Better I18N
Is Better i18n open source, and can I use it for free?
Every SDK, the CLI and the MCP servers are MIT and public. The hosted platform is not. The Free plan is not a trial.
Partly. Every SDK, the CLI and the MCP servers are open source under the MIT licence, public on GitHub. The hosted platform, meaning the dashboard and the translation pipeline, is closed source. And yes, you can use the whole thing for free without paying anything.
The split matters more than the label, so here it is in full.
What is open source and what is not #
| Part | Licence | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Every SDK, the CLI, the MCP servers | MIT | github.com/better-i18n/oss |
| The docs site, the marketing site, the help centre | MIT | same repository |
| Example apps and starters | MIT | nextjs-i18n-starter, demo-i18n-app |
| The dashboard, API and sync engine | Closed source | hosted by us |
You can read, fork, patch and vendor every line that ships inside your application. What you cannot get the source of is the editor, the translation pipeline and the CDN that serves your strings.
Which packages are MIT licensed #
All fourteen published ones:
@better-i18n/core · @better-i18n/next · @better-i18n/remix · @better-i18n/use-intl · @better-i18n/vite · @better-i18n/expo · @better-i18n/server · @better-i18n/sdk · @better-i18n/content · @better-i18n/admin · @better-i18n/cli · @better-i18n/mcp · @better-i18n/mcp-content · @better-i18n/schemas · plus better_i18n on pub.dev for Flutter
No package requires a licence key to run, and none of them phone home for authorisation. They fetch published translations from a public CDN over plain HTTPS.
Can I use it without paying anything #
Yes. The Free plan is not a trial that expires:
| Free plan | Limit |
|---|---|
| Projects | 5 |
| Translation keys | 5,000 |
| Content entries | 100 |
| AI translation requests | 500 per month |
| Languages | unlimited |
| Team members | unlimited, and they never cost extra |
Billing is per organisation, not per seat or per project. See billing and plans for what Pro adds.
If you outgrow 5,000 keys, that is the point at which it costs money. Below it, nothing does.
Can I self-host the platform #
No, and this is the half people misread most often, so both parts plainly.
The platform cannot be self-hosted. The dashboard, the translation editor, the AI translation pipeline, GitHub sync and the publish flow run on our infrastructure and are not open source. There is no on-premise or Docker build today.
Your translation files can be self-hosted. Export the JSON, put it on your own CDN or server, and point the SDK at it with cdnBaseUrl. Your app then fetches strings from infrastructure you control and never talks to us at runtime. See how it works.
Those are different things and the second one is not a workaround for the first. If your requirement is "no third-party service in the runtime path", exporting to your own CDN covers you completely. If it is "no third-party service anywhere, including where translators work", Better i18n is not the right fit and it is better to know that now than after a migration.
Why the split #
The client code is where you take on risk by adopting us. It sits in your bundle, in your build, in your CI. MIT means that risk is yours to inspect and yours to keep even if we disappear, because you can fork it and keep shipping. The platform is the product we sell, and keeping it closed is what pays for the free plan.