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Doclingo vs Smartcat

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Smartcat publishes a starting price ($1200); Doclingo does not. Only Doclingo has a free tier. Both ship a public API.

DoclingoTranslates PDFs, Word, PowerPoint and Excel files while keeping the original layout intact.SmartcatLocalisation workspace combining machine translation, translation memory and paid human editors.

Side by side

FactDoclingoSmartcat
CategoryTranslation & LocalizationTranslation & Localization
Pricing modelFreemiumPaid
Starts at—$1200 year
Public APIYesYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, APIWeb, API
CompanyTONDA K.K.Smartcat Platform Inc.
Last verifiedSep 1, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Doclingo

Doclingo's real differentiator is putting the translation back into the original file's layout, tables and images instead of handing back plain text, which saves real reformatting work on complex documents. Letting users choose between several AI engines is a nice option, but the pricing page doesn't show actual numbers, which makes it hard to judge cost before signing up.

Pros

  • Preserves layout, tables and images instead of returning plain translated text
  • OCR handles text embedded inside images, not just document text
  • Choice of underlying engine (DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Qwen) instead of one fixed model

Cons

  • Exact subscription prices are not shown on the pricing page in the region checked
  • Free tier is capped at 2-3 translations per day
  • Free-tier files are auto-deleted after 7 days, so free use isn't suited to long-term storage

Smartcat

The draw is that machine translation, translation memory and a human editor marketplace sit in one workspace, so a file can escalate from automatic to reviewed without an export. It is priced as enterprise software, though - the entry tier costs $1,200 a year for a single workspace, and the jump to the next tier is twenty times that. Freelancers and small teams are not the audience.

Pros

  • 280+ languages and 50+ file formats, including software and e-commerce catalogue formats
  • Translation memory and glossaries carry across projects and departments
  • Marketplace of around 500,000 human translators and editors bookable inside the platform
  • Roughly 30 integrations covering Google Docs, Figma, Salesforce and Slack
  • SOC 2 compliance stated on the site

Cons

  • No free tier; the cheapest plan is $1,200 a year billed annually
  • API access starts only at the $60,000/year tier
  • Word allowances are metered as smartwords, so heavy months can force a tier upgrade
  • Human editors from the marketplace are billed on top of the subscription

Which one fits

Choose Doclingo if you need

  • Anyone translating formatted documents (contracts, slide decks, spreadsheets) who needs the layout preserved
  • Users who want to compare translation quality across multiple AI engines in one tool

Choose Smartcat if you need

  • Companies localising product, marketing and training content across many languages
  • Teams that need translation memory enforced across departments
  • Buyers who want machine output and human review under one contract

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