Meet LangSync — the developer-first alternative to Crowdin
Pay-as-you-go from the first thousand strings, custom AI prompts that live in your repo, EU residency on every plan — without hosted-word tiers, manager-seat caps, or a partner-led implementation invoice on top of the license.
First 1,000 strings free EU-hosted by default No sales call, no annual commit
At a glance
LangSync Crowdin
Pricing model
Pay-as-you-go per 1,000 strings
Tiered by hosted words, manager seats capped
Self-serve checkout for every plan
EU data residency on every plan
Per-developer source language override
Bidirectional CLI sync
Verified June 2, 2026 against Crowdin's public product and pricing pages. Spot an inaccuracy? Email [email protected] — we'll update within two business days.
Side by side
LangSync vs Crowdin, feature by feature
Compiled from the public Crowdin pricing and product pages, security and privacy policies, support KB, developer docs, and the official github.com/crowdin repositories, as of mid-2026. Crowdin has two related products — Crowdin (cloud) and Crowdin Enterprise — and the differences matter; we call out the product where it's relevant.
| Section | Feature | LangSync | Crowdin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Billing shape | Pay-as-you-go — billed per 1,000 translated strings stored, price drops at higher volumes. No plan tiers, no monthly commit. | Plan tiers (Free / Pro / Team / Team+ / Enterprise) metered on hosted words (source words × target languages on uploaded files, regardless of translation status), private projects, manager seats, and integrations count. Annual saves ~17% ("2 months free"); Enterprise is annual-only. |
| Entry paid price | Free for the first 1,000 strings, no credit card. | Crowdin (cloud) has a perpetual Free plan for closed projects (60,000 hosted words, 1 private project) and a separate Crowdin Open Source program that is free for qualifying public OSS projects (subject to approval — OSI-licensed, public source, contributes to Global TM). Paid (annual-billed effective monthly): Pro $50, Team $150, Team+ $450. Monthly rates are higher. | |
| Seats / users | No per-seat charges. Unlimited collaborators on every plan. | Unlimited translators and proofreaders on every paid plan. Manager seats are capped (Team plan = 5 managers); additional managers require a plan upgrade or custom quote. Enterprise prices contributor seats as a negotiated factor. | |
| Sales call to upgrade | No. Self-serve checkout for every plan. | Crowdin Enterprise is sales-only, annual contract, with partner-led implementation reported at $5K–$100K+ on top of the license. Standard Crowdin self-serve up to Team+. | |
| Translation engine | AI translation | Built on a modern LLM with your custom prompt per namespace — tone, audience, formality, product rules — fed into every call alongside the glossary. | Crowdin AI is prompt-aware, glossary-aware, and style-guide-aware, with system-level providers including OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Google Gemini, Mistral, Anthropic, xAI, IBM watsonx, DeepSeek (plus more via store apps — Groq, Cloudflare AI, AWS Bedrock, Fireworks, Together, OpenRouter, Cohere, and others). Dual billing — Crowdin-managed credits or BYO API key. Features include AI Pre-translation and AI QA Check. |
| Custom prompt per namespace | Yes — written in plain language, set per namespace or per user, managed via the dashboard or API. | Custom prompts per project are configurable in Settings → AI (Basic field-picker or Advanced with dynamic placeholders). Managed in dashboard, not in code. | |
| Machine translation engines | LLM-first. No legacy MT routing. | 6 native MT engines — Microsoft Translator, DeepL, ModernMT, Amazon Translate, Google Translate, Google Cloud AutoML. 40+ engines available via the Intento MT Hub store app (Yandex, Baidu, Tencent, and others route through Intento). BYO API key only — users plug in their own credentials and pay the MT vendor directly; Crowdin does not sell character packs for classic MT. | |
| Glossary / term base | First-class. Per-language target translations plus optional notes. AI sees the glossary on every translation. | Rich data model — concepts (definition, subject, notes, URL, image) with nested terms (part of speech, type, status, gender, description). Imports from TBX v2/v3, CSV, XLSX with auto column detection. Org-level resources assigned to projects. | |
| Translation memory | Not a separate concept — past translations stay in the project and inform AI completions. | Separate from glossary. Project-level TM, shareable across projects when source matches. TMX / XLSX / CSV import/export via dashboard and API (async). | |
| Source language flexibility | Per-developer override — a Czech dev can keep cs.json as source while the team-wide default stays en-US. See the workflow. | Single project source language, chosen at creation. Changeable post-creation in Language Settings (with caveats around plural-form mismatches), but no per-file or per-contributor source override is documented — multi-source workflows still require multiple projects. | |
| In-context translation | Not supported — LangSync is build-time only. | Crowdin In-Context ships a JS snippet that overlays your live web app and exposes strings as inline editable fields (with TM, MT, glossary, comments, screenshots). Deployable to staging or a subset of prod users. | |
| QA / linting | Placeholder validation on the CLI side; AI is constrained by glossary on every call. | 15 core QA checks + 3 supplementary (Numbers, AI-powered, Outdated translation) — empty translation, length, tags, spaces, placeholders, punctuation, case, special chars, spelling, terminology consistency, duplicate translation, ICU/FTL/Android syntax, and more. Each configurable as warning or error. | |
| Developer workflow | First-party CLI | norcube langsync init + norcube langsync sync — one binary for the whole Norcube platform, bidirectional sync (no push/pull split), resumable across crashes. See the CLI page. | crowdin-cli (Java) — brew install crowdin, npm @crowdin/cli, Docker, Chocolatey. Push and pull are separate upload sources / upload translations / download commands; no bidirectional sync. Same binary targets both Crowdin and Crowdin Enterprise. |
| Official SDKs | REST API; CLI covers most repo-side workflows. | Seven official API clients: JS/TS, PHP, Python, .NET, Java, Ruby, Go. Plus official MCP server, VS Code extension (vscode-crowdin), and JetBrains plugin. | |
| OTA (over-the-air) mobile updates | Not supported — LangSync is build-time only. | Crowdin Distributions (CDN-served OTA Content Delivery). SDKs for iOS, Android, Flutter, React Native, web (ota-client-js covers React / Vue / Angular / Next / Node). Free under 1 million requests + 10 GB egress per month, metered above; available on every paid plan. | |
| REST API + alternatives | Yes — built for build-pipeline pulls. | REST API v2 with separate endpoints for Crowdin (api.crowdin.com) and Crowdin Enterprise ({org}.api.crowdin.com). Plus an optional GraphQL endpoint and CroQL (Crowdin Query Language) for filtering. Both file-based and string-based project APIs. No public OpenAPI spec — docs are hand-curated. | |
| File formats & integrations | Native file formats | i18n JSON is first-class. CSV, JSON, XLSX accepted for one-shot import. | 50+ formats including .strings, .xcstrings, .stringsdict, Android XML, Flutter .arb, JSON / JSON5, YAML, XML, .po / .pot, XLIFF 1.2 + 2.0, Fluent .ftl, Qt .ts, .properties, .resx, .csv, .xlsx, DOCX, IDML (InDesign), PPTX, SRT, WebVTT, ASS/SSA, Markdown, AsciiDoc, DITA, and more. |
| Native dashboard integrations | GitHub via the CLI; webhooks for arbitrary CI. | 700+ apps in the Crowdin Store — git (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure Repos), design (Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Penpot), CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Contentful, Storyblok, Sanity, Strapi, Sitecore, Magento, Shopify, HubSpot, Zendesk, Intercom, Webflow, Ghost), PM (Jira, Asana, Trello, monday.com, ClickUp, Linear), comms (Slack, Teams, Discord, Telegram), storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, S3). | |
| Webhooks | Yes — for CI pulls and arbitrary downstream automation. | Up to 20 webhooks per project, POST or GET. Event coverage: file added / updated / reverted / deleted / fully translated / fully reviewed; project translated / reviewed / built; suggestions added / approved / disapproved; source string CRUD; comments and issues; tasks; project + group create/delete (Enterprise). | |
| Team & translation | Crowdsourcing — open contributors | Not supported. Org-scoped namespaces only. | Crowdin's signature feature. Public projects can be opened to community contributors who sign up via the project page, suggest translations, vote on each other's suggestions, and graduate top-voted strings. Proofreaders approve per-language. Used by Minecraft, SCS Software, Wildlife Studios, and many open-source communities. |
| Professional translator marketplace | Not built in. The AI is the primary translator; humans review and edit. | In-product ordering from agency partners in the Crowdin Store's Translation Agencies category — Gengo, e2f, Acclaro, Alconost, Lionbridge, Translated.net, Inlingo, and others. | |
| Branching workflow | Not a separate concept — your repo's branches drive sync via the CLI. | Git-style branches in both Crowdin and Crowdin Enterprise. String-based projects add cloning, merging, and protected branches; file-based projects get basic create / prioritise plus VCS auto-branching. | |
| Team model | Organization → namespace → user. Per-user prompts and tokens. | Enterprise: Organization → Groups → Projects, with Teams and Vendors alongside. Roles: Owner / Admin / Workspace Manager / Group Manager / Project Manager / Developer / Language Coordinator / Proofreader / Translator / Vendor. | |
| Security, hosting, data | Hosting region | EU only (AWS Frankfurt, region publicly named). GDPR-aligned by default, no choice needed. See /security/ and /dpa/. | Crowdin (cloud) is US-only — "data center selection is not available in Crowdin." Crowdin Enterprise lets the org owner choose EU (AWS eu-west-1 / Ireland) or US (AWS us-east-1), but only at organization creation — locked in afterward. |
| DPA | Published, self-serve download. | Pre-signed DPA available as a public PDF download linked from the privacy policy (downloads.crowdin.com/docs/DPA-singed.pdf). The Terms + Privacy Policy themselves also serve as the data-processing contract. | |
| Compliance certifications | GDPR-aligned, EU-resident. SOC 2 / ISO in progress as Norcube scales. | ISO/IEC 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, HIPAA-capable (BAA required for PHI). No SOC 2 mention on either security page. Annual third-party pentests; HackerOne private bug bounty. | |
| AI training on your content | Your strings are never used to train models. AI calls are inference-only. | Crowdin's privacy policy explicitly excludes Google Workspace API data from AI/ML training. There is no broad, unconditional statement on the security or privacy page that customer strings overall are excluded from AI training. | |
| SSO (SAML / OIDC) | Not yet — on the roadmap. | SAML 2.0 SSO and Google Workspace OAuth are Enterprise-only features. Standard Crowdin cloud relies on email/password and social login. | |
| Audit log | API-accessible. | Enterprise-only Security log / API log (Crowdin's terminology — not "audit log" per se). The Crowdin API exposes a security-log scope as read-only. Not surfaced on standard Crowdin. | |
| Migration & lock-in | Importing into the other | Built-in POEditor importer today. Migration from Crowdin is a CLI script: pull every locale and resource via the API, transform, push to LangSync. | No built-in importer for POEditor, Lokalise, Phrase, or LangSync. Crowdin's "Migrating to Crowdin" guide tells users to export from the old tool and upload files via UI, CLI, or API — strictly file-based. |
| Translation history export | Current value of every translation via REST API. Audit log (namespace, sync-job, glossary, API key actions) accessible via API. Per-translation revision history is not yet captured — on the roadmap. | Per-string translation history (who / when / before-after) exists in the online editor (dashboard) only. The public API does not expose a per-translation diff endpoint at parity with the dashboard. | |
| Translation memory export | No separate TM — translations exit as i18n JSON via the REST API. | TM exportable via API as TMX / XLSX / CSV (async — start export → poll → download). | |
| Full-project backup / snapshot | JSON export per namespace covers the source of truth. | No single "export full project" API call and no native automated snapshot/backup feature. Crowdin's official answer is to script per-resource API loops for TM, glossary, strings, comments, members. | |
| API token scopes | Org-scoped API tokens; per-action access gated by user IAM policies, not by a token-level scope. | Personal Access Tokens with granular scopes and optional resource-level filtering, per-token expiration. Each scope selectable as Read-only or Read + Write. OAuth 2 supported for third-party apps. |
Verified June 2, 2026 against Crowdin's public product and pricing pages. Spot an inaccuracy? Email [email protected] — we'll update within two business days.
Crowdin facts verified against crowdin.com/pricing, crowdin.com/enterprise, crowdin.com/security, support.crowdin.com, developer.crowdin.com, and the public github.com/crowdin repositories. If you find a row that is wrong, email [email protected].
Be honest about it
When Crowdin is the right call
We are biased about LangSync, but Crowdin has built a decade-long lead in translator-facing tooling. If any of these describe your team, do not switch.
Stay with Crowdin
You localize via an open contributor community
Crowdsourcing is Crowdin's signature feature. Public projects let volunteers sign up, suggest translations, vote on each other's work, and graduate top-voted strings — with proofreaders approving per-language. Used by Minecraft, SCS Software, Wildlife Studios, and many open-source communities. LangSync is AI-first with optional human review; it has no contributor-management UI or voting workflow.
Stay with Crowdin
Your stack lives in design tools or a CMS ecosystem
700+ apps in the Crowdin Store cover Figma, Storyblok, Contentful, Sanity, Sitecore, Webflow, Shopify, Intercom, Zendesk, and dozens more — designers and content editors translate without leaving their tool. LangSync stays in the JSON-and-CI lane on purpose; if your localization flow is anchored in design tools or a CMS, the connector economics favor Crowdin.
Stay with Crowdin
You ship live mobile translation updates
Crowdin Distributions is a generous OTA story — free under 1 million requests and 10 GB egress per month on every paid plan, with SDKs for iOS, Android, Flutter, React Native, and web. LangSync is build-time only; if you rely on OTA for high-traffic mobile apps, Crowdin wins outright.
Stay with Crowdin
You want in-context translation on a live website
Crowdin In-Context drops a JS snippet into your site and turns every string into an inline editable field with TM, MT, glossary, comments, and screenshots in an overlay. Translators edit on the page they're translating. LangSync has no equivalent overlay.
Stay with Crowdin
You ship subtitles, design files, or office documents
If your content rotates through .srt / .webvtt subtitles, .idml print layouts, .docx / .pptx decks, Markdown / AsciiDoc / DITA docs, or rich design files, Crowdin handles 50+ formats natively with continuous round-trip sync. LangSync focuses on i18n JSON.
Stay with Crowdin
You need an enterprise compliance dossier today
ISO/IEC 27001 certification and HIPAA BAA support are on Crowdin's public trust page. Norcube is GDPR-aligned and EU-resident by default, but if your procurement team needs ISO 27001 on the contract today (or HIPAA for PHI), Crowdin is further along.
FAQ
Questions teams ask
How much will I actually save switching from Crowdin to LangSync?
It depends on your word volume and how many managers you have. Crowdin meters on hosted words (source words remain billable even when untranslated) plus tier-capped manager seats. A team that has outgrown Pro ($50/mo, 60k words) typically lands on Team ($150/mo, 100k words, 5 managers cap) or Team+ ($450/mo, 500k words). If you need Enterprise — for SSO, EU residency, or self-hosted — it's sales-only with annual contract and partner-led implementation. LangSync charges nothing for seats and bills only the strings you store, with every feature on every plan and EU residency by default.
Is LangSync's AI as good as Crowdin AI?
Different shape. Crowdin AI is a breadth play — eight system-level LLM providers (OpenAI, Azure, Gemini, Mistral, Anthropic, xAI, IBM, DeepSeek) plus store apps for Groq / Cloudflare / Bedrock, with dual billing (Crowdin credits or BYO key) and prompt-aware features tuned per project. LangSync runs a modern LLM with your custom prompt per namespace and glossary fed into every call, all in code. For software UI strings with a maintained glossary, LangSync output is usually on the style guide; if you want to evaluate eight LLMs side by side or A/B test prompts in a dashboard, Crowdin is more powerful out of the box.
Does Crowdin train its AI on my strings?
Crowdin's privacy policy explicitly excludes Google Workspace API data from AI/ML training. There is no broad, unconditional statement on the security or privacy page that customer strings overall are excluded from AI training. LangSync never trains on your content — AI calls are inference-only. If unconditional no-training matters for your data class, this is a real difference.
Crowdin is also EU-capable. What's actually different?
Standard Crowdin (cloud) is US-only with no region picker. Crowdin Enterprise lets the org owner choose EU (AWS eu-west-1 / Ireland) or US — but only at organization creation, locked in afterward. LangSync is EU (AWS Frankfurt, region publicly named) on every plan, no choice required, no Enterprise tier needed.
How long does migrating from Crowdin take?
Plan two to four days, depending on resource breadth. Crowdin has no built-in LangSync importer; you script per-resource API calls (sources, translations, glossary as TBX, TM as TMX, comments, members) and push into LangSync via the CLI. There's no single "export the full project" call, so the migration is a per-resource loop.
Do I lose translation history when I migrate?
The current value of every translation comes across. Per-string translation history (who / when / before-after) is dashboard-only on Crowdin — the public API does not expose a per-translation diff endpoint, so revision history does not move automatically. TMX is exportable via API, so TM can survive migration. If audit trail matters, keep Crowdin read-only for 60 days after migration as a fallback.
What if I want to switch back to Crowdin?
LangSync exports every namespace as standard i18n JSON via the REST API; Crowdin imports JSON, XLIFF, and many other formats natively. The data is yours either way. No lock-in on the source-string side; AI prompt customisations are the only LangSync-specific artefact.
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First 1,000 strings free, no credit card, no sales call.
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EU-hosted Every plan, by default
No sales call Self-serve checkout
No training On your strings