Crowdin is a leading AI-powered localization platform designed to streamline and accelerate the creation and management of multilingual content. Founded in 2008 by Ukrainian programmer Serhiy Dmytryshyn, it was officially launched in January 2009. It’s a proprietary, cloud-based solution that provides software as a service for commercial products, while offering free services for non-commercial open source and educational projects.

Benefits of Crowdin

Crowdin offers numerous advantages for businesses looking to localize their products:

• Centralized translation management: Store all localization files in one place, making it easier to track translation status and updates
• Seamless integration: Connects with over 600 tools including design platforms, CMSs, and development tools
• Automation capabilities: Set up automated processes for continuous localization in parallel with development
• Flexible translation options: Work with your own translators, find vendors on Crowdin, or invite your community
• In-context translation: Provides visual context for more accurate translations
• Quality assurance tools: Built-in features to check for typos, grammatical errors, and consistency
• Real-time progress monitoring: Track translation status with detailed reports

Use Cases of Crowdin

Crowdin serves various localization needs across different industries:

• Software localization: Translate user interfaces, apps, and software products1
• Website localization: Create multilingual websites by integrating with your CMS1
• Game localization: Easily translate games into multiple languages1
• Marketing content: Scale marketing efforts through localization of campaigns1
• Help center articles: Translate support documentation for global customers1
• Design-stage localization: Generate multilingual creative assets directly from design tools like Figma6
• UI/UX testing: Test mockups with actual translations instead of placeholder text6

Best Alternatives to Crowdin

According to various sources, the top alternatives to Crowdin include:

• Lokalise: Considered the best overall Crowdin alternative7
• Transifex: A popular localization and translation management system7
• Phrase Localization Platform: A translation management system for global companies7
• POEditor: Another strong competitor in the translation management space7
• Weglot: Particularly useful for website translation7

Open Source Alternatives to Crowdin

Several open source solutions can serve as alternatives to Crowdin:

• Tolgee: A leading open-source localization platform with features like in-context translating, translation memory, and machine translations
• Weblate: A web-based translation tool with tight VCS integration, considered the most popular open source alternative to Crowdin
• Poedit: A cross-platform editor for gettext catalogs (.po files)
• Lokalize: A localization tool for KDE software and other free and open source software
• LibreTranslate: A free and open source translation API that’s 100% self-hosted

Tolgee offers a free plan with up to 1,000 strings and 10,000 machine translation credits, and provides its Business plan free for all open-source projects