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.

The short answer

Free plan: Only Doclingo (Smartcat has paid plans only)
Public API: Both have one
Higher Trust score: Smartcat — 96 vs 82 for Doclingo
Best fit: Doclingo: Anyone translating formatted documents (contracts, slide decks, spreadsheets) who needs the layout preserved · Smartcat: Companies localising product, marketing and training content across many languages
Platforms: Doclingo: Web, iOS, Android, Chrome extension · Smartcat: Web

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

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

Fact	Doclingo	Smartcat
Category	Translation & Localization	Translation & Localization
Pricing model	Freemium	Paid
Starts at	—	$1200/yr
Public API	Yes	Yes
Trust score	82 / 100	96 / 100
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, API	Web, API
Company	TONDA K.K.	Smartcat Platform Inc.
Last verified	Oct 15, 2026	Oct 16, 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