Ways to localize your App Store listing, compared

There are six realistic ways to localize an App Store listing: typing it into App Store Connect by hand, a spreadsheet plus machine translation, fastlane or another command-line tool, a dedicated app that translates and publishes for you, an ASO suite, or human translators. They differ mostly in how much copy-pasting is left to you and whether anything checks Apple's limits before you publish.

We build one of these tools, so read this page with that in mind. We've tried to describe every option the way its own documentation does, and we link to each source. Prices are as published on October 28, 2026.

The short version

Doing it by hand in App Store Connect

App Store Connect has no translation and no way to edit several languages at once. You add each language from the language menu, then fill in the fields and save. A new language inherits screenshots and most properties from your primary language, but Apple's help page notes that the description and keywords start empty and must be entered for each localization.

Cost is zero; time is roughly languages × fields. At 50 languages and six text fields that's 300 pastes for every release, and the limits (30 for the name and subtitle, 100 for keywords, 170 for promotional text, 4,000 for the description and What's New) are only enforced when you hit save. Our character limits guide has the full table.

A spreadsheet plus DeepL or Google Translate

The classic indie workflow: export your English, run it through a machine translation service, paste the results back. DeepL's API Free plan covers 500,000 characters a month, and Google Cloud Translation has a free monthly allowance before per-character pricing.

The translation part is fine. The weak points are everything around it: generic translation doesn't know a subtitle has 30 characters, translates keywords word for word instead of using what people in that market search for, and still leaves you pasting into App Store Connect one field at a time. Our post on translating your App Store description compares the engines in detail.

fastlane deliver and other command-line tools

fastlane deliver keeps your metadata as text files, one folder per locale (metadata/de-DE/description.txt and so on), downloads what's live and uploads changes through an App Store Connect API key. It doesn't translate. Translation comes from add-ons such as fastlane-plugin-translate, which uses DeepL, or from your own scripts.

Other open-source options in the same spirit include the asc CLI for managing metadata from the terminal and translateR, a small Python tool that translates with Claude, GPT or Gemini and writes through the API.

This route is free and fits teams that already ship through CI. It assumes you're comfortable with Ruby or Python and the terminal, and nothing checks limits or keyword rules unless you script it.

Dedicated apps that translate and publish

This is the category Loci is in. These apps connect to App Store Connect with your API key, translate your fields (usually with your own AI key) and push the result back. The differences are in price model, platform and how much checking they do.

Our honest read: if you want free and open source, look at Itsyconnect or StoreLocalizer. If you want a full App Store Connect client on your iPhone too, Helm. If you want keyword research data in the same tool, ASO.dev. Loci is for developers who want a focused Mac app, a one-time price, free on-device translation where macOS supports it, and a review step that catches over-limit fields and wrong regional spelling before anything reaches Apple.

ASO suites

AppTweak (from €79 a month), ASOdesk, AppFollow and Sensor Tower are research tools. They show which keywords people search for in each country, what competitors rank for, and some translate keywords or screenshot text. They don't publish your localized listing to App Store Connect. They pair well with any of the options above if you have the budget; for most indie apps, the keyword field guide in our keyword localization post gets you most of the way.

Translation platforms and human translators

Crowdin has an App Store Connect integration that syncs app info and version texts both ways. Lokalise and Phrase document fastlane-based workflows instead. These make sense when a team already manages in-app strings there.

For people, Gengo lists standard translation from $0.09 per word and its advanced tier from $0.18. A full listing is roughly 600 to 800 words, so expect very roughly $60 to $160 per language before any keyword research. We'd spend that on the two or three markets that matter most and use machine or AI translation, checked by a native speaker if possible, for the rest. Which languages to do first covers how to pick them.