What is HERE Location Services?

Short answer: A set of REST APIs and SDKs for geocoding, routing, map rendering, positioning, and fleet optimization. Not one API — roughly two dozen, priced separately, with meaningfully different maturity levels.

The longer version

Most teams arrive for one of two reasons: they need truck routing that respects physical vehicle constraints, or their Google Maps bill grew faster than their revenue. Both are good reasons. Neither is a reason to migrate everything. Grouped by what you’d build with them:

Family	APIs
Routing	Routing v8, Matrix Routing v8, Isoline Routing v8, Route Matching v8, Tour Planning v3
Search	Geocoding & Search v7 (`/geocode`, `/revgeocode`, `/autocomplete`, `/autosuggest`, `/discover`, `/browse`, `/lookup`), Batch API v7
Rendering	Raster Tile v3, HERE Maps API for JavaScript, HERE SDK (iOS/Android)
Data	Traffic v7, EV Charge Points v3, Positioning

Every API is a separate meter. There is no bundle. Routing, geocoding, and tiles are three different bills. Free bundles are per-API and do not pool.

What actually differentiates it

Price is why teams start evaluating HERE. Routing correctness is why they stay. HERE Routing v8 accepts vehicle height, width, length, gross weight, current weight, weight per axle, weight per axle group (single, tandem, triple, quad, quint), axle count, trailer count, ADR tunnel category, eleven hazardous cargo types, and KPRA length. Google Maps Platform does not expose these, and it does not expose the underlying road attributes either — so you cannot implement them yourself. It also has Route Matching, which turns a GPS trace into the road segments actually driven, with a MapVersion in the response. That is what IFTA jurisdiction miles and defensible speed compliance require.

Common misconceptions

“HERE Maps and HERE Location Services are the same thing.” No. HERE Maps is the consumer product. Location Services is the developer platform. Only the latter is licensable. “It’s a cheaper Google Maps.” For business POIs, hours, reviews, and photos, Google’s data is categorically better. Placematic sells HERE. We’d rather you know now. “transportMode=truck gives me truck routing.” It selects the engine. It does not describe your vehicle. Omit the dimensions and HERE routes an unconstrained vehicle, returns 200, and does not warn you. “Tour Planning is enterprise-tier.” HERE documents it as included in the Base Plan. Confirm your own entitlement — Base Plan inclusion and your contract’s inclusion are separate facts. “Matrix has a single size limit.” It doesn’t. Ceilings vary by mode: Flexible caps at 15×100 with live traffic; Region async reaches 10,000×10,000 within a 400 km diameter. Read the spec.

When not to use it

Consumer place discovery. Keep Google.
Under ~10k calls/month. You’re optimizing a rounding error.
Street View. No equivalent exists.
You need the exact Google tile aesthetic. Your designers will notice.