> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.placematic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How hard is it to migrate from Google Maps?

> Varies enormously by surface. Batch geocoding is a sprint. Rendering is a rewrite. Migrate one at a time.

# How hard is it to migrate from Google Maps?

**Short answer:** Depends entirely on which surface. Batch geocoding is often a sprint. Rendering, if you're on the Google Maps JS SDK, is a rewrite of that layer.

Migrate one surface. Stabilize. Then the next.

## By surface, ascending

| Surface                      | Effort      | Why                                                        |
| ---------------------------- | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Batch geocoding**          | Low         | No UI. If it breaks, you fix a nightly job. Largest saving |
| Telematics reverse geocoding | Low         | Backend, high volume, no user-facing risk                  |
| Matrix operations            | Medium      | Flat row-major arrays. Async job lifecycle                 |
| Routing                      | Medium–high | Quality validation required, not just cost                 |
| Autocomplete                 | Medium      | User-facing. Be honest about quality                       |
| Rendering                    | High        | Most visible. Tile aesthetics differ. Migrate last         |
| Mobile SDK                   | High        | Separate entitlement. Binary size. Offline strategy        |

<Warning>
  **Never migrate two surfaces simultaneously.** Two independent changes, one production incident, ambiguous root cause. You will spend more on the investigation than you saved that month.
</Warning>

## But optimize first

<Warning>
  Migrating an uncached, undebounced implementation to a cheaper provider **moves the waste to a cheaper meter.** You will save money and still be wrong.
</Warning>

Cache geocoding. Batch what tolerates latency. Debounce autocomplete. Deduplicate. Stop reverse-geocoding every GPS ping. CDN in front of tiles.

Re-measure. A meaningful share of teams find the bill halves without a vendor change. **What remains is your real migration case.**

## The mechanical differences that bite

**Coordinate order.** HERE Routing takes `lat,lng`. GeoJSON is `lng,lat`. Once, at 2am.

**Country codes.** Google uses ISO alpha-2 (`US`). HERE uses alpha-3 (`USA`). A naive port silently filters to nothing.

**`200` is not success.** HERE returns HTTP `200` with an empty `routes` array and a `notice` when no path exists.

**`403` ≠ `401`.** Valid key, missing entitlement. Never retry.

**Matrix results are flat, row-major.** Index wrong and you get a silently transposed matrix — plausible times, wrong assignments, nothing throws.

**Batch is a job lifecycle**, not a bulk endpoint.

**Confidence scores are not comparable.** `queryScore: 0.9` does not mean what `partial_match: false` means. Recalibrate against your own ground truth. **Do not port the threshold.**

## The hidden cost

**Migration engineering time is a real line item.**

If the payback period exceeds eighteen months, the savings argument is weaker than the headline number. **Say so before your CFO does.** It costs you one migration and buys credibility for the ones worth doing.

## Common misconceptions

**"It's a config change."**
`google.maps.*` in your React components is not a config change.

**"We should migrate everything."**
Usually not. Routing and batch geocoding to HERE, consumer place search stays on Google, is a common and sensible endpoint.

**"The response schemas are similar."**
They're mechanically different throughout. Not hard work. Not zero.

**"Tile styling is cosmetic."**
It is, until the product review. Show design the maps before you commit.

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Google Migration Architecture" href="/architecture/google-migration-architecture">
    Dual-running, shadow comparison, rollback.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Migrating from Google Maps" href="/guides/google-migration">
    Endpoint mapping and sequencing.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Migrating One Endpoint" href="/examples/google-migration">
    A real geocoding migration, request by request.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Reducing Google Maps Costs" href="/use-cases/reducing-google-maps-costs">
    Optimize first. You may not need to migrate.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

Need production HERE API keys or implementation support? Placematic is an official HERE Technologies reseller and implementation partner. [Talk to us](https://placematic.com/contact/).