Locale Priority Planner
Score languages by market size, competition, and cost to decide what to localize first.
10 = extremely competitive.
Opportunity score (0–10)
4.2
Payback period
2.0 months
Verdict
Worth testing
Localization budgets are finite, and the honest question is never “should we localize?” but “in what order?”. This planner turns that decision into a score: for each candidate language it weighs the market’s revenue size, the competitive pressure you would face there, and your estimated localization cost, then ranks the locales by expected return per unit of effort.
Adjust the weights to match your situation — a paid app cares more about revenue-heavy locales like Japan and Germany, while a free ad-supported app may weight raw download volume higher — and the ranking updates instantly.
How to plan your localization order
- 1
Select the candidate languages you are considering.
- 2
Set the market-size weight — how much high-revenue locales should dominate the score.
- 3
Rate the competition you face per locale (use the Locale Coverage Checker on rivals to inform this).
- 4
Enter your rough localization cost per language — metadata-only passes are far cheaper than full app translation.
- 5
Read the ranked output and localize top-down; re-score after each launch with real data.
The locales that pay: where App Store revenue concentrates
App Store consumer spend is heavily concentrated in a short list of language markets. English (led by the US storefront), Japanese, German, French, Korean, and Simplified Chinese consistently sit at the top of the revenue table — Japan in particular monetizes far above its population size, with some of the highest per-user spend of any storefront. If your app monetizes through purchases or subscriptions, these six locales cover the large majority of addressable spend and are the default starting shortlist.
Download-weighted priorities look different: Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish (Latin America), Indonesian, Hindi, and Russian unlock enormous install volume at lower revenue per user. Neither ordering is universally right — which is exactly why the planner exposes the weights instead of hard-coding a “top 10 languages” list that fits nobody’s product perfectly.
Cost, competition, and the metadata-first shortcut
Localization ROI is a ratio, so the denominator matters as much as the market. A full localization — UI strings, screenshots, support — can cost thousands of dollars per language, but a metadata-only localization (name, subtitle, keyword field, description) costs a fraction of that and already captures the ranking and conversion benefits on the store itself. Many teams sequence it this way deliberately: localize metadata for eight locales, watch which ones convert, then fund full app translation only for the proven winners.
Competition is the third axis and the most neglected one. A rich market where every competitor already has a polished native listing offers less marginal gain than a mid-size market where you would be the only localized option. The evidence for localized listings is unambiguous — users convert dramatically better on product pages in their own language, with well-documented cases of triple-digit download growth after localization — but that uplift is largest precisely where competitors have not yet claimed it.
Frequently asked questions
Which languages should an app localize into first?
For revenue, the consensus top tier is English, Japanese, German, French, Korean, and Simplified Chinese — these locales concentrate most App Store consumer spend, with Japan monetizing exceptionally well per user. For raw downloads, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, and Indonesian rank much higher. The right order depends on your monetization model, which is what this planner weighs.
How much does localized metadata improve conversion?
Substantially. Users seeing a product page in their native language convert dramatically better than those seeing a foreign-language fallback; published case studies regularly report double- and triple-digit download growth in newly localized markets. The lift compounds with ranking gains, since localized metadata also targets local-language keywords.
Should I localize the whole app or just the store listing first?
Metadata first is usually the smarter sequence. A store-listing localization costs a fraction of a full app translation, ships without an engineering cycle, and gives you real conversion data per market. Fund full in-app localization for the locales that prove themselves — and expect retention there to justify it.
How does competition change the priority order?
A locale where none of your competitors have localized listings offers outsized returns: your native-language title and keywords face weakened competition for every local query. Run your rivals through the Locale Coverage Checker and raise the priority of any meaningful market they have ignored.
How is the priority score calculated?
Each locale gets a weighted score combining market size (revenue or downloads, per your weighting), inverse competition (less localized competition scores higher), and inverse cost (cheaper localizations score higher). The output is a relative ranking for sequencing work, not an absolute revenue forecast.
Do regional variants like es-MX or pt-BR deserve separate priority?
Often, yes. Portuguese (Brazil) serves a top-five download market on its own, and Spanish (Mexico) carries a bonus: it is cross-matched in the US storefront’s search index, so its keyword field also works in your highest-revenue market. Variants with cross-locale matching punch above their standalone market size.
Picked your locales? Ship them today
Appalize’s Cross-Localization ASO auto-generates optimized, native-quality metadata for every locale on your list in one run — with keyword fields placed to exploit cross-locale matching from day one.
Related free tools
Keyword Localization Helper
Turn your keywords into the terms native users actually search — not literal translations.
Locale Coverage Checker
Search any iOS app and instantly see which App Store languages its listing supports.
Storefront Pricing Reference
See how Apple’s price points map to local currencies and taxes across major storefronts.
Multi-Country Keyword Checker
Check one keyword’s popularity across many App Store countries in a single query.