Translation solution for your company: what actually fits

Translation happens in almost every company, but rarely with a system: sales uses a free tool, marketing an agency, documentation waits two weeks for turnaround. A translation solution for the whole company must bring four things together: privacy, your own corporate language, the actual file formats and a process that fits everyday work. An overview of the options, sorted honestly.

If you want the concept and provider types first, see Machine translation for business for the deeper guide.

Four options compared

1. Free tools (Google Translate, free web translators). Fine for a quick private look. In a company they hit three walls: confidential content lands on third-party servers outside your control, technical terms are translated inconsistently, and formats such as InDesign or structured documents break. Not an option for customer documents and contracts.

2. Standard translators with a Pro account (e.g. DeepL Pro). Solid quality for everyday text, GDPR-compliant plans available. Limits: your terminology stays a matter of luck, there are no workflows for approvals or project billing, and layout-faithful formats such as InDesign are not supported natively. Good for individual staff, thin as a company solution. Which translator scores best in the blind test is in our AI translation comparison; we run the engine comparison there, not here.

3. Translation agency or translation management system. The right choice when quality requirements with human revision are high and for large localisation teams with their own tool stack. The price: project costs and word rates well above machine level, typically days to weeks turnaround, and systems that are hard to run without a dedicated loc team.

4. Trained machine translation plus specialised tools. Machine translation trained on your own translations, glossaries and content hits corporate language and runs in real time. Add tools for the actual formats (such as layout-faithful InDesign translation) and an approval and billing process and you get a solution for the whole company. That is the model behind Translate.Wonk (translation in corporate language, trained on your data) and IDML-Translate (InDesign documents layout-faithfully, all EU languages in one pass). See reference projects for how that looks in practice.

Five criteria for the choice

1. Privacy and data sovereignty. Where do servers run, is content used for model training, is there a data processing agreement? Hosting in Germany and no reuse of data should be non-negotiable.
2. Corporate language. Glossary, protected terms and ideally a model trained on your own text decide whether translations sound like your company or like a machine.
3. Formats. Many tools handle Word and PDF. The real test is InDesign catalogues, user manuals and structured documents that must keep their layout. For mandatory documentation see also Translating user manuals.
4. Process. Who may translate, who approves, how is it billed? Budget limits per user and project-based billing turn a tool into a solution procurement and finance can support.
5. Cost. Agency translation in the market runs at high single-digit to low double-digit cents per word plus project fees, with days to weeks wait. Machine translation is well below that and delivers in minutes; human revision can be bought selectively where it is required.

What fits whom (honest short guide)

Few translations per month, no sensitive content: a Pro account with a standard translator is enough. High legal requirements with human revision at the core: agency or a mix of machine and revision. Regular translation in corporate language, technical documentation, InDesign formats, several departments: trained machine translation with process. A 30-minute intro call is enough to sort that out; if the simplest option is enough, we will say so.

Frequently asked questions

Isn't DeepL enough for our company?

Often yes for everyday text from individual staff. As soon as corporate language, terminology, layout-faithful formats or approval and billing processes matter, you need more than a translation box in the browser.

How safe is our data with machine translation?

That depends on the provider. At wonk.ai translations run on servers in Germany, content is not used for model training and is deleted after 24 hours; the basis is a data processing agreement.

What about InDesign files, catalogues and manuals?

There are specialised tools for that: IDML-Translate translates InDesign documents layout-faithfully, including into many languages at once, and the files stay editable.

What does a translation solution cost compared to an agency?

Agencies charge word rates plus project fees and typically need days to weeks. Machine translation costs a fraction and delivers in minutes. The exact calculation depends on volume and languages and can be estimated transparently upfront.

How do we start without committing?

With a small, defined entry: map today's translation paths, test with real documents, decide based on results. No subscription, no minimum term for the test.

Start without commitment: 30-minute intro call, then a test with real documents and glossary.