Phrase vs Lokalise
Why settle for a one-trick translation tool? From product to marketing to legal, Phrase scales with your content and your company, one platform for every team, every content type, every department.
Trusted by 3,600+ global teams
Where teams outgrow Localise
Teams that outgrow Lokalise tend to share two pain points.
One tool per department, permanent silos.
Lokalise is built for software. Other departments end up on separate tools, with duplicated glossaries and translation memories, and no shared quality baseline.
Usage limits that create friction at scale.
Lokalise’s processed-word limits on lower tiers become a blocker as programs grow. G2 reviewers describe glossary support disappearing on plan changes, exactly the friction growing programs can’t absorb.
Why enterprise and mid-market organizations choose Phrase
One platform across product, marketing, support, and multimedia
Phrase combines Phrase TMS for cross-functional translation management, Phrase Strings for developer-native software localization, Phrase Portal for self-service translation across departments, and Phrase Studio for video subtitling and dubbing in 100+ languages.
Shared translation memories, glossaries, style guides, and quality controls run across all of them. Every team works from the same language assets, which means consistency compounds over time rather than fragmenting across tools.
Smarter AI translation, built for quality at scale
Phrase’s AI translation capabilities are designed for teams that can’t afford to trade quality for speed. Context from translation memories, style guides, and glossaries is applied within a single workflow, not as an either/or. Phrase QPS evaluates AI translation output against standardised and customisable metrics, routing only content that needs human review to linguists, rather than sending everything or nothing.
Phrase also supports smart engine selection, automatically choosing the best engine for each translation job from a library of 30+ supported engines, and an open ecosystem that lets teams bring their own AI translation, quality evaluation, or post-editing capabilities.
No-code workflows that adapt to your processes
Phrase Orchestrator lets teams build exactly the workflow they need: conditional logic, automated vendor handoffs, multi-stage review flows, integration triggers, without writing a line of code. It adapts to how your organisation already works, rather than requiring you to fit your process into a fixed template.
This matters most for organisations with complex approval chains, multi-vendor supplier models, or content that moves across departments before and after translation.
Better visibility into what’s actually happening
Phrase includes built-in analytics dashboards covering all core localization KPIs, translation velocity, quality trends, vendor performance, cost per word, and more, out of the box. Advanced analytics provide chart personalisation and metadata export to external BI systems for teams that need deeper custom reporting.
Phrase v Lokalise: feature comparision
| Phrase | Lokalise | |
|---|---|---|
Content types | • Software • Games • Mobile apps • Websites • Documents • Support content (Zendesk, Intercom and Salesforce integration) • Content from all CMS types (headless and traditional) • Live chats • Video subtitling and dubbing | • Software • Games • Mobile and web apps • Content from headless CMS (Contentful, Storyblok) • Support content |
| Pricing model | Pricing geared towards high volumes and AI-powered workflows across departments. Main pricing metrics are: • Processed words • Automations • Integrations • AI Translation capacity | Pricing geared towards software localization use cases. Main pricing metrics are: • Processed words • Automations • Integrations • AI Translation capacity |
Analytics | Strategic approach for decision-making: 9+ Pre-defined dashboards measuring all relevant localization KPIs out of the box. Vendor management analytics. Chart personalization. Possibility to export metadata to run analysis in an external BI system. | Tactical approach: Simpler reports like translations by language, contributor, or words translated for a specific period. Lokalise includes analytics on paid plans, but deeper reporting options are more limited outside Enterprise. |
| Company-approved internal translation front desk | Yes, Phrase Portal. Upload documents and instantly receive customized machine translations from secure, company-approved providers. | No equivalent. |
| Video subtitling and dubbing | Yes, Phrase Studio. Create multilingual subtitles and dubbing with natural-sounding voices in minutes instead of days. | No. |
| Machine & AI Translation capabilities | Context for AI Style guides, glossaries, and translation memories are leveraged by AI capabilities to ensure translations meet your specific needs. Smart engine selection Automatically selects the best engine for each translation job from 30+ supported engines. Quality evaluation Evaluates AI translations using standardized and customizable quality metrics, and only sends content requiring review to human linguists. Personalization Add custom instructions to tailor translations to specific audiences, such as language variants. Open ecosystem Bring your own AI translation, quality evaluation, or AI post-editing capabilities. | Context for AI Style guides, glossaries, and translation memories are combined together for every string. Smart engine selection Selection from five models. Quality evaluation Provides standardized scores, but no customizable quality checks. Personalization No personalization capabilities for specific target audiences. Open ecosystem No easy way to integrate your own solution. |
CI/CD integration, Mobile SDK for App Localization with over-the-air (OTA) Updates | Yes. Unlimited, OTA prices based on product usage. | Yes. Unlimited, OTA prices based on payload volume. |
| Security | • SOC 2 Type I certified, with Type II certification expected in 2026 • ISO 27001 • GDPR and CCPA compliant • PCI DSS adherence • HIPAA compliant • AWS-powered, with 99.9% uptime • Zero-downtime deployments • Separate US and EU data centers | • Soc 2 Type I and II • ISO 27001 • GDPR and CCPA • HIPAA aligned |
| Support | 24/7 support on all pricing plans. Success plans to help with migration. On-demand courses and certifications for all user roles. | 24/7 support on all pricing plans. |
What customers say about switching from Lokalise
“Efficient for software localization, not so much for documentation.
Limited options for document and marketing localisation; highly sensitive to formatting placeholders, making it difficult to edit translations and perform efficient QA; no in-app document preview; room for improvement in integrations with some apps (Storyblok, HubSpot)”.
Verified User in Information Technology and Services. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.).
“The vendor reporting functionality is significantly lacking, forcing us to rely on external methods to address this issue.
Additionally, automatic task creation does not support the inclusion of a rate card, resulting in these tasks not appearing in any generated reports. Overall, reporting requires substantial improvement for this tool to truly reach its full potential”.
Verified user in Computer Software. Small Business (50 or fewer employees).
Phrase recognized as a Leader in the Forrester Wave™, Q3 2025
We scored top marks in 21 of 26 criteria, setting the benchmark for enterprise language technology.
Who Phrase is the right fit for
Phrase is built for organizations where localization is a cross-functional operation, not a single-team tool. It’s the right choice if:
- Multiple teams, product, marketing, support, legal, need coordinated access to the same language assets
- You need to manage video and multimedia localization alongside text
- You want AI translation with full control over quality, context, and engine selection
- Your workflows are complex enough to need conditional logic and automated vendor handoffs
- You need analytics that go beyond word counts and completion rates
If you’re a small product team with straightforward string management needs and no plans to expand scope, Lokalise may be sufficient. Phrase is built for when that changes.
FAQs
Is Phrase a direct Lokalise alternative?
Yes. Phrase covers everything Lokalise does for software and product localization, string management, developer integrations, CI/CD workflows, and API-first architecture, and extends significantly further into TMS-grade workflows, multimedia, self-service translation, and advanced AI capabilities.
How does Phrase’s pricing model work?
Phrase pricing is designed to grow with your business with generous capacity on processed words, AI translation and automations. That means no scaling penalties.
Does Phrase integrate with the same tools as Lokalise?
Phrase offers 200+ integrations including GitHub, Figma, Contentful, Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Storyblok, and many others.
Can I migrate from Lokalise to Phrase?
Yes. Most teams are up and running within a few days. Phrase is consistently rated one of the easiest localization platforms to set up, and our onboarding specialists guide your team through every step of the migration process.
What support does Phrase offer?
Phrase offers dedicated customer success management, onboarding support, and a comprehensive help center.
How flexible is Phrase Orchestrator compared to Lokalise Workflows?
Phrase Orchestrator is built for enterprise programs that need real customization, QPS-based routing, pivot languages, language adaptation for specific audiences, auto-vendor selection, and cross-project sync. Lokalise Workflows handles more standard use cases. If your programs needs conditional logic and intelligent automation, Orchestrator is in a different category.
Ready to see Phrase in action?
Book a personalised demo and see how Phrase handles your specific use case, whether that’s replacing Lokalise for software localization, extending into content and multimedia, or consolidating a fragmented localization stack.
The comparative information published on this webpage is based on publicly available information and internal research as of June 20th, 2026. All competitor brand names are trademarks of their respective owners. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to disparage any company. To report corrections, please contact Phrase at marketing@phrase.com