Every few months I need local business data -- restaurants near an office, gyms in a neighborhood, dentists in a city. The usual path: learn the Overpass query language, handle raw OSM tags, geocode addresses separately, parse nested JSON.
I wanted something simpler: pass a city and category, get clean JSON back. So I built BizData API.
Quick start
curl "https://bizdata-web.vercel.app/api/businesses?location=Paris&category=cafe&limit=2"
{"total":2338,"location_resolved":"Paris, France","businesses":[{"name":"Cafe Exemple","category":"cafe","address":"Avenue Parmentier, 28","phone":"+33 1 48 05 94 36","website":"https://aunreve.fr","email":"contact@aunreve.fr","lat":48.8606,"lon":2.3787,"opening_hours":"We-Sa 08:30-19:00; Su 09:00-19:00"}]}No API key. No signup. One URL.
What it does that raw Overpass doesn't
Overpass is powerful but requires learning a custom query language:
[out:json][timeout:30];
node["amenity"="cafe"](around:5000,48.8566,2.3522);
out center tags;
BizData handles the geocoding, query building, tag mapping (37 normalized categories), and result formatting. You get a standard REST endpoint with clean JSON instead of a custom QL.
Three endpoints
GET /api/businesses -- Find businesses by location and category.
| Param | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| location | Yes | City or address |
| category | Yes | One of 37 types |
| radius_km | No | Search radius, default 5 |
| limit | No | Max results, default 50, max 500 |
GET /api/count -- Count businesses across categories. "How many restaurants, cafes, and bars in London?" returns 6,763.
GET /api/categories -- List all 37 available categories.
Error handling
Bad category:
{"error":"Unknown category: pizza. Available: accountant, bakery, bank, ..."}Missing params:
{"error":"Missing required parameter: location"}Performance
-
/api/categories: ~50ms (cached) -
/api/businesses(50 results): 1-3 seconds -
/api/count(all categories): 10-30 seconds - Results cached for 1 hour on Vercel's edge
Limitations
- Data quality depends on OpenStreetMap contributors
- Coverage: excellent in Europe, solid in major US/Asian cities, sparse in rural areas
- Shared Overpass API pool
- Some businesses lack phone/email/hours
Built with
TypeScript, Vercel serverless functions, OpenStreetMap Nominatim (geocoding) + Overpass API (data).
Try it
Interactive demo: bizdata-web.vercel.app
All 37 categories: accountant, bakery, bank, bar, beauty, bookstore, cafe, car_dealer, car_repair, cinema, clothing, coworking, dentist, doctor, electronics, florist, furniture, gallery, gas_station, guest_house, gym, hairdresser, hospital, hostel, hotel, insurance, lawyer, museum, parking, pet_shop, pharmacy, real_estate, restaurant, school, supermarket, theatre, university.