The ultimate guide to Localazy translation services

Localazy can take complete care of your translation process with the built-in translation services available inside the platform. Forget the hassle of managing translation projects forever. All you need to do is choose the language and service. Learn everything you need to know in this article.

Welcome to the ultimate guide to Localazy translation services! After reading this article, you should be able to:

• tell the difference between one-time and continuous translation services
• know the benefits of using Localazy translation services
• understand what each Localazy service does and what results to expect
• get answers to most of the questions you might have about the services
• place your first order with Localazy 😊

⚖️ One-time or Continuous Translation?

What is the difference between one-time and continuous translation services? You might already have experience with the one-time model. It usually entails extracting the content you need to get translated into some human-friendly format, contacting the translation agency of your choice, 📤 sending them the files, getting a quote, confirming the order, and then waiting for the result. ⏱️  

There might also be several rounds of corrections until you get the result which you then have to implement into your product - sometimes copy-pasting strings, making sure everything is translated, and so on... 🙄

This approach works great for documents and articles you don't expect to change often. But, for software microcopy, marketing materials, and website content, a continuous translation model will save you a lot of time and nerves.

Modern translation management systems (TMS), such as Localazy, enable software makers, marketers, and content creators to integrate their translations with the tool where translations actually happen and unlock the continuous mode of service. At Localazy, the process is simplified into three steps: integrate your project (or upload your strings in one of the supported formats), provide the context, order the services and watch as the translators do their work. 😎

Then, if at any point, any changes happen, e.g., you add more texts, change already translated texts or decide to add a new language, everything happens automatically. 🔄 And the best thing is that translations are available immediately and without you lifting a finger when your project is integrated - more on that in the next section.

👍 Benefits of continuous services by Localazy

You can already see why continuous translations are the best choice for software copy and digital marketing content. Several other benefits are waiting for you when you decide to go with Localazy and order translation services from our Continuous Localization Team.

Setup needed only once

As said earlier, once you integrate your project, you don't have to bother developers with updates again. All translations in Localazy can be delivered to your project with a simple command or an automated trigger. You can automate the synchronization of source texts with Localazy and the delivery of translations with our advanced CLI, API, or CDN - just ask your developer or contact us!

No file hand-offs and e-mails

Collaboration is enabled directly inside the Localazy platform. Forget about long and chaotic e-mail threads and multiple file versions.

Flexible and transparent pricing

You immediately see the price-per-word for each language and service combination on the order screen. You also don't have to wait for quotes because Localazy calculates the total estimate before you place your order. If your budget is tight, you can choose a more affordable option for less important languages. More on that later.

Translations are available immediately

The Localazy platform is ready for agile management of translation work. Once our translators start working on your project, the translations they save are available immediately. This means you can review them instantly and deploy them faster - effectively cutting time-to-market.

Pro-active approach to changes

Another considerable benefit of the continuous translation mode is that after your project is wholly translated, Localazy will monitor your project for newly added texts or changes to source strings that require new translation. Our translators are then notified to translate the new content as soon as possible.

Context is king

The context for translation is readily available inside the platform - users can see relevant glossary terms highlighted in the source text, browse relevant screenshots, ask for clarification in comments and check for any translation notes by the project owners. We highly recommend you prepare a rich context base before ordering translation services. More on that later.

Less error-prone process

Tag and placeholder highlighting and other preventative measures also help translators to produce accurate translations for your project.

💼 Understanding the services Localazy offers

There are currently four services available to choose from. Only two of them actually produce new translations, and that are Human-Assisted Machine Translations and Professional Translations. One of the other two is designed to ensure the validity of crowd-sourced translations (Human Translation Validation), and there is also Proofreading, which serves as a QA measure after professional translations. Below is a brief description of each service and what results to expect.

Professional Translations

The most popular service we offer is Professional Translation. After ordering this service, professional human translator(s) selected by Localazy will translate your project into the chosen languages while following provided context cues and assistive technologies. You can get your whole project translated by professional translators.

Before you order:

To ensure the best possible quality, we highly recommend the preparation of a project glossary, adding translation notes and context screenshots, and the composition of a style guide.

Results:

• Translations made by professional translators are automatically approved and ready to be used in your project as soon as they are produced.
• The translator utilizes uploaded screenshots, provided translation notes, style guides, comments, and other context and assistive technologies offered by Localazy to provide the best translation possible.
• Placeholders or tags are included and not translated, there is a correct number of new lines, trailing spaces, etc., and the translator does his best to preserve maximum translation length. Still, if it’s impossible to achieve, the translator will rather skip the translation, and we will contact you to avoid breaking your project.

What not to expect:

• Transcreation of source strings to adapt the translation to the symbolic meaning of source text based on the ambiguity of words/phrases, slang, puns, etc.
• One-on-one interaction with translators to discuss the project beforehand, as the service is highly automated.
• Translators won't diligently research if the translation is perfectly fitting for the domain - industry-specific texts etc., are translated on a best-effort basis.

Example use cases:

• Excellent choice for any consumer-facing app or project intended for the general public.
• Great for specialized applications and games. However, we recommend you prepare a good context base and glossary for translators first.

Note: In case of legal, medical, science and manufacturing applications or highly specialized niche-targeted products, please contact us before ordering professional translations to discuss your requirements.

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Professional Proofreading

Even though humans are the best translators, mistakes can still happen. After all, we are only human. That's why this service acts as a quality assurance measure for Professional Translations. So, if you want to be 99% sure that your translations are correct, we recommend you tick this service alongside Professional Translations.

Before you order:

This service is generally recommended to be active simultaneously with Professional Translations.

Results:

• Translations should be completely free of mistakes. Please remember that the last quality checks should always be made by people involved in the project who know every nuance.
• The same principles that apply to Professional Translations apply here as well.

What not to expect:

• We won't proofread crowd-sourced translations (use Human Translation Validation instead)
• You also shouldn't try to use MT pre-translate and then order proofreading to clean up the errors. That's what Human-Assisted Machine Translation is for. 🤓

Example use cases:

• You already have existing translations from professionals (can be outside of Localazy, e.g., after migration from competition) and want to have your translations proofread to ensure their quality.
• If you have a fresh project and want the best possible quality from the get-go, then activate the proofreading service together with the Professional Translations service.

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Human-Assisted Machine Translation

Previously known as the Virtual Translator and frequently shortened to "HAMT," the Human-Assisted Machine Translation by Localazy is the best of both worlds when it comes to translation. This service is more affordable than Professional Translation, but the human touch ensures your project won't break when the machine misinterprets something.

Before you order:

There is no special requirement to prepare your project for this service but remember that the translation results are coming from a machine and might end up being wrong. The human is there to spot obvious errors and correct minor mistakes in punctuation etc., not to make sure the meaning isn't accidentally lost.

Results:

• The best translation out of several provided by different machine translation engines (Amazon, Google, DeepL, Microsoft) is selected by a human.
• Placeholders or tags are included and not translated, the maximum translation length is preserved, and there is correct letter casing, punctuation, etc.
• Translations made by Human-Assisted Machine Translation are automatically approved and ready to be used in your project. With enough credits, you can get your project translated completely. We advise you to follow up with thorough localization testing to correct possible mistakes.

What not to expect:

• Ensuring and researching if the meaning of the translation exactly matches the source meaning.
• Spellchecking and correcting grammar mistakes might not be 100%. Only obvious errors are corrected.

Example use cases:

• Perfect for testing a new market when budgets are tight, but you don't have the time to go through machine translation results in-house.
• Great for languages that are not a priority now, but you need to have the language version ready and functional.

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Human Translation Validation

Are you an independent developer or a non-profit organization depending on help from volunteers? This service is designed with crowd-sourcing in mind. Upon enabling this service, a human reviewer uses machine translation tools to verify existing translations that are waiting for review. The reviewer rejects invalid translations and accepts valid ones. Additionally, the reviewer may correct minor mistakes for translations that pass the checks (see below). This way, you don’t have to review volunteers' translations by yourself.

Before you order:

Remember that this service doesn't produce any new translations! You need to have some translations ready for review in the target language.

Results:

• The reviewer will check if the translation matches the source using backward machine translations, i.e., translation is generally understandable in the target language.
• The reviewer will reject translations that exceed the specified length.
• The reviewer ensures that placeholders or tags are included and not translated in otherwise valid translations.
• The person providing this service might not understand the target language but relies on machine translation technology and their best judgment.

What not to expect:

• Correcting the translation ➝ if the translation is invalid, it’s rejected and not corrected.
• Validation is generally not available for translations mass-produced by machine translation engines. Your project must contain translations made by Localazy users waiting for review in the selected language pair.

Example use cases:

• Indie games, hobby apps, and non-profit projects that depend on volunteers to translate their texts are all great for this service. Save your time and get the translations checked for an affordable price.

📝 Placing your first order

So now you know which service (or combination of them) will suit your project best. It's time to order the translations! Sign up and integrate your project or simply upload the files with your source texts via the web interface.

There are multiple ways of integrating your project. You can learn more in the docs article: Importing content for localization

Open your project in Localazy and click on the "Order Translations" button in the left submenu.

Select languages

Then you select languages from the dropdown list (you can pick multiple at once) and look at the icons next to the language name to see what services are available.

Generally, we expect your source language is English but don't hesitate to contact us if you can't find a match for your desired source language!

Tip: Please get in touch with us if you don't see the language you are looking for. We might be able to find a translator for you upon request.

Choose services

For each language, you can select the service(s) to activate by clicking on the switcher. You also see the price per word and a cost estimate for finishing the translation of all remaining strings.

In the picture below, you can see that we are about to order Professional translations to Czech, the total estimate is $967.8, and we have a $1000 credit balance, which should cover the cost.

Add credits to your account

Now that you know the total estimate for everything click on the "Increase" button in the top right corner and top up your credits. The lowest amount you can buy is $100. This is because there is some overhead in selecting the translators that will do the work, assigning them to your project, and so on. We don't want to burden our translators with small chunks of different new projects, remember that there are real people behind these services! 👩‍💼🙋‍♂️

Do you need to top up more than $5000 in one payment? Does your bank or card provider cause you trouble? Contact us to setup an alternative payment method.

Confirm your order

Now that you have enough credits and everything is set up click the "Place Order" button to send the order our way.

What happens now? Usually, our "Localady" Zuzana (or Zuzka), who is in charge of the translation services team, will contact you in case there is anything that needs clarification. Then she'll confirm your order with you.

And that's it! Your translations should be done in one or two weeks, depending on the capacity and volume. You can watch the progress in Localazy and focus on other business you need to attend to.

🤔 Frequently Asked Questions

If you have any questions about the process, reach out and ask us anytime. Below is a list of the frequently asked questions we were getting from our customers.

What if I have special requirements?

If you have special requirements regarding professional translation, contact us and tell us about your situation. It might seem that the high automation we preach doesn't allow for any personalization or modification, but we are committed to finding a solution for almost any use case.

How do you select translators for my project?

We collaborate with vetted language service providers and professional freelance translators. We prefer long-term relations and carefully maintain a list of selected partners. Once the translator is assigned to your project, they will most likely work on it repeatedly since they already know your project and its context. In the case of Proofreading, the another set of eyes will be a different translator than the one who conducted the first round of translations.

Why did the price change since the last time I checked?

The order screen displays the estimates for the current state of translations. The total estimate can be significantly lower if our translators already did some work. However, if you add or change the texts, which increases the total number of words, the price can grow before the work is finished.

We also frequently run promotional discount periods for certain languages. Maybe the last time you checked, such a discount was applied to the language. Check Localazy for new discounts every once in a while!

I am a translator and would like to join the team. How to do it?

Please send your CV to zuzana@localazy.com along with a few words about yourself. Ideally, you should have prior experience with Localazy and software/app translation.

What is the difference between the available services?

I hope we explained that in the paragraphs above. If you still have questions about the details of each service, please read the terms of service or contact us with your question.

How can I help translators and ensure the best quality?

To ensure the best possible quality, we highly recommend the preparation of a project glossary, adding translation notes and context screenshots, and the composition of a style guide. There is currently no dedicated interface for your style guide, but you can attach it as a link to a PDF document in the project description where translators will find it. Doing this before ordering translations will set you up for success, and translators will have all the information they need.

How fast can Localazy finish my translations?

The usual period is one to two weeks. This depends on the volume of your project and our capacity. Also, remember that the service does not deliver translations instantly, as humans provide the services. Therefore, it takes some time before the translations and reviews are conducted. But as soon as the translators start working on your project, their translations will begin to appear in Localazy continuously as they work.

How to check the status?

You can check in the Languages tab or on the order screen. If you have concerns or questions, please get in touch with us.

✔️ Conclusion

I hope this article helps clear up any confusion you might've had about the Localazy translation services. I am confident you can now distinguish between Human Translation Validation and Professional Proofreading and know how to order Professional Translations.

Remember to prepare a sound context library for the translators before you order to ensure that nothing gets lost in the process. Do you already have experience with our translation services or have any questions or thoughts? Let us know in the comments!