Weblate

What is Weblate?

Weblate is an open source, web-based continuous localization platform that keeps your software translations in sync with your Git repository. Translators work in a browser editor with translation memory, glossaries, and automatic quality checks, while Weblate commits their changes straight back to version control. It’s built on Django and Python and licensed under the GPLv3.

What is Weblate best for?

Weblate fits engineering teams and open source communities that want localization to live next to their code rather than in a separate silo. It’s a strong fit when you already work in Git, want translators contributing continuously as strings change, and prefer to self-host so your source strings and translation data stay on your own infrastructure.

What can Weblate do?

• Sync translations continuously with Git, GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Bitbucket, Mercurial, and Subversion
• Read and write a broad range of formats — gettext PO, Android XML, Apple strings, JSON, YAML, XLIFF, CSV, and dozens more
• Catch errors automatically with 30+ built-in quality checks (placeholders, punctuation, formatting, consistency)
• Reuse past work with shared translation memory and per-project glossaries
• Pull machine-translation suggestions from DeepL, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and self-hosted LibreTranslate
• Manage access with roles, review workflows, and per-language permissions
• Automate with a REST API, webhooks, and command-line client

Where does Weblate fall short?

• It’s specialized for software strings and structured content, not document or marketing-copy translation — teams localizing long-form articles or PDFs will find general TMS suites like Phrase or Lokalise better suited.
• The interface is dense and utilitarian. Translators used to the polished editors in Crowdin or Lokalise face a steeper first-run learning curve.
• Self-hosting has real moving parts beyond the app itself — it expects PostgreSQL, Redis, and a Celery background-worker process for tasks like commits and machine-translation calls, so it’s more than a single container to keep running.

Is Weblate free?

Yes — Weblate is free and open source under the GPLv3, and self-hosting has no license cost, string limits, or seat fees; you only pay for the server it runs on. The project also sells Hosted Weblate, a managed cloud service starting around €47/month and scaling by hosted string count, plus free hosting for eligible libre/open source projects. Paying for the cloud buys hosting and support, not the software.

What does Weblate replace?

Weblate is a self-hosted alternative to Crowdin, Lokalise, Phrase, and Transifex. It covers the same translation-management job — a collaborative editor, translation memory, glossaries, and CI/Git integration — but you run it yourself and keep full control of your data instead of paying a per-string or per-seat SaaS subscription.

FAQ

Is Weblate open source? Yes. Weblate is licensed under the GNU GPL version 3, a full OSI-approved copyleft license. The source is public, and you can use, modify, and self-host it freely.

Can I self-host Weblate for free? Yes. Self-hosting is free with no string or user limits — you only pay for your own server. Hosted Weblate is the paid, managed option, and qualifying libre projects can get free hosting.

Is Weblate a good Crowdin or Transifex alternative? For Git-centric and open source teams, yes — it offers continuous localization, translation memory, and quality checks without SaaS pricing. If you want the most polished translator UI or heavy document-translation workflows, a hosted platform may suit better.

What do I need to run Weblate? A server (Docker Compose is the supported path) with PostgreSQL, Redis, and a Celery worker. Official Docker images and a Helm chart are provided for deployment.