How to build a store locator with free location data

A "store locator" or "near me" feature has two halves: the map (drawing pins) and the data (where the pins go). The map is easy — the hard part is usually getting clean, structured location data without paying for an API or scraping a site that forbids it. This guide covers the data half, using free OpenStreetMap data.

The data a locator needs

For each location you want to show, you need:

• name — what to label the pin
• latitude + longitude — where to place it (the essential bit)
• full_address — to display and to support search
• opening_hours, phone, website — for the info popup
• brand — to filter by chain, if you're mapping one

Every one of those fields comes straight from OpenStreetMap, where the community has mapped it (and comes back blank, never guessed, where they haven't).

Step 1 — get the locations (no API key)

Pull the places for your area and category in one call. Two ways:

• As a dataset (CSV/JSON): run the dataquarry OpenStreetMap Places Scraper on Apify with an area + category, and download the rows.
• As a REST endpoint: call the OpenStreetMap Places API (on RapidAPI) — one GET with an area or lat,lon,radius, and you get JSON back, ready to drop into your front end.

Example: every pharmacy in a city, or every store of one brand via a name filter.

{"area":"Denver, CO","categories":["supermarket"]}

Get your locations on Apify →

Step 2 — put the pins on a map

Each row already has latitude and longitude, so plotting is the easy part: iterate your locations and add a marker at each coordinate, using the name, full_address and opening_hours in the popup. Any map library works — and if you want to stay fully open, an OpenStreetMap-based map renderer pairs naturally with OpenStreetMap data.

Step 3 — "near me" / radius search

Because every location has real coordinates, distance sorting is straightforward: take the user's position and rank locations by distance to it. If you'd rather not pull a whole city, the API also accepts lat, lon and radius, so you can fetch just the locations near a point on demand.

Why this beats a paid Maps API for the data

Paid place APIs require a key, meter your usage, and restrict how long you may store or how you may display their data. OpenStreetMap data is open under the ODbL: no key, no quota, and you can store and redistribute it as long as you attribute © OpenStreetMap contributors. For the data behind a locator, that's cleaner and cheaper.

FAQ

Do I need a Google Maps API key to build a store locator?

Not for the data. You can pull the locations (name, coordinates, address, hours) from OpenStreetMap with no key. You only need a map provider to draw the map — and there are free, open options there too.

What data does a store locator actually need?

At minimum a name and latitude/longitude per location; ideally also a clean address, opening hours, phone and website. All of those come straight from OpenStreetMap where mapped.

Can I use this commercially?

Yes, with attribution to © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Keep the attribution visible, as map and data projects normally do.