# LibreTranslate vs Lingo.dev

> Lingo.dev scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against LibreTranslate's 49.8 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. LibreTranslate leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do translate text. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/libretranslate-vs-lingo-dev
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/libretranslate-vs-lingo-dev.md (~2,350 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/libretranslate-vs-lingo-dev.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/libretranslate-vs-lingo-dev.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

Lingo.dev scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against LibreTranslate's 49.8 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. LibreTranslate leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do translate text.

- LibreTranslate: grade D, 49.8/100, rank #602 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/libretranslate.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/libretranslate.json
- Lingo.dev: grade B, 62.3/100, rank #341 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lingo-dev.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/lingo-dev.json

## Which one, for what

### LibreTranslate (D)

Good for: Operators who must keep text on their own servers or want a fixed cost, and for light hosted use.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 65 against 54
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: No status page, SLA or terms of service for the hosted API

### Lingo.dev (B)

Good for: Product teams that translate interface strings and content into many locales and want glossary, tone and rule control held in one place, driven from code, CI or a coding assistant.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 71 against 35
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 65
- Security & auth, 62 against 45
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 71 against 60

Watch for: No public OpenAPI file was found, `llms.txt` holds one title line and docs pages have no Markdown version


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | LibreTranslate | Lingo.dev | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 71 | Lingo.dev +36 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 54 | LibreTranslate +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 75 | Lingo.dev +10 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 45 | 62 | Lingo.dev +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 20 | LibreTranslate +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 87 | Lingo.dev +47 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 71 | Lingo.dev +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **49.8 · D** | **62.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | LibreTranslate | Lingo.dev |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | LibreTranslate | Replexica, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://libretranslate.com` | `https://mcp.lingo.dev/account` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary hosted service under Lingo.dev's terms of service. The lingodotdev/lingo.dev repository (legacy CLI, JavaScript SDK, compiler) and the Python SDK are Apache-2.0. The `@lingo.dev/cli` package states no licence on npm |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | `dev.lingo/main` |
| Last release | 2026-05-26 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-05-07 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-23 | 2026-05-07 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 17k stars, 4.5k PyPI/wk | 5.4k stars, 92k npm/wk, 2k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 4/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**LibreTranslate.** Open source under AGPL-3.0, self-hosted with no text leaving your network. No status page, SLA or terms of service for the hosted API.

**Lingo.dev.** Lingo.dev suits teams that want glossary and tone control on every translation call, with a published fee of $2 per million output tokens and model costs passed through. It has no public OpenAPI file, its `llms.txt` is one line, and scoped keys, roles and audit logs are limited to the Enterprise plan.

## Before you call either

### LibreTranslate

1. Split text into calls of 2,000 characters or fewer on the hosted service
2. Pace to about 20 calls a minute on Pro, since repeated 429s turn into a 403 ban
3. Pass `source=auto` to detect and translate in one call
4. Set `format=html` for markup
5. Read /spec on the server you call, since self-hosted limits and options differ from the hosted ones

### Lingo.dev

1. Send `X-API-Key` to https://api.lingo.dev and keep the key server-side. On non-Enterprise plans a personal key reaches every engine its creator can
2. Use `POST /process/localize` for one language pair and `POST /jobs/localization` with an `idempotencyKey` for several. Pipeline stages run on async jobs only
3. Treat 402 (credit limit) and 429 (daily token quota) as limits to report, not to retry. Retry 500 with backoff
4. Read `usage.cost` on each sync response to track spend. Sandbox stops at 100,000 tokens a day
5. Connect MCP clients to https://mcp.lingo.dev/account. Its tools can create and revoke API keys and invite members, so ask before those calls

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, LibreTranslate or Lingo.dev?

Lingo.dev scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against LibreTranslate's 49.8 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. LibreTranslate leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.

### Do LibreTranslate and Lingo.dev need an API key?

LibreTranslate needs an API key. Lingo.dev takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call LibreTranslate and Lingo.dev without installing anything?

Yes. LibreTranslate has a hosted endpoint at https://libretranslate.com and Lingo.dev at https://mcp.lingo.dev/account.

### Are LibreTranslate and Lingo.dev open source?

LibreTranslate is open source (AGPL-3.0). No open-source release is listed for Lingo.dev.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with LibreTranslate or Lingo.dev

- [Amazon Translate vs LibreTranslate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-libretranslate.md)
- [Amazon Translate vs Lingo.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-translate-vs-lingo-dev.md)
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- [LibreTranslate vs Lingvanex Translation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/libretranslate-vs-lingvanex.md)
- [LibreTranslate vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/libretranslate-vs-lokalise.md)
- [LibreTranslate vs Phrase](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/libretranslate-vs-phrase.md)
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- [Lingo.dev vs Lingvanex Translation API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-lingvanex.md)
- [Lingo.dev vs Lokalise](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-lokalise.md)
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- [Lingo.dev vs SYSTRAN Translate API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-systran.md)