head to head · open source
LibreTranslate vs Lingo.dev
LibreTranslate has 16,674 GitHub stars, 1,707 forks, 126 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. Lingo.dev has 5,404 stars, 811 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. LibreTranslate leads on adoption by 209% (16,674 vs 5,404 stars). LibreTranslate is written in Python under AGPL-3.0; Lingo.dev is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. LibreTranslate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Lingo.dev 15%. Lingo.dev was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| LibreTranslate | Lingo.dev | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 5.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-03 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.7K | ⑂ 811 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick LibreTranslate if
- You weight community size — 17K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Lingo.dev if
- You want the Lingo.dev feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Lingo.dev fits your workflow better
About LibreTranslate
LibreTranslate is a free and open source machine translation API written in Python and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It lives in the open source translation ecosystem and is positioned as a self hosted alternative to hosted translation services. The project does not rely on proprietary software such as Google or Azure for translation. Instead, it uses the open source Argos Translate library as its translation engine.
read the full LibreTranslate overview →
About Lingo.dev
Lingo.dev is an open source suite of localization engineering tools that connects codebases and commits to translation APIs, built for developers and teams maintaining multilingual JavaScript, React, React Native, and TypeScript applications.
read the full Lingo.dev overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is LibreTranslate or Lingo.dev more popular?
LibreTranslate has 16,674 GitHub stars and Lingo.dev has 5,404. LibreTranslate has the larger community by that measure.
Are LibreTranslate and Lingo.dev free?
Both are open source. LibreTranslate is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Lingo.dev under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between LibreTranslate and Lingo.dev?
LibreTranslate is written in Python and Lingo.dev in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, LibreTranslate or Lingo.dev?
Choose LibreTranslate if you want the larger community (16,674 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Lingo.dev if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.