Smartling
A translation platform combining machine translation with human review and a company's own glossary, for businesses that publish in more than one language on an ongoing basis.
What you'd use it for
Keeping a website, help centre, or product catalogue translated into more than one language on an ongoing basis, with the translations syncing straight back into the system you publish from.
- Machine-translate content and route it through a human reviewer before anything ships
- Keep terminology and phrasing consistent across languages with a shared glossary and translation memory
- Sync translated strings automatically back into the CMS, help desk, or ecommerce catalogue you already publish from, through built-in connectors
- Run automated quality checks that catch common translation errors before the human review pass
The verdict
Smartling earns its place here for the connector layer -- translations sync back into the CMS, help centre, or product catalogue you already publish from, instead of living in an export file someone re-uploads by hand. The free Core tier is genuinely usable for occasional document translation, but the deeper integrations, automation, and full LQA suite that make Smartling worth choosing over a cheaper machine-translation tool sit above Core, and none of it is priced anywhere you can see before talking to sales. It suits a company already publishing in more than one language on a recurring basis, not one translating a handful of documents a year.
What it costs
| Tier | Price | For | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core | $0 to start | Individuals or small teams translating business documents occasionally. | Basic workflow and project management, drag-and-drop CAT tool, 180-day translation memory, essential reporting, automated quality checks. |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Companies or large teams scaling and optimising a translation programme. | Everything in Core, plus fully customisable workflows, advanced connectivity, unlimited translation memory storage, customisable linguistic packages, a full LQA suite, AI and machine translation services, bring-your-own-translator option. |
Read from Smartling's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.
What you need to start
- A free account registration -- no credit card needed for the Core tier
- Source content in a supported file format, or admin access to the CMS, help desk, or ecommerce platform you want connected
- A sales conversation with Smartling for pricing and access beyond the Core tier
Minutes to register and submit a first job on Core; the CMS or catalogue connector the platform is actually built around, and any pricing past Core, only arrive after a sales conversation.
Your first run Register a free Core account, upload files or paste text, and submit your first job for machine translation plus a human review pass -- a translated file can be back in your hands the same day. Wiring up the CMS or catalogue connector that syncs translations automatically takes longer, and anything past Core starts with a sales conversation.
Where it breaks
Smartling does not publish Enterprise pricing anywhere on the site — every real deployment requires a sales conversation, so there is no way to estimate cost before talking to them.
Browser-based platform with connectors into the content systems a business already publishes from — CMS, help desk, ecommerce catalogue — so translated strings sync back automatically instead of round-tripping through files.
First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.
When not to use it
Not for a business translating the occasional document or webpage -- the connector infrastructure and human-review workflow are overhead you do not need, and a one-off pass through a tool like DeepL will do the job for less. Also not for anyone who needs to know a number before they can plan a budget, since everything past Core requires a sales call with no published price to compare against a competitor's.
Smartling sells the same basic promise as most enterprise localisation platforms: machine translation drafts the text, a glossary keeps your brand’s terminology consistent across languages, and a human reviewer signs off before anything ships. What makes it worth naming separately from a generic AI translation tool is the connector layer — it plugs directly into the CMS, help desk, or product catalogue a company already runs, so translated content syncs back into place instead of living in a separate export file someone has to re-upload.
The free tier is real, but narrow
Core costs nothing to start and includes a genuine CAT tool with 180 days of translation memory — useful for a small business translating documents occasionally rather than running a continuous multilingual publishing operation. It is not a trial; it is a permanently free tier for light use.
Where the real product lives
Everything past Core is Enterprise, and Enterprise is entirely custom-quoted — there is no published number to compare against a competitor’s sticker price. That is standard for this category (see also Phrase, which does at least publish its Team tier), but it means budgeting for Smartling requires a sales call before you know whether it fits.
What it does not replace
Smartling manages the translation workflow; it does not write your source content, and the human-review step is a real cost centre, not an AI shortcut around one. If your volume is low enough that a one-off AI translation pass covers it, the connector infrastructure here is more than you need.
Alternatives
Phrase
A localisation platform that runs machine translation through a quality-scoring layer, so a team can see which translated strings are safe to ship and which need a human.
Lokalise
Manages translating your app, website or help centre across languages, with AI doing the first-pass translation and a reviewer workflow before anything ships.
Writing & editingAppsWeglot
Translates an entire website into other languages with one code snippet, keeping each translated version indexable by search engines.
Writing & editingAppsDeepL
Translation for documents and text across 30-plus languages that keeps the original formatting, plus a rewriting tool that adjusts tone and clarity in English.
Get Smartling
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