General
This guide is for new and experienced ArcGIS Location Platform and ArcGIS Online developers who want to learn how to build applications by using location services with different SDKs and APIs. However, many of the topics, programming patterns, and code examples apply to ArcGIS Enterprise developers who want to use their own ArcGIS Enterprise services hosted in their infrastructure such as the geocoding service or routing service. For these services, the REST API is the same and the base URLs can be substituted in the code examples. In most cases, the client APIs and programming patterns used to access both ArcGIS location services and ArcGIS Enterprise services are also the same.
| ArcGIS Location Platform | ArcGIS Online | ArcGIS Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Map apps | |||
| Map apps using web maps | |||
| Map apps from builders |
You need ArcGIS Location Platform or ArcGIS Online to build applications with location services. The table below shows the account types you can use to access each service:
The following table provides an overview of the functionality available with each type of authentication:
| API key authentication | User authentication | App authentication | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location services | |||
| Data services (Item access) | |||
| Spatial analysis services | |||
| Portal service (General privileges) | |||
| Portal service (Admin privileges) |
The cost of using location services depends on the type of account you have:
-
ArcGIS Location Platform: Uses a pay-as-you-go billing model with a monthly free tier for select services. To learn more, go to ArcGIS Location Platform > Pricing.
-
ArcGIS Online: Uses a credit consumption model to access services. To learn about the cost per transaction, go to ArcGIS Online > Credits by capability.
Esri's Terms of Use documents include legal guidelines for the use of Esri products, services, and data.
Some of the key documents you will find are the:
Location services
ArcGIS Location Services hosted by Esri include the following:
- Basemap styles service
- Places service
- Geocoding service
- Routing service
- GeoEnrichment service
You can use ArcGIS Maps SDKs, open source libraries, and scripting APIs to access location services. To learn more about each, go to the SDKs and APIs documentation.
Basemap attribution is required when building and deploying mapping applications that use the basemap styles service. There are two types of attribution that you need to display:
- Powered by Esri.
- Attribution for the data source providers.
Standard endpoints: Standard endpoints are hosted in a global cloud infrastructure, including the United States. The services are high-performance and optimized to use cloud resources closest to your geographic region.
Enhanced endpoints: Enhanced endpoints are hosted in a cloud infrastructure in the United States. The services are high performance and provide more functionality than standard services and offer specific regulatory compliance.
To learn more, go to Service endpoints.
To find the REST API specification for each service, go to the REST API documentation.
ArcGIS Location Services are services with geospatial functionality and data hosted by Esri for developers. They include the ArcGIS Basemap Styles service, ArcGIS Places service, ArcGIS Geocoding service, ArcGIS Routing service, and ArcGIS GeoEnrichment service. All service operations and parameters are defined by the ArcGIS REST APIs. Some services support both standard endpoint and enhanced endpoints. An access token is required to use the services.
Location services are available to developers with an ArcGIS Location Platform or ArcGIS Online account.
ArcGIS Enterprise services are services an organization can host in ArcGIS Enterprise. Most services require user data and are typically created and managed with administration tools. There are many different types of services that can be hosted such as the map service, feature service, image tile service, geometry service, and spatial analysis service. All service operations and parameters are defined by the ArcGIS REST APIs. To develop with Enterprise services, you need an ArcGIS Enterprise account. An access token is required to use the services.
You can monitor the usage of location services at the following locations:
- ArcGIS Location Platform: Location Platform dashboard
- ArcGIS Online: Portal > Organization