POEditor

Localisation management billed by string count with unlimited contributors

As of 30 August 2026, POEditor has a free plan and paid plans start at $14.99/month. A small Romanian-built translation platform that charges for the number of strings in your account rather than per seat or per word. Softwr lists it under Translation. POEditor is available on Web.

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Overview

What POEditor does

POEditor is a browser based localisation management system for software strings. It imports and exports the common software formats including gettext PO, XLIFF, iOS strings, Android XML, JSON and YAML, keeps translations per language and per project, supports translation memory across your account, and exposes an API and webhooks so builds can push new strings and pull completed translations automatically. The pricing model is the differentiator and the trap. Billing is by total string count across the account, not by editor seat and not by translated word. That makes it unusually cheap for a project with many target languages and a large volunteer or in-house translator pool, because languages and contributors are free. It becomes awkward in the other direction: strings accumulate, obsolete terms that nobody removed still count, and several small projects share one account quota, so a team can cross a tier boundary without adding anything a user would notice. Open source projects can apply for a free plan, which is why the tool appears in a lot of community translated software. Buyers are development teams that want string files in and out of a repository with minimal ceremony. The trade-off is depth: there is no in-context visual editor, the quality assurance checks are thin next to the larger platforms, and support is a small team over email.

What people use it for

Software with many target languages and a volunteer or community translator pool
Development teams that want new strings pushed from continuous integration and translations pulled back automatically
Small companies that cannot justify per seat pricing for translators who work occasionally
Open source projects that qualify for the free plan and need real workflow rather than a spreadsheet

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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.

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of POEditor

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

POEditorvs
Crowdin
Crowdin: Choose for in-context translation, richer quality checks and a larger integration set
POEditorvs
Lokalise
Lokalise: Better fit when designers and product managers need screenshot based context and branching
POEditorvs
Transifex
Transifex: Similar developer workflow with stronger reporting for larger localisation programmes

Pricing

What POEditor costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Free

Around 1000 strings
Unlimited contributors and languages
Open source projects can apply for a free plan

Start

$14.99 /mo

Higher string quota
API access
Translation memory

Plus

$29.99 /mo

Larger string quota
Repository integrations
Webhooks

Premium

$59.99 /mo

Large string quota across all projects
Priority support

Capabilities

Features

String based billing
Quota is total strings on the account, with languages and contributors unmetered
Format coverage
Imports and exports PO, XLIFF, JSON, YAML, iOS strings and Android XML
Translation memory
Reuses previous translations across all projects in the account
API and webhooks
Automates string upload and translation download from a build pipeline
Machine translation
Connects paid engines using your own provider keys
Contributor roles
Unlimited translators and proofreaders per language at no additional cost

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Does it charge per translator?

No. Contributors and languages are unlimited on every plan. Only the total string count is billed.

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.

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.

Keep looking

Where to go from POEditor

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for POEditor, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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