Overall, localization is an important consideration in software development, as it allows products to be more widely adopted and used by a global market. In addition, it improves the user experience for non-native speakers, builds a positive reputation for the company, and increases its revenue and growth. Unfortunately, software localization has been a source of difficulty for developers, with the challenge of creating and managing localization strings, integrating with external libraries, and more.
Imagine having a single tool to handle all these tasks, making the translation process much more manageable. A tool that is available for free and which you can self-host. That’s when Tolgee comes into the game.
Tolgee platform: what is it, and how can it help with localization?​
Tolgee software localization platform is a free and open-source online tool that helps software developers localize their products for international markets. Tolgee provides a platform that makes localization easy and affordable with an easy-to-use interface for managing translations and supporting all languages. It is constantly being updated with new features and improvements, making it an essential tool for anyone looking to localize their software products. In addition, it provides many great features that make the app localization a breeze, such as automatic or machine translation.
There are many i18n libraries out there. So why should I use Tolgee?​
Tolgee can do a lot more than just traditional i18n library. It doesn't only provide the different strings for different languages, but it also enables you to change the strings directly in the app you are currently working on, even in the production environment, when your app is deployed. It also allows your colleagues without coding knowledge to translate/modify/fix strings in your app: even your grandma, aunt, or friend from studies abroad can do that.
Tolgee is, at the same time, a localization platform where you can translate your strings, while it suggests results from various third-party translators like Google Translator, Amazon Translate, or DeepL. It also enables developers to provide screenshots from the app in one click. Hence, translators know the context and don't provide wrong translations.
How does Tolgee help me to have my App perfectly translated?​
The context in which text appears is vital for software localization as it helps translators to understand the meaning of the content and produce an accurate translation. Without context, translations can be misleading or incorrect, leading to user confusion or errors. To provide context for translators, Tolgee enables you to provide a screenshot with a highlighted string to translate with a single click. In the same dialog, where you can modify your localization strings, you can let Tolgee automatically take the screenshot from your App and highlight the string to be translated.
You can also use the Tolgee Tools Chrome plugin to translate your App and modify translations live on your page. While translating in the App itself, you can see the location and context of all translations.
How Tolgee helps developers? (The ALT+click magic)​
There are various dev Tools for various things. Tolgee brings dev tools for localization. When you click a translation string in your app with the ALT key, Tolgee dev tools open, and you can translate your string. You never have to edit a .json/.po or other localization data files. The only thing you have to do is ALT + Click the string. Developers won’t be overloaded with localization tasks as even team members without coding skills can manage the localization project independently.
How Tolgee helps designers?​
The new Figma plugin by Tolgee is a game-changer for designers, offering a streamlined localization process that is faster, easier, and more efficient than ever before.
With this plugin, you can seamlessly push text from your Figma designs to Tolgee, eliminating the need for manual copying and pasting. The plugin also allows you to connect your text to existing keys in Tolgee, ensuring consistent translations across projects. Furthermore, it enables you to easily pull translations back into Figma, visualize designs in different languages, and create duplicate pages with key names for developers.
Free software localization with Tolgee​
Tolgee localization platform is free to use to translate your software projects in the following cases:
1. Free plan of Tolgee cloud
When you sign up for Tolgee, you will be given a free account by default. It is suitable for smaller individual projects with up to 1000 strings. There are also 10 000 credits you can use for machine translation from third-party providers such as Google Translate, DeepL, Microsoft Translator or Amazon Translate.
The number of projects and users in the project are unlimited, so you can invite as many translators, reviewers, or collaborators as you wish. Try Tolgee platform first without any financial commitment and make an informed decision about whether or not the tool is suitable for your needs.
2. Free for open-source projects
Open Source software can be freely used, changed, and shared (in modified or unmodified form) by anyone. We would love to support the open-source ecosystem; that's why our Business plan is free for all open-source projects. To get this offer, just reach us out by email or by DM in our Slack community.
3. Free Self-hosted version of Tolgee Since Tolgee is open-source, self-hosting will be free forever. However, you will have to serve yourself with the setup and configuration of Tolgee. It may also require a certain amount of maintenance and upkeep, such as regular software updates, security patches, and backups, which can be time-consuming. Support and troubleshooting of the tool are entirely the user's responsibility as well.
How to start with Tolgee: Quickstart 🚀​
- Sign up or access your self-hosted instance
- Create a project
- Follow a guide in the integration section of your project
How long does it take to integrate Tolgee?​
The integration is very fast: you can do it in seconds! Follow our integration guides in the docs or in the platform. You can contact us via chat on our website or our community Slack channel if you get lost. Tolgee currently has integrations for React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, Next.js, Gatsby, and others.
TL;DR​
Localization is essential for success in the global marketplace because it allows you to reach a wider audience and tap into new markets. With Tolgee localization platform and its own integration libraries, you can quickly and easily translate your software into multiple languages, allowing you to reach a truly global market. If you haven’t tried Tolgee out yet, sign up and test it out for free without any commitment.
💡 Do you have any suggestions on how to make the localization process with Tolgee better? Let us know or create a pull request on GitHub.
