InVision
Smartling
| Feature | InVision | Smartling |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $7.95/mo | Contact sales |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✗ No |
| Rating | 3.8 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | design-teams, product-managers, stakeholder-reviews, legacy-users | enterprise-companies, saas-companies, global-marketing-teams, content-teams |
| Founded | 2011 | 2009 |
| Prototyping | ✓ | ✗ |
| Freehand Whiteboard | ✓ | ✗ |
| Design Systems | ✓ | ✗ |
| Inspect Mode | ✓ | ✗ |
| Commenting | ✓ | ✗ |
| User Testing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Neural Mt | ✗ | ✓ |
| Translation Memory | ✗ | ✓ |
| Visual Context | ✗ | ✓ |
| Quality Scores | ✗ | ✓ |
| Workflow Automation | ✗ | ✓ |
| Connector Integrations | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ InVision Pros
- Excellent prototyping with hotspots and transitions
- Freehand whiteboarding for brainstorming
- Design system manager (DSM) for consistency
- Good stakeholder review and commenting workflow
✗ InVision Cons
- Company has pivoted and scaled down significantly
- Studio product was discontinued
- Most teams have migrated to Figma
✓ Smartling Pros
- Hybrid human + AI translation
- Visual context for translators
- Excellent quality management
- Strong CMS and code integrations
✗ Smartling Cons
- Enterprise pricing (not transparent)
- Overkill for small projects
- Setup requires technical resources
The Verdict
InVision is built for design teams and product managers, with a focus on prototyping and freehand-whiteboard. Smartling targets enterprise companies and saas companies and leads with neural-mt and translation-memory.
Smartling uses custom enterprise pricing, while InVision starts at $7.95/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
InVision has a free plan, which gives it a meaningful edge for individuals and small teams exploring their options. Smartling requires a paid subscription from day one.
Smartling edges out on user ratings (4.3 vs 3.8). While both are well-regarded, that gap reflects real differences in user satisfaction worth considering.
Bottom line: Smartling has a slight overall edge — but if excellent prototyping with hotspots and transitions matters most to you, InVision may still be the right call.