What is openlocale?

openlocale is an open-source, self-hostable translation management system (TMS) — an alternative to Lokalise, Phrase, and Crowdin that runs on your own infrastructure — with one defining feature: translations are served live.

Your applications fetch translation bundles from openlocale at runtime and subscribe to changes. When someone fixes a typo or a translator finishes a language in the dashboard, every connected app updates within milliseconds. Shipping copy stops being a deploy.

How it fits together

┌────────────────────┐    edits     ┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  Dashboard (web)   │ ───────────▶ │  openlocale server           │
│  translators, PMs  │              │  · audited write path        │
└────────────────────┘              │  · SQLite or Postgres        │
                                    │  · REST API + OpenAPI docs   │
┌────────────────────┐   push/pull  │  · CDN bundles (ETag/304)    │
│  CI (CLI)          │ ◀──────────▶ │  · SSE event stream          │
└────────────────────┘              └──────────┬───────────────────┘
                                               │ live updates
                    ┌──────────────────────────┼──────────────────┐
                    ▼                          ▼                  ▼
              web app (SDK)          mobile web (i18next)   another service

• People work in the dashboard: a key/locale grid editor, per-string version history with rollback, an import wizard with duplicate detection, and a full audit timeline.
• Machines talk to the REST API with scoped tokens, or use the CLI to push/pull translation files in CI.
• Apps consume translations through the delivery endpoints — directly, via the zero-dependency @openlocale/sdk, or through the i18next backend plugin.

Why self-host a TMS?

• Your strings are product. UI copy often reveals unreleased features. With openlocale, nothing leaves your infrastructure.
• No per-seat pricing. Invite every engineer, translator, and reviewer.
• No vendor limits. Unlimited projects, keys, and locales — it's your database.
• Integrate anything. The API is fully documented, the file formats are standard, and the provider interfaces (machine translation, SSO) are pluggable.

What's free and what's paid?

Everything described above is MIT-licensed and free forever: the editor, audit trail, live delivery, every file format, dedupe, SSO, API, and CLI.

AI features — batch machine translation and AI-assisted semantic duplicate detection — are paid, unlocked by an offline-verified license key. See AI translation & licensing.

Next steps

• Getting started — running locally in two minutes
• Platform support — what your stack uses: live SDKs, the HTTP API, or native file sync
• Self-hosting — Docker, Postgres, reverse proxies
• Live delivery — how the live loop works