Top 5 Localization Tools for Localization Managers

What is a localization tool?

Your potential customers may feel lost and confused if you present the product information in a language they don’t understand. This often results in poor customer conversion rates and low revenues.

How do you make your product appeal to your target customers?

The best technique is localization! 

Localization ensures you adapt the product to the needs and preferences of local target markets. In fact, localization goes beyond translating the content to altering the user interface of the product to fit into the cultural norms, preferences, and purchasing habits of people in new markets.

While planning to localize your website, web app, mobile app, video game, and marketing materials, you should choose a reliable localization tool that can streamline the localization workflows and produce high-quality translations. A localization tool is a software application that effectively blends human and machine translation efforts to improve translation quality, accuracy, and speed.

This article explores the top five localization tools that can help you optimize your localization workflows and deliver high-quality translations.

Why Localization is Important

Localization has become an integral part of the international expansion strategy of organizations. By making sure to adapt your product and service value offerings to meet the tastes and preferences of the target audience in global markets, localization will help you:

• Address language and cultural barriers during the journey of business expansion.
• Reach a broader target audience across the globe and sell more products.
• Optimize your website for better search engine visibility and increase its conversion rates.
• Communicate with customers in their native language.
• Improve the user experience, thereby customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Types of Localization Tools

You can classify translation management tools into three types: self-translation tools, translation services, and automatic website translation systems.

Self-translation tools

These are do-it-yourself (DIY) tools available widely on the internet. These tools operate in three simple steps:

1. Copy-paste the content into the platform
2. Set the target language
3. The platform will generate the translated content automatically

The best examples of self-translation tools are Google Translate, Bing Translator,  WordLens, Linguee, and so on.

Translation Services

Translation service providers make use of human translators, linguists, subject matter experts, and localization experts to localize products such as websites, web apps, mobile apps, video games, and marketing materials. The translation service providers will also make use of Computer Assisted Translation tools (CAT tools) such as translation memory, dynamic machine learning, file translation editor, and batch file translation to produce high-quality human translations.

Automatic website localization software

Automatic localization software, also known as a translation management system (TMS), is a localization platform that automates every step of the traditional localization processes, from uploading files and translating the content to publishing. 

The main features of automatic localization software solutions are:

• Content import and export automation
• Glossary and style guide creation for consistent translation across all languages
• Translation memory creation that reduces the time and effort required to complete a translation project
• Multiple file format support
• API integrations facilitation with multiple development platforms

Top 5 Localization Tools for Localization Managers

Different types of software localization tools are available on the market. However, not all of them are capable of handling your localization requirements. You may need to carefully evaluate your translation needs and choose a suitable localization tool that can translate the product-related content and adapt the features of the product to foreign markets.

Let’s take a deep look at the top five localization tools below:

1. OneSky App

OneSky is a user-friendly localization solution that can translate your websites, mobile apps, and video games into over 50 languages across 70 countries worldwide. It has a team of over 1,000 professional translators with technical experience and wide domain knowledge across all industries. OneSky also offers a robust translation management system that replaces your traditional translation workflows and automates your localization processes.

The main benefits of the OneSky App are:

• File formats: It supports over 19 file formats, including .html, .htm, .xml, .xlf, .xliff, .yml, .yaml, .json, .php, and many more.
• API integrations: It facilitates API integrations with many development platforms, including iOS, Android, Google Play Store, Apple Play Store, and so on.
• Direct communication: It allows you to directly interact with translators to provide them with style guides and context for the localization.
• On-device testing: It allows you to test the translated text in real time before releasing the product in the market.
• Central dashboard: It provides a dashboard from where you can manage all your localization projects.
• Technical validation: OneSky offers an automated technical validation system that checks for missing placeholders while importing the translated text back onto your website or software application. 

2. Weglot

Weglot is a website translation solution compatible with top website development and content management systems such as WordPress, Shopify, and Webflow. It effectively blends human translation efforts and machine translation tools such as DeepL and Yandex to produce high-quality translations quickly. It provides a centralized dashboard from where you can manage all your translation projects, provide inputs for translators, and manually approve or edit automatic website translations. However, its services are limited to only website localization. You may not find services such as video game localization and video translation with Weglot.

3. MotionPoint

MotionPoint is a technology-driven localization platform that translates your website, videos, mobile apps, emails, and offline documents into 50+ languages. The main benefit of MotionPoint is that it allows you to collaborate with translators, assign them translation jobs, and track the progress of the project in real-time. MotionPoint has a unique approach to product translation. For instance, it separates the translatable content from the code and splits the content into processable segments, and then sends them to translators for quick turnaround times.

4. GlobalLink

GlobalLink is a leading translation solutions provider that offers a range of services such as website localization, mobile app localization, AI-enabled voiceover and subtitling, translation memory management, automated translation workflow management, and many more. The website translation process at GlobalLink involves conducting thorough research into target markets, analyzing the cultural nuances of local people, developing multilingual content, checking the quality of translations, and exporting the translated text back to the website. However, its platform may slow down when handling larger translation projects.

5. Localize

Localize is a translation management platform designed for SaaS companies. It is capable of effectively translating web apps, API documents, mobile applications, static websites, blogs, videos, and much more. It facilitates integrations with several platforms such as BigCommerce, Canvas, Divi, Drupal, GitHub, Google Drive, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Shopify to provide a seamless localization experience. The main functionalities of Localize are automated workflows, translation memory, translation repositories, content optimization, and translation project management. 

Choose OneSky App for Accurate Website Localization

It is vital for you to accurately translate your website, mobile application, or video game to gain credibility in foreign markets. The five localization service providers identified in this article can cater to all your localization needs. However, OneSky has a clear edge over others because of its expert localization team, on-device testing feature, API plugins, and quality assurance through an automated project management system.

Want to learn more about how OneSky’s translation management platform helps you localize your products? Sign up for free today!