I keep working on Routing24 https://routing24.com, a free route optimization tool for businesses.
It's been approx. an year since we are up and running, and we helped 100+ businesses in the US and world-wide to understand the value and savings of automated route planning, and prepared tens thousands of optimized routes for companies operating from 1 to 50 vehicles. All this keeping our operational expenses low and flat, thanks to our local-first route optimization engine working in the browser, and reliance on OpenStreetMap.
Looks like a fantastic service. Given your product/pricing structure, I would imagine that route planning is now achievable for a whole range of services that would never have been able to use it (like local paper deliveries, small shops etc). Congrats on the launch.
Photon is solid - but it comes with a very different operational profile than what I am aiming for.
Photon is built on Elasticsearch (Java) - so it tends to mean a heavier index + higher RAM/CPU expectations and more moving parts. That's fine on a beefy server, but it is a rough fit for the "drop-in appliance on small edge/on-prem boxes (amd64/arm64) + simple ops" goal.
Corviont's geocoder is intentionally "boring": a single SQLite file + an HTTP service, built from Nominatim-derived data. Fast startup, low RAM, easy to ship per-region, and it stays consistent with the rest of the stack.
That said - if there is demand for a "server-grade geocoder option" for people already comfortable running Elastic, I am not opposed to offering it as an alternative profile. The default is just optimized for constrained edge hardware and minimal moving parts.
No. When I looked at Photon and saw that it involves running Java plus an OpenSearch/Elasticsearch backend on the device, I assumed it would be heavier in terms of memory and moving parts than my setup (single SQLite file + small HTTP API).
Have you (or anyone here) actually run Photon on edge-class hardware? If you have real-world numbers, I'd be interested in seeing them. When I add house-number search, Photon might be an easier route than enhancing my current approach.
> involves running Java plus an OpenSearch/Elasticsearch backend on the device
photon is just a single process and opensearch runs inside it (but you can run photon and opensearch separately). Saying "Java" means more memory is in general wrong as the underlying technology Lucene is heavily memory optimized.
I'd say it's pretty usable to run a EU-sized country or several US states on any commodity PC. For embedded devices, it really depends what is the device. On Raspberry PI it should be fine for batch geocoding, realtime (typeahead) will definitely be lagging.
Thanks both - appreciate the clarification and the Spain datapoint.
Those numbers look pretty reasonable. I’ll keep Photon in mind and, as I get time to benchmark different approaches on a few representative regions/hardware, I’ll use the results to decide what the best way forward is - and I’ll publish the numbers when I do.
Even though Algorave is quite new, everyone who ever touched .mod/.s3m/.xm/.it can fell young again haha.
DJ_Dave live events are the best illustration for all of it. If you love electronic music, ever touched any generative art, and know basic coding this is for you.
Routing24 builds and provides professional route optimization tools to SMBs for free.
We are seeking a part-time consultant and advisor with extensive experience deploying commercial route optimization and TMS/DMS products in real-world business environments.
We offer hourly or per-project rates. To apply, please email: denis@routing24.com
I'm still working on Routing24 https://routing24.com - free route optimization and planning app without stops or vehicles limit.
It's been 6 month since our first appearance on Show HN [1], and I'm working with first free users on bugs, improved workflows and UX, geocoding, solver features, future mobile app etc. etc.
We officially crossed the limits of 1500 stops per optimization with some waste collection guys, all still running fully client-side in the browser.
It's been approx. an year since we are up and running, and we helped 100+ businesses in the US and world-wide to understand the value and savings of automated route planning, and prepared tens thousands of optimized routes for companies operating from 1 to 50 vehicles. All this keeping our operational expenses low and flat, thanks to our local-first route optimization engine working in the browser, and reliance on OpenStreetMap.
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