Head to head · Translation · October 2026 research run
Lara Translate API vs Localazy
Lara Translate API scores 62.2 (B) on agent readiness against Localazy's 54.4 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do translation.
Best machine translation APIs for AI agents · All 105 translation comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Agents that localise for one brand and need glossaries, translation memories and style instructions on every call, especially from an MCP client.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 80 against 68
- Schema & documentation, 74 against 51
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 62
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 75
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 57
Also in its favour
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
Watch for
Texts may be used for model improvement unless a request sets noTrace
Localazy C
Best for App and game teams that keep source strings in a TMS and want agents to push keys, pull translations or run AI translation with a glossary.
Also in its favour
- No incidents deducted, where Lara Translate API loses 3 points for them
Watch for
No OpenAPI spec, and llms.txt only lists top-level pages
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Schema & documentation Lara Translate API +23
Lara Translate API 74
No public OpenAPI. The official MCP server publishes typed JSON Schema inputs and output schemas on all 22 tools, which is the contract an agent sees (20 of 25). llms.txt with about 30 entries (10). Tool descriptions say to call list_glossaries or list_memories first to resolve names, to send one target language per call, and to add instructions only when needed (18 of 20). Inputs typed with ID formats (gls_*, mem_*), a maximum of 10 glossaries and 20-word instructions, but language codes are free strings (13 of 15). SDK examples, and the SDKs raise typed errors for authentication, quota and validation, but no error code list was found (8 of 15). No public API changelog. The MCP repository and package versions are the only dated record (5 of 15).
Localazy 51
No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract was found (0). localazy.com/llms.txt is a six-link index of top-level pages, with no Markdown docs for agents (5). Each endpoint page states which token types can call it, whether write permission is needed and the minimum role, and the limits page says to use the CDN, not the API, for production fetches (14). Request bodies list required and optional fields with limits, such as 512 characters for a key and 1,000 for a comment (12). Sample requests, responses and error responses per endpoint (13). Docs pages carry 'last updated' dates and the blog posts dated release updates, but there's no API version or changelog (7). 0+5+14+12+13+7 = 51.
Agent ergonomics Lara Translate API +15
Lara Translate API 77
MCP reading of the checklist. 22 tools, three for translation, detection and the language list, 8 for translation memories and 11 for glossaries, with no read-only subset or toolsets (15). Translate takes an array of text blocks with a translatable flag per block, but list tools show no paging controls (12 of 20). Since 2.0.0 tool failures come back as isError results with messages instead of protocol errors (15 of 20). Every tool sets readOnlyHint, destructiveHint and idempotentHint, with deletes, updates and imports marked destructive (20). Translate needs only text and a target, and SDKs exist for Python, Node.js, Java, PHP and Go (15).
Localazy 62
API reading. List endpoints return whole projects, files and keys with few output controls (13). Filtering by file, language and tags, and batch imports of up to 1,000 keys and 50 files a request (14). Error responses are documented per endpoint, with HTTP codes and messages (12). No idempotency keys, and the docs warn against parallel imports into the same new file (8). Official TypeScript API client, a CLI and Android and iOS libraries, with few required fields (15). 13+14+12+8+15 = 62.
Reliability Lara Translate API +12
Lara Translate API 80
Atlassian Statuspage at status.laratranslate.com with Lara Translation API as its own component (20). Its history feed, read on 2 November, lists seven incidents, the latest on 16 January 2026, so the page posts incidents and none falls in the 90 days from 4 August (30). Rate limits published, 1,000 characters a second and 10,000 a month on the free tier, 10,000 characters a second on paid plans (15). No documented status code for a breached limit and no retry or backoff advice (0). The terms state a guaranteed uptime of 98 per cent or higher, with refunds at Translated's discretion, which is weaker than a credit schedule (5 of 10). The SDKs and hosted MCP are GA. The raw REST API is on request only (10). 20 + 30 + 15 + 0 + 5 + 10 = 80.
Localazy 68
Hosted lines, for the REST API at api.localazy.com. Better Stack status page with Web, API, Public API, Payments and Connect API components and 30, 60 and 90-day uptime (20). The incidents page reports none for September, October or November 2026, but the Public API shows 99.805% uptime in one 30-day bucket, roughly an hour and a half of downtime with no incident posted, so the line is held below clean (25). Limits per plan of 100 requests a minute and 10 a second, plus daily import and fetch caps per project (15). No 429 or retry guidance found in the API docs (0). No SLA found on the pricing page or in the terms (0). The core API is GA; the AI Translation endpoint is marked beta (8). 20+25+15+0+0+8 = 68.
Maintenance & community Lara Translate API +8
Lara Translate API 83
@translated/lara-mcp 2.1.2 (29 October 2026, a docs release) and 2.1.1 (23 October), and Python SDK 1.17.1 (28 October 2026, reasoning effort), by repository tags (30). Since 4 August the MCP server tagged 2.0.0, 2.0.1, 2.1.0, 2.1.1 and 2.1.2, the Python SDK 1.12.1 to 1.17.1 (nine tags), and the Lara CLI 1.6.1 to 1.7.2 (four), so well over three at half weight (20). No public API changelog and we didn't read the GitHub issues. Support runs through support@laratranslate.com and a knowledge base (8 of 15). Official SDKs current in five languages, Python, Node.js, Java, PHP and Go, all tagged in October (15). The MCP server runs tests on every push and pull request, and 2.1.0 pinned dependencies against three advisories (10). 30 + 20 + 8 + 15 + 10 = 83.
Localazy 75
@localazy/api-client 2.3.2 on 26 October 2026 (30). Releases 2.3.0 (12 August), 2.3.1 (29 September) and 2.3.2 (26 October) in the last 90 days (20). Support by email, blog release updates, and public GitHub repositories, but we didn't read issue reply times (7). The TypeScript client and the CLI (2.0.12 on 31 July 2026) are current (13). The client repository shows coverage badges; we didn't confirm CI runs (5). 30+20+7+13+5 = 75.
Payments & pricing Lara Translate API +5
Lara Translate API 40
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-million-character prices for Standard, Think and Prosa published in dollars and euros without a login (20). The Free plan includes 10,000 API characters a month with no credit card required (20). A person signs up in a browser, and the hosted MCP signs in with a Lara account (0).
Localazy 35
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public ($34, $78 and $175 a month billed annually) and credits are $1 each, with Localazy AI at about $0.005 a word on average, so partial per-unit credit (15). A free plan for small projects and a 14-day Business trial with no credit card (20). A person signs up in a browser and mints tokens in the developer settings (0). 0+15+20+0 = 35.
Transparency & trust Lara Translate API +5
Lara Translate API 62
Closed service under published terms, SDKs and MCP server under MIT (15). The terms describe Learning Mode storing texts to improve Lara's model, the developer docs say that's the default, and the privacy policy says some data isn't used for AI model training without making clear which. No retention period for Learning Mode texts (12 of 30). ModernMT's sunset is dated (keys work until 2026-12-31) with an endpoint map, and the terms promise 30 days' notice of material changes (15 of 20). The DPA points to a sub-processor and data location list we didn't open (10 of 20).
Localazy 57
Editorial half only. Closed service under terms that name Localazy s.r.o. of Brno and Czech law; the CLI is BSD-3-Clause and the API client MIT (15). The privacy policy keeps data while the service is used and 24 months after, and includes a DPA, but says nothing on whether content sent to Localazy AI is used for training (15). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (0). The DPA links a list of suppliers and subprocessors on an external knowledge base we didn't read (10). 15+15+0+10 = 40.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Lara Translate API | Localazy | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 80 | 68 | Lara Translate API +12 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 74 | 51 | Lara Translate API +23 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 77 | 62 | Lara Translate API +15 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 40 | 37 | Lara Translate API +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 35 | Lara Translate API +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 83 | 75 | Lara Translate API +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 62 | 57 | Lara Translate API +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| Total | B 62.2/100 | C 54.4/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Lara Translate API | Localazy |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Translated | Localazy s.r.o. |
| Hosted endpoint | https://mcp.laratranslate.com/v1 | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | Token |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (MCP server and SDKs) | none |
| Tools exposed | 22 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-28 | 2026-10-26 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 97 stars, 29k npm/wk, 1.7k PyPI/wk | 61k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |
How the scores have moved
Verdicts
Lara Translate API
Glossaries, translation memories, styles and instructions on every translate call, and no status incident posted since January 2026. Texts may be used for model improvement unless a request sets noTrace, and the Python SDK removed a model attribute in a patch release without notice.
Localazy
Localazy is a localisation platform whose REST API, CLI and AI Translation endpoint use project-scoped bearer tokens, with published limits, a free plan and a no-card trial. There's no OpenAPI spec, no 429 guidance, no security.txt or disclosure policy, and project tokens carry full read and write access.
Before you call either
Lara Translate API
- Set
noTraceon every request that carries private text, since storage for model improvement is the default - Leave
reasoningoff unless the text needs it. It moves the call to Lara Think at $2,499 per million characters - Resolve glossary and memory names to
gls_*andmem_*IDs with the list tools before translating - Send one target language per translate call
- Merge short documents, since each file bills at least 20,000 characters
- Set
DO_NOT_TRACK=1when running@translated/lara-mcplocally if usage metrics shouldn't leave the machine. Since 2.1.0 they are on by default
Localazy
- Ask for a translation token when the task is only machine translation, rather than a project token
- Keep under 10 requests a second and the plan's daily import and fetch caps per project
- Use the Localazy CDN, not the API, to fetch translations in a live app
- Import at most 1,000 keys and 50 files a request, and don't run parallel imports into the same new file
- Check the account's credit balance before bulk AI translation, since each word uses credits
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Lara Translate API or Localazy?
Lara Translate API scores 62.2 (B) on agent readiness against Localazy's 54.4 (C), and leads in every scored category.
Do Lara Translate API and Localazy need an API key?
Lara Translate API takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Localazy needs an access token.
Can an agent call Lara Translate API and Localazy without installing anything?
Lara Translate API has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.laratranslate.com/v1. No hosted endpoint is listed for Localazy.
Other comparisons with Lara Translate API or Localazy
- Amazon Translate vs Lara Translate API
- Amazon Translate vs Localazy
- Azure Translator vs Lara Translate API
- Azure Translator vs Localazy
- Crowdin vs Lara Translate API
- Crowdin vs Localazy
- DeepL API vs Lara Translate API
- DeepL API vs Localazy
- Google Cloud Translation vs Lara Translate API
- Google Cloud Translation vs Localazy
- Lara Translate API vs LibreTranslate
- Lara Translate API vs Lingo.dev
- Lara Translate API vs Lingvanex Translation API
- Lara Translate API vs Lokalise
- Lara Translate API vs Phrase
- Lara Translate API vs Smartcat
- Lara Translate API vs SYSTRAN Translate API
- Lara Translate API vs TranslatePlus
- LibreTranslate vs Localazy
- Lingo.dev vs Localazy
- Lingvanex Translation API vs Localazy
- Localazy vs Lokalise
- Localazy vs Phrase
- Localazy vs Smartcat
- Localazy vs SYSTRAN Translate API
- Localazy vs TranslatePlus
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/lara-translate-vs-localazy.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/lara-translate.json·/api/v1/tools/localazy.json - From a terminal
anchor compare lara-translate localazy(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "lara-translate", "b": "localazy"}at/mcp, no key