Smartling vs Trados
Smartling
smartling.com
Trados
trados.comSide by side
| Figure | Smartling | Trados |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $0.01/mo | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 11 |
| Spec score · Translation apps | 8.7 (#20) | 9.3 (#2) |
| Spec score · Localization Management Software | 8.0 (#20) | 8.5 (#10) |
| Spec score · Translation Software | 8.1 (#66) | 8.6 (#25) |
| Spec score · Game Localization Software | 8.1 (#11) | 8.6 (#4) |
| Spec score · Translation Management Software | 8.1 (#19) | 8.6 (#9) |
| Spec score · Language Translation Software | 8.1 (#15) | 8.6 (#7) |
| API access | Yes | Yes |
| Document translation | Yes | Yes |
| Glossary tools | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | Smartling lists integrations across content management, code repositories, marketing, cloud storage, collaboration, and other categories. | The pricing page says browser users can select files from OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive. |
| Support | The company lists dedicated customer success managers, 24/7 technical support, professional services, managed services, and professional linguists. | Customers get a knowledge base, community forums and free installation/licensing tickets; technical support requires an active support-and-maintenance agreement. |
| Translation memory | Yes | Studio and cloud plans provide translation-memory reuse to improve consistency and productivity. |
Plans
Smartling
- Machine Translation$0.01 a month
- AI Translation$0.06 a month
- AI Human Translation$0.12 a month
- Human Translation$0.20 a month
- CorePriced on request
- EnterprisePriced on request
Trados
- Trados Go Monthly£24 a month
- Trados Go Annual£288 a year
- Trados Freelance Monthly£34 a month
- Trados Freelance Annual£408 a year
- Trados Freelance subscription$408 a year
- Trados Team$1,688 a month
- Trados BusinessPriced on request
- Trados EnterprisePriced on request
- Trados FreelancePrice not published
- Trados GoPrice not published
In their own words
Smartling
Smartling is a cloud-based translation management platform for coordinating multilingual content and localization work. It supports document and website translation, with AI, machine translation and human translation options. Its AI Hub works with more than 20 large language models and machine translation engines. Translation memory, glossary tools and linguistic quality assurance support language management; reporting uses the Multidimensional Quality Metrics framework. Workflows can automate content detection, job submission, quality estimation and publishing. Listed integrations cover content management, code repositories, marketing, cloud storage and collaboration, and the platform offers API access. Supported formats include JSON, XML, YAML, HTML, Markdown, iOS strings, Android XML, Office files, PDFs and subtitles. Smartling says the platform supports hundreds of languages and locales and can process millions of words and translation actions daily. It lists web and API access, plus a free trial. Pricing starts at $0.01; plans include per-word translation options and some with prices not listed.
Trados
Trados is a translation platform for localization professionals, translators, language service providers and organizations managing multilingual content. It combines document translation, translation memory and glossary tools; Studio keeps approved terminology and recommends consistent wording across languages and scripts. Studio handles more than 50 file types. For browser work, Trados Go runs on any device without an installation, and users can select files from OneDrive, Dropbox, Box and Google Drive. The desktop editor is officially supported on Windows, not macOS. Studio licenses include up to 6 million characters of Language Weaver machine translation each year. AI Bridge connects to OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini and DeepSeek. Trados offers online resources and community support; direct technical support requires an active Support and Maintenance Agreement. There is no free plan, and a 14-day trial is listed. Trados Go costs £24 a month or £288 a year; Freelance costs £34 a month or £408 a year. Both price sets exclude VAT.