Frequently Asked Questions

SiteLocaleAI is a self-hosted internationalization toolkit for any website. It consists of a lightweight JavaScript library (~15KB) that you add to your site, a Node.js SDK that runs on your own server, and optional tools for SEO pre-rendering and WordPress integration.

It uses LLM APIs (like OpenAI or Anthropic) with your own API keys to translate your website content, localize prices to visitor currencies, and generate SEO-friendly pages in every language. Your data stays on your infrastructure — we only verify your license key.

Getting started takes under 10 minutes:

1. Sign up for an account and register your domain.
2. Deploy the SDK on your server using Docker (one command).
3. Add the script tag to your website's HTML.
4. Configure languages in the admin dashboard.

That's it. Your site will start translating for visitors automatically. Check our How It Works page for a detailed walkthrough.

For the standard setup, you need basic familiarity with running Docker containers and editing HTML. If you can add a script tag to your website and run <code>docker compose up</code>, you can set up SiteLocaleAI.

For WordPress, our dedicated plugin requires no technical knowledge at all — install it from the WordPress plugin directory, enter your license key, and you are done.

Yes. All plans include a free trial period so you can test SiteLocaleAI with your website before committing. No credit card required to start. You can explore the full feature set of your chosen plan during the trial.

The JS library detects your visitor's language preference (from browser settings and geo-IP), extracts visible text from the page, and sends it to the SDK running on your server. The SDK calls your configured LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) to generate a context-aware translation, then caches it in PostgreSQL.

Subsequent requests for the same content are served from cache in under 5 milliseconds — no LLM API call needed. Translations are also stored in the visitor's browser localStorage for instant rendering on repeat visits.

SiteLocaleAI supports OpenAI, Anthropic, and any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint. This includes self-hosted models via Ollama, vLLM, or LiteLLM. You use your own API keys and control which model is used for translations.

We recommend GPT-4o-mini or Claude Haiku for the best balance of quality and cost. For highest quality, use GPT-4o or Claude Sonnet.

Google Translate is a free widget that produces machine translations with no caching, no SEO benefits, no price localization, and a visible Google branding bar. Translations are often literal and miss context.

SiteLocaleAI uses modern LLMs for higher-quality, context-aware translations. Translations are cached for performance, static pages are generated for SEO, prices are localized to visitor currencies, and everything runs on your infrastructure with no third-party branding. See our detailed comparison page for more.

Yes, at two levels. Server-side: every translation is stored in your PostgreSQL database. The first request triggers an LLM call; every subsequent request is served from the database. Client-side: translations are also cached in the visitor's browser localStorage, so repeat visits show translated content instantly without any network request.

This means your LLM API costs are predictable — you only pay for the first translation of each piece of content in each language. Cached translations are served indefinitely until you update the source content.

Mark price elements in your HTML with <code>data-price</code> and <code>data-currency</code> attributes. The JS library detects the visitor's currency from their IP address, applies real-time exchange rates from your configured provider, and optionally applies psychological pricing rules (like rounding to .99).

For example, a <code>$49 USD</code> price might display as <code>45 EUR</code> for visitors in Germany or <code>7,400 JPY</code> for visitors in Japan — with proper currency formatting for each locale.

No. Your website content never passes through our servers. The SDK runs on your infrastructure, and translations are cached in your PostgreSQL database. We only see your license key, domain name, and plan tier when the SDK verifies your license on startup. That single verification request contains no page content.

SiteLocaleAI is designed to simplify GDPR compliance. Because your content and visitor data never leave your infrastructure, you maintain full control over data processing. You choose the LLM provider (and their data processing terms), the database location, and the retention policies.

No third-party DPA is required with us because we do not process your visitors' personal data. Our billing API only handles your account information (email, company name) under standard terms.

Translation happens on your server. The SDK receives translation requests from the JS library, calls your configured LLM provider, caches the result in your database, and returns it. The only external call is to the LLM API — and you choose which provider and which data center that goes to.

Our servers are only contacted once, at SDK startup, to verify your license key. No content data is transmitted.

SiteLocaleAI uses simple per-site monthly billing. You pay a flat monthly fee per domain:

Indie — $5/month (2 languages)
Starter — $49/month (5 languages + price localization)
Growth — $99/month (20 languages + SEO CLI)
Enterprise — $249/month (unlimited languages + translation memory)

There are no per-word charges, no usage-based pricing, and no surprise bills. You pay separately for your LLM API usage directly to your provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.).

Yes. You can upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time from your dashboard. Changes take effect immediately. When upgrading, you are charged the prorated difference for the current billing period. When downgrading, the new rate applies at the start of your next billing cycle.

If you cancel, your license key is deactivated at the end of your current billing period. Your SDK will continue to serve cached translations from your PostgreSQL database, but it will not process new translation requests or translate new content.

Your data remains on your servers — we do not delete anything because we do not have access to it. If you resubscribe later, your cached translations are still there.

Annual billing with a discount is coming soon. Currently all plans are billed monthly. If you need annual invoicing for procurement purposes, contact us at hello@sitelocaleai.com and we will arrange it.

SiteLocaleAI works with any framework that renders HTML: React, Next.js, Vue, Nuxt, Angular, Svelte, SvelteKit, Ruby on Rails, PHP, Laravel, WordPress, Shopify, and any static site generator (Hugo, Jekyll, Eleventy, Astro, Gatsby). Because it translates at the DOM level, no framework-specific adapter is needed.

See our integrations page for code examples for each framework.

Yes. The JS library uses a <code>MutationObserver</code> to detect DOM changes, so it automatically translates new content rendered by client-side routing in React, Vue, Angular, or any SPA framework. Route transitions, lazy-loaded content, and dynamically inserted elements are all handled automatically.

The SiteLocaleAI CLI tool reads your <code>sitemap.xml</code>, generates a fully-rendered HTML page for every URL in every configured language, and outputs static files you deploy to your server or CDN.

Each page includes proper <code>&lt;html lang="..."&gt;</code> attributes, <code>&lt;link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."&gt;</code> tags, and canonical URLs. Search engines can crawl and index each language version independently, which means your German pages rank in Google.de, your French pages in Google.fr, and so on.

SEO pre-rendering is available on the Growth plan ($99/month) and above.

Yes. The admin dashboard lets you edit any cached translation manually — just find the page, click the text, and update it. You can also:

- Define glossary terms (brand names and technical terms that should not be translated).
- Set tone preferences per language (formal vs. informal).
- Configure translation rules that the LLM follows (e.g., "always use 'Sie' for German").
- On Enterprise, use translation memory for consistent terminology across your site.