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Trados Studio

Trados Studio

Overview

What is Trados Studio?

Trados Studio is a translation management and language localization platform, from multinational SDL headquartered in the UK. It is a computer-assisted translation product, designed to be a complete translation environment for language professionals who want to edit, review and manage…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

SDL Trados Studio 2019 has been widely adopted by Fortune 500 clients around the world, offering significant improvements in efficiency …
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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Freelance Subscription

$408

Cloud
per year per user

Professional Subscription

$1,500

Cloud
per year per user

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.trados.com/store

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

Demo TRADOS equipo de traductores

YouTube

Command demo

YouTube

Controlling SDL Trados Studio by voice

YouTube

SDL Connect Developer Day - Seamless Integration of SDL Trados Studio with SDL Language Cloud

YouTube

Quick Add New Files - SDL Trados Studio 2019

YouTube

CRITT Post-Editing Experiment: Trados Studio Demo

YouTube
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Product Details

What is Trados Studio?

Trados Studio offers individual translators an extensive CAT tool in which they can edit, review, and manage their translation projects. It provides features designed to help speed up translation processes and improve consistency while building a repository of assets that can be used over and over again.

With cloud capabilities included with Studio, the user can move between desktop and cloud working, with the option to work from anywhere, on any device, and at any time.

Trados Studio boasts the largest translation community in the world.

Trados Studio Screenshots

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Trados Studio Integrations

Trados Studio Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesGlobal

Frequently Asked Questions

Trados Studio is a translation management and language localization platform, from multinational SDL headquartered in the UK. It is a computer-assisted translation product, designed to be a complete translation environment for language professionals who want to edit, review and manage translation projects whilst in the office or on the move.

memoQ, Phrase Localization Platform, and Wordfast are common alternatives for Trados Studio.

The most common users of Trados Studio are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(46)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

SDL Trados Studio 2019 has been widely adopted by Fortune 500 clients around the world, offering significant improvements in efficiency and workflow. Users have reported that the software is particularly valuable for completing translations into various languages, with a specific focus on Spanish for the Domestic US market. However, it is important to note that some users have found the software to have a steep learning curve, which can make it challenging for new users to become proficient. Nonetheless, SDL Trados Studio 2017 is still preferred for tasks involving numerous repetitions, proofreading with Track changes on, and running quality assurance checks when necessary.

One of the key advantages of SDL Trados Studio is its capability to connect with a network of freelance translators and reviewers. The software facilitates collaboration by extracting sentence and paragraph text from source documents into a proprietary file structure, presented in a Source/Target 2-panels table. This feature enables seamless communication and efficient sharing of translation tasks among team members. While SDL Trados Studio is well-suited for small to medium-sized documents, it may not be ideal for handling large files as users have experienced frequent crashes during search operations or when committing a significant number of translations. Additionally, exporting large files to bilingual formats can be challenging.

Internally, SDL Trados Studio serves as an invaluable tool for streamlining translation and localization processes for existing clients. By improving consistency and overall text quality while reducing translation time and costs, the software helps organizations achieve their localization goals effectively. Many users appreciate the user-friendly interface and project management capabilities offered by Trados Studio, making it easier to manage projects and allocate resources efficiently. However, it should be noted that managing large projects or files with this software may present difficulties due to occasional bugs and system crashes.

While SDL Trados Studio has provided substantial benefits to many users, there are certain shortcomings that have been highlighted by the user community. Some users report frequent crashes while accepting segments in the latest version, leading to additional work and frustration. Terminology display issues and the inability to modify termbases are other areas of concern for users. In addition, compatibility issues with Windows 11 64-bit have been reported by some users. Another point of contention is the company's decision to no longer provide license resets for older versions of the software, which has disappointed some long-time users. Moreover, the lack of significant updates from the 2014 version to the new version has deterred prospective buyers from investing in the latest iteration.

Despite these limitations, SDL Trados Studio is still a go-to tool for various use cases. It is widely used for localization projects and handling different types of content for international end clients. The software is not limited to translation work alone; it is also utilized for editing and proofreading tasks. Moreover, SDL Trados Studio plays a crucial role in project management, allowing users to receive Trados project packages from other translation agencies and assign them to freelance translators. Additionally, the software aids in quality assurance processes and facilitates the delivery of projects to clients.

One of the notable benefits of SDL Trados Studio is its positive impact on productivity and efficiency within organizations and venture management teams. By streamlining translation and localization processes, businesses are able to meet tight deadlines while ensuring high-quality outputs. The software's ability to improve consistency in translated text greatly enhances the overall user experience for both translators and end clients. Furthermore, by reducing translation costs, SDL Trados Studio enables organizations to allocate resources strategically, ultimately leading to cost savings.

In summary, SDL Trados Studio 2019 has garnered popularity among Fortune 500 clients worldwide due to its ability to enhance margins and simplify workflows. Despite a steep learning curve for new users, the software offers valuable features such as facilitating collaboration with freelance translators, enabling seamless communication through a proprietary file structure, and improving consistency in translated text. While it may not be suitable for large files or projects, SDL Trados Studio proves highly effective in streamlining translation and localization processes, ultimately increasing productivity and efficiency in organizations.

Users have provided several recommendations for TRADOS based on their experiences. The three most common recommendations are:

  • Master the basics and utilize available support resources: Users suggest taking the time to fully understand and learn how to use TRADOS effectively. They emphasize the importance of mastering the basic features and functions of the software. Additionally, users recommend making use of the available support resources, such as online tutorials and documentation, to enhance their understanding and optimize their usage of TRADOS.

  • Explore alternative CAT tools: While users generally praise TRADOS, some recommend considering other options as well. Specifically, users mention MemoQ as a more affordable and feature-rich alternative to TRADOS. They highlight MemoQ's better layout and user interface compared to TRADOS. Therefore, it is suggested to explore different CAT tools and compare them before making a final decision.

  • Contact support for assistance: Users suggest reaching out to customer support for any questions or issues encountered while using TRADOS. They recommend contacting support not only for technical issues but also for any licensing queries or problems. By seeking assistance from the support team, users believe they can resolve any problems efficiently and ensure a smooth experience with TRADOS.

Overall, these recommendations highlight the importance of mastering the basics, exploring alternative CAT tools, and leveraging support resources when using TRADOS.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-2 of 2)
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Dmitry Kornyukhov | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We've been using SDL Trados Studio internally to streamline translation and localization process for our existing clients. It's a state-of-the-art platform that helps us harness the power of translation memories and many other tools to improve consistency and overall quality of our text while reducing the cost and the time needed for translation.
  • Improves translation efficiency.
  • Fairly easy to use.
  • It supports a lot of different formats and integrates well with other tools.
  • A lot of translation agencies prefer SDL Trados, so being able to work in it results in increased client demand.
  • Very expensive.
  • Lots of bugs that lead to constant updates and service packs.
SDL Trados Studio is a perfect solution for medium-large size translation agencies that have high volumes of work from existing clients and are looking to improve their workflow and increase consistency and overall quality of translated materials. Unfortunately, their price makes it less of an obvious choice for solo freelancers which can benefit from other, free CAT-tools (like Smartcat, for example).
  • Improved efficiency by 30%.
  • Helped us retain clients by offering additional discounts for repetitive texts.
  • Streamlined the overall workflow of our organization.
We occasionally use Smartcat as well and love that it is more tailored to freelancers and smaller (boutique) agencies. It also has better overall team-management features, however SDL is a popular choice of many bigger clients that we work with, hence, choosing it was a no-brainer for us, as we can work in the same environment with our clients and don't have to jump through the hoops when trying to figure out file formats.
We rarely had any issues with SDL safe for a few bugs that we fixed promptly in the upcoming service packs and updates.
Ricardo G Lopes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use SDL Trados with a network of freelance translators and reviewers. The product performs a sentence/paragraph text extracting from source documents into a proprietary file structure and shows it in a Source / Target 2-panels table. It addresses small to medium documents well where high performance is not a need. It doesn't really do well on big documents. It crashes frequently while doing search operations or committing hundreds of translations. Exporting to a 2 bilingual file is also a pain for big files.
  • 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.
  • The user interface includes elements that are basic, medium, and high complexity, which does not help the novices and it is an obstacle to Veterans. For example, Concordance Search, Fragments Matches, TQA should not be opened by default.
  • SDL Trados is a transactional-driven system. Transactions are everywhere, irrespective of its functionality. SDL Trados is not a process-oriented system, and in my humble opinion, it should be. They should be asking questions like: What are the Mega processes the system cover? What are the Macro Processes for each Mega Process? And so on and so forth for Process and then Procedures / Steps. For example, one Mega process could be Translate; another could be OCR.
  • The concept of batch tasks is a decades-old one. It assumes that the user knows what task to be selected from a bunch of tasks listed on this menu, and know which task makes sense for the step he/she is doing at one moment. Batch Tasks should be imploded, and its titles relocated and categorized within the existing Processes. A short-term action to minimize a bit this confusion would be to use dividers and re-sort the menu items by type of process and if whether it is endogenous or exogenous to the current process. That would help the end-user to focus on the main task. For example: Update Main Translation Memory is an endogenous task to the Files area.
  • The editor template with the 2 horizontal panels approach is good, and it provides many useful tools to help a manual translation, such as Terminology Base, Phrasal Translation memories, etc. However, all those tools are not available when performing an external translation and importing it back to the Editor panel. It does not flag inconsistencies against the Translation Memories or Terminology Base.
  • The product is good for low to medium volume. However, for big documents, it crashes frequently. Things like committing more than 30 sentences at the same time it takes a lot of time and CPU usage. Doing a search for the next Not Translated sentence, takes forever, I mean, more than 3 hours in a big document.
  • Fortunately, the support and training provided by BabelDGT, an SDL dealer located in Mexico City is fantastic. One-to-One Training and chat support are superb. Thanks to them my productivity is much better now.
Well suited for manual translation. There are many tools in SDL Trados Studio that help a lot when you are typing in the target language. These tools include Translation Memory, Multiterm Base, Spelling, and Reviewing tool similar to Word Review. It also allows external reviewers to do their job in a table on a Word document. When importing the revised words, Trados is able to gather the review and make it visible for final acceptance.
  • It has a positive impact, especially by extracting text from many different sources.
  • Also positive is a significant size of SDL Users, which helps to attract jobs from other translator clients.
  • As a positive, the price is right.
  • As a negative, the fact that the product has huge artillery, but it is confusing to decide which tool to use based on your job.
  • As a negative, the functionality toward translating with external resources is lacking.
I did a private application that extracts data from an Office application and sends it to a Word table and allows the user to work there directly. Of course, SDL Trados is better than competitors but could do a better job with the formatting display in the Editor. I am aware that handling Formatting is quite confusing because one never knows where a bold formatted word will be after the translation. The switch between formatted and not formatted should be a toggle button close do the Editor template, not an option hidden in the Settings. That would help a lot the translators as you could toggle on and off and pay attention to the text-only and then see the formatting, which is usually the second goal.
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.
Yes
If my business needs it in the future, certainly I would pay for. Right now, as the support is amazing, and I don't need to. However, if they release a cheaper annual option with fewer support features and a smaller price for additional incidents, then it would worth it. I believe many freelancers would take it.
Yes
Nope. The textbook solution did not apply to my case, and I have used Ccleaner to fix the uninstallation leftovers.
Babel DGT from Mexico are always present and finding ways to help their customers.
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!
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