Want the best Smartling alternative? Or are you simply wondering, “Is Smartling right for my company?” You’re in luck—plenty of alternatives to Smartling translation software are available. 

While Smartling is a popular CAT tool, there are several reasons you might be searching for enterprise Smartling alternatives. However, you must consider the fact that all premium CAT software is a significant investment. You should get clear on why exactly you’re looking for a better alternative to Smartling. 

That way, you don’t adopt another platform that presents the same challenges you encountered with your original software.

We’re here to help you do just that!

In this post, you’ll explore potential Smartling drawbacks and user-specific needs you might identify with. As a result, you can conclude whether alternatives to Smartling could fill these gaps. This will equip you to find the best tool for your needs. 

You’ll also see a recommendation for the best Smartling alternative at the bottom of this page.

Smartling Alternatives: Top 10 Reasons to Adopt One

1. Smartling Alternatives Might Require Less Learning

One of the top reasons you might seek a Smartling alternative is the learning curve. If your team needs to quickly get up and running on a translation platform, the key is ease-of use and easy onboarding. Fast user adoption isn’t possible when your team needs to learn a lot about how to use the software. 

Therefore, if the Smartling solution is underutilized at your organization from the get go, this is a possible indication of a learning barrier. If this is the case, find an alternative to Smartling that’s easier to learn. In the end, your company could realize a faster ROI.

2. You Don’t Use All of Smartling’s Features

Do you use just a few of the many great features Smartling offers? If the answer is yes, this could indicate this translation application isn’t the best fit for your organization. While a feature-heavy translation management system can appear to offer additional value, it could indicate you aren’t using the best solution for your team. 

Your team might only need a specific set of features. 

If you identify a translation system that simply caters to your specific set of needs, chances are the software developers will put more resources into the optimization of the most important features for your team. Consequently, you work more productively and have less distractions.

3. You Don’t Need Visual Context

A company or translation agency might choose Smartling for its visual context. This is a helpful feature for translation projects that require the ability to preview translated files and localized apps and websites. 

However, if your organization doesn’t need visual context, you might choose software without it. Consider the best Smartling alternative for your specific translation project needs.

4. You Don’t Need Additional Language Services

Smartling not only offers a cloud-based application, it also provides language services for their customers. This is a selling point for organizations who neither have pre-established relationships with individual translators nor source translations from their employees. 

However, if your organization has already invested in these resources / relationships, this service point won’t add value for your company.

5. You’re Not a Language Services Provider (LSP) 

Smartling has many happy enterprise customers with large-scale localization (websites, software, apps) projects managed in-house. If that sounds like you, Smartling might be your best choice and you might not find a better alternative to Smartling. 

However, their features are particularly useful for teams that provide outsourced language services. Think translation agencies who deliver projects for a large client base and need to track specific cost metrics, integrate many different content management systems (depending on the client’s situation), and more.

6. You Can’t Purchase Smartling Online

Are you ready to get started translating now and want to purchase software for an immediate need? Are you not sure you can even afford Smartling since there’s no pricing information available on their website? If you don’t have time to speak with a salesperson, then you might need to search for alternatives to Smartling. 

You’ll need to invest time to book a call with them just to learn if Smartling is within your organization’s budget.

7. You Need Faster Technical Support

Smartling offers several forms of customer support. This includes live chat, a help center and a contact form where you can submit a ticket.

However, it’s difficult to tell from their sales pages how quickly you can receive technical support, or if you will receive priority support with the enterprise plan. If you’re a current user and need to receive faster support than you’ve experienced, you might consider Smartling alternatives.

8. Smartling Alternatives Might Translate Larger Files

If alternatives to Smartling appeal to you, perhaps it’s due to the restrictions on file size (the number of megabytes). At the time of this post, Smartling places a 10MB limit per file translated, with the exception of several of file types.*

If your company needs to translate files larger than 10MB and can’t bother to keep track of which files can be more than 10MB, your best Smartling alternative will be a solution that doesn’t place restrictions on document size.

*Source: ​​https://help.smartling.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007998893-Supported-File-Types

9. You Won’t Use Workflows in Translation Software

If you and/or your team want to build workflows within your translation software and check off the various steps in the translation process, Smartling will be beneficial. However, if you already use other software dedicated to workflow management, you might not get use out of this feature. 

10. Alternatives to Smartling Might Be More Secure

Smartling has multiple certifications including HIPAA, which says a lot about its security standards. However, there are additional security measures you might want to look for as an enterprise user, and it’s not clear exactly what additional security measures Smartling offers.

If your organization requires additional enterprise-level security measures including any of the following, you might want to clarify with Smartling or consider an alternative to Smartling. The following is a non-exhaustive list.*

• Well-Architected Review
• “No Return” to machine translation providers
• Ongoing vulnerability scans
• Third-party penetration testing
• Application data scrubbing

*It isn’t made clear if Smartling currently employs these security precautions.

Reasons To Stick with Smartling

Despite what you see here, you should do additional research on forums (such as ProZ and Quora) as well as independent review websites, to see if a Smartling alternative is truly right for your company. 

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

After all…

• Smartling has the core functionality offered by many CAT tools
• It can be integrated with a robust list of 3rd party apps
• Smartling offers a wide variety of machine translation engines
• It offers visual context for localization of websites, software & apps

Best Alternative to Smartling

If any or all of the reasons above resonate with you, try Pairaphrase, the web-based translation management system for enterprises. It’s a top Smartling alternative powered by AI. 

Specifically, its easy-to-use interface requires little to no learning curve and focuses on providing the best experience for only the most important translation features you need.

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