
- Pricing is transaction-based; significant increases in free usage require a paid plan.
- Offers more than 28,000 free API calls per month, but much lower than HERE’s freemium tier.
Google Routing API
While often confused with Google Routes API, the Google Routing API focuses more on complex, predictive, and large-scale fleet planning.
Key Features:
- Advanced Traffic Models: Best guess, pessimistic, and optimistic estimates.
- Multi-Segment Routing: Plan routes with multiple connected segments.
- Dynamic Rerouting: Adjust routes based on live conditions.
- Fleet Scheduling: Assign optimal routes to multiple drivers.
Example Use Case
A courier company uses the Google Routing API to:
- Assign 50 packages to 10 drivers.
- Minimize travel time while considering traffic patterns.
- Reassign deliveries mid-route if a driver is delayed.
HERE Routing API
The HERE Routing API is highly popular among logistics and transport companies, especially those with specialized vehicle requirements.
Key Features
- Flexible Route Calculation: Supports turn-by-turn guidance for car, truck, walking, bike, public transit, and electric vehicles.
- Customizable Parameters: Over 100 routing options including avoiding tolls, ferries, and specifying vehicle types/restrictions.
- Fleet and Freight Solutions: Supports logistics, delivery, and exchange portals with historical and real-time traffic data.
- Waypoints: Allows up to 200 waypoints in a single request—ideal for complex delivery routes.
- Updated Maps: Weekly map data updates for improved accuracy.
- Localization: Routing instructions in 108 languages.
Example Request
GET
https://router.hereapi.com/v8/routes
?transportMode=truck
&origin=52.5200,13.4050
&destination=48.1351,11.5820
&truck[height]=4.0
&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY
Best For: Freight and logistics management, smart mobility solutions, urban navigation apps.
Pricing Highlights
- Freemium model: Up to 250,000 API calls per day—far more generous than Google Maps.
- Offers scalable enterprise plans for large operations.
MapQuest API
The MapQuest API is one of the most budget-friendly routing solutions, making it popular for small and medium businesses.
Key Features
- Route: Core function provides routes between multiple points.
- Optimized Route: Rearranges waypoints for shortest or fastest paths.
- Route Matrix: Returns times and distances for multiple location pairs—perfect for delivery and trip planning.
- Alternate Routes & Route Shape: Request multiple route options; visualize routes on maps.
- Multi-modal Support: Pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle routing.
Example Request
GET
http://www.mapquestapi.com/directions/v2/route
?key=YOUR_API_KEY
&from=Berlin
&to=Munich
&routeType=fastest
Best For: Route planning tools, travel websites, educational mapping projects.
Pricing Highlights
- Free plan accessible for small projects.
- Pricing tiers can become complex for high volumes or advanced features.
Real-World Case Studies
Case 1: Google Routes API for Food Delivery
A Berlin-based food delivery app integrated Google Routes API to provide:
- Accurate ETAs to customers.
- Multi-stop optimization for drivers.
- Real-time traffic rerouting during peak hours.
Result: 18% reduction in delivery times and 12% fuel savings.
Case 2: HERE Routing API for Logistics
A European trucking company used HERE Routing API to:
- Avoid roads with low bridges.
- Plan routes with mandatory rest stops.
- Incorporate EV charging into long-haul trips.
Result: 25% fewer delivery delays and improved compliance with EU trucking regulations.
Case 3: MapQuest API for Local Delivery
A small courier in the US used MapQuest API to:
- Batch process multiple delivery addresses.
- Avoid toll roads to reduce costs.
Result: 15% reduction in operational expenses.
A Brief Feature Comparison
The Google Routes API, HERE Routing API, and MapQuest API each offer distinct features catering to various routing and mapping application needs. Google Routes API provides comprehensive traffic data, supports multiple travel modes including driving, walking, biking, transit, and two-wheel motorized vehicles, and offers advanced functionalities such as eco-friendly route suggestions, toll fee information, route optimization, and the ability to search for points of interest along a route. It stands out in traffic awareness, turn-by-turn directions, accurate ETAs, and matrix-based routing for large-scale logistics, but has limitations in heavy truck routing features and offers a restricted free tier.
HERE Routing API is known for its power and flexibility in multi-waypoint routes, especially for vehicles needing truck-specific guidance regarding weights, dimensions, and hazardous cargo. It incorporates rich options for real-time traffic, road closures, truck routing, and environmental policies, making it highly suitable for freight, logistics, and smart mobility solutions. HERE also integrates public transit data and provides route optimization tools, although its customization options may be less flexible than some highly industry-focused alternatives.
MapQuest API, meanwhile, shines with features like draggable routes, a generous free tier, support for planning up to 26 stops, saving and customizing entire journeys, simple interface, and automatic calculations for trip costs and IRS reimbursements. MapQuest is ideal for basic routing, travel planning, and educational mapping projects, but its functionality such as toll and advanced truck routing data or eco-routing are more limited compared to Google and HERE.
In summary, Google Routes API excels in advanced traffic-aware mapping and eco-friendly routing, HERE Routing API leads in trucking and logistics-specific capabilities, and MapQuest API offers user-friendly simplicity and broad access for basic route planning tasks. The choice between them should be based on the complexity of routing needs, integration flexibility, price considerations, and the scale at which you plan to deploy your application.
Key Insights
- Google Routes API: Best for consumer-facing apps needing traffic, POI, and eco-routing features.
- HERE Routing API: Powerful for logistics, enterprise, and complex routing tasks; offers the largest free tier for developers.
- MapQuest Directions API: Great for startups and smaller projects with clear, affordable free/paid tiers; supports versatile routing options.
Choosing the Right Routing API
- For large-scale logistics and deliveries, HERE leads with customizable routes and high-volume free usage.
- For customer apps needing search along route and eco-routing, Google is ideal despite stricter quotas.
- For cost-sensitive startups, MapQuest is an accessible entry point.
Each platform offers robust documentation, SDKs, and community support to aid integration and scaling.
Conclusion
Selecting the optimal routing API for your project requires careful consideration of your application’s requirements, integration capabilities, and budget. The Google Routes API is best suited for businesses prioritizing advanced mapping features such as real-time traffic insights, eco-friendly route calculation, and detailed toll information, making it a strong choice for delivery services, ride-sharing platforms, and travel apps that rely on precise ETAs and multi-modal transit options. Its robust capabilities empower developers to build data-driven, traffic-aware products, although its free tier and certain truck routing features may have constraints.
FAQs
Google Routes API is best for consumer-facing apps needing reliable navigation. Google Routing API is more advanced, supporting predictive and large-scale fleet routing.
Yes, HERE offers truck-specific routing that accounts for restrictions like height, weight, and cargo type.
MapQuest API is generally the most affordable for small businesses.
Only HERE Routing API supports offline routing natively.
