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The 10 best location intelligence companies in the US (2026)
Huq is our product. Here's how we compared everyone, including us.
A location intelligence company turns data about places and movement into answers about where to open, invest or market. The term covers three kinds of business: GIS and mapping companies, mobility and foot traffic data companies, and site selection and customer analytics firms.
Fortune Business Insights sizes the market at $23.58 billion in 2026, rising to $66.12 billion by 2034. The best companies stand out on accuracy validation, coverage, data cadence, delivery and ease of use. Buyers include retailers, landlords, investors, public bodies and data teams.
We ranked ten companies on those criteria and labeled each one's type. Huq wrote this page and ranks itself first: it's built to give you the broadest set of location data across 35 markets, with 1,000+ locations manually validated in each market twice a year. Every entry, Huq included, has fair pros and cons and links to its sources.
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Quick answer
Huq is our pick for retail chains, retail property and investors who want the broadest set of location data across 35 markets. Esri suits GIS teams doing demographic analysis, HERE suits automotive and logistics mapping, and Audiense suits US healthcare and franchise site scoring.
Location intelligence companies compared
How the leading companies differ by type, who they suit, where they cover and the level of detail they work at.
In this guide
How we evaluated
- Company type: mobility and foot traffic, GIS and mapping, or site selection and customer analytics.
- Accuracy validation: whether the company publishes tests against ground truth, and for which country.
- Coverage and cadence: which markets it covers and how often its data updates.
- Delivery: software, data files, APIs or consulting, and how they fit your stack.
- Ease of use: whether business teams can use it without GIS or data science skills.
The 10 best location intelligence companies, by type
1. Huq: best for branded retail chains, retail commercial property, and investors and private equity evaluating retail brands and assets
Huq is a London-founded location intelligence company, started in 2014 and used by 300+ organizations. Its type is mobility and foot traffic, but its scope goes well beyond visit counts: it's built to give you the broadest set of location data across 35 markets, the US included. That covers footfall by week, month and year, with total and average daily foot traffic, trends, period-on-period change and visiting versus passing traffic; residents versus visitors; catchment and drive-time analysis; and behavior such as visit frequency, dwell time, time of day, cross-visitation and international visitation for tourism.
Huq also maps footfall density and transportation mode, and covers POIs, brand locations and brand analysis, industry performance, and shopping center and retail center types. Demographics (age, gender, purchasing power) and geo-spend by volume and category are available in selected markets. Data refreshes weekly, and Huq manually validates more than 1,000 locations in each market twice a year. Published results include 81.9% accuracy in Great Britain against a ~65% industry benchmark.
Huq sells software and data together. Commercial teams in leasing, store planning and investment work in the Explore map and Projects, with CSV and Excel exports and monthly PDF location reports. Technical teams take data feeds: Parquet and CSV files delivered into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage buckets.
Pros
- One company for the broadest set of location data: footfall, residents vs visitors, catchment, behavior, density, POIs, brands and industries
- The same measures across 35 markets, so US and international sites compare directly
- Twice-yearly manual validation of 1,000+ locations in every market it covers
- Straightforward enough for leasing, investment and store teams, with data feeds for analysts
- Projects and monthly PDF reports make portfolio monitoring and stakeholder updates routine
Cons
- Newer to the US than US-native companies such as Placer.ai and Advan
- Demographics and geo-spend are available in selected markets only, so check availability for the markets you need
- Not a GIS or mapping company, and it delivers data feeds rather than an API, so pair it with a GIS tool for custom spatial modeling
2. Placer.ai: best for teams that only need US foot traffic, with a large library of free tools
Placer.ai (Placer Labs Inc.) is a US foot traffic analytics company with 4,000+ customers across retail, commercial real estate, local government, CPG, restaurants, finance and advertising. It estimates visits from a mobile location panel of tens of millions of devices and uses machine learning to extrapolate them to properties, chains, markets and regions, drawn on property-level polygons. Teams work in the analytics dashboard, with CSV, PDF and SHP exports, call the API, or take data feeds through the Placer Marketplace, Snowflake and AWS. A Data Marketplace layers on partner datasets such as sales estimates, demographics, business counts and consumer expenditure. Coverage is the United States only.
Placer is one of the best-known location intelligence companies in the US. In August 2024 it raised $75M at a valuation near $1.5B, having passed a $100M revenue run-rate that February, and free tools such as the Placer 100 keep its data in front of a wide audience. It is a mobility and foot traffic company, not a GIS vendor. Compared with Huq, Placer goes deep on one country; Huq is built for portfolios that span several of its 35 markets.
Pros
- Large US user base: more than 4,000 customers across retail, real estate, CPG and civic bodies
- Dashboard, API and data feeds (Snowflake, AWS) from one vendor
- Data Marketplace bundles partner datasets such as sales estimates and demographics
- Free tools such as Chain Analysis and the Placer 100, plus a freemium version
Cons
- Covers the US only, so sites in other countries need a second provider
- Locations with fewer than 50 unique devices aren't shown, which can leave gaps at small or low-traffic sites
- Its "+92% accuracy" homepage claim comes without a published method
- Pricing isn't published; one Capterra reviewer calls it "expensive but worth the cost"
3. Esri ArcGIS Business Analyst: best for GIS teams that need demographics, trade areas and mapping
ArcGIS Business Analyst is Esri's location-based market intelligence software, built on the ArcGIS platform. It combines demographic, consumer spending, business, lifestyle and census data with map analysis for site selection, market planning and territory design: over 15,000 variables from more than 170 countries, 2,000+ US demographic variables, 67 Tapestry segments and 13M+ US businesses, down to block group with five-year projections. POIs come from Foursquare Open Source Places, SafeGraph and Data Axle. It runs as a web app, mobile app, desktop app inside ArcGIS Pro or on premises, and higher tiers add void, suitability and Huff model analysis. Users include GIS teams, market analysts, real estate, healthcare and government.
Esri is among the largest location intelligence companies, and Business Analyst is its answer for market and site work. Vehicle traffic counts come from Kalibrate, and Esri and Placer.ai announced a partnership in January 2024 to bring Placer foot traffic into ArcGIS, though which Business Analyst products include it isn't stated. It is a GIS and demographics company at heart. Huq adds the observed side: weekly footfall, catchment, dwell and visit frequency for any address across 35 markets.
Pros
- Over 15,000 variables from more than 170 countries
- Deep US demographics, including 67 Tapestry segments down to block group
- Runs on web, mobile, desktop or on-premises
- Rated 4.6/5 from 21 reviews on G2, with support scored 9.2
Cons
- No observed foot traffic in its data pages; its traffic counts are Kalibrate vehicle counts
- Many online tasks use credits, and G2 users ask what credits are and why they need them
- Reviewers cite a steep learning curve for users without GIS experience
4. CARTO: best for data teams running spatial analysis inside their own warehouse
CARTO describes itself as an agentic, 100% cloud-native GIS platform. Instead of copying data into its own system, it runs spatial analysis inside the warehouse you already use, including Google BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks, AWS Redshift, Microsoft Azure and Oracle. Builder handles maps and visualization, Workflows offers 100+ low-code analysis components with machine learning and AI steps, the Data Observatory supplies enrichment data, and AI agents can draft maps from natural-language requests. It is aimed at data analysts, data scientists, GIS professionals and developers, and lists site selection, territory planning and market analysis among its use cases, with logos such as Verizon, JLL, Unilever and Bain & Company.
CARTO represents the GIS and mapping type of location intelligence company: it sells the analysis environment rather than the data, and offers a free trial and demos. It is a Google Cloud Premier Technology Partner and a Snowflake Premier partner. Teams usually pair it with a foot traffic source. Huq can play that role, delivering Parquet or CSV footfall and catchment feeds into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage, or replace the build entirely with its own Explore map and Projects.
Pros
- Runs inside BigQuery, Snowflake, Databricks and other warehouses, with no data copying
- 100+ ready-to-go analysis components with machine learning and AI integrations
- AI Agents create maps from natural-language requests
- Free trial available
Cons
- Doesn't come with its own visit data, so you'll need a foot traffic provider
- Built for analysts, data scientists and developers more than store or leasing teams
- Gets the most value when your data already lives in a cloud warehouse
5. Unacast: best for product teams embedding mobility data through APIs
Unacast is a location data company headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, with Norwegian roots, and it merged with Gravy Analytics in late 2023. It sells global mobility data, US foot traffic data, consumer data enrichment and data linkages that connect mobile ad IDs to hashed emails and IPs. The Area Visitors, Observations, Trade Areas and Personas APIs serve product and data teams, and bulk data can be scheduled into a warehouse or data lake. US visitation datasets cover weekly, monthly and quarterly foot traffic, dynamic trade areas and cross-visitation, built from origin ZIP code and census block group. In December 2025 Unacast raised $28M from Vector Capital.
Unacast belongs on a list of location intelligence companies as one of the larger US mobility data firms, now combined with Gravy Analytics. In January 2025 the FTC finalized an order restricting how Gravy Analytics and its subsidiary Venntel can use sensitive location data. Unacast's weekly US visitation has a 4-day lag and history from October 2018. It is built for teams embedding data via APIs; Huq is built for teams that want footfall analysis ready to use across 35 markets.
Pros
- Four analytics APIs for teams building location data into their own products
- US visitation history from October 2018, released weekly with a 4-day lag
- Cross-visitation and dynamic trade area datasets ready to use
- Scheduled bulk delivery into your warehouse or data lake
Cons
- Foot traffic datasets cover the US; only raw mobility data is global
- Data and API-first, so dashboards and site analysis are largely up to you
- The FTC's January 2025 final order against Gravy Analytics and a January 2025 Gravy data breach are worth raising in due diligence
6. Foursquare: best for apps and analysts that need a global places database
Foursquare is a places (POI) data company. Its Places data covers 100M+ points of interest across 200+ countries and territories, with 1,100+ venue categories, built with machine learning from 16B+ user check-ins, third-party data, web crawls and superuser validation. It comes as free, open source FSQ OS Places, Places Pro, and Places Premium, which adds attributes such as popular hours, photos and reviews. Paid tiers ship as JSON, TSV or Parquet via S3, SFTP, Azure, GCP or Snowflake, or through the Places API. Foursquare also sells Attribution and Audience products, and its customers include Redfin, Nextdoor and AB InBev.
Foursquare earns a place among location intelligence companies as one of the main sources of global places data, and its open source places supply POIs inside Esri Business Analyst. It lists 550+ partner integrations. In September 2026 Infillion announced it would acquire Foursquare; the deal hadn't closed at the time of writing. Foursquare tells you what is where. Huq tells you how those places perform, with weekly footfall, dwell, catchment and cross-visitation across 35 markets.
Pros
- 100M+ POIs in 200+ countries and territories, with 1,100+ categories
- Free open source tier, with Pro and Premium tiers for richer attributes
- Flexible delivery: Places API, Snowflake, S3, SFTP, Azure or GCP
- 550+ partner integrations, including POIs inside Esri Business Analyst
Cons
- Its core product is places data, not visit counts for judging site performance
- The announced Infillion acquisition hasn't closed and terms weren't disclosed, so check how it could affect roadmap and data licensing
7. Advan Research: best for alternative-data teams modeling US visits and card spend
Advan Research is a New York alternative-data company founded by former hedge fund and fintech people. It sells foot traffic and card-spend data to hedge funds and institutional investors, REITs, corporates and the public sector. After buying SafeGraph's Patterns business in November 2022, its Weekly Patterns+ dataset became the successor to SafeGraph Patterns: POI-level visits for each Monday-to-Sunday week across the US and Canada, delivered on Wednesdays, with history from January 2018. Neighborhood Patterns+ reports at census block group level, and SpendView adds weekly US consumer spend. Raw files ship by FTP, AWS S3 and Google Cloud, and the FIT, REI and REVEAL dashboards serve people who prefer a screen.
Advan belongs among location intelligence companies as the firm that inherited SafeGraph's foot traffic business, and in November 2024 it bought RetailStat's Real Estate Intelligence platform, now its REI product. Advan says its panel covers 45M US and 65M global devices. It is a mobility company built for analysts rather than store teams. Huq is a closer fit for retail chains, landlords and investors who want self-serve footfall and catchment analysis across 35 markets, with feeds for their data teams.
Pros
- Weekly Patterns+ history back to January 2018, useful for long-run trend models
- Pairs foot traffic with card-spend data from 120M+ cards (SpendView)
- Sells both raw datasets and dashboards (FIT, REI, REVEAL)
- Successor to SafeGraph Patterns, which many existing models were built on
Cons
- Foot traffic covers the US and Canada only, and spend data is US only
- Built mainly for analysts and quant teams rather than store or leasing teams
- Delivery is via FTP, AWS S3 and Google Cloud; Snowflake isn't listed on its site
- Pricing isn't published, so you'll need a demo or call
8. HERE Technologies: best for automotive and logistics firms that need map data and routing
HERE Technologies is one of the largest map data companies. It has made maps for 40+ years and employs 6,400+ people, according to Fortune Business Insights. HERE sells live map data, routing and location APIs, and a location platform. Its HD Live Map gives automakers road geometry, route profiles and traffic signs for automated driving, and BMW Group is quoted on its site. Other offerings include fleet routing for complex delivery tours, HERE Location Reasoning and agentic AI tools, the HERE SDK and HERE Anonymizer. Logos on its site include Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Bosch, Uber, AWS and Esri, a Hapag-Lloyd case study covers shipment visibility and predictive arrival times, and developers can sign up for free.
HERE belongs on any list of the largest location intelligence companies; Fortune Business Insights names it alongside Esri, Google, TomTom and Precisely. Its strength is roads, vehicles and logistics rather than people visiting places, so retail and real estate teams usually pair its maps with a foot traffic provider. Huq is that layer: weekly footfall, catchment, dwell and visit frequency for any address across 35 markets, with no hardware, sensors or cameras needed.
Pros
- 40+ years of map-making and 6,400+ staff
- HD Live Map built for automated driving
- Routing APIs and fleet routing for complex delivery tours
- Free developer sign-up
Cons
- Sells maps and location services, not foot traffic or visit data
- Built for automotive, logistics and developer use, so you'll need engineering time to apply it to site decisions
9. Precisely: best for enterprises cleaning, geocoding and enriching address data
Precisely sells data integrity and location software to large enterprises, and Fortune Business Insights names it among the largest location intelligence companies, with MapInfo and Spectrum Spatial in its product line. Its location data software validates, standardizes, geocodes and enriches addresses, while its location intelligence software adds spatial analytics, visualization and GeoAI. Spectrum Spatial embeds geospatial rules in existing systems across desktop, web and mobile. Precisely Visits adds foot traffic patterns and movement behavior, and the Gio AI assistant answers spatial questions in plain language. It integrates with Snowflake and Databricks, partners with AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, and serves financial services, insurance, government, healthcare, retail, telecoms and utilities.
Precisely is on this list as one of the biggest names in enterprise location data, where the first job is clean, geocoded addresses feeding other systems. Its Visits product adds foot traffic, though its location intelligence page doesn't state coverage or refresh for it. Precisely suits data and IT teams running enterprise programs. Huq suits commercial teams who want to see how specific places perform, with weekly footfall, catchment and benchmarking across 35 markets in a self-serve platform.
Pros
- Geocoding, address validation, standardization and enrichment in one place
- Integrates with Snowflake and Databricks
- Gio AI Assistant for natural-language questions about spatial data
- Precisely Visits adds foot traffic patterns
Cons
- Highlights insurers, financial institutions and governments as core users, so expect an enterprise setup
- Its location intelligence page doesn't state coverage or refresh for Visits, so check it for your markets
10. Audiense In-Person (formerly Buxton): best for US healthcare, restaurant and franchise planners that want site scoring
Audiense In-Person is the location product of Buxton, which has provided customer analytics, market planning and site selection in the US since 1994. Buxton acquired Audiense in March 2025, and in July 2025 Buxton, Elevar and Audiense rebranded under the Audiense name. Through SCOUT, a web-based, no-code platform, it covers site scoring and trade area analysis, market prioritization, foot traffic trends, territory optimization for franchise growth and customer profiling. It draws on 50+ data sources, including 44 billion foot traffic data points for retail POIs, and has 36 healthcare industry models. Customers include Cooper University Health Care and Red Wing Shoes, and its analysis covers the US.
Audiense, formerly Buxton, represents the site selection and forecasting type of location intelligence company, with more than 30 years of US work and SOC 2 Type II and HITRUST attestation. It suits planners who want scoring and market prioritization, especially in healthcare and restaurants. Its 44 billion foot traffic figure is a data point count, not an accuracy measure. Huq supplies observed footfall and catchment across 35 markets, validated at 1,000+ locations per market twice a year, rather than site scores.
Pros
- More than 30 years of US site selection work, dating to 1994
- 36 healthcare industry models, unusual among location vendors
- Territory optimization for franchise growth in the SCOUT platform
- SOC 2 Type II and HITRUST attestation
Cons
- Covers the US only
- Buxton's products now sit under the Audiense brand, so check current product names and terms when you buy
- Its 44 billion foot traffic figure is a data point count, not a published accuracy measure
How to choose a location intelligence company
Start with the type of company you need
If you need to know how places perform, look at mobility and foot traffic companies. If you need maps, geocoding or spatial analysis on your own data, look at GIS and mapping companies. If you want a sales forecast per site, look at site selection firms.
Ask for accuracy evidence
Ask what each company tests its data against and in which country. A validation figure for one market doesn't prove accuracy in another.
Check coverage against your footprint
Many US companies cover the US only. If you have sites or investments in other countries, check that one company measures them all the same way.
Platform or data-only provider?
Some companies sell software, some sell data files, and some sell both. Data-only providers need in-house analysts; platforms let business teams answer questions directly.
Frequently asked questions
What does a location intelligence company do?
A location intelligence company collects or licenses data about places and movement, then sells it as software, data feeds or analysis. Customers use it to choose sites, compare stores with competitors, value property, estimate company performance and measure marketing. Some companies focus on maps and GIS, others on foot traffic or sales forecasting.
What is location intelligence?
Location intelligence is the use of data about places and people's movement to make business decisions. It combines maps with data such as foot traffic, catchment, demographics and points of interest, so teams can see why one location outperforms another and where to invest next.
Who are the biggest location intelligence companies?
In mapping and GIS, Fortune Business Insights names Esri, HERE, Google, TomTom and Precisely among the largest. In US foot traffic, Placer.ai reports more than 4,000 customers. Size matters less than fit, so compare companies on coverage, cadence and published validation for the decisions you make.
What's the difference between a location intelligence company and a foot traffic data provider?
Foot traffic data providers are one type of location intelligence company. They measure visits to places. The wider category also includes GIS and mapping companies, which supply maps and spatial analysis, and site selection firms, which forecast sales. Many teams combine a foot traffic provider with a GIS tool.
Who uses location intelligence?
Retail and restaurant expansion teams, commercial real estate owners and brokers, investors, consumer brands, marketers and public bodies all use location intelligence. Huq's 300+ users include retailers, property owners, councils and investors across 35 markets, working with footfall, residents vs visitors, catchment, behavior, density, brand and industry data.
Can I use more than one location intelligence company?
Yes, and many teams do. A common setup pairs a GIS or mapping tool with a foot traffic provider. Huq exports CSV or Excel files and delivers data feeds as Parquet and CSV files into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage buckets, for use alongside other tools. Request a free analysis of a US location to compare data side by side.
Questions? Talk to us
Book a demoSources
- Huq platform
- Huq data feeds
- Huq: Walmart sales validation study
- Huq: How accurate is footfall data?
- Fortune Business Insights: top location intelligence companies
- Placer.ai
- Placer.ai: FAQ
- TechCrunch: Placer.ai valuation
- Esri ArcGIS Business Analyst
- Esri Business Analyst: data and reports
- Esri Business Analyst: buying options
- Placer.ai: Esri partnership
- CARTO
- Unacast
- Unacast: foot traffic data
- Unacast: visitation datasets
- Business Wire: Unacast financing (Dec 2025)
- FTC: final order on Gravy Analytics and Venntel
- Foursquare
- Foursquare Places
- AdExchanger: Infillion acquires Foursquare
- Advan Research
- Advan Research: data dictionaries
- Advan Research: SafeGraph Patterns acquisition
- Business Wire: Advan acquires RetailStat REI
- HERE Technologies
- Precisely: location intelligence
- Audiense In-Person
- Buxton, Elevar and Audiense unite under the Audiense brand
- Placer.ai: pricing
- Placer.ai: data delivery methods
- Capterra: Placer.ai reviews
- Unacast: Unacast and Gravy Analytics merge
- The Record: Gravy Analytics breach
- Esri: Foursquare data in Business Analyst
- G2: ArcGIS Business Analyst reviews
- FitGap: ArcGIS Business Analyst alternatives
About Huq
Huq is a location intelligence company. We turn anonymised mobile location data into footfall, catchment and visitor insight for any place, so retailers, property owners and local authorities can make decisions on evidence.
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