I’m working on an idea for a service that uses geocoded data (lat/lng) form a US address. Google maps API v3 has been awesome, until I read the terms of service and acceptable uses a little closer. The problem is that the terms seem to prohibit use of the maps API for any commercial use where the site is not freely accessibly to the public, such as a subscription based service. The alternative offered is Google Maps API Premier, but at $10,000 per year minimum, it’s just not possible at this time.
Same goes for services offered by Yahoo! and MS – initial fees are small for enterprises, but for a very early stage startup (not even a finished prototype yet!) it’s just not doable.
Geocoding process needs to be real-time and volume would be very small – user would enter address at setup time and only update it if needed.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
I’ve used geocoder.us for a few projects. They do require sign up for a commercial license, on the upside it only costs $50 per 20,000 lookups. I haven’t used their commercial services though to know how reliable they are, but during startup and especially because there will primarily only be one lookup per user from what you say, this seems like a safe bet.