# Lingo.dev vs Phrase

> Phrase scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Lingo.dev's 62.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Lingo.dev leads on reliability and 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-phrase
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-phrase.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-phrase.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lingo-dev-vs-phrase.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

Phrase scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Lingo.dev's 62.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Lingo.dev leads on reliability and 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
- Phrase: grade B, 64.2/100, rank #285 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/phrase.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/phrase.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:
- Reliability, 71 against 55
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 70

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

### Phrase (B)

Good for: Teams that keep translation projects, term bases and translation memories in Phrase and want an agent to run them, or to translate through engines chosen per language pair.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 54
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: status.phrase.com lists 14 incidents between 10 July and 8 October 2026, two marked critical and ten major, most confined to one component


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Lingo.dev | Phrase | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 71 | 55 | Lingo.dev +16 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 87 | Phrase +33 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 70 | Lingo.dev +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 58 | Lingo.dev +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Phrase +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 83 | Lingo.dev +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 74 | Phrase +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.3 · B** | **64.2 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Lingo.dev | Phrase |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Replexica, Inc. | Phrase a.s. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.lingo.dev/account` | `https://mcp.eu.phrase.com` |
| 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 Phrase Terms of Service. The CLI, the Strings API clients and the deprecated local MCP server on GitHub are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `dev.lingo/main` | `io.github.phrase/mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-07 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-07 | 2026-10-06 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| 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 | 49 stars, 40k npm/wk, 14k 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.

**Phrase.** Nine APIs with public OpenAPI specs, Markdown docs and a hosted MCP server that signs in with OAuth and separates view, create and delete consents. The status page lists 14 incidents in 90 days, 12 marked major or critical. Capacity top-up prices aren't public, and the terms permit training some models on customer content and prohibit benchmarking.

## 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

### Phrase

1. Exchange a Phrase Platform API token at `https://eu.phrase.com/idm/oauth/token` (or `us.phrase.com`) for a Bearer JWT, which lasts about four hours, and refresh it before it expires
2. Send a `User-Agent` header naming your application on every Strings and TMS call. The Strings API answers 400 without one
3. Keep Strings calls under 1,000 in five minutes and four in parallel, and read `X-Rate-Limit-Reset` and `X-Rate-Limit-Reason` on a 429
4. Send at most six texts of 2,000 characters to `/v2/textTranslations`, with `consumerId` and `targetLang`. Term bases and translation memories work only with an AI translation agent profile
5. Use the MCP URL for the account's region, `https://mcp.eu.phrase.com` or `https://mcp.us.phrase.com`, and ask the user for the view consent alone unless the task writes

## Questions

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

Phrase scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Lingo.dev's 62.3 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Lingo.dev leads on reliability and agent ergonomics.

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

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

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

Yes. Lingo.dev has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.lingo.dev/account and Phrase at https://mcp.eu.phrase.com.


## For agents

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

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