--- description: git8n compared with Fink, Tolgee, Crowdin and Weblate, and what git8n does not do. --- # Compare git8n This page compares git8n with four tools that also translate the locale files of an application: Fink, Tolgee, Crowdin and Weblate. Each of them does more than git8n in some areas. The table says where. **Checked on 2026-11-03.** The facts about the other tools come from their own documentation, linked under the table. A tool changes: read its page before you decide. ## The short answer - **git8n** edits the JSON locale files of a GitHub repository. Translators propose, reviewers publish, and each publication is a commit or a pull request. A translator can sign in with a link by email, with no GitHub account. Agents work through an MCP server and a CLI. You host it. - **Fink** is also an editor for the files of a GitHub repository, in the browser, with nothing to host. Everyone who saves needs a GitHub account, and rights are the rights of GitHub. - **Tolgee** keeps the texts in a Tolgee project. A CLI or the API moves them to and from the repository. It edits texts inside the running application. - **Crowdin** is a full localization platform for professional translators, with translation memory and machine translation. It keeps the texts in a Crowdin project, and sends them back as pull requests. - **Weblate** is an open source platform that treats the repository as the place of the texts, with a working copy and a database of its own, and many formats and hosts. ## The table | | git8n | [Fink](#sources) | [Tolgee](#sources) | [Crowdin](#sources) | [Weblate](#sources) | | -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | Where the texts live | The repository only. The database holds accounts and rights, not texts | The repository only | A Tolgee project, pushed to or pulled from the repository by its CLI | A Crowdin project, synced with the repository | The repository, with a working copy and a database of Weblate | | Git hosts | GitHub | GitHub | Not checked | GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket and more | Any git host, and Mercurial and Subversion | | Who needs a GitHub account | The admin who installs the GitHub App. Translators can sign in by email | Everyone who saves a change | Nobody: a Tolgee account | Nobody: a Crowdin account | Nobody: a Weblate account | | Review | A proposal is a commit on `i18n/`. A reviewer publishes it | A commit on a branch, or a pull request from a fork | Not checked | Pull requests from a service branch (`l10n_…` by default) | Commits pushed to the repository, or pull requests | | Rights | A role and a list of languages for each member, in each repository | The rights of GitHub: no accounts, invitations or roles of its own | Not checked | Not checked | Not checked | | MCP server | Yes, over stdio (`npx -y @git8n/cli mcp`) | Not checked | Yes, remote, with sign-in or an API key | Yes | Not in its documentation | | CLI | Yes (`@git8n/cli`), with `check`, a linter that needs no server | Not checked | Yes | Yes | Yes (`wlc`) | | Self-hosting | Yes, and required: there is no hosted service | No: hosted at fink.inlang.com | Yes, or Tolgee Cloud | No: a cloud service | Yes, or Hosted Weblate | | Formats | JSON files of nested objects, read with the dotted keys of i18next | i18next JSON, next-intl, the inlang message format | Many, i18next JSON included | Dozens, i18next JSON included | Many, i18next JSON included | | Translation memory, MT | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Licence | AGPL-3.0-only | MIT | Apache-2.0, with enterprise features under another licence | Proprietary | GPL-3.0 | « Not checked » means that this page did not find the fact in the documentation of the tool. It does not mean « no ». ## Sources - **Fink:** [Fink llms.txt](https://fink.inlang.com/llms.txt) (formats, GitHub only, no translation memory or machine translation), [Translators and non-developers](https://fink.inlang.com/docs/translators.md) (accounts and rights), [inlang-fink on GitHub](https://github.com/opral/inlang-fink) (licence). - **Tolgee:** [MCP server setup](https://docs.tolgee.io/platform/integrations/mcp_server/setup), [Push and pull strings](https://docs.tolgee.io/tolgee-cli/push-pull-strings), [Supported formats](https://docs.tolgee.io/platform/supported_formats), [Self-hosting](https://docs.tolgee.io/platform/self_hosting/getting_started), [LICENSE](https://github.com/tolgee/tolgee-platform/blob/main/LICENSE). Translation memory and machine translation: [Fink vs Tolgee](https://fink.inlang.com/compare/tolgee.md), a page of a competitor. - **Crowdin:** [GitHub integration](https://support.crowdin.com/github-integration/) (service branch `l10n_`), [Crowdin MCP Server](https://support.crowdin.com/developer/crowdin-mcp-server/), [crowdin-cli](https://github.com/crowdin/crowdin-cli), [Crowdin docs for LLMs](https://support.crowdin.com/llms-small.txt) (no self-hosted edition is described). Hosts, formats, translation memory and machine translation: [Fink vs Crowdin](https://fink.inlang.com/compare/crowdin.md), a page of a competitor. - **Weblate:** [Version control integration](https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/vcs.md), [Code hosting](https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/admin/code-hosting.md), [Formats](https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/formats.md), [Translation memory and installation](https://docs.weblate.org/llms.txt) (the index has no MCP page), [Weblate Client](https://docs.weblate.org/en/latest/wlc.md), [WeblateOrg/weblate on GitHub](https://github.com/WeblateOrg/weblate) (licence). ## What git8n does not do - **No translation memory and no glossary.** Each key is translated on its own. - **No machine translation on the server.** `git8n prompt translate` writes a prompt for a model that you run, and an agent proposes through the MCP server. Both go through a review, as a person's proposal does. - **JSON only.** No YAML, `.po`, XLIFF, ARB or mobile string files. [A repository and its files](./repositories.md#the-files) gives the layout. - **GitHub only.** The editor reads and writes through a GitHub App. GitLab, Bitbucket and other hosts are not supported. - **No hosted service.** You deploy the editor yourself: [Deploy](../operate/deploy.md). - **No in-context editing and no screenshots.** A translator sees the key, the source text and the keys near it, not the screen of the application. ## When to pick another tool - **Fink**, if you want nothing to host and everybody already has a GitHub account with the rights they need. - **Tolgee**, if people must edit the texts inside the running application. - **Crowdin**, if an agency or professional translators work in the tool every day, with translation memory and machine translation. - **Weblate**, if your code is not on GitHub, or your files are not JSON. Coming from Crowdin? [Migrate from Crowdin](./migrate-from-crowdin.md).