Translation · head to head
Gengo vs POEditor
Gengo
Translation
Human translation marketplace and API, priced per word from $0.06, owned by Lionbridge since 2019
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
POEditor
Translation
Localisation management billed by string count with unlimited contributors
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only POEditor 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.; POEditor the quota counts every string on the account, including obsolete terms from retired features, so cost creeps upward unless someone deliberately prunes projects.
- They diverge on capability: Gengo covers Standard and Pro quality tiers, POEditor covers String based billing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Gengo and POEditor actually diverge.
Identical on both: platforms (Web), 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 POEditor
- String based billing
- Format coverage
- Translation memory
- API and webhooks
- Machine translation
- Contributor roles
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 POEditor
- A company integrating the Gengo API into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translationnot POEditor
- A support team needing occasional human-translated responses without committing to Unbabel’s enterprise minimumnot POEditor
- A publisher needing straightforward, transparently priced human translation for shorter, lower-stakes contentnot POEditor
POEditor
- Software with many target languages and a volunteer or community translator poolnot Gengo
- Development teams that want new strings pushed from continuous integration and translations pulled back automaticallynot Gengo
- Small companies that cannot justify per seat pricing for translators who work occasionallynot Gengo
- Open source projects that qualify for the free plan and need real workflow rather than a spreadsheetnot 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.
POEditor
- The quota counts every string on the account, including obsolete terms from retired features, so cost creeps upward unless someone deliberately prunes projects.
- Several projects share one account quota, so a team can be pushed into a higher tier by work in an unrelated repository.
- There is no in-context or visual editor, so translators guess at where a string appears and length or gender errors surface only after a build.
- Quality assurance checks are basic compared with the larger platforms, with no configurable rule sets or enforced terminology gates.
- The company is small, support is email based, and there is no self-hosted or on-premises option, which rules it out where data residency is contractually fixed.
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
POEditor
Free- FreeFree
- Around 1000 strings
- Unlimited contributors and languages
- Open source projects can apply for a free plan
- Start$14.99/month
- Higher string quota
- API access
- Translation memory
- Plus$29.99/month
- Larger string quota
- Repository integrations
- Webhooks
- Premium$59.99/month
- Large string quota across all projects
- Priority support
Which should you pick?
Choose POEditor if
- You need string based billing.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want format coverage.
Questions people ask
- Is Gengo or POEditor better?
- Neither clearly leads. Gengo starts at On request and POEditor at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Gengo or POEditor?
- POEditor has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Gengo and Free for POEditor.
- Does Gengo or POEditor run on more platforms?
- Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- Can I use POEditor for free?
- Yes. POEditor 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 POEditor is typically brought in for.
- What can Gengo do that POEditor cannot?
- Gengo covers Standard and Pro quality tiers, Developer API, No minimum spend, Crowdsourced translator network. POEditor covers String based billing, Format coverage, Translation memory, API and webhooks.
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.
POEditor: Does it charge per translator?
No. Contributors and languages are unlimited on every plan. Only the total string count is billed.
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.
POEditor: Is there a free plan for open source?
Yes, open source projects can apply for a free plan, which is why many community translated applications use it.
Gengo: Who owns Gengo?
Lionbridge, a larger localisation and AI data services company, acquired Gengo in January 2019.
POEditor: Does it support in-context translation?
No. Translators work from the string list and any comments or screenshots you attach, not from a live preview.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- Gengo vs Unbabel
- Gengo vs Google Translate
- Gengo vs MateCat
- Gengo vs Reverso
- Gengo vs Microsoft Translator
- Gengo vs Amazon Translate
- Gengo vs DeepL
- Gengo vs Systran
- Gengo vs Smartcat
- Gengo vs Wordbee
- Gengo vs OmegaT
- Gengo vs Pontoon
- Gengo vs SDL Trados Studio
- Gengo vs Smartling
- Gengo vs Twine
- Gengo vs Localazy
- Gengo vs Crowdin
- Gengo vs Lokalise
- Gengo vs Transifex
- Gengo vs Plunet
- Gengo vs XTRF
- Gengo vs wxrks
- Gengo vs XTM Cloud
- Gengo vs Sonix
- POEditor vs Unbabel
- POEditor vs Google Translate
- POEditor vs MateCat
- POEditor vs Reverso
- POEditor vs Microsoft Translator
- POEditor vs Amazon Translate
- POEditor vs DeepL
- POEditor vs Systran
- POEditor vs Smartcat
- POEditor vs Wordbee
- POEditor vs OmegaT
- POEditor vs Pontoon
- POEditor vs SDL Trados Studio
- POEditor vs Smartling
- POEditor vs Twine
- POEditor vs Localazy
- POEditor vs Crowdin
- POEditor vs Lokalise
- POEditor vs Transifex
- POEditor vs Plunet
- POEditor vs XTRF
- POEditor vs wxrks
- POEditor vs XTM Cloud
- POEditor vs Sonix