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Eva Legovic
- Estimated reading time: 23 minutes
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Eva Legovic
- Estimated reading time: 23 minutes
DeepL is great for quick one-off translations — paste, translate, edit a bit, move on.
But your goal isn’t to move on. It’s to find ways to reach people — in their language, with the same persuasion and clarity you have at home. And that’s not all.
When you manage translations in-house, the hard part isn’t so much getting the sentences translated as everything around it: data privacy, who approves what, is the terminology going to be consistent, will we launch the campaign on time, do we really have to manually copy-paste each paragraph, etc. You need good, affordable translation solutions for in-house teams, not just another text box.
That’s where DeepL starts to feel small. For in-house teams, you usually need:
- Roles and permissions – so an editor doesn’t accidentally delete projects.
- Translation memory and glossaries – to keep brand terms consistent across markets.
- A real CAT editor – tweak translations in context before they hit the final document.
- Secure translation software – something your IT team can actually approve.
- Instant AI document translation – speed without breaking your formatting.
- A translation API alternative – plugs into your stack when engineering is involved.
(Never heard of a CAT editor or translation memory? We got you covered.)
This guide rounds up the 7 best DeepL alternatives for in-house teams — tools built for ongoing work, not one-time copy. You’ll see options for dev-first pipelines, privacy-first deployments, and the best translation software for business teams that want results.
DeepL alternatives in this post
If you handle translations at work, you’ve probably been choosing between fast AI (but low quality) and good human translations (but they take time and money).
Taia lets you have both in one platform.
Upload a file → get instant AI translation → download it, or → fix it up in the Taia CAT editor → done. You get content that works for your audience – landing pages, apps, documentation – delivered faster while keeping your brand consistent.
Why business teams are choosing Taia
Team organization that makes sense
Set up different teams (Marketing, Product, Support) with their own projects. Control who can access what so projects stay organized and secure. Lower the chances of “oops, I just deleted it” situations.
Centralized project management
Everything lives in one place instead of scattered across folders and tools. Track project status by team without hunting through different systems.
Stay consistent with your brand with Taia’s Translation Memory, glossary support, and a built-in CAT editor
Keep terminology consistent, reuse translations you’ve already done in the past, and tweak translations in context before they hit the final document. The best of translation, packaged in an affordable and user-friendly platform.
Instant AI translation, human when you need it
Get your files AI-translated in seconds, or add human review for high-stakes content, either in-house (using the CAT editor) or outsourced (get a one-click quote and Taia’s PMs will take over) — all without switching tools or services!
Transparent & affordable pricing
Get clear pricing upfront before you commit to anything. No surprise costs.
Taia offers three subscription plans for:
- Free forever: $0 for 5,000 words monthly, 50 languages, and 15 file formats
- Basic: $10 for 20,000 words per month
- Pro: $45 for 100,000 words monthly, 189+ languages, 65+ file formats, Translation Memory, glossary support, and a built-in CAT editor
You can add unlimited users in the Pro plan.
On top of the attractive subscription plans that allow for a completely independent use of the tool, you can also outsource any of your projects to the Taia translation team. With a click of a button, the tool will calculate your quote instantly. Once you confirm it, all you have to do is sit back and relax (or work on your other 37 urgent tasks) as Taia’s project managers take over.
Security and compliance handled
GDPR compliant with encrypted data, secure hosting, and background-checked translators. Role-based access keeps sensitive content protected. Read more on Taia’s security
API integration available
A practical translation API alternative for automating uploads, status checks, and hand-offs.
Trade-off to consider
Taia is a document-first translation tool, which means it might not be the perfect fit for dev teams wanting a highly customizable integration system. That said, the Taia team has a history of creating tailored, custom solutions on-demand for more technical or software-centric clients. One example is LightBurn, who successfully localized their laser-cutting software into 27 languages with Taia.
Bottom line
If your goal is to reach people in new markets and keep localization ops tidy behind the scenes, Taia is the best all-rounder to start with. With its wide language and file support, instant AI translation and human overview under one roof, it offers a user-friendly but professional solution without enterprise complexity.
If your team runs localization like a product — releases, approvals, audits — Smartling is a heavyweight DeepL alternative for advanced teams. It’s built for scale: a cloud TMS as the central hub, automated workflows end to end, and optional pro services when you need people in the loop. In short, a translation solution for in-house teams that live in dashboards, not spreadsheets.
Centralized enterprise hub
Authors, PMs, reviewers and translators work in one place with audit trails, notifications and shared linguistic assets — designed for ongoing multilingual projects, not ad-hoc jobs.
Roles and approvals you can tune
Granular roles (Account Owner, Project Manager, Requester, Content Viewer, and more) with configurable permissions let you mirror how your org ships content — who can create jobs, authorize work, or just view.
Big ecosystem and API
Pre-built connectors cover WordPress/Drupal, Figma and GitHub, plus an API/CLI/SDK for custom automation — useful when engineering is in the loop.
Pricing & buying notes
Smartling doesn’t publish full platform pricing — you’ll need to talk to sales. Third-party trackers list an Essential tier starting around $500 (treat as indicative; confirm with Smartling). Per-word service rates shown on Smartling’s plans page include MT from $0.0075/word, AI translation from $0.06/word, and human translation from $0.20/word. Again, these are starting rates and the overall package is typically custom.
What to watch out for
Powerful often means complex. Public reviews split between “intuitive” and “hard to navigate” — plan onboarding so non-specialists can adopt it.
memoQ has been around the block – it started as a traditional Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tool and grew into a full enterprise Translation Management System. It’s built for serious translators and language service providers who need deep, powerful features.
The platform’s main strengths are translation memory, terminology management, and quality assurance tools, making work easier with advanced linguistic features.
What memoQ offers teams
Strong terminology management
Translation Memory is memoQ’s strong suit. You can pair it with QTerm — a terminology management module — to define required terms, block unwanted ones, and keep phrasing consistent across markets.
Full project oversight
PMs get alerts, task assignment tools, and visibility across active projects. This makes it easier to stay on top of deadlines without needing yet another spreadsheet.
Flexible deployment options
Choose between cloud service, private cloud, or on-premise installation. The on-premise option lets you keep everything behind your own firewall.
Real-time team collaboration
When connected to a memoQ server (cloud or on-premise), teams can work on projects simultaneously. Get real-time progress tracking, automatic deadline notifications, and project dashboards that flag potential delays.
Professional-grade features
Built for linguists who need advanced CAT functionality. Deep translation memory features, quality assurance tools, and support for complex multilingual projects.
Security and compliance
ISO 27001 and ISO 9001:2015 certified, plus GDPR compliant. The flexible deployment model means you can choose the security level that fits your requirements.
Pricing structure
Individual plans:
- Starter monthly: $242/month for only 1 PM license and 5 linguists
- Essential: $2,750/year for 1-5 PM licenses and 10 linguists
- Essential Plus: $13,200/year for 6-10 PM licenses and 10 linguists
Enterprise plans:
Custom pricing through sales consultation. Options include Professional, Professional Plus, and Custom tiers based on your needs.
What to keep in mind
Legacy design requires extra diligence. Some features — like a “public memory” option — may not match today’s enterprise security expectations. One user flagged it as a potential risk to sensitive data. Even if it’s optional, you’ll want to review internal policies and probably opt for a private or on-prem setup if confidentiality is key.
UX is linguist-focused, not business-focused. Non-specialist users might need more onboarding time.
Crowdin was designed specifically for software development teams who need to build localization into their development workflow. If your team ships apps, websites, or games regularly, and ships them fast, Crowdin’s automation and developer integrations might be worth exploring.
The platform connects your translatable content directly with translators and automates much of the localization pipeline. Think continuous integration, but for translations.
What Crowdin does well
It integrates with your whole stack (probably)
Over 650 integrations with the tools your development team already uses. Syncs directly with GitHub, GitLab, Azure Repos, plus design tools like Figma and Sketch. New translations can automatically come back as pull requests.
Strong team collaboration features
Set up different user roles (manager, translator, proofreader) with access to specific languages. Assign tasks with deadlines, use private messaging, and track everything with detailed reporting.
Automation-first approach
Built around the idea that localization should happen automatically as part of your development process. Good for teams that want continuous localization without manual handoffs.
Quality assurance tools
Online editor, QA checks, glossaries, and the ability to add screenshots for context. Supports both online and offline translation workflows.
Professional-grade features
Developer-friendly features
Robust API and command-line interface for custom automation. If your engineering team wants to build localization into their deployment pipeline, Crowdin has the technical depth to support it.
Pricing structure
Subscription-based with scaling costs:
- Plans range from €52 to €398 monthly, with custom enterprise option
- Pricing based on user seats and number of translatable strings
- Scales with project size and complexity
Crowdin’s pricing model works well for software projects where you can predict growth in features and languages.
The usability trade-off
UX is not beginner-friendly
While developers love Crowdin’s integrations and automation, non-technical users often find the interface difficult to navigate. Multiple reviews mention UX issues and complexity that can be challenging for marketing, support, or other teams who aren’t developers.
UX is linguist-focused, not business-focused. Non-specialist users might need more onboarding time.
Pairaphrase positions itself as an easy-to-use, secure translation solution for in-house teams. It’s the most similar to Taia Translations, emphasizing its ease of use and enterprise-grade security as a core selling point. However, its Translation Memory promise allegedly fails to deliver — more on that below.
It supports over 140 languages and 25 file types, including scanned PDFs and OCR-processed documents, and it can connect to multiple machine translation engines, like DeepL and ChatGPT.
Simple workflow for document translation
Pairaphrase includes basic team collaboration features like real-time interaction, batch file upload, and automatic file format matching. Translation Memory (TM) is also included by default, with the goal of speeding up repetitive content and keeping phrasing consistent. It supports human-in-the-loop flows as well, including Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE) — a common workflow for in-house teams.
Security is a strong point...
Security is where Pairaphrase puts a lot of its weight. It’s cloud-only — no on-prem or private cloud — but it checks most compliance boxes: MFA, SSO, GDPR, HIPAA, FERPA, and strict policies around data access and third-party sharing. For industries like healthcare, education, or the public sector, that can be a strong reassurance.
... but the TM doesn't live up to the pitch
One big concern shows up in user feedback — and it’s about the platform’s core promise. While Pairaphrase highlights its Translation Memory as a major time-saver, at least one user review claims the feature “almost never actually works.” The TM allegedly fails to match segments unless they’re identical — even minor changes in formatting, like bold or italics, can break the match. Word pairings only apply if the full sentence is the same, which means the TM is basically useless for anything that’s not a copy-paste repeat.
That’s a red flag for any localization manager. If reuse is a major part of your workflow, you’ll want to test this thoroughly during a free trial. Otherwise, you might end up doing more manual work than you planned — which defeats the point of using a TMS in the first place.
💡Did you know? Taia’s Translation Memory recognizes parts of non-identical segments and changes them automatically throughout the text.
Pairaphrase is built for simplicity
Pairaphrase removes much of the friction that non-linguists often face in complex tools. The interface is clean, and the process of uploading, translating, and reviewing is built around documents, not strings. That makes it a better fit for teams working on internal policies, business presentations, legal docs, and similar content types.
Pricing structure: straightforward but steep
Pairaphrase’s pricing structure is based on a clear tiered subscription model that scales by team size and word volume:
Bronze – $285/month for 1–2 users, up to 600,000 words
Silver – $499/month for up to 5 users, 12 million words
Gold – $835/month for up to 10 users, 25 million words
Custom – available for larger teams, with per-user pricing starting around $15/month
Crowdin’s pricing model works well for software projects where you can predict growth in features and languages.
What to watch out for
Pairaphrase’s pricing is steep compared to other in-house solutions, and it scales up quickly if you add more users. While the platform promises time savings through its Translation Memory, user feedback suggests that this feature doesn’t always deliver — especially when even small formatting changes prevent matches. That means you may end up re-translating content you expected to reuse, which undermines the efficiency pitch.
If your IT team tends to veto every cloud app you suggest, SYSTRAN is the kind of translation software they’ll actually sign off on.
This isn’t a tool for marketing teams to casually spin up. SYSTRAN is designed for environments where data sovereignty isn’t just a buzzword, but law. Think government agencies, defense contractors, legal firms, or banks. Its promise is simple: translations stay in your hands, always.
What SYSTRAN offers teams
Translate without ever leaving your network
The core of SYSTRAN’s offering is its Enterprise Server — a centralized, secure translation hub that can serve thousands of users inside the organization. Everyone on your team can translate documents without sending them anywhere. Everything runs inside your infrastructure.
There’s also a quick File Translator built right into the server console. Upload a file, hit translate, download — all internal. And since everyone on your team uses the same setup, you get consistent terminology from the master dictionary, shared automatically with all users.
Made for high-stakes industries
SYSTRAN’s biggest strength is its security architecture. It’s one of the few platforms that still offers on-premise licenses — meaning you can deploy the full system behind your own firewall. That gives your IT team total control over where data is stored, who has access, and what integrations are allowed.
If needed, SYSTRAN also supports private cloud hosting and includes a secure API for connecting your translation workflows to internal systems.
You won’t see SYSTRAN all over Reddit — and that’s fine
SYSTRAN doesn’t show up much in public developer forums or social media debates — and that’s likely because their typical customers (government agencies, legal firms, large enterprises) are not allowed to talk openly about internal tools. That low public visibility isn’t a red flag — it just reflects the high-security environments SYSTRAN is built for.
Pricing notes
SYSTRAN’s enterprise deals are custom-quoted after talking to sales. Character-based pricing applies to Translate Pro and API tiers, while full on-premise deployments are premium. A case study from the early 2000s pegged annual costs for a 100-user service at $13,500–$77,200 — a strong hint that this is very much an enterprise-level investment.
What to watch out for
SYSTRAN isn’t a plug-and-play solution. Getting it up and running typically requires your IT team’s involvement and a longer onboarding process than most cloud-first tools. The pricing is also firmly on the enterprise side — you won’t find budget-friendly tiers here, since it’s tailored for organizations with strict compliance needs. And if you’re not in a heavily regulated industry, SYSTRAN can feel like overkill.
If your company ships updates weekly (or daily) and you need localization to keep pace, Lokalise is one of the strongest DeepL alternatives out there. It started as a translation management system but has grown into a full localization hub designed for software teams that live in agile workflows.
What Lokalise offers teams
Designed for collaboration across departments
Real-time editing, project branching, review flows, role-based access, and translation-level comments make it feel like a proper team workspace, not just a database of strings. The Review Center helps keep feedback structured, and dashboards give you visibility into usage and capacity.
Integrations are another big win
Lokalise connects to 60+ tools, including GitHub, GitLab, Figma, Sketch, WordPress, and Contentful. For devs, there’s an API, CLI, and SDKs to fold localization directly into the release pipeline. In practice, this means new translations can move from source to production without endless manual handoffs.
Predictable pricing
Lokalise’s draw is predictability. Instead of paying per word, Lokalise uses a SaaS-style model: you pay for seats and “hosted keys” (basically the strings you want localized). The free plan gets you 2 seats and 500 keys to test things out. Paid plans start at $120/month (10 seats, 5,000 keys) and scale to $230/month for 10,000 keys. Pro and Enterprise tiers go custom. For localization managers in SaaS, this kind of predictable, subscription-based pricing makes budgeting a whole lot easier.
User sentiment
Reviews on G2 are largely glowing: teams praise the ease of use, the customer support, and how smoothly collaboration works compared to older TMS tools. The consistent gripe? Cost. Smaller teams often find it “very expensive,” especially in early growth phases. Still, many see it as a fair trade-off for the scalability and integrations.
What to watch out for
Lokalise isn’t the cheapest option. The seat-and-key pricing model is predictable but can add up quickly as projects grow. For smaller teams with limited budgets, it may feel like too much overhead. And while the platform is polished, it’s clearly built with SaaS developers in mind — if your workflows are less code-driven, some features might go underused.
There’s no one-size-fits-all translation tool — and that’s kind of the point.
What works for a solo marketer won’t cut it for a legal team with review approvals. A dev team might prioritize GitHub integration, while compliance cares about GDPR and access control.
That’s why the “best DeepL alternative” is entirely about your context:
- What kind of content are you translating?
- Who’s involved — and who needs to approve it?
- How often does your team collaborate across languages?
- And how much control do you need over formatting, data, and final output?
If your reality looks more like juggling marketing launches, product docs, or internal reports — and you want something your team can actually use immediately without weeks of onboarding — Taia is the most balanced option.
It combines instant AI translations with professional human review when you need it, keeps terminology consistent with built-in Translation Memory and glossaries, and gives you project management that won’t get in the way.
In short: one platform where your team can stay fast, consistent, and secure — without the enterprise complexity (or price tag).
👉 Try Taia today
— get up to 5,000 words/month AI-translated for free, or book a short call to see how it fits into your team’s workflow.
Eva Legovic
More for you
Frequently asked questions
What are the best translation tools for in-house teams?
Popular options include Taia, Smartling, Lokalise, memoQ, Crowdin, SYSTRAN, and Pairaphrase. The best tools for in-house translation teams are the ones that go beyond quick copy-paste translations. You’ll want software that offers role-based access, translation memory, glossaries, and secure project management — not just a text box. Taia stands out as the most balanced all-rounder. It combines instant AI translations with human review, glossaries, and project organization features in one platform — making it especially effective for marketing, product, and support teams working under tight deadlines.
What is the best DeepL alternative for businesses?
The best DeepL alternative for businesses is Taia. Unlike DeepL, which focuses mainly on raw machine translation, Taia offers Translation Memory, glossaries, a built-in CAT editor, and optional human review — giving you speed, quality, and consistency in one platform. Other options include Smartling for enterprise workflows, Lokalise or Crowdin for developer-heavy teams, and memoQ for advanced linguists. But for most business teams juggling documents, campaigns, and internal content, Taia is the strongest alternative because it’s built to keep translation projects fast, consistent, and secure without added complexity.
Which translation software is most secure for sensitive documents?
The most secure translation software for sensitive business documents is Taia, with GDPR compliance, encrypted hosting, role-based access, and vetted linguists when human review is needed. Other tools with a strong security focus include SYSTRAN (on-premise deployments for government and defense), memoQ (ISO-certified, with flexible cloud or on-prem options), and Pairaphrase (HIPAA and FERPA compliant). But for most businesses that need both enterprise-grade security and user-friendly workflows, Taia offers the right balance — data stays protected while teams still move fast.
What is the best alternative to Lokalise?
The best alternative to Lokalise is Taia. Where Lokalise is built for developer-heavy SaaS teams with key-based pricing, Taia focuses on document-first translation with a simpler setup, instant AI translations, and optional human review. Other alternatives include Smartling (enterprise workflows), Crowdin (developer integrations), and memoQ (advanced CAT features). But if you want predictable pricing, project management your whole team can use, and a smoother way to keep terminology consistent, Taia is the stronger Lokalise alternative for in-house teams.
What are the main competitors to Smartling?
The main competitors to Smartling include Taia, Lokalise, memoQ, Crowdin, SYSTRAN, and Pairaphrase. Smartling is strong for enterprise-scale workflows, but it can feel complex and expensive for smaller teams. Taia is the standout competitor because it combines AI speed with human review, built-in Translation Memory, glossaries, and straightforward project management — all at a more accessible price point. For in-house teams that don’t want the overhead of a full enterprise TMS, Taia is often the smarter alternative.
Is SYSTRAN better than DeepL for enterprise use?
For enterprise use, Taia is often the better choice than either SYSTRAN or DeepL, but between those two, SYSTRAN has the edge. DeepL is great for quick translations, but SYSTRAN offers secure on-premise and private cloud deployments that keep data inside your firewall — something enterprises in government, defense, and finance often require. Still, SYSTRAN can be complex and costly. Taia gives enterprises a simpler, more flexible option: GDPR-compliant security, encrypted hosting, and role-based access, but with faster setup and easier workflows than SYSTRAN.
What’s the best Crowdin alternative for non-developers?
The best Crowdin alternative for non-developers is Taia. Crowdin is powerful for engineering teams with CI/CD pipelines, but its developer-first interface can overwhelm marketing, support, or content teams. Taia keeps things simple: upload a document, get instant AI translation, refine it in the CAT editor, and add human review when needed. Other alternatives include Smartling (enterprise workflows), Lokalise (developer SaaS teams), and memoQ (linguist-heavy projects). But for non-technical teams that just need translations done quickly and consistently, Taia is the most practical Crowdin alternative.
Does Pairaphrase Translation Memory really work?
Pairaphrase includes a Translation Memory, but user feedback suggests it often struggles. Reviews note that it only matches segments if they’re identical, meaning even small changes in formatting — like bold text or italics — can break the match. That makes it less reliable for teams relying on reuse. Taia’s Translation Memory works differently: it recognizes and adapts partial matches, keeping phrasing consistent across projects while saving time. For teams where consistency and reuse matter, Taia’s TM delivers on the promise that Pairaphrase’s often misses.
What is the best translation software for business teams?
The best translation software for business teams is Taia. It combines instant AI document translation with human review, project management, Translation Memory, and glossary support — all in one platform. Other options include Smartling for enterprise workflows, Lokalise for developer-heavy SaaS teams, and memoQ for linguist-driven projects. But for marketing, product, and support teams that need translations done quickly, consistently, and securely, Taia is the most balanced solution.
What is the best translation tool overall?
Neither DeepL nor Google Translate has translation memory. DeepL Pro and Google Cloud API offer glossaries, but they don’t reuse full sentences across projects. Taia does — with built-in TM and glossaries that ensure consistency and save costs on repeat content.
What are the main differences between DeepL and Taia?
DeepL is good enough for quick translations in a limited number of languages — it supports 36 languages and a few basic file types. It also offers glossaries and solid output quality.
Taia, on the other hand, is built for teams and businesses that need more control and scalability. It supports 189+ languages, 65+ file formats, and includes translation memory, glossaries, a real CAT editor, and the option to upgrade to human review.
If you’re managing larger translation projects or working with multiple teams, Taia offers a more complete workflow — from instant AI translation to professional quality assurance.
