Machine translation, document and website translation, localization platforms, live speech, subtitles and dubbing. Each tool is described in our own words, with a link to its official site.
What a featured listing costs · from $199 a month
DeepL is a neural machine translation service with a web translator, desktop apps for Windows and Mac, browser extensions and a developer API. You can paste text, upload Word, PowerPoint…
Google Cloud Translation is the paid, developer side of Google's translation technology. It is an API, called from your own code or from a translation management system, and it is…
Phrase is a localization platform made of several products under one account. Phrase TMS, which grew out of Memsource, manages translation projects for documents and content, with translation memory, termbases,…
Smartling is a translation management platform that also sells translation services. Content arrives from websites, apps, content management systems and file uploads through connectors and a proxy, moves through workflows…
Trados is the translation software line from RWS. Trados Studio is the desktop CAT tool that many freelance translators and agencies use, with translation memory, termbases through MultiTerm, quality checks…
Lokalise is a localization platform built mainly for software teams. Developers push translation keys from their code into Lokalise through repository integrations, a CLI or the API, translators and reviewers…
Tools come from submissions and from our own reading. A tool must be live and available today.
We open the official website and confirm the tool does what our listing will say.
Each description is a short account, in our own words, of what the tool does and who it suits.
If we can't confirm a detail, such as glossary support or an API, the listing says "not enough info".
A tool is listed once we have confirmed that its official site is live and that it does what our description says. Each tool sits in the one category that fits its main job, even when it covers several. We don't publish scores, rankings or prices, because prices change often and a score would be our opinion presented as a fact. Tools we couldn't confirm stay off the site until we can.
Machine output still needs a fluent reader. Nothing here promises that a tool's translations are correct for your content, your market or your legal duties, so check samples with native speakers before you publish.
Makers can submit or claim a listing. A person checks every request. Published by Zwings LLC.
Start with what you are translating and who will read it. A support team answering customer emails, a marketer launching a site in Spanish and a software company shipping an app in many languages need very different tools, even though all three are buying translation.
Next, decide how much of the work a person will check. Internal notes and first drafts can often go out as raw machine translation. Marketing pages, contracts, product interfaces and anything with legal or safety weight need a fluent reviewer, and many teams use a mix: machine translation first, then human post-editing for the content that matters. Some tools in this directory include human translators or interpreters, others assume you bring your own.
Think about where the text lives. Words in a code repository call for a software localization platform that syncs keys with your builds. Pages on WordPress or Shopify suit a website translation plugin. Files such as Word, PDF and InDesign need a tool that rebuilds the layout. Live meetings and video need speech and dubbing tools. Choosing a tool that reads from and writes back to your real systems saves more time than any difference in translation quality.
Test quality on your own content. General engines do well on everyday language and less well on product names, industry terms and short interface strings with no context. Take a sample of real text, run it through two or three engines, and ask a native speaker to mark errors. If one engine is clearly better for a language pair, many platforms let you route that pair to it.
Set up terminology early. A glossary of product names, terms that must not be translated and preferred translations for key words fixes many of the most visible errors. Check that the tool applies the glossary to machine output as well as showing it to human translators.
Ask how your text is handled. Translation tools see everything you send them, including unreleased product copy, customer messages and contracts. Find out where processing happens, how long text is stored, whether it is used to train models and whether you can opt out. Business plans often have different terms from free ones.
Count the real cost. Translation is priced by characters, words, seats, languages, pages or minutes of audio depending on the tool, and the cheapest rate can hide the most review work. Add the hours your team spends fixing output to the subscription when you compare options.
Plan for change. Translation memories, glossaries and translated content should be exportable in standard formats such as TMX, TBX and XLIFF, so a move to another tool later does not mean starting over. Ask for a sample export before you sign.
No. We describe what each tool does and who it suits, in our own words, and link to the official site. There are no scores or rankings. Paid placements are marked Sponsored and do not change our descriptions.
It depends on the content and the risk. Internal messages and rough drafts are often fine as raw output. Anything customers, regulators or partners will rely on, such as product pages, legal text or safety instructions, should be checked by a fluent reviewer before it goes live.
A machine translation engine turns text in one language into another. A translation management system organizes the work around it: files, projects, translation memory, glossaries, reviewers and deadlines. Most TMS platforms connect to one or more engines and send text to them as part of a workflow.
Translation pricing usually depends on characters, words, seats, languages or minutes of audio, and it changes often. An out-of-date price is worse than none, so each tool page links to the official site where current pricing lives.
Use the submission form, or email us. We check every request by hand, write the description ourselves, and correct listings when a tool changes or shuts down.
It means we could not confirm that detail, such as glossary support or an API, from the tool's own site. We leave it marked that way instead of guessing, and update it when the maker confirms.