BYOK vs. Hosted Translation: The Full Breakdown
Two models exist for Figma translation plugins. BYOK (bring your own key) means you supply an OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini API key — your content goes directly to your AI provider, you see every dollar in your provider's dashboard, and you choose the model. Hosted means the plugin vendor manages the translation backend — simpler setup, but you trade control for convenience.
Neither is universally better. Here's the full comparison across 8 dimensions that matter:
| Dimension | BYOK (Lokali) | Hosted (RTL Layout, Lokalise, etc.) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost model | Pay your AI provider directly — no markup. GPT-4o-mini: ~$0.01 per screen. Full visibility in your provider dashboard. | Free shared pool (RTL Layout) or subscription from $120/mo (Lokalise). Cost is opaque — no per-translation visibility. |
| Setup time | ~5 min one-time. Add your API key once; every future translation uses it automatically. | Instant. No account, no key, no config. Open plugin → click → done. |
| Data privacy | Content goes directly to your chosen AI provider (OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini). Does not pass through Lokali servers. Full audit trail in your provider account. | Content passes through the plugin vendor's backend. Vendor's privacy policy governs what is stored, logged, or used for model training. |
| Model choice | GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini 1.5 Pro — pick what fits your quality/cost requirements. Swap models anytime. | Vendor chooses the model. No visibility into which model version, update frequency, or whether it's been changed. |
| Glossary & brand voice | Supports custom glossaries and tone instructions via system prompt. Brand-specific terms translate consistently across all screens. | Varies by tool. Lokalise has TMS-level glossary. RTL Layout: no glossary support. |
| Team sharing | Share the same API key across the design team. Each designer's translations use the shared key, centralized billing. | RTL Layout: no team features. Lokalise: team collaboration built-in, but requires paid plan ($120+/mo). |
| Rate limits | Your own rate limits, not shared with other users. No slowdowns when others are using the plugin simultaneously. | Shared API pool across all plugin users. Can throttle during peak hours or when the shared key hits limits. |
| Supported languages | 100+ languages (all major AI providers' supported languages). Full RTL support: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu, Pashto. | Varies: RTL Layout ~140, Smartcat ~280, Lokalise depends on TMS integrations. RTL support quality varies by vendor pool. |
Hosted plugin costs and model choices change without notice. Figures accurate as of April 2026.
Which Is Right for Your Team?
Five questions. Follow the path that fits — the answer is at the bottom.
1. Do you have an existing OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini API key?
Yes → BYOK setup is under 5 minutes. You're already paying for AI access — why pay again through a plugin vendor?
No → Continue to question 2.
2. Is this for production-quality work or a quick stakeholder demo?
Production → Model quality matters. Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian output from GPT-4 or Claude is significantly better than most shared API pools. Use BYOK.
Demo / one-off → Hosted is fine. RTL Layout (free, zero setup) handles quick stakeholder tests. Continue to question 3 only if you need more.
3. Does your company have data residency or confidentiality requirements?
Yes (fintech, healthtech, regulated) → BYOK. Your content goes directly to your AI provider — not through a plugin vendor's backend. Audit trail is in your provider account.
No → Continue to question 4.
4. Do you need consistent brand voice or custom glossaries across screens?
Yes → BYOK with Lokali's glossary support. Define your brand terms once; every screen uses them.
No → Continue to question 5.
5. Is API key setup a dealbreaker for your team?
No → Use BYOK. Full model control, your cost, your data path.
Yes (zero-setup is non-negotiable) → RTL Layout for free, occasional use. Watch Lokali's roadmap — a hosted-credit tier with no API key setup is coming.
Two Personas. Two Different Answers.
Real use cases look different at each end of the spectrum.
Amira — Freelance Designer
Solo, 1–2 RTL projects per quarter
Amira's client wants to see "what the Arabic version would look like." It's a one-day exploration, not a production deliverable. She has no OpenAI key and doesn't want to create one.
Her choice: RTL Layout (hosted). Free, no setup, done in 30 seconds. Translation quality is good enough for a client proof — not for an Arabic native speaker to review. When she's ready to go deeper, the BYOK setup is a one-time 5-minute investment.
Hosted (RTL Layout) → BYOK when volume grows
Marcus — Lead Designer, Fintech
Team of 6, shipping Arabic + Hebrew markets
Marcus's team is designing a banking app for Saudi Arabia. Translations ship to production — every string goes to legal review and a native Arabic speaker before release. His company already has an OpenAI enterprise agreement with data residency requirements.
His choice: BYOK (Lokali). Translation content cannot pass through a third-party vendor's servers under their enterprise agreement. BYOK routes directly to their OpenAI contract. GPT-4o handles MSA vs. Gulf Arabic distinctions — something shared pools can't guarantee. Cost is tracked centrally, glossary ensures "IBAN" transliterates consistently across 40+ screens.
BYOK (Lokali) — the only viable option for this team
Full Plugin Comparison: RTL Flip, Translation & Pricing
Covering the 5 most-installed or most-referenced Figma RTL/translation plugins plus Lokali. Install counts are from Figma Community pages as of April 2026; smaller plugins are estimated ranges. Pricing reflects published rates, not negotiated enterprise contracts.
| Plugin | RTL Layout Flip | Translation | API Model | Free / Paid | Figma Installs | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Lokali
This
|
✓ Full flip | ✓ 100+ languages | BYOK (OpenAI / Anthropic / Gemini) | Free | 289 | Active 2026 |
| RTL Layout | ✓ Full flip | ✓ 140+ languages | Hosted (shared pool) | Free (donation) | ~9,500+ | Active 2024–25 |
| Lokalise | ✗ Text-only | ✓ Full TMS | Hosted (Lokalise AI) | Plugin free; TMS from $120/mo | ~6,000+ (plugin) | Active 2025 |
| Frontitude | ✗ Preview only | ~ AI beta | Hosted | Free starter; $69–$149/mo | Moderate | Active 2025 |
| Ditto | ✗ None | ~ Via TMS integrations | Hosted (Lokalise/Crowdin relay) | Free trial; enterprise pricing | Moderate | Active 2025 |
| Smartcat Translator | ✗ None | ✓ 280+ languages | Hosted (proprietary AI) | Plugin free; platform custom pricing | Moderate | Active 2025 |
Sources: Figma Community pages, vendor websites, Gumroad listings, G2/Capterra, Reddit r/FigmaDesign. Install counts for smaller plugins are estimates. "Text-only" RTL means text alignment changes only — frame positions, component placement, and layout direction are not mirrored.
Why we built Lokali
The most-installed RTL plugin (RTL Layout, ~9,500 installs) does something important: it flips Figma frames from LTR to RTL and translates the text in one click. The problem is control. RTL Layout uses a shared hosted translation API — you don't know which model it's using, you share rate limits with thousands of other users, and you have no way to audit or vary translation quality. For a quick concept test, that's fine. For design work that feeds a production Arabic product, it's not.
Lokali was built for the second use case. Bring your own key — OpenAI GPT-4, Claude, or Gemini — pay your provider directly, choose the model that fits your quality requirements, and have full visibility into what's happening. The RTL layout flip works the same way as RTL Layout: one click, full frame mirror, auto-layout direction preserved.
The other gap Lokali fills is Figma AI. Figma's built-in translation (launched 2024) translates text strings — it does not flip RTL layouts. If your client needs an Arabic prototype and you use Figma AI to translate it, what you get is Arabic words inside a left-to-right UI structure. That's unusable. Figma AI translates words. Lokali translates layouts.
What takes 45–90 minutes manually (duplicate frame → Google Translate → manually reposition every element) takes roughly 30 seconds with Lokali. The manual approach is also error-prone: designers miss flipped icons, swap the wrong group, or forget auto-layout direction. One-click means one chance for human error, not twenty.
When RTL Layout is the better choice
RTL Layout has a 33× install advantage over Lokali. That gap is real, and it reflects genuine strengths. Here's when RTL Layout is the right call:
- Zero setup. No API key, no account, no configuration. Open the plugin, click flip, done. If you're a designer who never wants to see an API key form, RTL Layout wins on friction.
- Quick client demos. If you're showing a stakeholder that an Arabic version is feasible — not shipping it to production — RTL Layout's hosted translation is fast enough. Translation quality from a shared pool may vary, but for a 30-second stakeholder demo it usually doesn't matter.
- Occasional use. If RTL is a rare one-off request (one client, one project, once a year), the BYOK setup cost for Lokali may not be worth it. RTL Layout's donation model means you pay nothing unless you choose to.
- Component variant support. RTL Layout supports creating RTL component variants (a toggle on the component property). Lokali does not currently do this. If your design system needs RTL/LTR as a component property, RTL Layout has a workflow for it.
We're not going to pretend these differences don't exist. RTL Layout has been around longer, has more installs, and has features Lokali hasn't shipped yet. The honest summary: RTL Layout for occasional, no-setup RTL work; Lokali for teams who need model control, cost visibility, and production-quality output.
When you should use Lokali
Lokali makes the most sense when some combination of these is true:
- You're designing for production, not demos. Translation quality matters. With BYOK you can run GPT-4, Claude 3.5, or Gemini 1.5 Pro — models that produce significantly better Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu, and other MENA-language output than generic hosted API pools.
- You already have an OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini API key. If you're at a company that uses AI tooling, you almost certainly have a key. Setup is adding that key to the plugin once. From there, every translation uses your key, your model, your cost.
- Cost predictability matters. Hosted translation plugins are black boxes for cost. BYOK means you see exactly what you're spending in your OpenAI/Anthropic/Gemini dashboard, and you can switch models to trade cost against quality.
- You're shipping to MENA and the design needs to be right. Arabic has dialectal variation (MSA vs. Egyptian Arabic vs. Gulf Arabic). Claude and GPT-4 handle these distinctions meaningfully better than most hosted pools. If the Arabic copy will be reviewed by a native speaker who will care about dialect, model quality matters.
- You want a future with paid hosted credits. Lokali's roadmap includes a hosted-credit tier for designers who don't want BYOK setup — you'd buy Lokali credits and skip the API key entirely. That tier doesn't exist yet, but it's where the product is going. If the BYOK barrier is the only thing stopping you, note that a zero-setup path is coming.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does RTL Layout flip the entire Figma frame structure, or just text direction?
RTL Layout does flip the full frame structure — it mirrors LTR layouts to RTL by repositioning elements and reversing auto-layout direction, not just changing text alignment. The key limitation is its translation backend: it uses a shared hosted API with no user key control, no model choice, and shared rate limits across all users. Lokali does the same layout flip plus BYOK translation, giving you full control over which model runs the translation (OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini).
Can Figma's built-in AI translation handle Arabic RTL layouts?
No. Figma's native AI translation (launched 2024) translates text strings but does not flip RTL layouts. Arabic and Hebrew are read right-to-left, which means navigation bars, button positions, card layouts, icon alignments, and auto-layout directions all need to mirror. If you use Figma AI to translate a screen to Arabic and don't flip the layout, you have Arabic text inside an LTR UI structure — which is unusable. Lokali handles both steps: text translation and the layout flip, in one click.
What does BYOK mean and why does it matter for Figma translation plugins?
BYOK stands for Bring Your Own Key — you supply your own OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini API key directly to the plugin. This means you pay your AI provider directly (no markup), you choose which model handles translation, you have your own rate limits (no shared pool), and your Figma content never passes through a third-party server beyond the AI provider you chose. Lokali is the only Figma RTL+translation plugin that operates fully BYOK. Every alternative — RTL Layout, Lokalise, Frontitude, Smartcat — uses a hosted model where the plugin vendor controls the backend.
Does Lokalise handle RTL layout flipping in Figma?
No. Lokalise's Figma plugin aligns text RTL on import, but it does not mirror frame structure. If you have a navigation bar on the left that needs to move to the right for Arabic, Lokalise will not do that. Lokalise is a full translation management system (TMS) — it's excellent for managing production translations at scale, with translation memory, glossary, and developer handoff. It requires a Growth plan ($120/month minimum) to unlock Figma integration at all. The honest use case split: Lokalise for production translation pipelines; Lokali for getting to a "does this design work in Arabic?" answer before involving the TMS team.
Which Figma RTL plugin is best for a freelancer or solo designer?
RTL Layout is the path of least resistance — free, donation model, no API key required, 9,500+ installs, works immediately. For a solo designer doing occasional RTL work, it's the right starting point. Lokali is better once you have an API key and care about translation quality, model choice, or cost visibility. Both are free. The tradeoff is setup friction (Lokali requires a one-time BYOK key entry) vs. control (Lokali gives you full model and cost control in exchange).
Try Lokali — free, BYOK, no subscription
AI translation in 100+ languages + one-click RTL/LTR layout flip. Bring your own API key — OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini. Your key, your model, your cost.