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Translation · head to head

Gengo vs Pontoon

Gengo logo

Gengo

Translation

Human translation marketplace and API, priced per word from $0.06, owned by Lionbridge since 2019

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Pontoon logo

Pontoon

Translation

Mozilla open source localisation platform that you host yourself

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Pontoon has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Gengo it is not a fit for specialised legal, medical or literary translation, since the crowdsourced model is built for higher-volume, lower-complexity content.; Pontoon there is no hosted commercial edition, so adopting it means running Django, PostgreSQL and a task queue yourself and keeping them patched.
  • They diverge on capability: Gengo covers Standard and Pro quality tiers, Pontoon covers Repository sync.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Gengo and Pontoon actually diverge.

Attributes where Gengo and Pontoon differ
AttributeGengoPontoon
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelPer wordOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebWeb, Self-hosted

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Translation).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Gengo

  • Standard and Pro quality tiers
  • Developer API
  • No minimum spend
  • Crowdsourced translator network
  • Bulk file upload
  • CMS and platform integrations

Only in Pontoon

  • Repository sync
  • Suggest and approve workflow
  • Fluent support
  • Translation memory
  • Machine translation suggestions
  • Contributor statistics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Gengo

  • An e-commerce seller translating product listings into multiple languages without a minimum spend requirementnot Pontoon
  • A company integrating the Gengo API into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translationnot Pontoon
  • A support team needing occasional human-translated responses without committing to Unbabel’s enterprise minimumnot Pontoon
  • A publisher needing straightforward, transparently priced human translation for shorter, lower-stakes contentnot Pontoon

Pontoon

  • Open source projects with volunteer translator communities across many localesnot Gengo
  • Organisations that must keep translation data on their own infrastructurenot Gengo
  • Projects using Mozilla Fluent where commercial tools have partial or no supportnot Gengo
  • Replacing a per seat translation platform where contributor count, not word volume, drives the billnot Gengo

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Gengo

  • It is not a fit for specialised legal, medical or literary translation, since the crowdsourced model is built for higher-volume, lower-complexity content.
  • Quality consistency depends on which individual translator from the crowdsourced network is assigned, which can vary more than a dedicated agency relationship would.
  • Turnaround, while fast for its category, is still meaningfully slower than a machine translation API, since every job requires a human to complete it.
  • Since being acquired by Lionbridge in 2019, Gengo’s product direction is now set within a much larger localisation company’s priorities rather than as an independent business.
  • Per-word pricing, while transparent, is still substantially more expensive per unit of content than a machine translation API, so it is a poor fit for translating very large volumes of low-stakes content.

Pontoon

  • There is no hosted commercial edition, so adopting it means running Django, PostgreSQL and a task queue yourself and keeping them patched.
  • No vendor support and no service level agreement exist, so an outage during a release freeze is your engineering problem alone.
  • The roadmap serves Mozilla localisation needs first, and features outside that scope are unlikely to be built for you.
  • Format coverage is narrow next to commercial systems: it is strong on PO and Fluent, weak on document formats such as InDesign or complex XML.
  • Because you host it, security and compliance evidence such as an external audit report does not exist, so any assurance your customers need has to be produced by your own team.

Pricing, plan by plan

Gengo

On request
  • Standard$0.06/month
    • Human translation, $0.06 per word starting rate
    • No minimum spend or setup fee
  • Pro$undefined/month
    • Higher-quality tier, rate varies by language pair and content type
    • Human translation with additional review

Pontoon

Free
  • Open source, self-hostedFree
    • No licence fee and no per contributor charge
    • You provide hosting, database and maintenance
    • Machine translation billed by whichever engine you connect

Which should you pick?

Choose Gengo if

  • You need standard and pro quality tiers.
  • You also want developer api.
Gengo review

Choose Pontoon if

  • You need repository sync.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Self-hosted.
  • You also want suggest and approve workflow.
Pontoon review

Questions people ask

Is Gengo or Pontoon better?
Neither clearly leads. Gengo starts at On request and Pontoon at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Gengo or Pontoon?
Pontoon has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Gengo and Free for Pontoon.
Does Gengo or Pontoon run on more platforms?
Gengo runs on Web. Pontoon runs on Web, Self-hosted.
Can I use Pontoon for free?
Yes. Pontoon has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Gengo starts at On request.
What is Gengo best used for?
Gengo is most often used for an e-commerce seller translating product listings into multiple languages without a minimum spend requirement, a company integrating the gengo api into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translation, a support team needing occasional human-translated responses without committing to unbabel’s enterprise minimum, a publisher needing straightforward, transparently priced human translation for shorter, lower-stakes content. Of those, an e-commerce seller translating product listings into multiple languages without a minimum spend requirement and a company integrating the gengo api into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translation are not what Pontoon is typically brought in for.
What can Gengo do that Pontoon cannot?
Gengo covers Standard and Pro quality tiers, Developer API, No minimum spend, Crowdsourced translator network. Pontoon covers Repository sync, Suggest and approve workflow, Fluent support, Translation memory.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Gengo: Is Gengo machine translation or human translation?

Human translation. It should be compared with Unbabel, not with Google Translate, Microsoft Translator or Amazon Translate, which are machine translation APIs.

Pontoon: Is there a paid hosted version?

No. Mozilla runs an instance for its own projects. Anyone else deploys their own.

Gengo: Is there a minimum spend?

No, Gengo publishes per-word pricing with no minimum spend or setup fee, unlike Unbabel’s enterprise-gated rate structure.

Pontoon: What does it actually cost?

Server hosting, engineering time to operate it, and whatever machine translation engine you connect. There is no licence fee.

Gengo: Who owns Gengo?

Lionbridge, a larger localisation and AI data services company, acquired Gengo in January 2019.

Pontoon: Is it suitable for a commercial product?

Only if you have infrastructure staff and mostly software string formats. Document translation and vendor support are missing.

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