Lokalise
Lokalise is a software tool designed for continuous localization and translation management. It integrates with development workflows to fa...
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What is Lokalise?
Lokalise is a continuous localization and translation management platform that connects your product, engineering, marketing, and content workflows into one system for AI‑powered multilingual shipping. It lets teams manage translations for web and mobile apps, games, SaaS products, and marketing campaigns by syncing strings from code repositories, design tools like Figma, and content platforms, then automating translation, review, and deployment via 60+ integrations and an extensive API. The platform supports both AI‑driven and human‑led translation, applies your brand’s terminology, tone, and style, and runs quality checks so that only low‑confidence results require manual review, enabling teams to ship localized features up to 10x faster and reduce translation spend by up to 90%.
Key features include AI‑orchestrated translation across multiple LLMs, visual context with screenshots and in‑context editors, translation memory, glossary and style‑guide management, Over‑the‑Air (OTA) updates for mobile apps, and continuous synchronization with GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Figma, Contentful, and many other tools. Lokalise offers built‑in workflow automations, task management, role‑based permissions, and analytics dashboards so product managers, developers, and marketers can track volume, progress, and quality without leaving their usual stack. The platform is designed for agile teams that regularly ship new features, run multilingual campaigns, and need consistent, on‑brand content across dozens of languages.
Lokalise is aimed at product and engineering teams in SaaS, fintech, gaming, IoT, and e‑commerce companies that are expanding globally and need to localize UI text, configuration files, and documentation; marketing and growth teams that want to craft localized campaigns and landing pages while keeping brand voice consistent; and localization managers who coordinate in‑house translators or external agencies. It particularly suits organizations that want to embed localization into CI/CD pipelines, keep tight control over terminology and workflows, and leverage AI to scale translation volume without sacrificing quality or forcing every string through manual review.
Lokalise pricing
Pricing model: Freemium
Lokalise offers five subscription plans: Free, Explorer, Growth, Advanced, and Enterprise. The Free plan includes 2 advanced seats, up to 2 target languages per team, 1 project per team, 10,000 processed words per year, 500,000 total hosted words, 1 automation, 1 GB of OTA data transfer, 1 integration of your choice, tasks support, and access to API, CLI, and webhooks. Explorer adds 5 advanced seats (up to 10 total), up to 10 target languages, up to 5 projects, 60,000 processed words per year (top‑up‑able), 240,000 standard AI/MT words, 25 automations, 10 GB OTA per month, 2 integrations, document localization, basic analytics, and 24/7 support. Growth includes everything in Explorer plus 10 advanced seats (up to 15), unlimited languages and projects, 300,000 processed words per year, 50,000 Pro AI words, 50 automations, 3 integrations (including Figma for one project), 50 GB OTA per month, glossary, translation memory, translation history, in‑context editors, screenshots, and a review center. Advanced builds on Growth with 15 advanced seats, 1,000,000 processed words per year, 150,000 Pro AI words, up to 5 integrations, 200 GB OTA per month, shared glossary, TM management, branching, custom statuses, granular permissions, automatic snapshots, style guide, and more advanced workflow and security features. Enterprise includes 40 advanced seats, 3,000,000 processed words per year, 400,000 Pro AI words, unlimited integrations, 150 automations, 500 GB OTA per month, personalized AI models, custom workflows, audit logs, SSO, priority support, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager; this tier is custom‑priced and negotiated directly with Lokalise. All plans allow topping up word‑count and OTA limits, and credit‑card billing is available only for Explorer and Growth, while Advanced and Enterprise also support annual bank‑transfer subscriptions.
Lokalise pros
- Deep CI/CD‑style integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and other dev tools
- Over‑the‑Air (OTA) updates for live mobile‑app translations without app store releases
- AI‑orchestrated translation across multiple LLMs for each language pair and content type
- Automatic quality scoring and only low‑confidence strings routed to human review
- Visual context with screenshots and in‑context editors for web and mobile strings
- Translation memory and glossary reuse to keep terminology consistent across products
- Style guide and branding rules enforcement in AI‑generated translations
- Flexible workflow automations around translation, QA, approval, and publishing
- Real‑time analytics dashboards for volume, tasks, and localization progress
- Granular role‑based permissions and user groups for complex org structures
- Document localization for non‑string files such as marketing assets and PDF‑style content
- Support for 30+ file formats and 10+ mobile‑ and web‑SDK‑style integrations
- API‑first design with CLI, webhooks, and SDKs that developers can script into pipelines
- Personalized AI translation models available on higher‑tier plans
- Enterprise‑grade security with SSO, audit logs, and vendor‑rate profiles
Lokalise cons
- AI translation quality depends heavily on your glossary and style‑guide definitions
- Figma integration is limited to one project on the Growth plan and up
- OTA data‑transfer quotas can cap usage if not monitored on larger apps
- Free plan is very restricted (only 2 seats, 1 project, and 10k processed words per year)
- Advanced workflow features and custom processors only available on Advanced and Enterprise tiers
- Per‑seat pricing can become expensive for large, distributed teams with many advanced users
- Custom workflows and integrations require configuration that may overwhelm smaller teams
- No completely open‑ended free tier; even paid plans enforce hard quotas that stop features if exceeded
Frequently asked questions about Lokalise
What is Lokalise and what does it do?
Lokalise is a continuous localization and translation management platform that helps teams ship localized web and mobile apps, games, SaaS products, and marketing content faster and at scale. It centralizes all your strings, connects to your code repositories, design tools, and content platforms, then automates translation, review, and deployment using AI‑orchestrated machine translation, human‑led workflows, and deep integrations so that localization becomes part of your regular development and release cycle rather than a separate bottleneck.
How does Lokalise handle AI translations?
Lokalise uses AI orchestration to route each text segment to the most suitable LLM based on language pair, content type, and context, then applies your approved terminology, tone of voice, and style guide to keep translations on brand. Quality is automatically scored; only low‑confidence results are sent for human review, which reduces the volume of manual work while maintaining high accuracy, and you can also opt to use Pro AI or your own translation‑memory‑based machine translation for higher‑quality scenarios.
Which integrations and file formats does Lokalise support?
Lokalise supports over 60 integrations covering version‑control systems (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket), project‑tracking tools (Jira), design platforms (Figma), content systems (Contentful, WordPress‑style stacks), and marketing tools, as well as 30+ file formats for localization strings such as JSON, XML, iOS and Android resource files, and other key‑based formats. It also provides an API, CLI, webhooks, and SDKs for iOS, Android, and web so developers can embed localization into their pipelines and trigger exports, syncs, or OTA updates programmatically.
What is Over‑the‑Air (OTA) and how does it work in Lokalise?
Over‑the‑Air (OTA) in Lokalise allows you to push updated translations to mobile apps in production without requiring a new app‑store release by streaming the latest strings from Lokalise to your app clients. Each plan includes a monthly OTA data‑transfer quota (for example, 10 GB on Explorer, 50 GB on Growth, 200 GB on Advanced, and 500 GB on Enterprise), and once the quota is exceeded the OTA feature stops until usage is reduced or the subscription is upgraded, helping you balance real‑time updates with cost control.
Who is Lokalise designed for within an organization?
Lokalise is designed for product and engineering teams that ship frequent updates and need localization to keep pace with sprints, marketing and growth teams that run multilingual campaigns and landing pages, translators and localization managers who coordinate internal or external language resources, and CX/UX teams that want to validate in‑context strings and screenshots. The platform supports role‑based permissions so developers, project managers, translators, reviewers, and admins can all work in the same system without stepping on each other’s workflows.
What does the Free plan include and what are its limits?
The Free plan includes 2 advanced seats (for project managers and developers), up to 2 target languages per team, 1 project per team, 10,000 processed words per year, 500,000 total hosted words, 1 automation, 1 GB of OTA data transfer, 1 integration of your choice (excluding Figma), tasks support, and access to API, CLI, and webhooks. If any quota is exceeded, the affected feature stops working until usage is reduced or the plan is upgraded, making this tier suitable for small experiments or simple projects rather than large, multi‑product organizations.
How does Lokalise manage glossaries, translation memory, and review workflows?
Lokalise lets you define a shared glossary of terms and style‑guide rules that are enforced in both AI and human translation, plus translation memory that reuses previously approved strings to ensure consistency and reduce redundant translation work. The platform offers a review center where translators and reviewers can filter strings, assign tasks, propose changes, and track approvals, and you can create workflow automations that move strings from translation to QA and then to publishing based on status changes, due dates, or integration triggers.
Are there quotas that can stop features from working?
Yes, Lokalise enforces fixed quotas per billing metric such as processed words, hosted words, OTA data transfer, and the number of automations; if a limit is exceeded, the corresponding feature (for example, OTA updates, new automations, or AI translation) stops working until usage returns within the quota or you upgrade your plan. This prevents runaway costs but means teams with fast‑growing content volumes need to monitor usage and top up limits or move to higher‑tier plans as needed.
How does Lokalise handle security, compliance, and enterprise requirements?
On the Enterprise plan Lokalise provides enterprise‑grade security features including single sign‑on (SSO), audit logs, vendor‑rate profiles, priority support, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager, plus personalized AI translation models and advanced analytics. The platform follows strict data‑handling standards, supports bank‑transfer payments for annual subscriptions, and offers features like two‑factor authentication, granular permissions, and secure password configuration to help large organizations meet internal compliance and governance policies.
Can I customize workflows and permissions in Lokalise?
Yes, Advanced and Enterprise plans include custom translation statuses, user groups, granular permissions, chained tasks, flexible workflow automations, and branching, so you can build approval chains that match your internal review process, restrict certain actions to specific roles, and automate repetitive steps such as exporting translated files, triggering CI/CD builds, or publishing content to different environments. This lets larger organizations standardize localization workflows across multiple products and markets without losing control over who can change what.