Getting started

This guide walks you through setting up Localizely in seven short steps. By the end, you will have a project with your content in it, a team working on translations, and a workflow that fits into your release process.

Step 1: Create your account

Sign up for Localizely and log in. Your new account includes a sample project, so you can explore the platform before adding your own content.

Your account also comes with its own organization, the home for everything your team shares: projects, members, glossaries, translation memories, and billing. If you work with other teams, they can invite you to their organizations as well, and you can move between them from a single account.

Step 2: Create a project

Open the Projects page and click the “+” button. Give your project a name and choose the base language you are translating from. You can add target languages whenever you are ready.

Step 3: Add your content

The fastest way to get started is to import the localization files you already have. Open your project, head to the Upload page, choose a file, review the import options, and click Upload. Localizely reads the keys and existing translations and adds them to your project.

Starting from scratch? You can also add keys directly in Localizely and export the files later.

See the full list of supported file formats.

Step 4: Invite your team

Localization is a team effort. Invite the people who will work on your project as contributors and give each of them the access they need:

You can also invite organization members. They are organization admins by default and have access to all organization resources.

Step 5: Translate your content

All translation work happens on the Translations page of your project. This is where your team edits and reviews translations, leaves comments, and sees the screenshots attached to each string for context.

You do not have to translate everything by hand. Use AI translation to produce a first draft in seconds, let translation memory reuse translations you already have, and rely on a glossary to keep terminology consistent across the project. When you need a human touch, you can order professional translation and hand the work to experienced linguists without leaving Localizely.

Step 6: Download your files

When translations are ready, open the Download page, pick the file format your app uses, and click Download. Drop the file into your codebase in place of the existing localization files, and you are ready to ship.

Step 7: Automate your workflow

Once you have done one round by hand, let Localizely handle the rest. Use the CLI to sync files from your build scripts, connect your repository with the GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket integration to keep translations in step with your code, or build your own flow on top of the API. From here on, new keys flow in and finished translations flow out with no manual steps in between.