Lokalise launched in 2017 in Riga, Latvia, by Nick Ustinov and Petr Antropov. It is a cloud-based translation management system (TMS) for apps, websites, games, and software.
Over time, it evolved into a full localization hub with AI translation, in-context editor, automation, and OTA updates.
Lokalise supports integration with over 60 tools (GitHub, Figma, Contentful, Jira, etc.). It aims to serve product, dev, localization, and design teams in one unified workflow.
Key features & functionality
Here are what Lokalise offers in practice:
- In-context editor: You see translations live in UI context, reducing errors and guesswork.
- Translation memory & glossary: Reuse past translations, maintain consistency across projects.
- Machine & AI translation: It can orchestrate among AI translator engines and human input to boost efficiency.
- Branching & workflows: You can manage project branches, custom statuses, and chained tasks.
- API, SDK, CLI: Full programmability push or pull strings, automate workflows.
- Over-the-air (OTA) updates: Send AI translation updates to apps without full rebuilds.
- Integrations & plugins: Figma, GitHub, Sketch, WordPress, Zendesk, Intercom, etc.
- Localization quality checks & automations: QA rules, checks, automation to avoid translation errors.
- Collaboration & role management: You set roles, user groups, and grant limited review rights.
- Support & onboarding: They claim fast support in 108 languages, live chat, and a small team approach.
All this lets teams streamline app localization, content translation, and multi-language releases.
Pricing, cost notes & key quotas
Lokalise has multiple pricing tiers (billed monthly or yearly). After a 14-day free trial, you can use a free or limited version indefinitely.
Here’s how pricing works in words (no table):
- The Start plan is about USD $120/month and includes 10 seats and 5,000 hosted keys.
- The Essential plan is about USD $230/month, with 10,000 hosted keys and more features like machine translation, glossary, in-context editing.
- The Pro plan goes higher (some sources list USD $825/month) for advanced teams with 30,000 keys, branching, integrations.
- Enterprise is custom you negotiate seats, keys, support, etc.
Also, if you exceed key quotas, they may charge extra per key over limit.
They are moving OTA usage pricing from “monthly active users” to data usage (gigabytes) to better reflect app translation traffic.
Note: pricing varies in sources some list Start $140, Essential $270, Pro $990.
Pros & cons
Here’s what seems strong vs what you need to watch out for:
Pros
- Very developer-friendly: APIs, SDKs, CLI make integration smooth.
- Supports real-time edits & live context reduces translation errors.
- Automation & QA rules help avoid mistakes at scale.
- OTA updates let you push translations without full releases.
- Strong support: claims fast response, 24/7 in many different languages.
- Flexible roles and branching for larger teams.
- Integration with many tools fits into your stack.
Cons
- Cost can get steep for large volumes or many seats.
- Key/quota overage charges can surprise if not monitored.
- Steep learning for non-technical users initially.
- Some important features are locked to higher plans.
- For small simple sites, maybe overkill.
Traffic, reach & social footprint
- I could not reliably find a public number for 404,877 monthly visitors of the Lokalise website.
- Their 59,966 social media followers overall (across platforms) appears not aggregated publicly in one place.
- But you’ll often see them active on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
If you want, I can try pulling up Alexa/SimilarWeb numbers and social metrics.
Final thoughts on Lokalise
Lokalise is a AI powerful tool and well-designed localization hub. It provides the tools you need to scale translation and manage multiple languages in apps, websites, and software.
For teams that demand automation, APIs, OTA updates, and integration with dev workflows, it hits many of the right notes.
The in-context editing, translation memory, QA checks, and branching make it a mature tool. Many users praise its ease of use, collaboration, and the way it reduces manual translation hassles.
