Lokalise
Smartling
| Feature | Lokalise | Smartling |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | From $120/mo | Contact sales |
| Free Plan | ✗ No | ✗ No |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | mobile-developers, product-teams, agile-teams, design-teams | enterprise-companies, saas-companies, global-marketing-teams, content-teams |
| Founded | 2016 | 2009 |
| Over The Air Updates | ✓ | ✗ |
| Screenshot Ocr | ✓ | ✗ |
| Branching | ✓ | ✗ |
| Figma Plugin | ✓ | ✗ |
| Api Cli | ✓ | ✗ |
| Quality Assurance | ✓ | ✗ |
| Neural Mt | ✗ | ✓ |
| Translation Memory | ✗ | ✓ |
| Visual Context | ✗ | ✓ |
| Quality Scores | ✗ | ✓ |
| Workflow Automation | ✗ | ✓ |
| Connector Integrations | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ 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
✓ 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
Lokalise is built for mobile developers and product teams, with a focus on over-the-air-updates and screenshot-ocr. Smartling targets enterprise companies and saas companies and leads with neural-mt and translation-memory.
Smartling uses custom enterprise pricing, while Lokalise starts at $120/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Neither tool offers a free plan, so factor the subscription cost into your decision from the start.
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.