Service endpoints

ArcGIS services hosted by Esri support standard endpoints and/or enhanced endpoints. The difference between them is the service URL, functionality available, security certification level, and geographic region it is hosted in.

Standard endpoints

Standard endpoints are URLs for services 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.

The standard endpoint for the ArcGIS Geocoding service is:

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https://geocode-api.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer

Enhanced endpoints

Enhanced endpoints are URLs for services hosted in a cloud infrastructure in the United States. The services are also high performance, but provide additional functionality, and offer different regulatory compliance than standard endpoints.

Some enhanced endpoints also support long transactions operations known as job requests. This provides the ability to easily execute and manage the processing of large amounts of data or computationally intensive operations.

The enhanced endpoint for the ArcGIS Geocoding serivce is:

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https://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer

Regulatory compliance

Enhanced endpoints support different levels of regulatory compliance such as Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act HIPAA.

Below is a summary of the regulatory compliance for services hosted by Esri.

Choosing an endpoint

If both endpoints are available, for most application development scenarios, it is recommended to use standard endpoints first and then enhanced endpoints for any additional functionality required or if a higher level of security compliance is required.

Standard and enhanced endpoints have different base URLs, but the input parameters and output values are the same. Therefore, there is no difference how you use them to build applications.

To choose the best endpoint, consider the following:

1. The functionality required. Standard services are limited to the basemap styles service, geocoding service, and some routing service functionality.
2. The level of regulatory compliance required. For example, FedRAMP compliance.
3. The geographic region (global vs. United States) from which the services will be accessed.