Phrase vs Smartcat
Phrase and Smartcat side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
At a glance
| Phrase | Smartcat | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Translation & Localization | Translation & Localization |
| Starting price | $27/mo | $100/mo (checked October 2026) |
| Free tier | Not listed | Not listed |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
Neither lists a free tier, so expect to pay to use either one.
Phrase has the lower starting price ($27/mo against $100/mo for Smartcat). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
Both are in our Translation & Localization category.
About each tool
Phrase
Localization platform with translation management, string management and AI translation; plans start at $27 a month billed annually (Freelancer).
Who it is for
Its pricing page groups plans for freelancers and language service providers, software UI/UX teams, and larger business and enterprise localization teams. The Phrase TMS page describes the TMS as aimed at enterprise localization teams handling files and multilingual releases with multiple vendors.
Strengths
- The pricing page says all plans come with a 14-day free trial.
- The Phrase Strings page lists file formats such as JSON, YAML, XML, PO/Gettext, iOS Strings, Android XML, Flutter ARB and CSV, names GitHub, GitLab and Figma integrations, and mentions an API, webhooks, a CLI and over-the-air updates.
- The Phrase TMS page says it supports 50+ file formats and over 50 integrations, and offers translation memory, term bases, automated project creation and quality checks.
- Both product pages say they give access to 30+ machine translation engines, including bring-your-own engines, with automated quality scoring (vendor-reported).
- The Phrase terms say the customer remains the owner of its content, and that training models that produce text outputs (such as translations) on it is subject to the customer's prior approval.
Limitations
- The terms say all fees are non-cancellable and non-refundable, and renewal notice must be given at least 30 days before the subscription period ends or it renews for another period. Amounts bought outside the subscribed scope are billed as On-Demand Fees, invoiced monthly in arrears.
- The terms let Phrase use customer content to train its machine learning models without sharing them with other customers, and the pricing page conflicts with itself on some figures (Professional Strings seats are listed as 15 in one place and 150 in another).
Smartcat
Content translation and creation platform with AI agents, translation memory and a human linguist Marketplace. Adapt starts at $1,200 a year, billed annually (about $100 a month).
Who it is for
Smartcat describes plans for teams and enterprises that localize content at volume, from a $1,200 a year Adapt plan up to custom Autonomous contracts. It does not publish a self-serve monthly or free-forever plan, so it is not aimed at occasional individual users.
Strengths
- Smartcat says it supports 280+ languages across translation and content creation and handles 80+ file formats.
- Smartcat lists unlimited users on every current plan, with 1 workspace on Adapt and Accelerate, 2 on Anticipate and 7 on Autonomous.
- Smartcat says its Smartwords are not used for 100%+ translation memory matches, repetitions (including cross-file), auto-copy-from-source or number conversion; fuzzy matches of 50-99% do use them.
- Smartcat lists integrations by tier: Google Drive, Google Sheets, OneDrive and a Chrome extension on Adapt, Figma and Canva added on Accelerate, and GitHub, Jira, Contentful and Salesforce Marketing Cloud among those added on Anticipate. It says it connects to 40+ tools.
- Smartcat says its Marketplace gives access to 500K+ vetted human experts; it is an add-on on Adapt and included from Accelerate up.
- Smartcat says it is SOC 2 Type II compliant, encrypts data with TLS in transit and 256-bit AES at rest, and does not use customer content to train or improve AI models.
Limitations
- API access is listed from Anticipate up, and SSO, 2FA and a security questionnaire are listed from Anticipate up. A second workspace requires Anticipate or higher, and extra workspaces are sold at an add-on price that is not published.
- Smartcat's pages disagree on the trial: the pricing FAQ says the 15-day trial includes API access, while an older help-center page read earlier said the trial has no API access. The pricing page gives no word limit for the trial.
- The pricing page shows Accelerate, Anticipate and Autonomous as custom, while the help-center plan overview says "From $24,000/year" and "From $60,000/year" for Accelerate and Anticipate. Support hours and response times also differ by plan: Adapt has no Level 1 update interval and a 4-hour Level 1 response, against 2 hours on Anticipate and Autonomous.
