Smartling vs. Trados Studio

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

SDL Trados Studio is extremely well suited for expert CAT tool users. More novice users will have trouble getting up to speed. I have an office full of employees that constantly ask questions on how to do specific tasks, mainly because the task sequence is not obvious and is only uncovered by rote repetition of the same things. If you learn and apply the same techniques repeatedly, it becomes easier, but it seems the software was designed by software people, sometimes with little thought to the end users who have to figure it out. I don't know that professional training should be so necessary.

Incentivized

• 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

• Xbench plugin works great. You can run Xbench on the whole project with one click.
• TM and TB management
• It is one of the most common CAT tool thus it is easy for translator assignments.

Incentivized

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

• Preview feature
• Accessing server-based TM often takes time.
• When connecting to server-based TM, I need to enter credentials twice every time. The first attempt always fails.

Incentivized

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

Again, the list of functions is impressive but the way it is organized (not process-driven) and the fact that complex tasks should be close to basic tasks make the product suitable to hardcore users that have a lot of time to research the manuals and blogs. By the way, Nora Diaz is one of the most respectable users of this product. Her videos help a lot!

Incentivized

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

We rarely had any issues with SDL safe for a few bugs that we fixed promptly in the upcoming service packs and updates.

Incentivized

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.

memoQ is better quality and cheaper. Previously, Trados had a monopoly on the market but fortunately there are other adequate options available now at a lower cost.

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

Incentivized

• Trados is used by many clients, so it helps me to get more jobs.
• Having one of the latest versions helps me a lot. I can, for example, import editable pdf documents and work on them within the Trados environment.
• It also helps me with files which need to be returned in bilingual format in Word.

Incentivized