
Ask HN: What service do you use for human translations of your website? - weston
Hi HN,<p>I&#x27;m curious what services do you&#x2F;your companies use for human translations of your app&#x2F;website&#x2F;videos, etc? Machine translations from Google Translate are only so-so at best. Do y&#x27;all use a third party service for the translations. If so, which one(s)?<p>Considering poking around Fiver and maybe Upwork, but was wondering if there&#x27;s any startups&#x2F;companies that offer human translations as a service?<p>Thanks!
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indescions_2017
Contracted local university CS / Math students from China. Done on an exchange
basis where I helped with English and tech issues. They helped proofread
machine translations. Made some excellent friends. And now I have an
invitation to visit Henan Province as well ;)

What I am really interested in investigating is what is the minimal subset of
words or concepts that makes a website or service useful. Is it 10,000? Or
closer to 500. Because if is the latter, localization by standardizing the
interface around these usability 'primitives' common to every culture would
make the translation process very fast.

Essentially localization becomes a kind of "growth hack" itself. Having
English, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Hindi / Urdu, etc. Covers a vast swath of
humanity. But the marginal addition of say, Polish or Dutch, can result in an
unexpected boost!

~~~
Zyst
I've heard the most common 2000 words in languages tend to make up the bulk of
written, and spoken communication. Don't quote me on it though, since I don't
have any real sources on this.

It reminds me of an editor that was submitted once in Show HN, that only lets
you type the most common 1000 words[1].

[1] [https://github.com/mortenjust/cleartext-
mac](https://github.com/mortenjust/cleartext-mac)

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chmike
DeepL ([https://www.deepl.com/](https://www.deepl.com/)) is a pretty good
translator. It's not perfect, but it's much better than google translator.

~~~
mgamache
I don't see pricing or an API from DeepL that could be classified as a
'service'. Am I missing it?

~~~
futhey
No monetization from the team on this particular product (yet). But, there are
unofficial API frameworks (Search NPM for example) & they haven't really
implemented any aggressive rate-limiting. Normal usage should be fine.

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whitingx
[https://gengo.com/](https://gengo.com/)

[https://localizejs.com/](https://localizejs.com/)

^ both useful translation services ツ

~~~
pbreit
If you have budget, I can enthusiastically recommend both of these services.
Localize is a miracle. Drop-in JavaScript and entire site machine translated.
2 clicks to order Gengo translationas in a per word basis.

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mholmes680
I've used, with plenty of success (ending around 5 years ago), both
welocalize.com and lionbridge. We sent them .JS files, XML files, PDFs, and
Word Documents.

Some things to look for: Across multiple transactions with these [edit:
localization] companies, they end up building a database of phrases, of which
some companies might try to claim ownership over. Watch out for that when
negotiating.

You're also most likely going to pay per word, so if you can figure out a good
way to not send them sentences you've already had translated you can save some
money.

Its also good to spot check some of the translations. These companies will
basically post out the requirements and get freelance translators to do the
job (in other words, they're managing all the UpWork work for you so you don't
have to). We once caught a translator (NOT of the above-mentioned companies)
located somewhere in Europe inserting some choice political statements about a
specific biotech/GMO company we had as a client.

(editted for clarity - below the first Paragraph is general knowledge of the
industry, not specific to the two aforementioned vendors)

~~~
ai_ja_nai
>You're also most likely going to pay per word, so if you can figure out a
good way to not send them sentences you've already had translated you can save
some money.

That's why they build those databases of phrases you were referring to, since
they apply discounts on matches against those DBs and on repetitions in your
document.

Instead, ask explicitly for a Translation Memory file at the end of the job,
so that you can retain your personal piece of database of phrases that was
produced during the localization of your file (it's your right to have it and
serious companies will hand it without fuss).

~~~
mholmes680
"Translation Memory". Thank you I could not for the life of me remember that.
5 years was so long ago !

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jermaustin1
Depends on what you are translating.

At my current big client, for resource keys, we use google translate, and then
our resident polyglot will ensure they read over correctly. This works well
for simple things like "Phone Number," "Job Title," and "Please enter your
full name."

When we have documentation or manuals to translate, we have to hire out to a
firm who takes the American English documents and translates it to which ever
language we need. But that is controlled by the Head Office in Italy, so I
have no insight into who they are using.

In either way, I wish a better service existed.

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jcasman
I worked as a (very) part-time translator (Japanese to English) for a company
called Gengo. It's a "shared economy" structure, with any army of freelancers
doing the work. Good at smaller, quick translations. To be clear, I have no
experience buying their service, and I haven't done any work with them for
several years.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gengo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gengo)

~~~
futhey
Have used Gengo extensively, it's most likely your best option.

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mdemare
CTO of tolq.com here. We support a variety of formats, including json, yaml,
xlsx, and various xml formats, and we have a fully automated api that will
ping you when our translators are done. Translation memory support is built-in
- we'll only translate the diff.

We also have github support. Check in a yaml file in github, and we'll
automatically translate the changes in the target languages you choose. When
we're done, we create a pull request.

~~~
nso
What are your prices? Not interested in starting a whole quote scenario, just
want to know the ball park.

~~~
mdemare
Starting from $0.08 per word.

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a_bevin
I didn't think that the startup that I work at would be so relevant on Hacker
News :)

GLOBO is a Philadelpha-based on-demand language services provider, and
localization and document translation are some of the services that we offer.
What you're looking for is our bread and butter and I'd be happy to put you in
touch with our account managers who know more about that side of the business.

Full disclosure: I head the analytics team at GLOBO

~~~
a_bevin
[https://www.helloglobo.com](https://www.helloglobo.com)

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jamuhl
There is [https://locize.com](https://locize.com) \- bridging the gap between
development and translation.

Based on customer feedback
([https://locize.com/customers.html](https://locize.com/customers.html)) for
sure worth a try (even more having a 14d free - with zero obligations.

~~~
louisswiss
Have used locize before and was impressed by the speed and ease of use. The
most difficult part of translation is getting the context right - this is
where upwork etc didn't cut it for us.

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eric_bullington
> Fiver and maybe Upwork If you're going that route of finding a translator
> for each language yourself, I strongly suggest a translator community like
> proz.com, translatorscafe.com, or linguaquote.com (founded by HNer luxpir).
> Or a translator association like the ATA (American Translators Association).
> They all have translator directories you can search, and the communities
> have places you can post projects for bidding/quotes.

Alternatively, if you want human translation as a service, there are companies
like gengo.com or unbabel.com.

But I strongly recommend against Upwork or Fiver. You can find some qualified
translators on those sites, but you're much more likely to find someone who
really doesn't know what they're doing. There are some of the same in the
translator communities and associations, but if you're judicious about your
search criteria, you're much less likely to end up with such a translator.

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swimfar
Unbabel is one that uses machine translation followed by human
verification/corrections. I've never used them to get translations, but I have
done a little bit of post-editing for them.

[https://unbabel.com/](https://unbabel.com/)

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stunt
We're using an external company for translation, but through transifex.com as
the API. The translation agency already had a platform for it, but we didn't
want to develop something specific to one agency. Perhaps it's something to
note.

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bula
Berlin based Applanga has helped us use human translations across 35 countries
in 6 languages for a big multi-platform (ios, android, Amazon Alexa, web) app.
We are based in Philly, but their service could not be any better. A
professional team of (funny and cool) folks, excellent sdks, with human
translators, and verification protocols. Also, their handholding through both
tech onboarding, and the human translating part of the process has been great.

www.applanga.com

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Klonoar
[https://www.gengo.com/](https://www.gengo.com/) is my favorite, but I'm
biased because I worked there many lifetimes ago. I've used them on some
projects since leaving and I haven't seen a large quality dip or anything, so
I feel comfortable recommending them. Their API works well for automating a
lot of the stuff too.

Also, if you ever meet the CEO, ask him about Gengo-Chan. :)

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odammit
I have used this in the past for rails apps:

[https://www.localeapp.com/](https://www.localeapp.com/)

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ai_ja_nai
[https://www.translated.net](https://www.translated.net): fast, cheap and 100%
refund policy

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psmartling
Try out Smartling's self service platform. You get access to professional
human translation as well as translation management tools, translation memory,
visual context etc. You get a quote and estimate prior to submitting jobs.

[https://www.smartling.com/pricing/](https://www.smartling.com/pricing/)

~~~
FLGMwt
We also use smartling. Does pretty well for us and has a simple API that we
have gulp and webpack plugins for.

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foxhound6
Remember the triad: time, cost, quality - pick two.

Selecting the right service/agency for translation is primarily related to
what content (and what degree of accuracy) you need. Translating content for a
website advertising a medical device is very different than translating social
media content.

For content that HAS to be correct, I've used www.languagescientific.com

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Dachande663
[https://crowdin.com/](https://crowdin.com/) \+ local agents.

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chikathreesix
If you manage source codes of your website, try GitLocalize
([https://gitlocalize.com](https://gitlocalize.com)) It syncs with your
repository and integrates with machine translation and human crowdsourcing
translation to keep your translation up-to-date.

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02thoeva
[https://phraseapp.com/](https://phraseapp.com/)

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slig
If you're considering fiverr, check out /r/slavelabour and /r/jobbit .

~~~
futhey
Fiverr folks are just copy pasting Google translate and doing slight edits.
Except some rare exceptions (Mandarin). Quality control is a hard problem to
solve (worked on a startup in this space), and the only really good solution
is to pay a reputable translator / agency > 12¢ per word.

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User_424
Interpreters and Translators, Inc.

[http://www.ititranslates.com/what-we-
do/translation/document...](http://www.ititranslates.com/what-we-
do/translation/document-translation/)

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auvi
One Hour Translation: Translation Services
[https://www.onehourtranslation.com/](https://www.onehourtranslation.com/)

They have an API for sending text and receiving translations in XLIFF format.

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jtsnow
I have used Lingotek ([https://lingotek.com/](https://lingotek.com/)). They
offer human translation, translation memory, custom workflows, and integrate
with various platforms.

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jacobr
We use www.poeditor.com with in-house translators, but they have a service to
request translations that we expect to use as we add more languages.

They handle almost all translation formats and have a decent API.

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vfulco
Gengo works great. Happy user. A bit pricey but they are conservative on their
delivery times and translations English to Mandarin have been getting better.

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jonathanpeterwu
Gengo, Textmaster are both good startup alternatives

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bensummers
[https://www.icanlocalize.com/site/](https://www.icanlocalize.com/site/)

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mberkov
[https://translationexchange.com](https://translationexchange.com)

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db-dzine
Has someone every heard of translations.com?

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randerson
MotionPoint

