What are you using for Categories ? Have you checked out Geta.Optimizely.Categories, It supports localization (without XML) although I have not made use of localization of categories though.

While Geta.Optimizely.Categories looks like a pretty good alternative to the Opti categories, it also looks like it requires a migration process.  Our categories are heavily utilized throughout our 17 sites, but localization is only needed in one.  I think the migration process involves more risk than our need warrants.

While am not sure how your categories are created or used, another thing you can check is DbLocalizationProvider.EpiServer can be of any help. We use it to localize our site labels/texts which provides a editor interface in CMS.

I looked at it, and it seems similar to the Geta solution in terms of implementation effort.  I am realizing that any dynamic solution probably requires lots of code reference updates.

Maybe I'll just use the XML files.

Now, I just need to know how to set up a file for Categories and configure for its use!

Neither of the solutions suggested involved keeping the Opti categories.  Considering our need isn't significant, changing all the code references to use a different data structure is not worth the risk.

Closing this as unsolved.