Smartling Pricing, Features, Reviews & Comparison of Alternatives

Smartling is a web-based translation technology platform. It transforms the usually complex, costly, and time-consuming translation process into a faster and more affordable undertaking through automation and app integration. Specifically created for companies with a target market spanning various regions of the world, Smartling helps eliminate language barriers through professionally translated, localized content.

Smartling is made up of many different tools to address common translation challenges that include speed, quality, time, scalability, and cost. While Smartling supports machine-assisted translation, it recognizes that this type of translation may not meet rigorous quality standards the same way human translation does, which is why customers are free to choose their own translation service providers like agencies, freelancers, or in-house staff.

Smartling’s core features include translation memory, custom workflows, reporting and analytics, proxy solution for websites, translation quality tools, and integrations.

Translation is a big industry, and as most industries go, it has had its share of difficulties. Manual translation of websites, documents, and web apps entails more translation projects for developers instead of the work they signed up for, executives and marketers worrying about translation quality, and translations stored in emails or spreadsheets, a process that’s often tedious and error-prone.

Smartling’s translation management solution automatically captures content, sends it out to translators, and depending on where you want it to go, transports the translated content back to you or straight to your customers. It provides a centralized translation memory, which is a database where translated strings of text are stored for faster, easier application the next time your translators work on new content.

• Experience level: Beginner to advanced
• Industry: Any company in any industry vertical, but Smartling’s most common customers are from B2B software, ecommerce, travel and hospitality, consumer electronics, consumer web and mobile, and manufacturing
• Business size: Small businesses to large enterprises
• Departments/roles: Translators, editors and proofreaders, translation project managers, website developers and administrators
• Budget/point: Starts at $129 per month
• Example customers: IMG, Jive, Kobo, Kodak, Spotify, GoPro, Glassdoor, Outbrain, oDesk, Foursquare, and Lumosity

Translation Memory

Repurposing is a commonly-used term in digital marketing. It means using the same content, research, or interview for multiple purposes, such as blog posts, infographics, slides, whitepapers, ebooks, and so on.

With Smartling, translation repurposing is a thing, too. The platform comes with a proprietary translation memory, a database where past translations are stored. If your company does a lot of translation, with this tool, your translators don’t have to translate what has already been translated. Instead, the system provides “matches” to new translation projects, which your translators can either apply or discard, depending on the context. This expedites project delivery and minimizes overall translation costs.

Custom Workflows

Every business follows a unique set of processes to get things done. The beauty of having the ability to customize your workflows is that the app adapts to your needs. This is particularly handy if you follow different translation workflows for different languages and project types, use not just one translation provider, employ in-country reviewers for specific languages, and your content needs to be reviewed by subject matter experts for approval. Any number of workflows can be customized.

Smartling automates manual steps such as copying and pasting translations into spreadsheets and sending files around. Instant notifications are also automatically sent out to alert project participants about files that are ready for the next step.

Reporting and Analytics

Smartling’s reporting and analytics dashboard provides real-time visibility into how your projects are performing. It allows comprehensive insight into your translation database’s content assets. Localization metrics, which includes traffic to a translated website, can be directly viewed from the dashboard, enabling you to understand and measure the value of your translation initiatives.

Updated in real time, downloadable reports and data visualizations are available on demand, and reports can be run for individual languages or across all your projects. Reports show you which languages perform the best in terms of traffic, which URLs are often used, the total number of words stored in your translation memory (especially useful for translations charged on a per-word basis), and let you compare actual progress against benchmarks or service level targets.

Translation Proxy

For a global business, localized websites are necessary to reach and engage audiences from around the world. But creating websites from scratch, especially for several different languages, can be a costly and time-consuming exercise. Smartling’s global delivery network (GDN) is a platform that allows you to use your existing website as a template for localized websites. A one-time integration is needed, and every update made on your source site is automatically detected, sent to the translation workflow, and then delivered to your customers in several different languages.

The template can be accordingly modified to meet the needs of a specific geography. Examples include figures in US dollars that are converted to the local currency, deals or items not available in certain geographies, and so on.

Translation Quality Tools

What differentiates human translation from machine-assisted translation is quality. While Smartling supports the latter, a translated website, document, or mobile app that doesn’t accurately communicate your brand’s message can be a blow to your company’s reputation.

To speed up the translation process and make it more efficient, Smartling provides contextual translation tools that include the translation interface, best practices, glossary, style guide, and translation review interface. The visual preview allows translators to see what they’re working on, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) experience, if you will, ensuring all translation is within context, as words often have multiple meanings. Also, this enables them to immediately spot space limitations or inappropriate section breaks.

Aside from a REST-like API that developers can use to integrate translated content into their applications, Smartling has built-in integrations with some of the most commonly used CMS platforms such as Drupal, Sitecore, WordPress, and Adobe Experience Manager, ecommerce tools like Hybris and Magento, and source code management solution GitHub.

Smartling is flexible and customizable, and the cost varies depending on your needs. Billing is based on the volume of words stored in the system, and in the case of the GDN, you’re billed according to page views in other languages.

• Translation technology platform that makes translation of documents, websites, and mobile apps from one language to another easier
• Automates the translation process from content capture to dissemination, to consolidating and putting the final output together
• Makes website translation faster, more efficient, and less costly with the global delivery network
• Supports onboarding of third-party partners and can adjust to any kind of translation workflow
• Has a network of translation partners that customers can tap in case they haven’t already found their own translation service providers