How much does it cost to translate a website into English

Website translation is an excellent tool for entering the international market and gaining a foreign audience. 

In the Ethnologue handbook, English is named the most popular language in the world. It is spoken by 1.2 billion inhabitants of the planet, and 350 million consider it native.  Therefore, the English version of the site is the first place to start developing your business in foreign markets.   

I will tell you how much it costs to translate the site into English and what the final price of this service depends on.

Why can't our managers immediately answer the question of how much it costs to translate your site 

Because the cost of translation is not a fixed value, but depends on many factors. Let's take a closer look. 

The volume of the text content of the site 

At MK:translations, we calculate the estimate for translation by the number of words, not by characters, which allows customers not to overpay for spaces and save up to 17% with each order. The pattern is fair: the larger the site, the more expensive its translation will cost. At the same time, be prepared that the price for localization of a landing page and a multi-page electronic catalog may differ at times. 

Types and number of language pairs 

Translation into popular languages will be more affordable than working with rare and very rare languages. Because there are more English or German translators. And specialists in Greek, Norwegian or Arabic are more scarce personnel, and their services are more expensive. Therefore, it is easier to answer the question "How much does it cost to translate a website from Russian to English" than the question "How much will localization from Moldovan to Danish cost".     

The complexity of the topic and the availability of narrow-profile terminology 

There are informational sites, online business cards, selling landing pages, online stores, electronic catalogs. They can be filled with general vocabulary or contain complex specialized texts with industry terms. In the second case, you will need to attract a specialist for translation with relevant experience or education. Therefore, you will be able to find out how much the website translation costs after our manager gets acquainted with it. 

Urgency of the transfer 

We accept orders 24/7, but this does not mean that our performers — translators, editors and other team members involved in translations and localization are available in this mode. Urgent orders require resource mobilization, overtime work and the use of professional software to optimize time, which increases the cost of the project. Therefore, if it is possible to order localization in advance, do it so as not to look for an answer to the question "How much does the translation of the site cost if it is needed for the evening". 

Features of the terms of reference 

Your order may contain additional options: localization of the video on the website, adaptation of audio content, translation of diagrams and tables. Or maybe the text for translation is in files of a special format or requires preliminary layout. One way or another, each new factor will affect the price of the transfer.

How much does it cost to translate a website into English: we compare three translation methods  

Translation using free Internet tools, such as Google Translate  

This is the easiest and most affordable way. But it should be used only if the quality of the translation does not play a big role.  

Cost: free of charge. 

Advantages: fast and convenient. 

Disadvantages: the result is of poor quality, which will not bring traffic to the site. 

Involvement of a professional translation contractor 

To the question "How much does it cost to translate the site into English?" it's hard to give an unambiguous answer. The cost depends on the factors that we considered above — it can be $70 for a simple landing page and $2 thousand for a large corporate website or online store. 

Cost: from several tens to several thousand US dollars 

Advantages: a well-translated website, which guarantees attracting traffic to the site. 

Disadvantages: time spent on finding a contractor and paying for their services. 

Translation of the site by a full-time translator 

To do this, several conditions must be met: you must have a translator who speaks the right language pair, understands the subject of the resource and has experience in site localization.  

Cost: the salary of an English translator in Ukrainian companies is 9-15 thousand UAH. 

Advantages: no need to waste time searching for contractors and incur additional costs. 

Disadvantages: the monthly salary fund of the translator, regardless of his actual employment. In addition, in the future you may need other language versions of the site and will have to hire new staff or still contact a translation company. 

There is another option — to apply for a translation to a freelancer. But we do not consider it in this article, since the localization of products is too responsible a process to entrust it to a random performer who cannot give quality guarantees and compliance with deadlines. 

As you can see, it is really not easy to answer the question of how much it costs to translate a website into English — there are too many factors influencing the formation of prices. Therefore, pay attention to the choice of performers in order not to lose more time and the opportunity to attract a solvent foreign audience to your site in pursuit of ghostly savings.