Phrase Localization Platform vs. Smartling vs. Transifex

The system is well suited if you also run Trados or any second system. As the system is very expensive and the use of MTUs is rather complicated to understand the best thing is to run most larger projects through Trados or any other CAT tool and then to import it. Large projects are expensive in Phrase Localization Platform so I would recommend it if you have small projects and have enough capacity to carefully check the terminology as the data pulled from the term base is inconsistent. The same applies to the find replace feature which can work great.

Smartling is great for a company or team that doesn't have the resources to translate multiple properties in-house. It automates the process and makes it much more manageable. If you have a large website that is managed by one local team and not a global team, Smartling is for you.

Incentivized

Transifex is great for when you have content you intend to 1) localize to multiple languages and 2) keep updated over time. It's probably not necessary for one-off projects that you expect to stand the test of time. It's also ideal for companies that intend to add more and more languages over time as business expands

Incentivized

• The QA tool it provides is practical and always handy.
• Instant QA feature can save time at the end of the process.
• The possibility to decline a job directly from the platform instead of having to contact the client by email.

• Website translation without the need to build separate websites for additional locales
• Translation of Indesign Documents (ingests text only) without having extract text - simply upload an idml file and download the translated idml file

• Integrates with other tools - makes localizing more straightforward and less of a gargantuan project.
• Easy to add a new language to a project - When making the business decision to expand languages, we can provide decision-makers with accurate estimates before committing to a new language.
• Provides access to multiple translation companies - We get to evaluate and pick the 3rd party translators that work best for our use case.

Incentivized

• In the case of EN to JA translation, we enter text and then convert it to get the correct final text (word or phrase) which uses correct Chinese character(s), as there are often multiple Chinese characters with the same reading but different meanings. When those conversion options are displayed, it is usually possible to change our selection among them by hitting the Tab key, but in Memsource, hitting the Tab key makes us leave the text conversion and move to the source segment, so we must make sure to use arrow keys to choose the right conversion option when using Memsource.
• When there are tag elements used in the source text, the tags must exist in the target text of course, but the tag order also must be the same. The tags cannot be moved around in the segment, which causes problems in the case of the Japanese language, because the word order differs between EN and JA.
• In the Japanese language, Italics are basically not used, so there must be no texts between the tags which specify Italic font. But then the segment cannot be confirmed and the job status cannot be changed to "Complete".

• Perhaps a global replacement feature for the translation management system (TMS)?

• Once you have a lot of resources in a project, ordering gets tricky because there's one long list of resources. I wish I could search for the resource when ordering.
• When you import your resources from another source, it will overwrite any changes you made to the translated article. For example, we stopped creating localized screenshots in our documentation because the images would be overwritten with the original English ones anytime we made updates.

Incentivized

I use and manage an Academic edition (approx. 15 students) and the corporate license (10 users). In both cases, the features are easy to find, set and use. My students and my translators understand the dynamics of the platform easily and get used to them quickly.

We think Smartling is the way forward in terms of cloud-based translation management tools.

It is designed to be a lean system, but that means that things are clustered in weird groups and a lot of trial and error is involved getting the settings right. If something goes wrong first level support is very quick and has very fast answers which are quite typical of first level support and essentially equate to asking you if you have switched it off and on yet. Anything more involved is challenging for support to address.

We rarely use support, but most questions were answered in a timely fashion, although we didn't exactly find them satisfactory. That's mostly the fault of the software and not the Support team because we asked for things that Memsource couldn't do.

Incentivized

I always receive timely and pleasant support from their Help Desk!

Support has always been easy and fast. Anytime something has come up, we have gotten a quick response and had our issue resolved. Bugs don't seem to stick around for very long either. Seems like their Customer Success and Support groups are in great sync with each other, which always has a positive impact on the customer experience

Incentivized

Memsource has a very good user interface that people can quickly learn and start using. Also, its analysis features are top class which helps me provide a detailed estimate to my client based on the file particulars. It has a QA feature that helps me do a very high-quality check before I send out my translation to the client.

We prefer Smartling as an online CAT tool because it is easy to use and we can onboard new translators quickly without lengthy training cycles. Our customers like Smartling because they can manage all of their translation needs (website, apps, business documents) through one single platform, share style guides, glossaries and translation memory and save on translation cost over time.

• Positive impact as I have been able to recruit and reach more and new clients.
• As it is easy to use, I provide high quality translations for my clients.
• Using TM and Search ensures consistency and my clients appreciate my good work with the help of Memsource.

• Helped us win 3 enterprise deals where localization is a must- got us an additional $XXXk ARR.

Incentivized

• Fewer people needed - without Transifex, we would probably have to hire more staff to many just the localization projects.
• Meet business demand quickly - now that we are set up with our Transifex flow, adding a new language is relatively easy and we know exactly when to expect the final product to deliver to customers.

Incentivized