Comparison of Translation Services Rates

When searching for online translation companies you will be presented with a huge number of companies and websites which offer translation at a variety of different translation services rates. The question is what rate should you pay for your translation?

What are good translation services rates?

Translation services rates vary considerably as does the service that they offer. You need to first of all be clear as to exactly the level of service that you are looking for before you start to compare rates. A company that quotes you $100 for a translation against a company that is asking $10 for the same translation is probably not offering the same level of service.

What translation services are on offer?

Before you compare translation services rates you need to be fully aware of what they are going to provide you with in terms of translation. A translation provided by a simple computer program is unlikely to be very accurate while companies that use highly qualified experts who are fluent in both languages as well as being subject matter experts are going to provide a much more accurate translation. Also companies that provide the added use of a proofreading service by an additional translator are going to provide a higher level of accuracy still. Typically online companies offer the following levels of translation;

• Software based translation
• Translation by freelancer who speaks both languages
• Translation by qualified translator who is fluent in both languages
• Translation by qualified translator who is also a subject expert
• Translation as above with proofreading by an expert translator

Comparing your translation service rates

Before comparing the rates on offer firstly consider the service that you will need. If you have legal or medical documents that require translation you will certainly want to get the very best service; you will be looking for those companies that are going to use experts that fully understand the subject as well as the source and target languages and who then proofread the resulting translations. This will almost certainly be far more expensive than using a company that provides cheap translation using freelancers but then the costs associated with a poor translation could be huge. You must be careful that you are comparing oranges with oranges when you compare the rates between the different companies; different levels of service will offer different levels of accuracy and of course risk so be very careful when looking at translation services rates to ensure that you are comparing equivalent companies offering the services that you really need.