Lokalise vs Phrase
Lokalise and Phrase side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
At a glance
| Lokalise | Phrase | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Translation & Localization | Translation & Localization |
| Starting price | $149/mo (checked October 2026) | $27/mo |
| Free tier | Not listed | Not listed |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
Neither lists a free tier, so expect to pay to use either one.
Phrase has the lower starting price ($27/mo against $149/mo for Lokalise). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
Both are in our Translation & Localization category.
About each tool
Lokalise
Localization management platform for translating software and apps. Explorer is $149 a month billed monthly; annual price not shown.
Who it is for
Lokalise's developer and plan pages target product, engineering and localization teams that manage translations across several projects, repositories and design tools. Its plans scale advanced seats, integrations, quotas and governance features from Explorer to Enterprise.
Strengths
- Lokalise's help center says billing is based on processed words, not the number of keys, that translation keys are unlimited, and that hosted words and translator and reviewer seats are unlimited on paid plans.
- Lokalise lists Git sync with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure Repos, a REST API, a Go-based CLI, webhooks, and OTA SDKs for iOS, Android and Flutter.
- Lokalise lists integrations with Figma, Jira, Contentful, Webflow, WordPress, Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage, and says it supports 300+ languages and file formats such as .strings, .xliff, .json, .po, .resx and .xlsx.
- Lokalise's developer page lists an MCP server that gives Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT and other MCP-compatible tools access to a project, plus custom AI profiles that use translation memory and glossaries, and AI Scoring against MQM criteria.
- Lokalise's security page lists a SOC 2 Type II assessment, ISO 27001 and 27017 certification, GDPR compliance with a named Data Protection Officer, and customer data stored on AWS infrastructure in EU regions.
- Lokalise's help center says every plan includes API access (capped at 6 requests per second), and that paid plans include unlimited OTA requests with data transfer limited by plan (10 GB a month on Explorer up to 500 GB on Enterprise).
Limitations
- Each plan has fixed yearly quotas (processed words, Pro AI words) plus monthly OTA data; Lokalise says the affected feature stops working when a limit is exceeded, unused quota does not roll over, and some metrics can be topped up to a stated maximum.
- Features are tiered: glossary, translation memory and in-context editors start at Growth; branching, versioning, user groups and two-factor authentication start at Advanced; SSO, audit logs, personalized AI models and a dedicated CSM are Enterprise. Growth does not include SSO.
- Lokalise's pages disagree on Growth: 300,000 processed words and 50,000 Pro AI words a year on the Growth and new-plans pages, versus 225,000 and 40,000 on the available-plans page. Lokalise's developer page also says Git sync with branching is on all plans, while the plans article reserves branching for Advanced and up.
- Lokalise's AI statement says customer content may be used to improve its services unless the customer opts out through the AI Addendum, and that its internal AI Scoring model can be trained on customer content with consent; it says third-party LLM providers may not train on it. The statement is internally inconsistent on whether this is opt-out or opt-in.
Phrase
Localization platform with translation management, string management and AI translation; plans start at $27 a month billed annually (Freelancer).
Who it is for
Its pricing page groups plans for freelancers and language service providers, software UI/UX teams, and larger business and enterprise localization teams. The Phrase TMS page describes the TMS as aimed at enterprise localization teams handling files and multilingual releases with multiple vendors.
Strengths
- The pricing page says all plans come with a 14-day free trial.
- The Phrase Strings page lists file formats such as JSON, YAML, XML, PO/Gettext, iOS Strings, Android XML, Flutter ARB and CSV, names GitHub, GitLab and Figma integrations, and mentions an API, webhooks, a CLI and over-the-air updates.
- The Phrase TMS page says it supports 50+ file formats and over 50 integrations, and offers translation memory, term bases, automated project creation and quality checks.
- Both product pages say they give access to 30+ machine translation engines, including bring-your-own engines, with automated quality scoring (vendor-reported).
- The Phrase terms say the customer remains the owner of its content, and that training models that produce text outputs (such as translations) on it is subject to the customer's prior approval.
Limitations
- The terms say all fees are non-cancellable and non-refundable, and renewal notice must be given at least 30 days before the subscription period ends or it renews for another period. Amounts bought outside the subscribed scope are billed as On-Demand Fees, invoiced monthly in arrears.
- The terms let Phrase use customer content to train its machine learning models without sharing them with other customers, and the pricing page conflicts with itself on some figures (Professional Strings seats are listed as 15 in one place and 150 in another).
