Crowdin
Lokalise
| Feature | Crowdin | Lokalise |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $40/mo | From $120/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Rating | 4.4 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Best For | developers, open-source-projects, product-teams, localization-managers | mobile-developers, product-teams, agile-teams, design-teams |
| Founded | 2009 | 2016 |
| Translation Management | ✓ | ✗ |
| Machine Translation | ✓ | ✗ |
| In Context Editing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Github Integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Quality Assurance | ✓ | ✓ |
| Api | ✓ | ✗ |
| Over The Air Updates | ✗ | ✓ |
| Screenshot Ocr | ✗ | ✓ |
| Branching | ✗ | ✓ |
| Figma Plugin | ✗ | ✓ |
| Api Cli | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Crowdin Pros
- Free for open source
- GitHub integration
- AI pre-translation
- Good community features
✗ Crowdin Cons
- Complex for beginners
- Pricing per words
- Advanced features locked
✓ Lokalise Pros
- Over-the-air translation updates
- Screenshot OCR for context
- Excellent developer experience
- Figma and design tool integration
✗ Lokalise Cons
- Pricing based on word count
- Can get expensive quickly
- Limited free trial
The Verdict
Crowdin is built for developers and open source projects, with a focus on translation-management and machine-translation. Lokalise targets mobile developers and product teams and leads with over-the-air-updates and screenshot-ocr.
On pricing, Crowdin is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $40/mo compared to $120/mo for Lokalise. That $80/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Crowdin has a free plan, which gives it a meaningful edge for individuals and small teams exploring their options. Lokalise requires a paid subscription from day one.
Both tools are a solid fit for product teams — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.