Maps: opening hours API / Property

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I’m currently developing an iOS app that relies heavily on location details. I'm using MapKit and MKMapItem as my primary data source, which works perfectly for standard metadata.

However, I’ve hit a roadblock: I want to display opening hours inline within my location details, but it seems Apple doesn't expose a public API or property for this in MKMapItem (even though the data is clearly visible in the native Apple Maps app).

Since I'm building this as an indie developer/startup, the Google Places API is unfortunately too expensive for my current budget.

⁠Is there any legitimate, native way to get opening hours from Apple that I might have missed?
⁠If not, what are your best practices or recommended indie-friendly alternatives (e.g., Yelp Fusion API, OpenStreetMap, Foursquare)?

Any tips on how to handle this elegantly and cost-efficiently would be highly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

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Answer 1

Etresoft OP

27m

Apple only provides the data documented by MapKit. And that data is subject to extremely restrictive licensing. It's better suited for a secondary data source, where you display your own data against an Apple Maps basemap.

Apple's map data isn't unique in these respects. Any map data is subject to similarly restrictive licensing. I'm unaware of any data source for this kind of street-level data. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, just that I don't know about it.

Any company that has gone to the trouble of collecting this kind of detailed data is not going to provide it for free. And any company that's ever tried has quickly found out that the data is way more complicated than they anticipated. Google is able to leverage a large user base for Free Labour. Apple's trying a hybrid approach that clearly isn't working.

When someone finds some data in your app that's wrong, it's your app that gets the 1-star review, not your data source. It's a real mine field. It's simply not something that any "indie" developer could ever manage.

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