If you’ve ever tried to manage a website in six languages using just email and Excel spreadsheets, you know that it just doesn’t work.
The translated text may be too long for the buttons and the English version may be updated while the French version remains untranslated. All your localizations become confusing very quickly.
Data from independent market research firms confirm that the vast majority of consumers worldwide will not purchase from a website that is not in their native language.
That’s why you not only need Google Translate, but also practical localization tools. Check out the list of tools that can make localizing your business easier.
1. Translation Management Systems (TMS)
You can’t manage a global company via email. You need a Translation Management System (TMS). It’s basically a library for every sentence you’ve ever translated.
For example, if you translate “Add to Cart” once, the TMS stores the translation in the translation memory. The next time you need this sentence, the tool will fill it in for you. This prevents you from paying for the same work twice and prevents your brand from sounding like five different people wrote it.
Basically, a Translation Management System (TMS) is the first tool you should set up. All tools listed in the article are available in a TMS. Check out the best TMS software reviews on the G2 website. The best options include Crowdin for enterprise software and applications and Weglot for SME websites.
2. Website version control
Once your TMS is set up, you’ll need a way to integrate your website content into it. The old way of localizing a website was like this: export the text to a file, send it to a translator, wait a week, and then manually paste it back into your website. When you’re done, your English website will have already changed. It is difficult to manage all website versions manually. This results in a partially translated website and your content becomes inconsistent.
However, there is a clever way to track changes across all languages: modern website translation solutions can automatically track your content. If they discover some untranslated lines, they can automatically create a task for translators.
3. Make sure the design doesn’t break
Even if your text is perfectly synced, it may not fit. Here’s a fun fact: German is typically 30% longer than English. Unfortunately, if you design a button for the word “Edit” and the German word is “Edit”, your button is broken.
Use design plugins (like Figma and Adobe XD). Instead of waiting for the website to look messy, translators can use plugins to see how translations appear right in the website design. They will try to find words that fit well into the design.
Designers can also use these plugins to identify where the design breaks, making it more flexible. You’ll immediately notice that the German text is superimposed on a photo or that the Japanese font looks strange. It saves weeks of redesign.
4. Context is everything
Translators usually work with spreadsheets. Do you see a single word like “home” and don’t know whether it means “homepage”, “a house” or “back to the beginning”? But on a page every word looks the same. Without context, your translator is just guessing.
To resolve this issue, look for tools that offer:
- Live Previews: Contextual editors that allow translators to work on a mirrored version of your live site.
- Automatic screenshots: If a live preview is not possible, the TMS can automatically attach a screenshot to each line of text.
- Developer comments: Developers can leave notes in the code that are displayed directly in the translator’s workspace.
5. Connections for your tools
Of course, it’s not just your website that needs to be localized. Do you manage your knowledge base in Intercom, handle emails in Braze, and do e-commerce with Shopify? And all of this content also needs to be translated.
The good news is that TMS always offer integrations with popular services, so you can automatically sync all your content and manage translations in one place.
6. Video localization
While text is easy to sync, video remains one of the most difficult (and expensive) assets to localize. Traditional dubbing requires studios, actors and time.
AI synchronization tools have changed the world. You can upload an English video and it will “reread” the audio in Spanish or Dutch and clone a voice that sounds exactly like the original speaker. And with AI lip sync, you get even more synchronized lip movements.
AI Dubbing is perfect for training videos or quick social promotions when you don’t have the budget for a full recording studio.
Now video transfer is possible even within the TMS, so no additional tool is required.
7. AI localization
Last but not least is AI. Artificial intelligence is a hype and also in the localization industry. Why do I need to hire people when AI can translate everything in seconds?
Yes, that’s true, but you definitely need professionals who can ensure that the translated content is accurate and conforms to cultural norms. Look for the tool that promotes the hybrid approach (AI + human), see the next chapter on MTPE.
And remember that your sensitive content pages (sales pages, creative pages, legal pages) should be translated by a human.
8. Post-Editing Machine Translations (MTPE)
MTPE is a hybrid approach where an AI provides an initial translation and a human expert refines it.
- The software scans your untranslated content and instantly fills it with a raw translation (from Google, DeepL, etc.).
- The translator doesn’t write, he edits. It is much faster to correct a sentence that is 80% correct than to rewrite it from scratch.
There are even quality estimation tools on the market that show human translators only the poor translations that require their work. These tools automatically detect high-quality machine translations and mark them as “Translated,” so linguists only need to review the “bad” output rather than each individual sentence.
What tools do you actually need?
Don’t try to buy everything at once.
- If you are a small business: Just get a simple TMS and website connector. Focus on being quick.
- If you’re a growing company: Add the Figma integration so your designers and translators can finally talk to each other.
- If you’re a business: Find out about customizations, complex workflows, number of connectors, and machine translation post-editing.
Your goal is not to have the most expensive tools. Look for tools to automate the manual tasks that still slow you down.
