# Lingo.dev vs Lokalise

> Lokalise scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Lingo.dev's 62.3 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lingo.dev leads on agent ergonomics. Both do translate text. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-lokalise
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-lokalise.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-lokalise.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-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 Lingo.dev's 62.3 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lingo.dev leads on agent ergonomics. Both do translate text.

- 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
- 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

### 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:
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 69

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

### 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 71
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 54
- Security & auth, 73 against 62
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 81 against 71

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 | Lingo.dev | Lokalise | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 71 | 84 | Lokalise +13 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 76 | Lokalise +22 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 69 | Lingo.dev +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 73 | Lokalise +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Lokalise +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 84 | Lingo.dev +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 81 | Lokalise +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.3 · B** | **71.3 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Lingo.dev | Lokalise |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Replexica, Inc. | Lokalise, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.lingo.dev/account` | `https://api.lokalise.com/api2` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | 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 | Proprietary service under the Lokalise Master Service Agreement. The CLI and the Node SDK on GitHub are BSD 3-Clause |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `dev.lingo/main` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-07 | 2025-11-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-07 | 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 | not found in the text | yes |
| 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 | 5.4k stars, 92k npm/wk, 2k PyPI/wk | 124 stars, 338k npm/wk, 39k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Lingo.dev or Lokalise?

Lokalise scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Lingo.dev's 62.3 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Lingo.dev leads on agent ergonomics.

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

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

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

Yes. Lingo.dev has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.lingo.dev/account and Lokalise at https://api.lokalise.com/api2.


## For agents

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

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