What should I use for nearby POI search in a retail app?

For a retail app, the best choice for nearby POI search depends on what you need most: coverage, freshness, ranking quality, cost, or ease of integration.

Good options by use case

1) Google Places API

Best if you want:

• Very broad POI coverage
• Strong search relevance
• Easy integration
• Reliable data for stores, malls, restaurants, etc.

Tradeoffs:

• Can get expensive at scale
• Usage quotas and billing complexity
• Data/control limitations

2) Mapbox Search / POI

Best if you want:

• Good developer experience
• Flexible map + search stack
• Often a cleaner fit if you already use Mapbox maps

Tradeoffs:

• POI coverage may be weaker than Google in some regions
• Search quality varies by geography

3) Foursquare Places

Best if you want:

• Strong POI/category data
• Retail and venue-focused use cases
• Better control over place categories and filtering

Tradeoffs:

• Coverage still varies by area
• Not as universally familiar as Google

4) HERE / TomTom Search APIs

Best if you want:

• Enterprise-grade location services
• Strong global map/search infrastructure
• Potentially better pricing or licensing fit for some companies

Tradeoffs:

• Developer experience can be less convenient than Google/Mapbox
• POI richness depends on region

5) OpenStreetMap + your own search layer

Best if you want:

• Lower cost
• More control
• Ability to customize ranking/filtering heavily

Tradeoffs:

• You’ll need to handle indexing, relevance, deduping, and updates
• POI quality/coverage can be inconsistent
• More engineering effort

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My practical recommendation for a retail app

If you want the safest default:

Use Google Places API

• Best general-purpose POI search
• Good for “stores near me,” “malls nearby,” “open now,” etc.
• Fastest way to get good results

If you need better control and cost efficiency at scale:

Use a hybrid approach

• Primary POI provider: Foursquare or Google
• Your own data layer: your store locations, partners, sponsored listings
• Geo filtering + ranking: based on distance, popularity, open status, category, and business rules

If the app is mostly about your own retail locations:

You may not need a third-party POI provider at all.

• Store your locations in your own database
• Use geospatial indexing (e.g. PostGIS, Elasticsearch, MongoDB geospatial)
• Add third-party POIs only for “nearby complementary places” like parking, transit, restaurants, or competitor context

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What matters most for retail apps

For a retail experience, POI search should support:

• Distance
• Open now
• Category filtering (fashion, pharmacy, grocery, etc.)
• Brand/store names
• Rich metadata (hours, phone, reviews, photos if needed)
• Personalization if you have user context

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Quick recommendation matrix

• Fastest high-quality launch: Google Places
• Best for retail/category-heavy search: Foursquare
• Best if already on Mapbox: Mapbox Search
• Best for custom/low-cost control: OSM + your own search stack
• Best for your own store network: your own geospatial DB

If you tell me:

1. your target countries,
2. expected query volume, and
3. whether you need only your stores or third-party POIs too,

I can recommend the best exact stack.