translate-toolsBrowser & desktop
Linguist
An open-source browser translation extension for pages, selections, inputs, and subtitles, with on-device offline translation and custom backends.
- Productivity
- Content creation
- Browser extension
- Browser
- Android
- Runs locally
- Docker supported
- Popularity
- 1.1k Stars
- GitHub stars
- Recent activity
- 9/8/2026
- Updated in the last 30 days
- License
- BSD-3-CLAUSE
- Permissive
Why it matters
We look beyond stars: what problem it solves, whether it creates real utility, and what makes its approach worth noticing.
Problem
Commercial translation services present privacy risks, and built-in browser tools lack flexibility. This project directly addresses user needs for privacy-controlled multilingual web browsing and offline translation.
Practical value
It provides full-page translation, selected text translation, input fields, and streaming subtitle translation across 130 languages, allowing users to freely switch between commercial and offline backends.
Innovation / differentiation
It adopts a modular translation backend design with built-in offline support, avoiding the limitation of traditional extensions being bound to a single commercial source.
Leverage potential
Built on an open-source model, developers can add custom backends, extend it to mobile browsers, or use it as an independent translation system.
Why now
Current user demands for data privacy and autonomy are rising, making such open-source localization tools align well with these technical requirements.
Community activity
In the last 90 days there were 5 new issues and 4 pull requests; the bounded issue/PR samples include 2 issue authors and 1 PR contributors, with at least 1 releases.
Maintainer responsiveness
The 5-issue window sample had a 80% close rate, and the 4-pull-request sample had a 75% merge rate. Maintainer-comment observations covered only 100% of that issue sample, so response rate and first-response speed are not reported.
Key highlights
- Translation for full pages, selected text, text inputs, and video subtitles
- Personal dictionary, translation history, and text-to-speech
- Multiple online services plus custom translator modules
Quick start
How it is installed, how hard it is, and where to start.
Where it runs
Browser
Difficulty
Easy — follow the steps
- 01Install Linguist from the relevant browser add-on store, or use a release package in development mode where needed.
- 02Choose a default translation backend; for sensitive text, prefer downloading and enabling the offline Bergamot translator.
- 03Enable page auto-translation, selection translation, subtitles, dictionary, or TTS as needed, and review the data policy of any online backend.
Best for
- Developers who want to try it on their machine
- People who prefer Docker deploys
More about it
Linguist is a browser-extension translation tool covering full-page translation, selected text, text inputs, subtitles, text-to-speech, history, and a personal dictionary. It does not lock translation to one provider: users can configure backends such as Google, Yandex, Bing, DeepL, or ChatGPT, and can also implement a custom translator module. For more privacy-sensitive material, the embedded Bergamot translator can run translation on-device and offline; the README states that the extension itself collects no personal data. The project provides normal desktop-browser installation paths and documents Android use through Firefox Nightly or Chromium browsers that support extensions. Language coverage, translation quality, and credential requirements still depend on the selected offline or third-party backend.
Sources
Each field shows its status and source — expand to review.
12 · Expand
Sources
Each field shows its status and source — expand to review.
capability tags
Verifiedproductivity, content_creation
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
Latest release
Verifiedv7.1.0
Source: GitHub API · latest_release=v7.1.0 · 10/3/2026
License
VerifiedBSD-3-Clause
Source: GitHub API · license.spdx_id=BSD-3-Clause · 10/3/2026
needs api key
VerifiedNo
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
One-liner
Verified{"en":"An open-source browser translation extension for pages, selections, inputs, and subtitles, with on-device offline translation and custom backends.","zh":"开源浏览器翻译扩展，可翻译整页、选中文本、输入框与字幕，并支持设备端离线翻译和自定义翻译后端。"}
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
Platforms
Verifiedbrowser, android
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
Category hint
Inferred from materialssecurity
Source: Project README · hint=security · 8/17/2026
product forms
Verifiedbrowser_extension
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
role tags
VerifiedSource: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
supports docker
VerifiedYes
Source: Repository file · dockerfile=true; compose=true · 10/3/2026
supports local
VerifiedYes
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
supports self host
VerifiedNo
Source: admin_cms · cms editor · 8/17/2026
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