A Comparative Look at Top AI Translation Tools

There are too many translation tools out there, all promising to change your life. Spoiler: most won’t. But a few? A few are worth the time, money, and occasional frustration.

Before we break down the best AI translation tools, the most important question is: what’s your goal with translation?

Do you need to translate content regularly? Maybe for a company or across multiple languages? 

Or do you just need to translate a document once in a while?

This answer matters a lot because if you aren’t dealing with a steady flow of translation projects, there are plenty of tools out there.

01) AI Translation, but You Can Call me Linkbait

Before I share tools worth your attention, I must mention that searching for "AI translation" on Google may lead you to some options listed below.

These tools primarily utilize APIs from major LLMs like OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Anthropic, and others. Despite their high Google rankings, I wouldn’t recommend investing your time in them. They promote many features, such as summarization and AI detection, which might not even be relevant in a couple of years.

To put it lightly, the tools listed below are seizing the window of opportunity kicked open by AI applied to all fields. And suddenly, everyone and every software is a writer, a translator, a huge lexicon full of superficial responses to linguistic queries other serious companies have dealt with from the dawn of times. 

Not to get judgemental, but AI does not make all creatures (human and otherwise) deeply knowledgeable in all areas. Not even close. 

Therefore, avoid wasting time on these tools:

https://wordvice.ai/tools/translate

https://quillbot.com/translate

https://monica.im/en/ai-translate

https://openl.io/translate/doc

https://www.wordly.ai/

https://sider.ai/en/products/chatgpt-ai-translator

Hix.AI

If you have an occasional translation project, consider the solutions below. They will help you attain your goal faster, safer, and happier.

02) AI Translation Tools for Occasional Projects

I’d say the top AI translation tools include:

•  ChatGPT  
•  DeepL  
•  Eleven Labs  
•  Google Translate  

Also, remember tools that have built-in translation features, such as Canva, Webflow, WordPress plugins, HeyGen, and more.

DeepL is the best in this category. You can upload documents and receive the translations back. That's really cool!

03) AI Translation Tools for Ongoing Translation Projects

This is the category of real serious tools, people who have been thinking about translation and localization for years.

I’m talking about Trados, MemoQ, Phrase, Bureau Works, and Crowdin. I’ve wrestled with all of them. Some have saved my bacon. Others have made me want to throw my laptop out the window. Here’s the no-filter breakdown.

Trados: The Old-School Legend

If you’ve been translating longer than five minutes, you’ve heard of Trados. It’s the granddaddy of translation tools. Widely known as a tool for translators, maybe the most popular tool for translator

PROS:

• TM That Actually Helps: Trados doesn’t just recycle old translations. It remembers. It keeps your work consistent without making everything sound like a robot wrote it.
• AI Is Your Assistant, Not Your Boss: Plug it into DeepL or Google Translate for machine-generated ideas, but you stay in charge. Trados knows you’re the pro here.
• Team-Friendly (Mostly): Got a crew? Trados Live Team is like a project manager who actually knows what they’re doing.‍
• QA Features That Save You From Yourself: It catches mistakes before your client does. Enough said.

Is Trados fancy? No. Is it solid? Absolutely. Think of it like your beat-up car that somehow always starts on the first try.

Nevertheless, as it should be expected, there are new features in the Trados 2024 version. Enters Linguistic AI through the whole Trados platform. This novelty is brought by Trados Copilot, the primary interface that includes these features among others:

• AI Assistant, with generative translation capabilities to users working in the desktop application.
• Smart Help, intelligent assistance within the cloud environment.

CONS:

• AI capabilities are add-ons that, in many use cases, might work superficially. They might even leave you gasping for air, if and when they decide to fail. (Do not kid yourself, perfection is still an illusion).
• They are not as modern as translation cloud platforms, which rely on installed versions, causing scattered information and extra payment for every new license. These have never been inexpensive, and nothing has changed about that. 
• As the tool is focused solely on the translation itself, it doesn’t cover project management, costs, and other helpful management concepts as comprehensively as other competitors.

Users’ Testimonials

• Trados crashes frequently and it works slower when processing large files. It still lacks useful features offered by its competitors.
• It is far from friendly to new users, and it takes quite a bit of training to get to know and seize all its functionalities. 
• In the same respect, several features usually remain unused, but you still need to pay for the whole package.

MemoQ: The Customizable Control Freak

MemoQ is for people who like to tinker. If you love tweaking settings, creating workflows, and having a tool that feels like it was made just for you, this is your jam.

PROS:

• TM That’s Smarter Than You’d Think: MemoQ aligns translations automatically, so you can solely focus on translating instead of doing repetitive busywork.
• Terminology Tools That Do Work: Big projects? Crazy jargon? MemoQ keeps your terms consistent, so you don’t have to guess whether it’s "client" or "customer" this week.
• Workflows You Control: You don’t need to shoehorn your project into someone else’s idea of “efficiency.” MemoQ lets you set it up your way.

If Trados is the trusty workhorse, MemoQ is the fancy multitool you pull out when the stakes are high. It’s not easy, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.

CONS:

• The interface is unintuitive, it's difficult to find what you are looking for.
• Some features are easier than others to understand and use, but the whole translation step (from assignment to delivery) fails to flow seamlessly. Each task seems unrelated to the prior and the next one.
• It would be awesome to have the option to work on several projects at the same time. At the moment, you need to close open project in order to open another one. And then to close this second one, to open the first one again. This process takes time which is crucial sometimes.

Phrase: E N T E R P R I S E

Phrase (formerly Memsource, but whatever) is all about enterprise and big clients. If you’re comfortable with the Pros and Cons that come with a tech provider oriented to Enterprise, this is your realm.

PROS:

• AI That Learns (For Real): The more you use it, the better it gets. It’s like that coworker who finally remembers how you like your coffee.
• No Fluff, Just Function: Translation Memory, glossaries, QA—it’s all there, and it all works.
• Crazy Good Integrations: Phrase connects with all the stuff you already use—CMS platforms, dev tools, the whole shebang. No more copy-paste marathons.

CONS:

• Although this has improved a bit over time, they still haven’t been able to get Phrase to reduce the amount of false positives generated by the QA. They are senseless and endless. Translators are invariably 'forced' to ignore and even doing so, the interface takes forever to refresh during and after the QA process.
• Translation memories usually propose automatic translations that miss the point and are not accurate, even when AI is involved. 

There is no longer a draft concept. As soon as you confirm a segment, everybody working for the client can see your name on it, although it may need revision.

Crowdin: For the Dev-Obsessed Crowd

Crowdin is built for techies. If you’re localizing software, apps, or anything with constant updates, this is your go-to.

PROS:

• MT + TM That Work Together: Crowdin speeds up workflows without turning your translations into gobbledygook.
• Syncs with Dev Tools: GitHub, GitLab—you name it, Crowdin talks to it. Say goodbye to manual updates.
• Real-Time Collaboration: Multiple people can work on the same project without stepping all over each other.

Crowdin isn’t for everyone, but if you’re in the tech trenches, this tool gets it.

CONS:

• It would be convenient to have more intuitive and easy-to-understand dashboards that clearly show the amount of work completed over time. This enhancement would make tracking progress much more efficient and user-friendly.
• Developer seats should not be priced as manager seats.
• Messaging facility to translators could be improved so there is an easier way to communicate, how to understand what the translators see. It would also be useful to get notified when a translation is completed.

BUREAU WORKS - Fast and Easy For Agencies and Enterprise

With Bureau Works' context-first translation platform, localization managers, translation agencies, translators, and devs alike can translate, contextualize, and scale global experiences that get results - all backed by enterprise-grade hosting and security.

Bureau Works provides translation power that goes beyond mere translation memories and glossaries. 

Users obtain the translations they need into other languages, while the software takes care of everything else: workflows, knowledge, permissions, finance, and quality - for everything from software to video and eLearning.

PROS:

• Context sensitivity is at the core of a range of features called Augmented Actions. This innovative capability leverages all sources—translation memory, glossary, and machine translation—to provide more context to your translation. This feature won the Process Innovation Challenge at LocWorld Silicon Valley 2023.
• A recent context sensitivity study revealed that 89% of the segments are approved by professional translators without any changes, showing that leveraging large language models (LLMs) within Bureau Works has been remarkably efficient.
• The workflow and quality are very much above average if compared to their competitors.
• Through webinars, online meetings, and step-by-step tutorials, Bureau Works is spending every effort to teach linguists how to best utilize their platform.
• Glossaries work in tune with the editor. The glossary (TermBase) words are recognized by the Machine Translation on the fly! The MT learns from the Translation Memory and glossaries.
• The translation database is huge and truly helpful for everyday translation, tasks are easy to understand and manage, and quality control helps you deliver the best possible translations.

CONS:

• The preview is not dynamic or automatic, and it's not always available.

So, What’s the Verdict?

Here’s the truth: no single tool will solve all your problems. But finding the right one? That can make a great translator feel unstoppable.

From an innovation perspective, Bureau Works, Crowdin, and Phrase stand out from the rest.

If you lean more toward a developer-focused approach, Crowdin might be your choice. If you have a project mindset centered around documents, Bureau Works could be the better fit.

At the end of the day, the best tool is the one that makes your job easier—and maybe even a little more enjoyable. Now, go crush it. You’ve got this!