G
GMicrosoft Translator vs Smartling
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
M
Choose Microsoft Translator if…
- you work on iOS, Android, Windows
- you're in its core audience: travelers, developers
S
Choose Smartling if…
- you're in its core audience: enterprise localization teams, software developers
Side by side
Feature Microsoft Translator Smartling
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starting price——
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Trains AI on your content—Yes, unless you opt out
Data retention—Kept as long as necessary for the purpose collected; may retain for business or legal reasons
Security and compliance—SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 42001, PCI DSS
Glossaries—
Translation memory—
AI quality scoring—
Human translation—
Repo & design integrations—
PlatformsWeb, iOS, Android, Windows, APIWeb, API
CategoryTranslationTranslation
CompanyMicrosoftSmartling, Inc.
Based in—United States
Founded—2009
Part of——
Key features
M Microsoft Translator
- Real-time conversation translation
- Multi-device conversation translation
- Offline translation of menus and street signs
- Website and document translation
- Live captioning for classrooms
- Translator API for text and speech
- Custom translation model training and hosting
- Built into Bing and Outlook, with an Outlook add-in
S Smartling
- Translation management system with customizable workflows
- 50+ connectors for CMS, CRM, code repos and design tools
- LQA Agent scoring AI translations with MQM
- Auto Select LLM chooses a model per language pair
- Website translation proxy (Global Delivery Network)
- CAT tool with visual context and translation memory
- Open APIs, SDKs and CI/CD integration
- Professional translation from 4,000+ linguists
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
Microsoft Translator
Free (F0)Free
S1 Pay-as-you-goPer million characters
D3 Custom volume$40 per million characters
Smartling
CoreFree to start
EnterpriseCustom
Machine TranslationFrom $0.0075/word
AI TranslationFrom $0.06/word
AI Human TranslationFrom $0.12/word
Human TranslationFrom $0.20/word
Strengths and limitations
Microsoft Translator
- API free tier includes 2 million characters a month
- Apps for Android, iOS and Windows
- Custom model training is capped at $300 per run
- Built into Bing and Outlook
- S1 pay-as-you-go rates did not display on the pricing page we fetched
- Business API use requires an Azure subscription
Smartling
- Core plan is free to start
- Per-word rates published, from $0.0075/word for machine translation
- Customers can export translation memory (TMX) and content (XLIFF)
- Lists SOC 2, ISO/IEC 42001, HIPAA and GDPR compliance
- Enterprise plan pricing is not published
- Core plan keeps translation memory for only 180 days
- Some connectors require a higher tier or an add-on
More comparisons
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Free
G
Translate text, documents, websites, speech and camera images across languages
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D
DD
Freemium
D
AI translation for text, documents and voice, for individuals and businesses
TranslationFree planAPI
C
CC
Freemium
C
Localization platform for translating software, apps, games, websites and docs
TranslationFree planAPI
S
SS
From $18.99/mo
S
SS
From $100/mo
P
PP
From $27/mo
P
Translation management and localization platform for teams, developers and LSPs
TranslationAPI
Built from each vendor's public website; we haven't tested them hands-on. Editorial policy