Autocomplete providers

Every DropAFinder widget includes an address search box. When a visitor starts typing — “123 Main” or “coffee near downtown” — the widget calls an autocomplete provider to suggest matching addresses and places in real time. Selecting a suggestion resolves to a latitude/longitude pair, which the widget uses to re-center the map and sort locations by distance.

DropAFinder supports six providers. Five are third-party services you connect with your own API key (BYOK). One — DropASearch — is managed by DropAFinder and requires no key at all.

What autocomplete does

The address search bar is distinct from the text-filter refinement. Text-filter refinement searches your own location data (names, addresses, custom fields). Autocomplete searches the world’s geographic database and returns a coordinate. The typical flow is:

1. Visitor types a partial address or place name.
2. The widget sends the query to the configured autocomplete provider.
3. The provider returns up to five ranked suggestions.
4. The visitor selects a suggestion; the widget receives a { lat, lng } for that place.
5. The map re-centers and all visible locations are sorted by distance from that point.

If autocomplete is disabled for a finder, the widget omits the search box entirely; visitors can still use geolocation (“use my location”) or browse the full list.

The six providers

DropASearch (no API key required)

DropASearch is DropAFinder’s own managed geocoding layer, powered by OpenStreetMap data. It is the default provider for all new finders.

• Coverage: Global, with strongest coverage in North America, Western Europe, and Australia. Rural areas and newly-built addresses may lag OpenStreetMap’s update cycle (typically a few months).
• Pricing: Included in your DropAFinder plan — no separate account, no extra charge.
• Rate limit: Shared pool managed by DropAFinder. For most finders this is invisible; very high-traffic deployments should consider a BYOK provider.
• Attribution: A small “Powered by OpenStreetMap” note is required and added automatically by DropAFinder when DropASearch is active.
• Best for: Getting started quickly, lower-traffic finders, and any use case where you don’t want to manage a third-party API key.

Google Places

Google’s Places Autocomplete API is the most widely recognized provider. It excels at business names, points of interest, and non-standard addresses.

• Coverage: Worldwide. Particularly strong for commercial addresses, branded locations, and informal place names (“Times Square”).
• Pricing: Pay-per-request, billed on your Google Cloud account. Autocomplete requests are billed per session — a session covers the keystrokes plus one Place Details call. See Google Maps Platform pricing  for current rates.
• API key type: Browser-restricted key from Google Cloud Console. You must add your production domain (and any preview domains) to the “HTTP referrers” restriction list.
• Attribution: Google’s terms require displaying the “Powered by Google” logo. DropAFinder renders this automatically when Google Places is active.
• Best for: Highest-accuracy results, point-of-interest search, and audiences in markets where Google Maps data is the gold standard.

⚠️ Warning: A Google Places key without HTTP referrer restrictions is exposed in your page source and can be abused. Always restrict your key to the exact domains where your finder is embedded before going live.

Mapbox

Mapbox Search offers high-quality address search with a generous free tier and a clean API.

• Coverage: Worldwide, with strong commercial address coverage in North America and Europe.
• Pricing: Usage-based; a free tier covers up to 100,000 requests per month. See Mapbox pricing  for current tiers.
• API key type: Mapbox public access token scoped with at minimum the searches:read permission. You can restrict tokens to specific URL origins in your Mapbox account dashboard.
• Attribution: Mapbox requires ”© Mapbox” attribution. DropAFinder adds this automatically.
• Best for: Teams already using Mapbox for map tiles (avoids managing two vendor relationships), or finders needing straightforward address search at modest scale.

💡 Tip: If your finder also uses Mapbox as its map-tile provider, a single Mapbox token can serve both. Paste the same token in both the Map Providers setting and the Autocomplete integration field.

HERE

HERE Geocoding & Search is an enterprise-grade option with strong coverage in emerging markets and robust address-level data in Europe.

• Coverage: Worldwide. Strong in markets where other providers are thinner, including parts of Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
• Pricing: Usage-based with a free tier (up to 1,000 transactions per day at the time of writing). See HERE pricing  for current terms.
• API key type: HERE platform API key created in the HERE Developer Portal. The key is passed as the apiKey query parameter — DropAFinder handles this automatically.
• Attribution: HERE requires ”© HERE” attribution. DropAFinder adds this automatically.
• Best for: Finders targeting audiences in Europe or emerging markets, or enterprise customers who already have a HERE contract.

Radar

Radar is a location-data platform with an autocomplete API built on OpenStreetMap and commercial data sources.

• Coverage: Global via OSM base, with commercial data enrichment in North America and Europe.
• Pricing: Free tier available (up to 100,000 monthly API calls at the time of writing), then usage-based. See Radar pricing .
• API key type: Radar publishable key from the Radar dashboard. The publishable key is safe to use in browser contexts.
• Attribution: Radar’s terms require “Powered by Radar” attribution in some plans. Check your Radar plan agreement and add the attribution to your widget’s footer copy if required.
• Best for: Teams already using Radar for geofencing or other location services, or finders needing a generous free tier with a modern API.

🔴 [NEEDS CLARIFICATION: Does DropAFinder automatically inject Radar attribution markup, or must the customer add it manually in the widget’s footer copy setting? Confirm with backend team.]

Geoapify

Geoapify is an OpenStreetMap-based geocoder with a focus on privacy-friendly data processing and a developer-friendly free tier.

• Coverage: Global via OpenStreetMap. Address-level accuracy is comparable to other OSM-based providers.
• Pricing: Free tier available (up to 3,000 API requests per day at the time of writing), then subscription-based. See Geoapify pricing .
• API key type: Geoapify API key from the Geoapify MyProjects dashboard. Geoapify does not support domain-based key restrictions; rotate keys if you suspect one has been exposed.
• Attribution: OSM attribution (”© OpenStreetMap contributors”) is required. DropAFinder adds this automatically when Geoapify is active.
• Best for: Privacy-conscious deployments, finders that overlap with other Geoapify services (routing, isochrones), or teams on a tight budget who need more daily requests than the DropASearch shared pool provides.

Choosing a provider

Decision guide:

• You want zero configuration and low traffic → DropASearch
• You need the best POI and business-name search → Google Places
• You’re already using Mapbox for map tiles → Mapbox
• Your audience is primarily in Europe or emerging markets → HERE or Google Places
• You want a large free quota without a shared pool → Radar or Mapbox
• Privacy or OSM-only data sourcing is a requirement → Geoapify or DropASearch

Rate limits

All autocomplete calls route through the DropAFinder backend under the mapping/* path group. This group is throttled at 30 requests per minute, regardless of which provider is configured. This protects against runaway clients and prevents quota exhaustion on third-party services.

Under normal usage (one request per keystroke pause, with the widget’s built-in debounce), you will never hit this limit. If you anticipate sustained high-volume traffic — for example, a heavily-promoted retail finder — consider ensuring client-side debouncing is active and switching to a BYOK provider so your quota is isolated from the shared DropASearch pool.

🔴 [NEEDS CLARIFICATION: Confirm whether the 30 req/min throttle is per finder key or per IP/session. The stub notes “globally” but the scope is ambiguous. Source: mapping/* route middleware in api.php.]

Connecting a provider

Provider settings live in the Integrations section of each finder.

1. Open the finder in the Finder Builder.
2. In the left sidebar, click Integrations.
3. Under Autocomplete provider, you’ll see the current provider (default: DropASearch) and a Change provider button.
4. Select the provider you want from the dropdown.
5. If the provider requires an API key, a key entry field appears. Paste your key.
6. Click Save integration.

🟡 [SCREENSHOT: The Integrations tab showing the Autocomplete provider card. The provider dropdown is open with Google Places highlighted, and an API key input field is visible below the dropdown.]

The key is stored encrypted in DropAFinder’s database and is never returned to the browser after saving. To rotate a key, paste the new value into the same field and save again.

Switching providers

You can switch providers at any time without downtime. The new provider takes effect on the next autocomplete request after you save — there is no CDN caching of provider configuration.

⚠️ Warning: When you switch away from DropASearch to a BYOK provider, make sure the API key is saved before your visitors encounter the new configuration. A missing or invalid key causes the autocomplete box to silently stop returning suggestions — visitors see no error, they just get no results.

Per-provider setup notes

Google Places — restricting your key

1. In Google Cloud Console , open APIs & Services > Credentials.
2. Select your API key and click Edit.
3. Under Application restrictions, choose HTTP referrers (websites).
4. Add each domain where your finder is embedded, for example https://www.example.com/* and https://staging.example.com/*.
5. Under API restrictions, restrict the key to Places API (or Places API (New) if you’re using the newer endpoint).
6. Click Save.

💡 Tip: Add http://localhost:* temporarily during local development, then remove it before launch.

Mapbox — scoping your token

Create your token under Account > Access tokens in the Mapbox dashboard. Set the public scope to searches:read. If the same token is also used for map tiles, add styles:read and tiles:read. Restrict the token’s allowed URLs to your production and staging domains under Token restrictions.

HERE — creating an API key

HERE uses API key authentication (not the older app_id/app_code pair). Create a key under Projects > Access Manager > API keys in the HERE Developer Portal . Select the Geocoding and Search service scope. DropAFinder passes the key as the apiKey query parameter automatically.

Radar — publishable vs. secret key

Use only the publishable key (starts with prj_test_pk_ or prj_live_pk_). Never paste your Radar secret key into DropAFinder. The secret key has write permissions and must never be exposed in a browser context.

Geoapify — key rotation

Geoapify does not support domain-based key restrictions. If you suspect a key has been leaked, delete it in the Geoapify MyProjects dashboard  and create a replacement, then update the value in your finder’s Integrations settings.

Related pages

• Embedding guide — how the finder widget is served to visitors
• Finder Builder — full tour of the builder interface
• Search — the dashboard global search bar (a separate feature from widget autocomplete)
• Map providers — choosing a provider for map tiles (a separate setting from autocomplete)