Crowdin vs Smartling: What are the differences?

## Introduction
In the realm of localization and translation management platforms, both Crowdin and Smartling are top contenders. Understanding the key differences between them can help organizations choose the right tool for their localization needs.

1. **Integration Capabilities**: Crowdin offers seamless integration with various tools and platforms such as Bitbucket, GitHub, Jira, and Slack, making it easy to incorporate localization into the existing development workflow. On the other hand, Smartling provides integration with a narrower range of tools and platforms, focusing more on enterprise-level integrations like Adobe Experience Manager and Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

2. **Pricing Structure**: Crowdin follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, allowing users to pay for the services they use without being tied down to long-term contracts. In contrast, Smartling typically requires users to commit to annual contracts, which may be less flexible for organizations with fluctuating localization needs.

3. **Collaboration Tools**: Crowdin emphasizes collaboration among team members, offering features like real-time translation editing, comments, and in-context localization. Smartling, on the other hand, focuses more on workflow automation and project management, providing robust tools for streamlining the localization process.

4. **Customization Options**: Crowdin provides extensive customization options, allowing users to tailor the platform to their specific localization requirements. Smartling, while customizable to a certain extent, may be more limited in terms of flexibility and adaptability to unique localization workflows.

5. **Support for Various File Formats**: Crowdin supports a wide range of file formats, making it versatile and accommodating for different types of localization projects. Smartling, while also supporting many common file formats, may have limitations in handling more specialized or less commonly used file types.

6. **Focus on User Experience**: Crowdin places a strong emphasis on user experience, with an intuitive interface and user-friendly features that make localization management accessible to users of all levels. Smartling, while also user-friendly, may prioritize enterprise-level functionality and scalability over simplicity in user interface design.

In Summary, understanding the nuances of localization platforms like Crowdin and Smartling can help organizations make informed decisions when choosing the right tool for their localization needs.