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Shipi18n vs Lokalise
Lokalise is a translation management system built for large teams with complex workflows, professional translators, and enterprise needs.
TL;DR
Choose Lokalise if you need enterprise features, professional human translators, or complex multi-team workflows. Choose Shipi18n if you want to own the whole pipeline: an open-source tool that runs on your machine, uses your own LLM key, and costs nothing beyond the tokens you spend.
Pricing Comparison
Shipi18n
Open SourceLicenseFree — Apache-2.0
UsageYour provider’s token cost
SeatsUnlimited, no per-seat fee
No subscription and no account. You pay your LLM provider directly, at their prices.
Lokalise
Enterprise TMSStarter$120/mo
Team$520/mo
EnterpriseCustom
Per-seat pricing, billed annually
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Shipi18n | Lokalise |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier Keys | Unlimited | 0 |
| Free Tier Languages | Unlimited | 0 |
| AI Translation | Your own model (Anthropic, OpenAI, or custom) | Add-on ($) |
| Semantic Translation QA | Yes — LLM judge, 3-pass vote, advisory by default | — |
| Placeholder Preservation | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLI Tool | ✓ | ✓ |
| Programmatic API | ✓ | ✓ |
| GitHub Action | ✓ | ✓ |
| Translation Cache | Build-time cache + incremental mode | TM (paid) |
| Support | GitHub Issues + Discord | Email + Chat (paid tiers) |
Lokalise Pros & Cons
Pros
- +Full-featured TMS with translation memory
- +Professional translator marketplace
- +Advanced workflow management
- +Enterprise SSO & permissions
- +Over-the-air updates for mobile
Cons
- -Expensive for small teams ($120/mo minimum)
- -Complex setup and learning curve
- -Per-seat pricing adds up quickly
- -Overkill for JSON file translation
- -No free tier for production use
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Lokalise if you...
- •Enterprise teams with 10+ translators
- •Companies needing professional human translation
- •Complex multi-step approval workflows
- •Mobile apps needing OTA updates
Choose Shipi18n if you...
- •Want open-source tooling you can read, fork and vendor
- •Would rather pay your LLM provider directly than a middleman
- •Need your source strings to stay out of a third party's database
- •Want translation in CI, your editor, or your build — not another dashboard
- •Have no interest in seats, quotas or annual contracts
See How Simple Shipi18n Is
# Translate your en.json to 5 languages in seconds
$ export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-key-here
$ npx @shipi18n/cli translate en.json --target es,fr,de,ja,zh
✓ Translated to 5 languages!
✓ Saved: ./locales/es.json
✓ Saved: ./locales/fr.json
✓ Saved: ./locales/de.json
✓ Saved: ./locales/ja.json
✓ Saved: ./locales/zh.json
Done in 3.2sNo account, no server, no dashboard — an open-source library you run in CI. Apache-2.0.
Ready to catch broken translations before you ship?
Free and open-source (Apache-2.0). No account, and the checker needs no API key — install it and run it in CI today.