ideal-postcodes/postcodes.io

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

1401 stars · 282 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

Postcodes.io is a free, open-source UK postcode lookup and geocoding API serving ONS Postcode Directory, Ordnance Survey Open Names, and Scottish Postcode Directory data over HTTP. It can be used via the public API or self-hosted with Docker using a pre-seeded PostgreSQL/PostGIS database.

Use cases

• look up a UK postcode and get administrative and geographic data
• reverse geocode lat/long coordinates to the nearest postcode
• autocomplete and search UK postcodes from partial input
• find nearest postcodes to a given location
• validate UK postcodes in a form
• bulk postcode lookup and reverse geocoding
• self-host a free UK postcode API with Docker

When to choose

• you need free UK postcode lookup, validation, or geocoding without authentication
• you want to self-host postcode data with Docker and PostGIS
• you need bulk reverse geocoding or nearest-postcode queries
• you want open data with administrative, electoral, and NHS region details

When to avoid

• you need rooftop-level or property-level address precision (use a commercial geocoder)
• you need non-UK or international postcode coverage
• you need daily Royal Mail-fresh address data or dedicated support
• commercial use of Northern Ireland (BT) postcode data without a licence from NI Land & Property Services

Facets

service · maturity active

http-server search-engine geospatial api-framework self-hosted apis self-hosted developer-tools self-hosted uk-postcodes geocoding reverse-geocoding postcode-lookup open-data postgis rest-api autocomplete maps geospatial docker web-server nodejs linux macos

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markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="ideal-postcodes/postcodes.io")