I have protected health information (PHI) and need to geocode locally, not using a web service (a HIPAA violation). I used to do this with ArcGIS, but my license has expired, and I would like to move to QGIS or Pelias.
We are having server issues installing Pelias, but QGIS is working just fine, so that is my preference.
I had public (non-PHI) latitude/longitude data (area crime events). I was able to successfully spatially join the crime latitude/longitude with census tract shapefiles to get crime census tract.
However, my PHI address information is Street Address (one field for number and street), City, State, Zip. All tutorials send this to the web (not an option).
In addition to my census tract shapefiles, I also downloaded open street maps data (that's what Pelias was going to use), if that helps.
I successfully geocoded fake address data, but only via web service.