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Loco localise.biz

Can AI replace Loco?

The core of Loco is a keyed string store with a locale matrix on top, and that part is genuinely a one-sitting build: SQLite, a table view, an import and an export. What eats the weekend is the format layer, because gettext PO with plural headers, Apple .strings and .stringsdict, Android plurals XML, ICU messages and flat JSON all disagree about pluralization and escaping in ways that only show up in production. Machine translation fill-in is a single API call if you already have a DeepL or provider key. If you are the only translator, a local build is fine and arguably faster to work with. If you send links to freelance translators and rely on the hosted API in CI, you are rebuilding a service, not a tool.

Verdict: Half-bot · AI gets you partway; the hard part stays hardBuild time: a weekend

Replacing a paid app means you set it up and keep it running: hosting, updates and backups can be on you. What you give up.

Half-bot

01What it costs

$5.95/moPro, monthly per account
$71.40per year at that price

Checked Aug 18, 2026 · source: localise.biz.

02Could AI build it for you?

The core job: A local web app that stores translation keys per project, shows a locale-by-key grid you can edit, imports and exports JSON, PO and Android XML, and optionally machine-translates empty cells.

What a working version needs:

  • Node 20 and a local folder to run in
  • Optional machine translation API key (DeepL or similar) in .env
  • Your existing locale files to import as a starting point

Fine to self-host if you are your own translator; the moment a human you do not employ needs edit access, the hosted version starts earning its keep.

03What you'd give up

  • Format breadth: Loco reads and writes a long tail of formats, including the awkward Apple and Qt ones, with plural rules per locale already correct
  • A shareable editor for non-technical translators, with roles, comments and progress tracking
  • A stable public API and CLI that CI pipelines can pull from at build time
  • Translation history, who changed what, and the ability to roll a string back
  • Glossary and translation memory suggestions that improve as the project grows

Because localization is a pile of edge cases someone else already ate. Plural categories vary by language, every platform escapes strings differently, and one bad export ships mangled text to users in a language nobody on the team reads. Paying also buys a link you can send to a contractor and an API your build can hit, which a folder on your laptop cannot do. Solo developers with two or three locales tend to outgrow the need for that rather than into it.

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04The build prompt

Get the Build Kit for Loco

The complete build prompt, plus 11 step-by-step prompts from research to launch, a design system file, a page-by-page spec, the data model and a launch checklist.

Get the Build Kit · $9 →

One-time payment. Delivered on screen and by email.

Prices change; confirm on the vendor's site before you decide.