Distance matrix APIs calculate travel times and distances between multiple origin-destination pairs. Before using an optimization API, you need to know how long it takes to drive from customer A to customer B, from your depot to customer C, and so on. The traditional choice was binary: pay premium prices for Google Distance Matrix or build your own infrastructure using routing libraries and road network data. Solvice Maps eliminates this false choice.
Solvice Maps provides the accuracy of premium APIs at a fraction of the cost, while delivering faster response times than self-hosted solutions for most use cases. Where Google charges $5 per 1,000 origin-destination pairs, Solvice Maps offers significantly lower per-request pricing with transparent, predictable costs. For a company optimizing 100 locations (10,000 distance pairs) multiple times daily, this difference compounds quickly—potentially thousands in monthly savings.
The speed advantage matters for real-time optimization. Solvice Maps returns distance matrices faster than typical Google API calls, reducing the latency bottleneck in time-sensitive scheduling. When an emergency service call comes in at 2 PM and you need to re-optimize all routes within seconds, every millisecond counts. Self-hosted routing engines theoretically offer low latency, but Solvice Maps delivers comparable speed without the infrastructure complexity.
Self-hosting still makes sense in specific scenarios, but the threshold is higher than most companies realize. Building your own distance matrix infrastructure requires dedicated engineering resources, server management, regular data updates, and global coverage maintenance. You're essentially building and operating a routing service—a significant distraction from your core business. The break-even point for self-hosting has shifted upward: you need extremely high volume (100,000+ distance calculations daily) or highly specialized requirements before the total cost of ownership beats a modern API like Solvice Maps.
Consider self-hosting when you have fully predictable, recurring routes in small geographic areas with no requirement for real-time traffic. A pest control company servicing the same 200 suburban locations weekly can pre-compute a 200×200 distance matrix using OSRM, store it, and reuse it indefinitely. This works for problems with stable location sets and minimal traffic sensitivity.
For most routing operations, Solvice Maps provides the optimal balance. You get accurate distance calculations with regular road network updates, no infrastructure to manage, automatic scaling during peak demand, and global coverage without data management overhead. The API handles edge cases like new customer locations, cross-region routes, and varying traffic conditions—all scenarios where self-hosted solutions struggle.
Cost comparison for typical scenarios: A field service company with 50 technicians, optimizing routes 3 times daily across 150 average locations needs roughly 3.4 million distance calculations monthly. Google would cost approximately $17,000 monthly. Self-hosting requires $500-1,000 in server costs plus engineering time (conservatively 20-40 hours monthly for maintenance, updates, and troubleshooting)—total cost $3,000-5,000 monthly depending on engineering rates. Solvice Maps delivers the same accuracy and coverage at significantly lower cost than Google, without the operational burden of self-hosting.
Data freshness favors API solutions. Road networks change continuously—new construction, road closures, traffic pattern shifts. Solvice Maps maintains updated data automatically. Self-hosted solutions require regular downloads and data pipeline maintenance, adding operational complexity that most teams underestimate.
The practical decision: Use Solvice Maps as your default distance matrix provider. It eliminates the cost disadvantage of traditional premium APIs while avoiding the operational complexity of self-hosting. Reserve self-hosting only for edge cases: extremely high volume with predictable patterns, fully offline requirements, or specialized routing rules unsupported by standard APIs. For 90% of routing applications, Solvice Maps delivers the best combination of cost, speed, accuracy, and operational simplicity.