Life & fun · February 16, 2024
Host a planet-scale geocoder for $10/mo
For the uninitiated, a geocoder is maps-tech jargon for a search engine for addresses and points of interest. Geocoders are expensive to run. Like, really expensive. Like, $100+/month per instance expensive unless you go for a budget provider. I've been poking at this problem for about a month now and I think I've come up with something kind of cool. I'm calling it Airmail. Airmail's unique feature is that it can query against a remote index, e.g. on object storage or on a static site somewhere. This, along with low memory requirements mean it's about 10x cheaper to run an Airmail…
In plain words
Airmail is a geocoder—a search tool for addresses and points of interest—designed to be significantly cheaper than existing solutions. It works by querying remote indexes stored on object storage or static sites, requiring minimal memory and no additional storage beyond the root disk. This architecture allows it to run efficiently on 512MB of RAM, making it accessible for developers and businesses that need geocoding functionality without the typical high infrastructure costs of traditional geocoders.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
For the uninitiated, a geocoder is maps-tech jargon for a search engine for addresses and points of interest. Geocoders are expensive to run. Like, really expensive. Like, $100+/month per instance expensive unless you go for a budget provider. I've been poking at this problem for about a month now and I think I've come up with something kind of cool. I'm calling it Airmail. Airmail's unique feature is that it can query against a remote index, e.g. on object storage or on a static site somewhere. This, along with low memory requirements mean it's about 10x cheaper to run an Airmail instance than anything else in this space that I'm aware of. It does great on 512MB of RAM and doesn't require any storage other than the root disk and remote index. So storage costs stay fixed as you scale horizontally. Pretty neat. Demo here: https://airmail.rs/#demo-section Writeup: https://blog.ellenhp.me/host-a-planet-scale-geocoder-for-10-... Repository: https://github.com/ellenhp/airmail
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