If you’re planning to expand your business’s market presence, the first step is to create a culturally robust digital presence. To achieve this, website translation services are a must. They help create a consistent customer experience irrespective of your market’s geography.
This means you need to go beyond mere tools like Google Translate—be sure to work with companies that offer a healthy mix of machine and human translation. But finding the right fit for your business is easier said than done.
Many companies offer translation services that don't consider cultural nuances or local dialects, resulting in poor translations that fail to capture the essence of your message. Further, some translation services can be prohibitively expensive and require long-term contracts which may not align with your needs.
So, how do you choose the right website translation service for your business?
7 best website translation services
Here’s a list of seven website translation providers who can help you develop a linguistically and culturally relevant website. Let’s look at what makes each provider different.
1. Smartling
Smartling is our end-to-end translation management service that helps you deliver web experiences in any language. Our service includes access to our machine translation tools that translate your content, which is eventually vetted by our human translation experts.
This workflow ensures we can achieve a 100% translation quality rate with a 40% cost reduction and 42% faster time to market.
We’re able to do this using three key differentiators: a solid supply chain, 100% in-platform translation management, and improved platform capabilities.
When you use our services and platform, you know exactly who is working on the content and when they’re doing it. Plus, all the project management occurs within the platform, which removes the need to switch contexts between different tools to get the job done.
Combining this with access to automation capabilities, data insights, and platform experts, all within the same service improves the overall efficiency of the process. Unlike other website translation services, there’s no word minimum to get started, allowing you to hit the ground running as soon as your content is ready.
Moreover, we also have a Global Delivery Network (GDN) that can integrate with your website so that you can offer a localized version instantly, with a 99.9% uptime rate. Ultimately, it ensures that your website is optimized for search in your target languages and available to your customers at any moment.
This combination of access to linguistic experts and a translation management system to simplify the translation workflow sets us apart. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve been rated #1 on G2 for Translation Management and the #1 enterprise translation management system (TMS) for 15 consecutive quarters.
Languages: Unlimited language pairs
Features:
- Translation Proxy: the Global Delivery Network
- SEO-compatible websites in different languages
- 99.9% uptime guarantee for translated websites
- Robust quality assurance with human translators
- Translation management system for project management
- Integrates with 25+ platforms
- Translation software API for integration with internal tools
- Native language linguists who understand your brand voice and tone
- Translators with domain expertise for technical industries
- Transcreation tool for maintaining creativity and emotion in different languages
- White glove project management to increase ROI and time to market
Industries: Marketing, Government, Finance, Legal, Gaming, Security, and more
Pricing: Contact for pricing
Location: Global
2. Localize
Localize enables businesses to localize their content quickly and accurately while maintaining brand integrity. They have their own proprietary system for automatic content and translation delivery which simplifies the translation workflow.
Additionally, the website translation platform provides users with quality control features such as allowing approved translators for specific projects, setting language preferences for order consistency, and more.
Languages: 75+ languages
Features:
- Automated detection and translation
- In-context editor for visual editing
- Collaboration tools for teams
- Developer-friendly platform with support for CLI, SDKs, API
- 59 integrations with CMS, e-commerce tools, and more
Industries: E-commerce, Mobile Apps, Website Apps
Pricing: Individual ($50/month), Basic ($275/month), Core ($625/month)
Location: United States
3. Lokalise
Lokalise’s platform simplifies translating content for multilingual websites, making updates, and adding new languages through its TMS.
Additionally, businesses can save on development hours by taking advantage of its integrations, which offer improved translation quality and a more efficient localization workflow. With a simple 3-step workflow (set up, translate & review, release), marketing teams can release translated websites faster.
Languages: 63 languages
Features:
- Real-time reporting capabilities
- In-house or outsourced translators for quality assurance
- Set up multistep automation rules for tasks
- Developer tools—API, CLI, mobile SDKs, and integrations (GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab)
- Integrates with 60+ apps for project management, code repositories, CMS, etc.
Industries: Agriculture, Finance, Education, Entertainment, E-sports, Health, Internet, Marketing & Advertising, Retail & E-commerce, Telecommunications, Transportation, Software
Pricing: Start ($140/month), Essential ($270/month), Pro ($990/month), Enterprise (Contact Sales)
Location: United States and Latvia
4. Weglot
With Weglot, you can translate and display website content in minutes. And the platform is compatible with any CMS, such as WordPress, Shopify, and custom-built sites. Built for speed and accuracy, it combines machine translation and professional human translation to give users the best translation quality.
The intuitive translations management dashboard makes it easy to keep track of text, SEO metadata, and media files to easily handle the website’s multilingual SEO.
Languages: 115+ languages
Features:
- No-code translation management system
- Automatic website translation as and when content is added
- In-context editor for visual translation
- Multilingual glossary
- Auto-direct feature for visitors in different regions
Industries: Retail, Apps, Government, Marketing, Web Agencies, Education
Pricing: Starter (€15/month), Business (€29/month), Pro (€79/month), Advanced (€299/month), Extended (€699/month)
Location: France
5. Gengo
Gengo (acquired by Lionbridge) offers a comprehensive website translation service that allows businesses and individuals to quickly localize their content for global markets.
With Gengo’s easy-to-use platform, customers have the flexibility to order translations directly or integrate with the Gengo API for dynamic ordering.
Languages: 70+ language pairs
Features:
- 21,000+ translators from across the world
- Translation Management System to automate the translation process
- End-to-end translation management with custom timelines and a dedicated team
- Gengo API (plugin) for integration with internal tools
Industries: E-commerce, Travel & Hospitality, Media & Entertainment, Mobile & Video Games, Marketing & Advertising, Technology, Business, Finance, Legal
Pricing: Standard ($0.06/word), Advanced ($0.12/word), contact sales for additional services
Location: Japan and the United Kingdom
6. Alconost
Founded in 2004, they have served over 1,500 clients, ranging from independent developers to major accounts such as Microsoft and Kaspersky. They offer professional translations into over 100 languages and use advanced technology to ensure accuracy and high-quality translations.
They also have a team of highly experienced translators consisting of native speakers with expertise in different areas. This unique combination allows them to provide accurate translations while preserving the source text's cultural nuances and original meaning.
Languages: 100+ languages
Features:
- Subject matter experts specifically for IT companies
- Option to choose between a self-serve platform or custom orders
- Tailored website localization process based on your needs
- Human translation API (Nitro)
- Add-ons: Website localization testing and proofreading
Industries: Information Technology (IT)
Pricing: Contact for pricing
Location: United States, Poland, Japan, Portugal, Germany, China
7. BLEND Localization
BLEND, previously known as One Hour Translation, has over 12 years of experience in the industry. They tout a large customer base and a global team of talented linguists from all around the world, in part due to their extensive experience.
They pride themselves on their technology-based approach to translation. Using advanced machine learning algorithms and natural language processing techniques, BLEND ensures accuracy and consistency with every project.
Languages: 120+ languages
Features:
- Subject matter experts for each industry
- 7 CMS integrations (WordPress, Drupal, etc.)
- Custom-made APIs to integrate additional platforms
Industries: Gaming, Fintech, IT & Software, Life Sciences, Digital Media, E-commerce, Mobile Apps, E-learning
Pricing: Pro ($0.096/word), Pro Plus ($0.14/word), Expert ($0.15/word), Expert Plus ($0.19/word)
Location: Israel, United States, China, Romania, Ukraine, United Kingdom
7 questions to ask before choosing a website translation service
Here’s a list of 7 questions to ask potential vendors before kickstarting an official website translation project:
1. What sets you apart from your competitors?
Always ask the provider about their USP as it can play a huge role in determining if they're the right fit for your needs.
Plus, you might find out about additional services that they offer. In this case, you receive a comprehensive solution and get the most value for your money.
For example, at Smartling, we offer complete end-to-end translation management instead of merely translating your website. Additionally, with automated workflows and GDN, you can ensure your translations are intact and up-to-date with minimal intervention.
2. Do you have the necessary translation qualifications and expertise?
This is vital—it indicates the quality and expertise of the service provider. Ideally, you need to ensure they have ISO 17100, 9001, 13485, or 27001 certifications. It proves that they’re a certified translation agency and use standardized processes to deliver the best results.
Smartling has received certifications such as ISO 17100, ISO 9001, and ISO 13485, with plans to add more in the future.
3. Do you have a quality assurance process in place?
Quality assurance (QA) is key as it ensures every single word is verified before making it live on your website. Without a robust QA process, you're bound to have a high error rate that leads to wasted time, effort, and money.
Smartling’s human translators verify the translations and automated Quality Check Profiles to maintain a 100% translation quality guarantee.
4. Do you have experience working with companies in your industry?
Your website translation provider must have the necessary industry and subject matter experts (SMEs) within their team.
They’re knowledgeable about the industry-specific nuances, language, and jargon. Plus, they know how to accurately convey terms and ideas particular to the industry in different languages and brand voices.
This is especially true for technical industries like pharmaceutical, legal, and finance.
5. Do you offer only translation or localization services too?
Localization means adapting content to suit a specific language and culture instead of word-to-word translation. For example, the needs of an American English-speaking audience will differ from those of a British English-speaking audience.
Be sure to choose a vendor that does both. This results in a more comprehensive solution.
6. Do you have 24/7 customer support for all languages?
The service provider should be available 24/7 to ensure customers get the support they need for the target language. While some companies have 24/7 support for popular languages like French or Spanish, they might not have it for languages like Hindi or Hebrew.
Plus, they should be responsive irrespective of the customer support channel. An excellent way to gauge that is by assessing how they handle your initial inquiry.
7. What does your success rate look like? Do you have relevant case studies?
Look for their customer testimonials, industry-specific case studies, and reviews on websites like G2 or TrustPilot. These will show you whether previous customers were satisfied with their experience. Only sign up for their service once you're confident in their results.
Here’s how we’ve helped clients like Canva, Yext, Vimeo, and more translate their websites successfully.
How much does website translation cost, and what does it depend on?
Typically, the costs for translating websites can range from $0.06 to $0.30 per word. But that depends on several factors:
- If you’re using human translators or a mix of human and machine translation
- Volume of content that needs to be translated—you may receive volume discounts
- Language pairs you’ve chosen—common languages like French are less expensive than uncommon ones like Hebrew
- Number of languages you need the website translated into
- Level of industry and subject matter expertise—the more experienced the translator, the higher the cost and quality
- Timeframe for translations—most services charge a rush fee for fast turnarounds
- Geographical area—translators in high-cost regions like the United States tend to charge a higher premium
Translate your website with Smartling
With the right professional translation service, businesses can reach customers worldwide, allowing them to expand their customer base and increase their profits.
This is why it's essential to choose a provider that understands your business's goals and your target market's nuances, and also has the necessary prerequisites you're looking for. If you're unsure, book a live demo to assess a potential vendor's workflows and tools.
Are you looking for an end-to-end website translation service to localize your website? Book a meeting with Smartling today and get a personalized introduction to our services.
