openrouteservice is a Java-based routing backend for building route planning and spatial analysis services from OpenStreetMap data.
It is designed for self-hosting and provides an API that can be used in custom applications, internal services, and research workflows that need route calculation, reachability analysis, and transport-aware spatial processing.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Provides dedicated API endpoints for directions, isochrones, matrix calculations, snapping, and graph export.
- Supports self-hosting, with Docker recommended as the simplest deployment method.
- Can be used for route planning and accessibility analysis across multiple transport profiles, including car, heavy vehicle, cycling, walking, hiking, and wheelchair scenarios.
- Includes health and status endpoints for locally hosted instances.
- Uses OpenStreetMap data as the foundation for its routing and spatial services.
Website: openrouteservice.org
Support:
Developer: GIScience Research Group and HeiGIT
License: GNU General Public License v3.0 and GNU Lesser General Public License v3.0
openrouteservice is written in Java. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Travel Planners | |
|---|---|
| TRIP | Self-hosted travel planner with maps, POIs and itineraries |
| AdventureLog | Self-hostable travel tracker and trip planner |
| OpenTripPlanner | Multi-modal trip planner |
| KDE Itinerary | Digital travel assistant |
| GraphHopper | Fast, memory-efficient routing engine |
| Openrouteservice | Build route planning and spatial analysis services |
| KTrip | Public transport navigator |
| Railway | Look up travel information |
| JourniPlan | Travel planner with activities and micro-journaling |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category.The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form. |
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.