Trados Studio vs. XTM XTRF

Although now there are competitors, it held a monopoly on computer assisted translation packages for some years. If high prices and poor customer support are not an issue for you, by all means purchase it. Other translators can find better options elsewhere in 2022.

In my experience, XTRF's track record on basic functionality leaves a lot to be desired. Those so-called "smart projects" feel more like needy projects, with limitations popping up at every turn. And don't get me started on the integrations—memoQ? Yeah, I feel like it's a struggle. Customizing notifications? Good luck with that. And as for support, well, let's just say you're better off sending messages to the void.

Incentivized

• Extracting sentences from Word, PowerPoint, and PDF.
• Updating the source document when the client sends an updated source file.
• Comparing sentence by sentence old set of source/target translations made outside of SDL Trados.
• Maintaining a user community base to broadcast knowledge and issues.
• Having an aggressive product update frequency.

Incentivized

• Basic quotes
• Basic projects
• Basic invoicing

Incentivized

• I would like it to be faster. When I create a new project, even if it is short, it takes a couple of minutes until I can start using the file.
• I would like it to support more than 5 languages as, for example, I work with 7 different language pairs.
• It does not always accept the files after they were converted with OCR. It would be great if I could use Trados for those files as well.

Incentivized

• Smart projects
• Integrations
• Product support

Incentivized

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

Support has been fast, precise and thorough. There is support on the web, by chat, by email, from the communities, from the experts, on the product Help section, on YouTube, and other social media. There is also a paid support for companies. This area is where the company stands out. I was not able to evaluate the support in languages other than English.

Incentivized

We have tried a variety of other CAT software at times. The problem is that few have the market penetration or critical mass of users that SDL Trados does. It's not that the software is the best out there, it's long term stability and the number of users that is more important. We need to be compatible with our suppliers, so the choice is made on that basis.

Incentivized

Incentivized

• As we have the license we can accept and take on our clients' requests without problem.
• Integration with other tools such as Xbench makes it very easy to apply our QA procedures.
• It is less efficient compared to our main CAT tool thus sometimes it can get time-consuming.

Incentivized

• In my opinion, the limitations in functionality, especially with smart projects and integrations with tools like memoQ, have hindered the full realization of its potential.

Incentivized