How Much Does Translation Cost? Budgeting for Software Translation
Opening new markets for your software application in 2022? Perhaps a client has requested your application in additional languages to support their global needs. Is your application ready for translation? In what timeframe does your application need to be localized? Much to be considered with the localization of software, but with proper understanding of requirements and planning, the costs can be kept to a minimum. So how much does software translation cost?
In the third blog of this five-part series, we provided some useful tips and a tool to help budget for audio/video translations. See: “How much does translation costs? Budgeting for Audio/Video translation”.
In this blog, I am going to help you budget for software translation projects which can include a new software release project or any software translation updates by running any scenarios you need through GPI’s Quick Quote Calculator.
Estimating Translation Costs for Software
To estimate how much it will cost to translate your software and keep it updated, we will use GPI’s Budget Calculator also known as GPI’s Translation Quick Quote Calculator (QQC). GPI’s QQC allows budget builders to provide basic metrics and receive a budgetary quote which includes tasks, timelines, and costs per language selected. There are even handy popups to guide you through the steps to get your translation quotes.
Software translation projects are more involved than just translating documents. We always encourage a development team responsible for any software translations to speak to a GPI professional about their business goals, languages, locales, workflows, internationalization readiness for translation, QA plans, the platform for their software, and discuss the requirements for Help and documentation. We will conduct a walk-through of the software, discuss workflows, review content to get exact word counts, and address any cultural correctness and/or internationalization (i18n) issues. But to get a basic estimate, our Translation Quick Quote Calculator can be very helpful.
Using the Translation Budget Calculator
- To begin, just click on the link https://www.globalizationpartners.com/translation-quote-calculator and select your project type.
- Answer a few important questions needed to estimate a software translation project.
Questions include:
a) Name, email, word count, and start date
b) Select languages
c) Do you need “formal glossary development”? – This is creating a glossary of all important keywords related to the project such as technical terms, brand names, etc.
d) Do you need “desktop publishing”? – This is formatting any translated documents to match the source in terms of design, fonts, and graphics that might be accessible via your website such as brochures to download, etc.
e) What tools were used to develop the application?
f) Do you want GPI to perform testing? (check Internationalization, Localization, and Functionality)?
g) Do you have any specific Test Plans and Scripts?
HINT: The Translation Budget Calculator has a pop-up navigator to help you fill in all the fields.
- After you finish answering the questions, hit “Calculate”.
Then your software translation quote will be generated. The software translation quote will include other useful information such as the exact tasks completed in a software localization project, estimated timelines, and a breakdown of costs per requested language.
- So now you have your software translation budget! Just print or email yourself a copy of the quote with the push of a button.
HINT: It is easy to calculate various software localization project scenarios by creating as many quotes as you need and adjusting the word counts and/or languages to suit your software translation projects. Complete a larger launch project/word count in one quote to determine what it will cost to translate the software in various languages. Then, do a smaller translation project/word count representing updated projects to get a monthly or quarterly translation budget for keeping your software up-to-date throughout the year.
I hope you found this blog “How much does software translation cost?” helpful. We will be publishing the next and final blog in the series on “Estimating Translation Costs for Global SEO” soon.
