In this globalized economy characterized by the rapid development of technology worldwide, expanding into the new markets is vital for many businesses – regardless of the industry they act in. And you can do this only if you translate and localize your content. If you can deal with translation pretty fast and easily thanks to Neural Machine Translation, managing multiple translation and localization projects can be a stressful and very time-consuming task. However, you can overcome this obstacle and achieve your goals if you coordinate your translators’ team very well and have the right tools – such as translation management systems (TMS).
What are the translation management systems?
Translation management software is used by language service providers (LSPs) and freelance translators to handle and organize different translation and localization projects from beginning to end. They form a hub that you can use to collaborate and track translations and many forward translations automatically to translation engines and human translators. Simply put, translation management solutions are mandatory if you want to handle a large number of translation projects, or when you plan to translate and localize games.
Many apps offer not just project management features but also come with much more options that improve the efficiency of the localization projects. However, with so many solutions on the market, which TMS should you choose for your projects? Well, the system that suits you the best depends on your needs, industry, budget, and features.
We compiled a list of the best top 10 translation management systems on the market today:
Lokalise
Being known as a platform for software translation management, Lokalise has a clean and clear UI/UX and is maybe the fastest-growing TMS on the market. It allows you to translate all types of content in one place: web and mobile apps, games, other software, marketing, and other documents.
Lokalise helps you to:
- get instant results from machine translations and translate your localization files (.xml, .strings, .json, .xliff, etc)
- work both with small and large teams, agencies, and freelancers while also integrating with other apps (GitHub, Slack, JIRA, Sketch, etc.)
- create advanced localization workflows with tasks and custom translation statuses
- integrate translation into the development and deployment processes
- set up automated workflows using predefined custom rules, API, and use webhooks.
The main target audience consists of developers, project/product/localization managers, designers, and translators. Lokalise comes also with multiple CAT features, such as translation memories, in-context editors, glossaries, pre-translate functions, and more.
Price starts at §120/month (billed annually) and $140/month (billed monthly). All the subscription plans come with a free 14-day trial.
Phase
Phrase is a leading software localization platform that helps teams of all sizes to scale up their translation processes using smart automation. Developed for web-based and mobile applications, Phase is specially created for software developers. It automates localization tasks and has an in-context editor that inspects the translation context and prevents linguistic and translation errors. Thanks to a variety of plugins and integrations, you can integrate Phrase into your favorite tools and services such as GitHub, Contentful, Jira, or Slack.
Price: starting with $23/user/month (when billed annually) or $28/user/month and includes a 14-day free trial.
XTM Cloud
XTM Cloud is one of the enterprise cloud-based translation management systems and has an integrated computer-aided translation tool. The software has a well-developed REST API and out-of-the-box connectors for most common content management systems and machine translation systems.
The flexible and automated workflow streamlines complex localization processes and supply chains while providing project managers with an up-to-date view of the project status. XTM Cloud is designed to be scalable, flexible and agile, and comes with a rich set of features. It has a workflow builder that enables complex processes to be defined, analytics, time tracking, quality evaluation integrated with TAUS DQF, multiple connectors, and a customer portal.
Pricing: starts with $61/month – price for 2 users and 20.000 words/month, while the minimum subscription period is 3 months.
Crowdin
Created in 2009 by a Ukrainian company, Crowdin is a cloud-based solution that streamlines localization management for your team. It’s the perfect place to effectively manage all your multilingual content, including apps, websites, games, help documentation, designs, and the list can go on. The translation management system helps you to speed up the localization process and automate content updates while providing some interesting core features:
- content integrations with your repository on GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket/Azure Repos
- integrations with Google Play, Android Studio, VS Code, and other systems
- Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch plugins
- integrations with marketing tools: Mailchimp, Contentful, SendGrid, Hubspot, Dropbox, and more
- API, CLI, webhooks
- Translation Memory
- Quality Assurance checks
- reports
Pricing: starting with $16/month – when billed annually, and $19/month when billed monthly. All the subscription plans come with a 14-day free trial.
Transifex
Transifex is one of the open cloud-based translation management systems for localizing digital data and content, such as websites, mobile apps, games, video, help centers, subtitles, and more. It’s best suited for developers and manages language files such as YAML, XLIFF, and Gettext. Transifex integrates with the development process, service providers, apps, accounting systems, and customer management systems.
Pricing: from $70/month when billed annually (or $80/month when billed monthly) and includes a 15-day free trial.
Memsource
Combining traditional translation technology with artificial intelligence, Memsource is a translation management system for companies and enterprises. The software identifies content needed to be translated and automatically forwards them to the appropriate engine. It can also forward text that requires human translation to approved translators directly or allow you to choose. The application comes with various integrations and features, such as:
- CAT Editor for Web, Desktop, and Mobile – support of over 50 file types
- machine translation automation, integration, and enablement
- AI-powered machine translation quality estimation
- REST API
- CMS connectors to enable continuous localization.
Supporting more than 500 languages, 30 machine translation engines, and over 50 file types, Memsource is intuitive and integrates with most other enterprise software. The platform also integrates with many other online business tools, such as Zendesk, GitHub, Marketo, and the list can go on.
Pricing: $27/project manager/month, but also has a 30-day free trial version that includes 1000 jobs.
Smartcat
Smartcat is powered by artificial intelligence and provides human translation or machine translations as appropriate. When you need human translations, it connects you with linguists, based on the specific algorithms to match the project with translators, according to their availability and price. The cloud-based platform features tools such as translation memories, glossaries, dictionaries, and a variety of machine translation engines.
Pricing: it starts with a free plan, that allows you to translate 15.000 words/month. However, the premium subscriptions start at $249/month.
Wordbee
Wordbee is part of the cloud-based and end-to-end translation management systems for freelancers, LSPs, and Enterprises that have an integrated CAT tool. It provides an easy web-based solution with no installation required to operate it. Providing you with a combination between project management and advanced business analytics features, Wordbee Translator (TMS & CAT platform) helps you to monitor a wide variety of KPIs in your translation projects and forecast costs, dates, and workload.
Wordbee can integrate with various content sources and offers special workflows for different types of projects, such as translating games, software, business documents, apps, marketing materials, and websites.
Pricing: starting with $125 /month for translators (when billed annually), Wordbee comes also with a 15-day free trial.
Pairaphrase
Pairaphrase is a web-based translation management system that is HIPAA, PCI, and SOX compliant. It helps with translation challenges within Microsoft Office and can translate into 57 languages. It can also translate speech to text on mobile devices.
Pricing: starting package costs $99 and allows you to translate 5.000 words in 30 days.
LingoHub
When it comes to the secure and reliable translation management system, LingoHub is a special name that helps you to create texts and translation projects in one place. It detects all text changes made in the project, ensures that the translation depends on custom quality checks, and handles all technical issues. This system includes machine translation, translation memory, automatic checks, and custom databases to ensure translation quality.
Pricing: starting with €24/month for annual billing and includes a 14-day free trial.
Final words about translation management systems
Selecting the right translation management system for your project is a complete process and will take some time. However, before deciding which solution to implement, you should consider the following steps:
- decide which are the most important characteristics the TMS must have
- make a shortlist of the best software on the market and compare the characteristics of each of them with what you have on the list.
- eliminate systems that do not have the necessary functions
- request a test and a free trial to see how it works in the real-life
- choose the best option for you, that fits perfectly your needs.
Even if it seems a long and daunting task, finding one of the best translation management systems is essential to the effectiveness and efficiency of your localization projects. In case you’re interested in the best machine translation services in 2022, check out our latest post about this topic.
