Migrating from Google Maps

Service mapping

Google Maps Platform	Baato equivalent
Places API — Autocomplete	Search API
Places API — Place Details	Places API
Places API — Nearby Search	Nearby Places API
Geocoding API — reverse	Reverse Search API
Directions API	Directions API
Maps JavaScript API	Map Styles API + MapLibre GL JS
Maps SDK for Android	Map Styles API + Java client
Maps SDK for iOS	Map Styles API + Swift client
Navigation SDK	Baato Navigation SDK

Baato has no equivalent for Distance Matrix, Roads, Street View, Time Zone or Elevation. If one of those is load-bearing for you, tell us — it helps us prioritise.

Differences worth knowing before you port

The map renderer is not part of Baato

Google ships an SDK that owns both tiles and rendering. Baato ships styles — you pick the renderer. MapLibre GL is the usual choice and is open source on every platform; Mapbox GL works too.In practice this makes migration easier, not harder: switching a MapLibre app from another tile provider to Baato is a one-line style URL change.

Search returns no coordinates

Google’s Autocomplete can return geometry inline. Baato’s Search deliberately omits it to keep suggestion responses small, so you make a second call to Places with the placeId once the user picks a result.If you were calling Autocomplete then Place Details already, the shape is identical.

Routes come back as encoded polylines

Same format Google uses, so any polyline decoder you already have keeps working. The field is encodedPolyline, and distance and duration arrive as distanceInMeters and timeInMs — milliseconds, where Google’s duration.value is seconds.

Authentication is a query parameter

Baato takes the token as key on every request, like Google. Domain restrictions work similarly too — set allowed origins per token in your dashboard. See Authentication.

Coverage is Nepal

Baato’s data covers Nepal in depth rather than the world thinly. If your application serves users outside Nepal, plan for a fallback provider on those requests.

A worked comparison

Autocomplete, before and after:

const service = new google.maps.places.AutocompleteService();

service.getPlacePredictions(
  { input: "patan", location: center, radius: 5000 },
  (predictions) => render(predictions),
);

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  key: BAATO_TOKEN,
  q: "patan",
  lat: 27.7172,
  lon: 85.3240,
  limit: 5,
});

const { data } = await (
  await fetch(`https://api.baato.io/api/v1/search?${params}`)
).json();

render(data);

Full migration guide

Longer worked examples, endpoint by endpoint.

Quickstart

Get a token and make your first Baato request.

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Guides by platform

Server SDKs

Resources

Migrating from Google Maps

Service mapping

Differences worth knowing before you port

A worked comparison

Next

Full migration guide

Quickstart

​Service mapping

​Differences worth knowing before you port

​A worked comparison

​Next

Full migration guide

Quickstart

Service mapping

Differences worth knowing before you port

A worked comparison

Next