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Buyer's guide

The 8 best SafeGraph alternatives in 2026

Huq is our product. Here's how we compared everyone, including us.

SafeGraph is a strong source of places data. Its Places product lists 80M+ points of interest across 195+ countries and territories, updated monthly, alongside building Geometry, Address data and US Spend data. It's delivered through Snowflake, AWS, Databricks and other channels.

Many people searching for SafeGraph want something it no longer sells: foot traffic. SafeGraph's Patterns datasets were retired at the start of 2023 after Advan acquired the Patterns business in November 2022, and SafeGraph's docs now refer foot traffic buyers to a mobility data partner. SafeGraph is also data-only, with no dashboard, and pricing is a custom annual fee.

This list covers foot traffic providers first, then places data vendors if POI data is what you need. Each entry says who it suits and what to check, with sources listed at the end.

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Quick answer

For retail chains, retail property and investors, choose Huq, built to give the broadest set of location data across 35 markets. To continue SafeGraph Patterns, Advan's Weekly Patterns+. For global POI data, Foursquare. For raw mobility data, Veraset.

SafeGraph alternatives compared at a glance

Foot traffic and places data providers that SafeGraph users most often consider.

ToolBest forCoverageData typesGranularityStandout
HuqRetail chains, retail property, investors35 markets, including the USFootfall, residents/visitors, catchment, drive-time, behavior, cross-visitation, tourism, density, transport-mode, POIs/brands/industries, demographics*, spend* (*selected markets)Any drawn area, address, ZIP code or map layerVisits and places in one platform, 35 markets
Advan ResearchHedge funds and quant analystsUS and CanadaFoot traffic, card spend, neighborhood patterns, migration, demographics, ticker and CMBS dataPOI and census block groupSuccessor to SafeGraph Patterns
Placer.aiUS-only teams, many sectorsUS onlyFoot traffic, trade areas; marketplace add-ons: demographics, psychographics, sales estimates, spending, crimeProperty polygons, chains, marketsLarge US customer base, marketplace
UnacastData teams building their own toolsUS foot traffic; global mobilityFoot traffic, trade areas, cross-visitation, visit patterns, personas, raw mobility, identity linkagesPOI, block group, custom locationAPIs plus cross-visitation datasets
pass_byUS brand and category benchmarkingUS branded retail POIsBranded retail visits, visit forecasts, brand/category benchmarks, spend, trips, trade areasBranded retail POIBroad US retail brand coverage
FoursquareGlobal POI data200+ countriesPOIs, check-ins, visit attribution, audience segments, spatial data productsPOI (100M+ places)Open source places option
Echo AnalyticsData teams needing POI plus footfallEurope and USPOIs, building shapes, footfall, catchment, cross-visitation, personas, travel patternsPOI and building shapesPOI and footfall from one vendor
VerasetData science teamsClaims 200+ countriesRaw movement pings, POI visits with dwell, home/work locations, tripsDevice-level movement and POI visitsRaw data at large scale

How we evaluated

  • Foot traffic vs places: whether the vendor sells visit data, POI data, or both.
  • Coverage: countries and location types included.
  • Data refresh and history: update cadence and how far back data goes.
  • Delivery: data feeds, API, dashboard, or a mix.
  • Accuracy evidence: published validation and what it's measured against.

The best SafeGraph alternatives, reviewed

Our product
1. Huq

1. Huq: best for branded retail chains, retail commercial property, and investors and private equity evaluating retail brands and assets

SafeGraph users usually need two things: places data, which SafeGraph still sells, and the foot traffic it stopped selling in 2023. Huq is built to give you the broadest set of location data across 35 markets, so visits and places sit in one platform. On the places side, Huq covers POIs, brand locations and brand analysis, industry performance, and shopping center and retail center types. On the movement side, it reports footfall by week, month and year, visiting versus passing traffic, residents versus visitors, catchment and drive-time analysis, footfall density and transportation mode.

Behavior data covers visit frequency, dwell time, time of day, cross-visitation and international visitation for tourism. 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. Data teams that worked from SafeGraph files can take the same numbers as data feeds: Parquet and CSV files delivered into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. Teams without SQL skills use the Explore map to draw any area or pick layers such as ZIP codes, run Projects across many sites, and export CSV, Excel or monthly PDF location reports. In Huq's own validation study, its visit data tracked Walmart's quarterly US net sales with 0.85 correlation.

Pros

  • Built to give the broadest set of location data in one platform, from footfall and catchment to behavior, density, brands and industries
  • 35 markets, with more than 1,000 locations manually validated in each market twice a year
  • Straightforward for commercial teams and analysts alike, with the Explore map, Projects and monthly PDF location reports
  • Visits and places together, with a dashboard and data feeds built from the same numbers
  • Technical teams get Parquet and CSV data feeds into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage

Cons

  • Newer to the US than US-native vendors such as Placer.ai and Advan
  • Demographics and spend are available in selected markets only, so check availability for each market you need
  • Its POI and brand layers support location analysis, but it isn't sold as a standalone global POI file like SafeGraph Places
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2. Advan Research

2. Advan Research: best for teams that relied on SafeGraph Patterns and want the closest continuation

Advan Research is a New York alternative-data company founded by former hedge fund and fintech people. It combines mobile location data with credit and debit card transactions, sold as raw datasets and through web dashboards: FIT for foot traffic, REI for traffic plus spend, REVEAL for property-level analysis and SpendView for consumer spend. Weekly Patterns+ gives POI-level visit counts for the US and Canada, Monday to Sunday, delivered on Wednesdays, with history from January 2018; Neighborhood Patterns+ works at census block group level. SpendView is built from 120M+ cards and covers the US. Data is delivered by FTP, AWS S3 and Google Cloud. Buyers include hedge funds covering 2,000+ tickers, REITs, corporates and the public sector.

Advan bought SafeGraph's Patterns business in November 2022, and Weekly Patterns+ and Neighborhood Patterns+ are its successors, so Advan is the closest continuation for teams that relied on SafeGraph for foot traffic. It doesn't replace SafeGraph Places or Geometry. Huq is the alternative for teams that want weekly footfall in a self-serve platform as well as files, across 35 markets, with feeds available as Parquet or CSV files delivered into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage.

Pros

  • Direct successor to SafeGraph Patterns through Weekly Patterns+ and Neighborhood Patterns+
  • Foot traffic and card spend from one vendor, with SpendView built from 120M+ cards
  • Data mapped to 2,000+ stock tickers for investment research
  • Weekly Patterns+ history back to January 2018

Cons

  • Built mainly for analyst and quant teams rather than dashboard-first business users
  • Weekly Patterns+ covers the US and Canada only, and SpendView the US only
  • Pricing isn't published; a demo or call is required
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3. Placer.ai

3. Placer.ai: best for US-only teams across many sectors that want a widely used foot traffic dashboard

Placer.ai (Placer Labs Inc.) is a US foot traffic analytics platform, tagline "Market Intelligence for the Physical World", with 4,000+ customers across retail, commercial real estate, local government, CPG, restaurants, finance and advertising. It estimates visits to places, chains, markets and regions from a panel of tens of millions of mobile devices, using property-level polygons, and says its correlations with first-party sources consistently exceed 90% (a vendor claim). Teams work in a SaaS dashboard that exports CSV, PDF and SHP files, or take data through an API and feeds via Snowflake and AWS. A Data Marketplace adds partner datasets such as sales estimates, demographics and consumer expenditure. Coverage is the United States only.

For former SafeGraph Patterns users, Placer.ai swaps raw weekly files for a finished dashboard, while its feeds still suit teams that want visits in a warehouse. It doesn't sell a global POI database like SafeGraph Places. Compared with Huq, it has a longer US track record and a larger US customer base; Huq covers 35 markets in one platform, with footfall, catchment, dwell and cross-visitation refreshed weekly, and delivers feeds as Parquet or CSV files delivered into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage.

Pros

  • Large US customer base of 4,000+ organizations across many sectors
  • Dashboard, API and data feeds (Snowflake, AWS) from one vendor
  • Data Marketplace adds partner datasets such as sales estimates, demographics and consumer expenditure
  • Free tools such as Chain Analysis, Industry Trends and Placer 100

Cons

  • US only, so teams with sites abroad need a second provider
  • Locations with fewer than 50 unique devices aren't shown, which can affect small or rural sites
  • Pricing isn't published, and there's no free trial of the full product (a freemium version exists)
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4. Unacast

4. Unacast: best for data teams who want US foot traffic and global mobility through APIs

Unacast is a location data company headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, with Norwegian roots, and the parent of Gravy Analytics since their late-2023 merger. It sells global mobility data, US foot traffic data, consumer data enrichment and data linkages to adtech, martech, software, real estate, retail and government teams. Its visitation datasets cover weekly, monthly and quarterly foot traffic, dynamic trade areas, cross-visitation and visitation patterns, with US history from October 2018 and a weekly release with a 4-day lag. Analytics APIs include Area Visitors, Observations, Trade Areas and Personas, and bulk data can be scheduled into a warehouse, lake or S3. Foot traffic datasets cover the US; raw mobility feeds are listed for 247 countries.

For SafeGraph customers who used Patterns as weekly visit files, Unacast's visitation datasets and APIs are a like-for-like data option, including trade areas and cross-visitation. It doesn't replace SafeGraph's POI or building data. In January 2025 the FTC finalized an order on how Gravy Analytics, now a Unacast subsidiary, handles sensitive location data, so ask how it affects what you buy. Huq covers footfall, catchment and cross-visitation across 35 markets, with Parquet or CSV feeds.

Pros

  • Analytics APIs plus scheduled bulk delivery, suited to teams building their own products
  • Cross-visitation and dynamic trade area datasets alongside visit counts
  • US visitation history back to October 2018
  • Rated 4.9/5 on G2 from 10 reviews

Cons

  • Data and API first, so teams without data engineers need to build or buy analysis on top
  • Foot traffic datasets cover the US; the global offer is raw mobility data
  • Gravy Analytics, now a subsidiary, is subject to a 2025 FTC order on sensitive location data, so ask how it affects the data you buy
  • Pricing isn't published (yearly license for US foot traffic; usage-based for the global API)
5. pass_by

5. pass_by: best for analysts who want daily, brand-level US retail visit counts in their warehouse

pass_by (Passby Technologies Ltd) is a London-based retail market intelligence company. Its Almanac platform brings brand, market, spend and trip insights into one view, AI Retail Agents put the same data into AI assistants, and Feeds & API delivers the signals into customers' own tools. Its US visit data covers about 93% of branded retail points of interest: 1.31M POIs across 7,080 brands, 292 retail categories and 687 stock tickers. Visit counts are aggregated daily at POI level, with history from January 2019 and 90-day visit forecasts updated monthly. Delivery options include S3, SFTP, Snowflake, BigQuery, Google Cloud Storage, Azure, Databricks and a REST API. pass_by self-reports correlation to actual traffic of 86% daily, 80% weekly and 88% monthly.

For former SafeGraph Patterns users, pass_by offers POI-level visit feeds into the same warehouses many SafeGraph customers used, such as Snowflake and Databricks, with brand and ticker mapping built in. It isn't a general POI database like SafeGraph Places. Huq is the alternative for teams that also need catchment, dwell, cross-visitation and a self-serve platform across 35 markets, with Parquet or CSV files delivered into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage.

Pros

  • Broad US branded retail coverage: about 93% of branded retail POIs across 7,080 brands
  • Visits mapped to brands, retail categories and tickers, which suits brand-level benchmarking
  • Daily POI-level visit counts with history from 2019 and 90-day forecasts
  • Wide choice of delivery, from warehouse shares and cloud storage to a REST API

Cons

  • US visit data centers on branded retail, so independent stores and non-retail locations may be thinner
  • Accuracy figures are self-reported
  • Pricing is on request (monthly or yearly license)
6. Foursquare

6. Foursquare: best for teams who used SafeGraph for POI data and want a global places alternative

Foursquare is a POI and location data company with more than 15 years in location technology. Its places data comes as the Places API, Places POI Data files, Open Source Places and Business Listings, and it also sells marketing products (Attribution, Audience, Proximity) and geospatial tools such as Spatial Workbench and Spatial H3 Hub. Foursquare lists 100M+ POIs in more than 200 countries, 16 billion+ check-ins and data from 500M+ devices. Data is delivered in customers' preferred formats and through 550+ integrated partners, including AWS, Snowflake and The Trade Desk. On September 18, 2026 Infillion announced it would acquire Foursquare; AdExchanger reports Foursquare will keep its brand and keep selling data to third parties "for now".

Foursquare is the most direct alternative to SafeGraph Places: a global POI dataset with warehouse delivery, plus a free Open Source Places tier. Esri switched Business Analyst's POIs to Foursquare Open Source Places in February 2025. It's a places provider first, so teams that used SafeGraph Patterns will need another source for visits. Huq covers that side, with weekly footfall, catchment and cross-visitation across 35 markets, plus brand and industry layers.

Pros

  • 100M+ POIs across 200+ countries
  • Open Source Places gives a free starting point for POI data
  • 550+ partner integrations, including AWS and Snowflake
  • Its places data powers POIs in Esri Business Analyst

Cons

  • A places provider first, not a foot traffic dashboard for site analysis
  • Infillion's acquisition, announced September 2026, may change the roadmap, so check contract terms
7. Echo Analytics

7. Echo Analytics: best for data teams who want places data and footfall from one vendor

Echo Analytics is a geospatial data provider that sells location datasets rather than a dashboard. Its core products are Places, POI data on 80M+ locations worldwide, and Shapes, building footprints for commercial locations with 95%+ polygon coverage. Its insight datasets cover Footfall, Catchment Area, Cross-visitation, GeoPersona and Travel Patterns, and it also offers a Location SDK and geolocation APIs. Coverage varies by product: its Datarade listings span Europe and the US, from 5 to 33 countries depending on the dataset. Echo sells to retail, adtech and martech, FMCG, consulting and market research teams. It offers free data samples and public documentation, and works with partners such as CARTO and Esri for teams that want to map the data.

Echo is the closest single-vendor replacement for SafeGraph's old mix of Places, Geometry and Patterns: POIs, building shapes and footfall from one source. You'll need in-house tools or a partner to analyze it, and its update cadence isn't published. Huq overlaps on footfall, catchment and cross-visitation, adds a self-serve platform and monthly PDF location reports, covers 35 markets refreshed weekly, and also delivers Parquet or CSV feeds.

Pros

  • POI data, building shapes and footfall from one vendor
  • Catchment Area and Cross-visitation datasets as well as visit counts
  • Free data samples and public documentation
  • Esri says the data integrates with its users' GIS workflows

Cons

  • No dashboard of its own, so you'll need in-house tools or a partner
  • Country coverage varies by dataset
  • Update cadence isn't published
8. Veraset

8. Veraset: best for data science teams who want raw mobility data to build their own models

Veraset is a raw mobility data provider for data science and engineering teams. Its products are Movement, a global dataset of GPS pings; Visits, device visits to 4M+ POIs with dwell; Home & Work, inferred residence and workplace locations; Trips, origin-destination journeys covering 100M+ trips a month; and MATCHLINK, which links devices to emails, IP addresses and households. Veraset cites about 300M devices and 10 billion daily pings across 200+ countries. Data is pushed as flat files to S3 or GCP or accessed through APIs, and in March 2026 it launched Orchestrator, a self-serve platform for location workflows. Buyers span adtech, finance, real estate, retail, urban planning, government and research.

Veraset suits SafeGraph customers who used Patterns as an input to their own models and now want the rawer layer underneath: pings, visits with dwell, and trips. Turning that into site answers needs an in-house data team, and the scale figures are vendor claims. Huq is the alternative for teams that want aggregated foot traffic: weekly footfall, catchment and cross-visitation across 35 markets, in a platform or as Parquet or CSV files delivered into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage.

Pros

  • Large-scale raw data: about 300M devices and 10 billion daily pings (vendor figures)
  • Several dataset types, including Trips and Home & Work, not just visits
  • Flat files to S3 or GCP, APIs, and the Orchestrator self-serve platform

Cons

  • Raw data needs an in-house data team to turn it into site answers
  • Scale figures are vendor claims, and refresh cadence per dataset isn't published

How to choose a SafeGraph alternative

Do you need foot traffic or POI data?

SafeGraph still sells places data. If you need visit counts, you need a foot traffic provider instead.

Are you replacing SafeGraph Patterns in a model?

Advan's Weekly Patterns+ is the direct successor. Check field names and history before switching.

Do you want analysis or raw files?

If no one on the team writes SQL, choose a vendor with a dashboard. Huq offers both a platform and data feeds.

Do you need countries beyond the US?

Most US foot traffic vendors cover the US only. Huq covers 35 markets and manually validates 1,000+ locations in each, twice a year.

Frequently asked questions

What is SafeGraph?

SafeGraph is a places data company. It sells Places (80M+ points of interest across 195+ countries and territories, updated monthly), Geometry (building footprints and parking lots), Address and US Spend data. It delivers data files through Snowflake, AWS Marketplace, Databricks, CARTO and Esri rather than a dashboard, and no longer sells foot traffic.

Does SafeGraph still sell foot traffic data?

No. SafeGraph's docs say its Weekly, Monthly and Neighborhood Patterns datasets were no longer available from the start of 2023. Advan acquired the Patterns business in November 2022. SafeGraph now focuses on places, geometry, address and US spend data, and refers foot traffic buyers to a mobility data partner.

What replaced SafeGraph Patterns?

Advan Research sells Weekly Patterns+ and Neighborhood Patterns+, the successors to SafeGraph Patterns. Placer.ai, Unacast and pass_by sell US visits. Huq covers 35 markets with footfall by week, month and year, residents vs visitors, catchment, drive time, frequency, dwell, dayparts, cross-visitation, tourism, density, transport mode, POIs, brands, industries, plus demographics and spend in selected markets, in a platform or as Parquet/CSV feeds into S3 or GCS.

Who are SafeGraph's competitors?

For places data, SafeGraph competitors include Foursquare and Echo Analytics. For foot traffic, which SafeGraph no longer sells, buyers compare Advan Research, Placer.ai, Unacast, pass_by, Veraset and Huq. CB Insights and Datarade both publish longer competitor lists.

Is there a SafeGraph alternative with a dashboard?

Yes. Unlike SafeGraph, Huq, Placer.ai and Advan offer dashboards. Huq's Explore map and Projects cover footfall by week, month and year, residents vs visitors, catchment, drive time, frequency, dwell, dayparts, cross-visitation, tourism, density, transport mode, POIs, brands, industries, plus demographics and spend in selected markets, with exports, monthly PDF reports and Parquet/CSV feeds into S3 or GCS.

How much does SafeGraph cost?

SafeGraph doesn't publish prices. Its pricing page describes a custom annual fee based on your mix of rows, columns and usage rights, with no pay-per-use option and no self-serve shop. Academic users are referred to Dewey.

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About the author

Huq Research Team

Location intelligence analysts

The Huq Research Team compares location data providers using vendor sites, product documentation, review sites and press coverage. We check every listed fact against a public source and update these pages when vendors change.

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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