One‑Click i18n Solutions for Vue and React: Compare Three Zero‑Intrusion Tools

i18n‑auto‑extractor

Wrap literal strings with $at(). The tool extracts them, generates locale JSON files, and uses built‑in Google Translate for over 100 languages. Zero‑configuration after installation.

Installation & usage

npm i -D i18n-auto-extractor
npx i18n-auto-extractor   # generates config file

const title = $at('欢迎来到我的网站')

After build the tool creates a locales/ directory:

locales/
├─ zh.json   // original Chinese
├─ en.json   // auto‑translated
├─ fr.json   // …

auto‑i18n‑translation‑plugins

Provides Babel‑based zero‑intrusion plugins for Vite, Webpack and Rollup that translate source‑code Chinese strings without writing $t(). Supports Google, Youdao and Baidu translators and performs incremental builds.

Vite example

npm i -D vite-auto-i18n-plugin@^1.0.23

// vite.config.ts
import viteAutoI18n from 'vite-auto-i18n-plugin'
export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    vue(),
    viteAutoI18n({
      targetLangList: ['en', 'ja', 'ko'],
      translator: new YoudaoTranslator({ appId: 'xxx', appKey: 'xxx' })
    })
  ]
})

Build generates lang/index.json for import.

i18n‑cli

Command‑line tool that scans a project, replaces Chinese literals with t('...'), and outputs locale JSON files. Supports Baidu, Google and Youdao translators and an incremental mode.

Two‑step usage

npm i -g @ifreeovo/i18n-extract-cli
it --locales en,ja   # full translation
it --incremental     # only new strings

Sample output:

// locales/zh-CN.json
{ "a1b2c3": "提交订单" }

// locales/en.json
{ "a1b2c3": "Submit Order" }

Scenario selection guide

New project, long‑term maintenance – use i18n‑auto‑extractor (requires wrapping strings but remains maintainable).

Legacy project, need English version within days – use auto‑i18n‑translation‑plugins (no source changes).

Collaboration with product/translation team – use i18n‑cli (CLI + Excel workflow).

Summary

Skip writing $t() → auto‑i18n‑translation‑plugins .

Wrap strings with $at() for long‑term ease → i18n‑auto‑extractor .

Quick CLI scan with Excel collaboration → i18n‑cli .

All three tools are MIT‑licensed open source.

GitHub links

i18n‑auto‑extractor: https://github.com/qianyuanjia/i18n-auto-extractor auto‑i18n‑translation‑plugins: https://github.com/auto-i18n/auto-i18n-translation-plugins i18n‑cli:

https://github.com/IFreeOvO/i18n-cli