# Poedit Poedit is the standard desktop editor for gettext translation files, the `.po`/`.pot` format that most open-source software (and the whole WordPress ecosystem) uses for localization. Built by Václav Slavík and around since 2000ish, it runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The workflow it owns: a developer marks translatable strings in code, gettext extracts them into a `.pot` template, and translators open that template in Poedit to produce a `.po` file per language (compiled to binary `.mo` for runtime). Poedit shows source string and translation side by side, tracks untranslated and fuzzy entries, validates plural forms and printf-style placeholders, and warns about the classic mistakes (mismatched placeholders, trailing punctuation, inconsistent capitalization) before they ship as broken UI strings. The free version covers the full editing workflow. The paid Pro version adds the conveniences that matter at volume: pre-translation via machine translation, translation memory that reuses your past translations across projects, and direct WordPress theme/plugin support that finds translatable strings without hand-building a `.pot` first. Where it fits: for a solo developer or a small project, Poedit plus git covers localization end to end without any infrastructure. Web platforms (Weblate, Crowdin) take over when you have many translators who shouldn't need a desktop tool or a git checkout; those platforms still speak gettext underneath, so a Poedit-based workflow upgrades to them without changing file formats. ## References - Website: https://poedit.net/ - GitHub: https://github.com/vslavik/poedit ## Related -