# Crowdin vs Lokalise

> Lokalise scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Crowdin's 69.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do translate text. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-lokalise
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-lokalise.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-lokalise.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-lokalise.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Lokalise scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Crowdin's 69.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do translate text.

- Crowdin: grade B, 69.6/100, rank #153 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crowdin.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crowdin.json
- Lokalise: grade BB, 71.3/100, rank #115 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lokalise.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lokalise.json

## Which one, for what

### Crowdin (B)

Good for: Teams that keep product strings and files in Crowdin and want an agent to upload sources, check progress, apply pre-translation, manage glossaries and pull builds.

Watch for: The terms forbid accessing the service to monitor availability, performance or functionality, or for benchmarking, without Crowdin's prior written consent

### Lokalise (BB)

Good for: Agents that manage localisation work, such as adding keys, uploading and exporting string files, keeping a glossary and starting AI or machine translation tasks for a team that already uses Lokalise.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 84 against 78
- Security & auth, 73 against 68

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The Master Service Agreement forbids using the service for benchmarking or competitive analysis


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Crowdin | Lokalise | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 78 | 84 | Lokalise +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 76 | Crowdin +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 69 | even |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 73 | Lokalise +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 84 | Lokalise +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 81 | Lokalise +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.6 · B** | **71.3 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Crowdin | Lokalise |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Crowdin OÜ | Lokalise, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.crowdin.com/api/v2` | `https://api.lokalise.com/api2` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Crowdin's terms. The CLI and the official API clients are MIT | Proprietary service under the Lokalise Master Service Agreement. The CLI and the Node SDK on GitHub are BSD 3-Clause |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-24 | 2025-11-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-24 | 2026-03-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 320 stars, 264k npm/wk, 14k PyPI/wk | 124 stars, 338k npm/wk, 39k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Crowdin.** The REST API has a public OpenAPI document with 374 operations, and tokens can be limited by scope, access level and project. Translation runs inside Crowdin projects and connected engines, so it is not a stateless per-character translation API. No Retry-After guidance, idempotency keys or SLA were found in the reviewed documentation.

**Lokalise.** The REST API has public OpenAPI files, Markdown docs, published rate limits, read-only tokens, scoped OAuth and an audit log endpoint. Access needs a paid plan after a 14-day trial, a person signs up in a browser, and the Master Service Agreement forbids benchmarking. No idempotency keys or deprecation policy were found in the reviewed documentation.

## Before you call either

### Crowdin

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer <token>` to `https://api.crowdin.com/api/v2`. Crowdin Enterprise uses `https://<organization_domain>.api.crowdin.com/api/v2`
2. Use the MCP V2 endpoint `https://mcp.crowdin.com/v2/mcp` and set `crowdin-tool-sets`, because the server loads all 33 tool sets by default
3. Set `crowdin-read-only: true` on the MCP connection for exploration. It exposes only list and get tools
4. Keep to 20 concurrent requests an account across all tokens, and add your own backoff on 429
5. Upload a file to `/storages` first, then pass the `storageId` to the add-file call. Builds, exports and reports are asynchronous and need a status poll
6. `/mts/{mtId}/translations` takes at most 100 strings a call and needs the `mt` scope and a configured engine

### Lokalise

1. Send the token in the `X-Api-Token` header to `https://api.lokalise.com/api2`. OAuth access tokens go in `Authorization: Bearer` and expire after about 60 minutes.
2. Stay under 6 requests a second per token and 10 concurrent requests per project. On 429, back off exponentially and read `X-RateLimit-Reset`.
3. Use a read-only token for reads. A read/write token can call `PUT /projects/{project_id}/empty`, which deletes every key and translation.
4. Use `pagination=cursor` on `/keys` and `/translations`, with `limit` at most 500 on keys, and follow `X-Pagination-Next-Cursor`.
5. Projects above 10,000 key-language pairs need `/files/async-download`. Poll `/processes/{process_id}` for the bundle URL, and do the same after `/files/upload`.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Crowdin or Lokalise?

Lokalise scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Crowdin's 69.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Crowdin and Lokalise need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Crowdin and Lokalise without installing anything?

Yes. Crowdin has a hosted endpoint at https://api.crowdin.com/api/v2 and Lokalise at https://api.lokalise.com/api2.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-lokalise.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-lokalise.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "crowdin", "b": "lokalise"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare crowdin lokalise`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crowdin.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lokalise.json

## Other comparisons with Crowdin or Lokalise

- [Amazon Translate vs Crowdin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-crowdin.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-lokalise.md)
- [Azure Translator vs Crowdin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-translator-vs-crowdin.md)
- [Azure Translator vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/azure-translator-vs-lokalise.md)
- [Crowdin vs DeepL API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-deepl-api.md)
- [Crowdin vs Google Cloud Translation](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-google-cloud-translation.md)
- [Crowdin vs Lara Translate API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-lara-translate.md)
- [Crowdin vs LibreTranslate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-libretranslate.md)
- [Crowdin vs Lingo.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-lingo-dev.md)
- [Crowdin vs Lingvanex Translation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-lingvanex.md)
- [Crowdin vs Phrase](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-phrase.md)
- [Crowdin vs SYSTRAN Translate API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crowdin-vs-systran.md)
- [DeepL API vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepl-api-vs-lokalise.md)
- [Google Cloud Translation vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-cloud-translation-vs-lokalise.md)
- [Lara Translate API vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lara-translate-vs-lokalise.md)
- [LibreTranslate vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/libretranslate-vs-lokalise.md)
- [Lingo.dev vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-lokalise.md)
- [Lingvanex Translation API vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingvanex-vs-lokalise.md)
- [Lokalise vs Phrase](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lokalise-vs-phrase.md)
- [Lokalise vs SYSTRAN Translate API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lokalise-vs-systran.md)