Want the best Google Translation Hub alternative for translating entire files for your organization? If you discovered Google Cloud’s newest enterprise translation tool doesn’t quite suit your professional translation needs, you’re in the right place.

Want to demo an alternative ASAP? Check out the enterprise AI file translator Pairaphrase.

First, we’ll discuss the top reasons you might consider a better alternative to Google Translation Hub for enterprise use. Then we’ll recommend an alternative to Google Translation Hub for businesses at the end of this post. 

Note: This recommendation is also a great alternative to the discontinued Google Translator Toolkit.

7 Reasons to Use a Google Translation Hub Alternative

Here are the top 7 reasons your organization would look outside of Google Translation Hub for a different translation management system:

1. Google Translation Hub alternatives offer multiple machine translation engines

Different translation engines produce different translation results. You might find that Google is great for some of your languages and not others. If you want to translate with Amazon (AWS) or Microsoft’s machine translation engines in addition to Google Translate, this is not possible in the Google Cloud platform. You will need to look for a Google Translation Hub alternative that offers more than Google’s own translation engine. 

While Google is an impressive translation engine, it is generally best when used for the most popular languages. For example, Spanish. AWS is gaining a lot of popularity for its ability to deliver as close to human translation quality as possible in a large variety of languages. While Microsoft offers many low-resource languages. 

So if that’s something your company is interested in, it’s important you know that Google Translation Hub doesn’t offer AWS Translate or Microsoft Translator.

2. You need support for more file types

Do you need to translate file types other than PDF, DOCX, PPTX, Google Slides and Google Docs? If yes, this is an important reason to find a Google Translation Hub alternative.

While Google Translation Hub is optimized for Google Slides & Google Docs, it doesn’t appear to support XLSX, CSV and Google Sheets.* It also doesn’t support XLIFF, which is a commonly used file for the export/import of eLearning content for translation (think: workplace training courses, etc.). 

Likewise for IDML (InDesign), XML, HTML, TXT and more. 

*If you’re hesitant to use an alternative to Google Translation Hub because you don’t want to lose compatibility with Google’s file types, that won’t be an issue. 

It’s possible to translate Google Slides, Docs & Sheets with translation tools compatible with PPTX, DOCX, CSV or XLSX. Just go to File>Download in the Google Docs/Slides/Sheets menu. Alternatively, you can take the easier route – adopt translation software that has Google Drive integrated.

3. Alternatives to Google Translation Hub offer more robust translation features

If your organization wants to take translation to the next level, it might consider an alternative to Google Translation Hub. While the solution offers translation memory and glossary support, these typically come standard with any enterprise CAT tool on the market. 

However, some additional features might appeal to you. A robust Translation Editor is a must have. The translation Editor should include features that make the reviewing and editing of translated files easier and faster. Some Google Translation Hub alternatives offer advanced translation features like alignment and clean TM. 

4. Your organization requires additional security features

What does your organization require in a third-party platform in terms of security? If Google’s translation platform doesn’t comply, you might need a Google Translation Hub alternative.

The full extent of the platform’s security and confidentiality measures are unclear from the product page. If you need to be sure your translation software is HIPAA compliant or undergoes ongoing vulnerability scans, for instance, you want this to be clear upfront.

5. You don’t find the interface to be intuitive or simple enough

Prefer less buttons, required actions or a more straightforward navigation? If you’ve used Google Translation Hub and have trouble using the interface, you should seek a Google Translation Hub alternative. 

6. You want a platform that is optimized for PDF’s & Microsoft Office

Scanned PDF translation is one of the most challenging types of file translation. Even if your PDF is optimized for translation, translation will be difficult if you don’t use translation software that is optimized for PDF files. 

Your translation platform of choice should include robust OCR technology. It is unclear from Google Cloud’s website if Translation Hub is optimized for PDFs. The same goes for Microsoft Office files.

7. You prefer a different pricing structure

Google Translation Hub has an interesting approach to payment. Your organization will pay per page or slide translated. In contrast, many CAT tools are priced for the amount of words translated.

This means if your organization needs to translate a PowerPoint, a slide with 10 words is going to cost the same as one with 150 words. To pay per word translated, you should consider a different translation solution. 

Reasons To Stick with Google Translation Hub

Despite what you see here, you should do additional research on independent review websites, to see if a Google Translation Hub alternative is truly right for your organization.

In some cases, you very well might want to stick with using Google Translation Hub for your translation needs.

After all…

• Google Translation Hub is part of the Google Cloud suite
• You can import files from Google Drive directly from the app
• It translates some popular file types

Best Alternative to Google Translation Hub

If any or all of the above reasons resonate with you for wanting an alternative to Google Translation Hub, use Pairaphrase. 

It’s the AI-powered translation management system for teams that value smarter, faster and safer translation. What’s more, it supports 100+ languages, 10,000+ language pairs and 24 file types.

Moreover, it’s secure, easy-to-use and offers capabilities discussed here, plus more.

Get Started

Schedule a demo or share this article with a colleague.

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Related: Essential Guide to Google File Translation for Teams