OpenStreetMap is a key component on your path to digital sovereignty in geospatial.
Data obtained from proprietary map providers is under the control of single owner. Some providers restrict access to the vector data used to produce maps and navigation instructions, and thereby make you dependent on their software offering. Other providers may offer such vector data so that you can run your own services, but they can impose arbitrary license fees and conditions.
If you tie yourself to these providers, you are subject to a lock-in effect. The provider can change fees and conditions at will, or even forbid certain types of use for political reasons.
With OpenStreetMap, multiple mechanisms ensure that you do not hand over control to a single provider.
OpenStreetMap vector data is published by the OpenStreetMap Foundation which is incorporated as a not-for-profit organization, limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales and serves as a licensor. The licensing terms of to OpenStreetMap data – the Open Database License – can only change after a democratic vote among the active contributors of the project, but only to another type of free license. Therefore, the project is protected from commercial takeover and nobody can take away the OpenStreetMap data from you.
OpenStreetMap's community is strongly linked to the open source community. The freedom to inspect, modify and share source code is an immportand value in OpenStreetMap. All important software for editing and processing OpenStreetMap data is free and open source software.
Commercial OpenStreetMap map, routing or geocoding services are provided by third parties. Geofabrik is one of those third-party providers.
We are an owner-manged company located in Karlsruhe, Germany. We're happy if you decide to contract us – but it is easy to get rid of us again. Any software that we develop for you will be delivered with source code, and the right to publish, use and modify the software. Your independence is preserved.
Some of our services are designed as software as a service. Our raster and vector tile offers, our routing, WMS and geocoding services belong to that category. They are based on free and open source software. APIs of these services are unmodified compared to the open source software they are based on. Therefore you can install the software on your own servers or contract a different company to run it for you. You will not have to adapt your applications to different APIs.
We host our services on servers of European providers in datacentres in the European Union. Access logs (IP addresses, requested content etc.) are preserved for a certain time for QA and billing purposes. Most of our services also have a reduced-logging variant. We don't make money with user data: We don't track users and we don't use access data to feed AI systems.
