Phrase Localization Platform

Vorteile

The way it handles working directly online with the web-based tool, while allowing you to choose between that and the desktop app feels great. Also I love how clean the tool is, while others have so much visual info in them that you often can't find the one thing you want.

Nachteile

I wish the QA was more customizable as it often finds too many issues that are not really issues. Also, I wish there was a way to do a "per line" character limit. It seems not CAT Tool as done it yet and it would be a HUGE thing in the game localization industry.

Vorteile

Unlike other CAT tools, memsource takes into account the needs of an arguably very important stakeholder group: translators. The user interface is self-explanatory, which makes it easy to get started. All items are where you would expect them to be.

Also, the "aesthetics" of the user interface are helping me to translate. Colors are "logical" (rather than distracting) and all menus and panels are where they should be. This seems like a minor point, but when you stare 8h at a user inteface and you actually focus more on understanding the user interface than doing your work, this will result in reduced productivity and quality.

memsource handles large files well (it doesn't crash, basically) and large files can be displayed on-screen without the need of cycling through different pages. You can just scroll down and read the entrie file.

Nachteile

The search and replace dialog misses some options. Only basic search and replace options can be carried out.

In the QA dialog, QA results are displayed in a structured manner, however, it sometimes requires extra time to search and fix the actual segment. Fixing inconsistencies for instance is tedious because it requires manual searching for the inconsistency in the file.

Vorteile

In general it is an acceptable system with one deal-breaking flaw.

Nachteile

You have an allotted quota of words you can upload. And it counts every word. If you are uploading words for an offer let's say that counts fully toward your quota. So, you are pitching for a large project, well you are blowing your quota with no return. So that means we have to run Trados in addition to prepare offers. In our case, there was a bug and we needed to upload and re-upload a file. That was a large file, and with that one file, we used-up our entire quota for the coming three month period as we had just paid. That is very unlikely.

Vorteile

I have been using Memsource as a translation tool since 2016 and it has continually improved. The company has added useful features while not overwhelming (or irritating) me with constant updates. For the most part I do translations that are not suitable for raw machine translation; however, Memsource has excellent tools for creating translation memories and glossaries that help me keep track of the chosen terminology for any given client or project over time. I also find that jobs and projects are uploaded, tracked and organized in an intuitive way that works very well for me.

Nachteile

The only challenge I've encountered is the discrepancy between how the cloud version and the desktop version of the software work. They're both good, but there are small differences that slow me down. In the end, I primarily use the cloud version, reverting to the desktop software only when I'm travelling and therefore working without an internet connection.

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Vorteile

I mainly use this for machine translation post editing. The quality of the output is always good and the text is easy to edit.

Nachteile

I use Memsource through agencies, so there are certain features that I don't use because it's done by the agency. Sometimes autopropogate seems to be missing when I do a normal (non-MTPE) project. Maybe this is because of the settings configured by the agency itself. I'm not sure about this.

Vorteile

It works. It's not too terrible to use. Once you've got the flow going, it's fine.

Nachteile

The UI is very clunky
Their billing/accounts team are super slow to respond and refuse to cancel my plan. I tried to cancel in March and the UI said it wasn't renewing but it did anyway. They say they want 30 days notice but they ignored my request and pinged me for 3 months instead. I would not use this company again or recommend them after this.

Vorteile

I like the fact that I can export files in Memsource to a format that I can actually work in and use the tools of my trade. This is genuinely the only thing I like about the program.

Nachteile

Compared to Google Sheets, this program is simply for managers who value quantity over quality because it provides them an overview of how many scripts are done without them needing to go in and actually read any text.

As a worker in the workflow, I cannot view any documents without the potential of a major technical issue requiring a ticket to fix (to which the "fix" was to create an entirely new project), cannot provide feedback to translators as they are working.

The use of translation memory or automated translation or repeat line auto-translation is not a welcome feature in the visual novel sphere, as context dictates how a line may read. For languages where context is not as necessary to understand a line, perhaps this program would be useful, but for the Japanese-English pairing, it absolutely is not.

I am unable to use any of the regular expression or spell check tools without exporting the document to a difficult-to-format DOCX file (if you modify something incorrectly, it will not re-import), and then I cannot upload the completed file and mark it as complete because then I have to manually mark every edited line as complete. And while marking these lines as complete, I have to wait 10-30 seconds every 50 lines while Memsource works to catch up with me marking lines as complete.

Google Sheets is free, has more utilities, and is more user-friendly to navigate and operate.

Vorteile

The easiness of use;
Customer support - always on-time and quick response;
90% of answers regarding problems and issues can be searchable via google and solved;
Subscription can be renewed whenever the user pleases (like every 3 months even);
The company and software are always improving and adding new features;
Translation memories can be uploaded into TRADOS;
Traspdf is incorporated into the Memsource;
If you are a starting translator, Memsource should be first CAT tool to get used to as it it is the easiest one in use;
Cloud-based;
Fantastic MT - the best I've encountered so far.

Nachteile

TRADOS project files cannot be normally incorporated into the Memsource ( I would like to have that option, then I could get rid of TRADOS);
Cannot compare to the TRADOS functionality (therefore, sometimes, Memsource loses TRADS);
A lot of vendors use other CATs, therefore, I cannot use Memsource fully.

Vorteile

The affordable price and cloud-based CAT tools.

Nachteile

Sometimes the server isn't update the translation that was input earlier.

Vorteile

It enables to have many different accounts for different translation agencies.

Nachteile

I didn't understand if it is possible to import a translation memory of Trados Studio.

Vorteile

Very user friendly and easy to use. I have instantly become familiar with it and when I had a problem, support always where there to help me out within minutes.

Nachteile

For Maltese MT is still quite far off to achieving something reliable. Also, in case of translation breakdown, sometimes it is not fair as there could be many mistakes in 100% segments which have to be translated from scratch and be paid peanuts for it as a result. Also tags and small punctuation, or uppercase/lowercase changes can be very daunting but for some reason they are marked 99%.

Vorteile

Memsource is easy to use and has a relatively low learning curve, especially as compared to other CAT tools and translation management systems. These two aspects (CAT and management) are integrated quite seamlessly, which should be a big selling point for small LSP clients. Other than that, I find the whole system to be exceptionally responsive and reliable, and the Desktop Editor to be the 'quickest' of all the CAT tools I have used. It may not have quite as many features as something like Trados, but it seems to have everything you need.

Nachteile

Oddly specific as this may sound, my biggest issue with Memsource is the built-in spell checker - it just isn't very good, at least in English. It responds slowly, flags words that are not misspelled, flags parts of words, and misses rather obvious misspellings. When I right-click to correct an error, the word I am looking for always seems to be at the bottom of the list of suggestions. Other than that, the integration with MT engines could be improved with respect to in-text formatting tags.

Vorteile

Convenient and easy to use. Cross-platform unlike Trades. Spellcheck, QA, TM and TB functions helpful. Memsource is the primary CAT tool I use on a daily basis.

Nachteile

・No grammar checks. Need to download text to Word for final review.
・QA lacks localization context. 「6月」→"June" always comes up as missing a number. Frustrating when a client requires QA to be 100% resolved on larger documents.
・Memsource Editor is lacking and I still don't know how to fully use it. I'd love to not have to work out of a browser as it is a battery hog when out and about. If I have to log in to Editor, why can't I download my jobs directly from there?
・Please allow translators to consolidate accounts. I have one account for each agency I work with, and sometimes multiple accounts per agency. It's hard to keep track of which is which.
・MT is lacking. DeepL's app lets me click on words for alternate translations, so there's no benefit to running a DeepL translation directly in Memsource over their own app.

Vorteile

Memsource is a light-weight CAT tool which brings almost all the same features that other flagship options (like MemoQ, Trados Studio, etc). It works smoothly, it is intuitive and has a good integration with their web-based option, so you can download project files to work offline and upload it back to your client/company server.

Nachteile

For those used to other CAT tools, you may miss one or another option. Overall, it seems that Memsource is a more 'basic' alternative, which will give you all the most used features, but may not be as robust as some competitors when it comes to filtering options, TM management, batch tasks, etc.

Vorteile

Memsource's biggest strength is in how lightweight it is compared to the largest competitors, maximising the time a translator spends on actually translating, instead of waiting for the TM or search window to update, or a script to finish running. All the features you'd expect of the more traditional translation suite competitors with some slightly more modern design.

Nachteile

Memsource suffers a little when it comes to tools for multi-stage projects (with proofreading or other QA steps), where the UX becomes more cumbersome. The concordance search function could also use some more advanced functionality.

Vorteile

This tool is intuitive and easy to use for translators.

Nachteile

The QA features could be improved, enabling to ignore all the similar cases.
Some of the MT suggestions could be improved (sometimes it also suggest translation in different target languages, which makes no sense).
The formatting tags could be improved enabling to see exactly their meaning.

Vorteile

- easy to use as non technical person with the interface
- easy to use as developer. Simply update a json file with two easy command line
- the team is helpful and fast to replay

Nachteile

The web interface for different project it can be improve. We found our self often to click on language then project and then choose the language again.

A painful point was the impossibility to push different versions of the json file but since some months the team develop a git-like functionality with branches and so on and it solve this problem perfectly.

Vorteile

The separate editor is very useful and works very well. Very efficient Quality Assurance tools. Smooth workflow.

Nachteile

I really like this product; I couldn't find any cons

Vorteile

Customer Support is always happy to help, and they respond in a human and useful way. It's also quite fast and has a lot of features.

Nachteile

You can order translations directly from PhraseApp, but the quality is quite poor, even if you pay for the business option. Also, in terms of UX it could be improved quite a lot, allowing users to do some tasks easier with less clicks.

Vorteile

Memsource does pretty much everything I would expect from a CAT tool. Support is super reactive when we have any questions. We are using it on a daily basis, we couldn't live without Memsource.

Nachteile

We had some struggle to use the Machine Translation feature at the beginning. But we had a meeting with Memsource, and everything was crystal clear afterwards (again, great support).

Vorteile

Working in the cloud makes it low-hassle to switch from computer to computer and pick up where I left off. The interface is clean and easy to use compared to Trados.

Nachteile

The QA feature picks up a lot of irrelevant points that can be annoying to go through manually. The preview feature is useless for complicated layouts.

Vorteile

Ease of use is by far the biggest benefit of Memsource compared with other tools. It's not overloaded with unnecessary features and makes my job quite straightforward.

Nachteile

They really need to focus on collaborative features as we often work in a team with other translators and we have to see comments left by other people to avoid asking same questions to our project managers or clients. Would be great to see a commenting feature that would allow all project participants see each other comments on each particular string.

Vorteile

This tool is very easy to learn how to use compared with the complicated Trados and memoQ. It has all the key features of these others tool too, without the bugs.

Nachteile

Nothing is missing and I don't see what can be improved. I absolutely love Memsource!

Vorteile

I've been using Memsource ever since I started working as an in-house translator, and the experience has been great. It is a handy tool that can be used online or as an installed app on your computer.

Memsource is very easy to operate, and it helps me work efficiently while meeting my set goals.

Nachteile

There aren't many things I dislike about Memsource. The only thing that might be worth mentioning is that the context notes and preview could be slightly better.

Vorteile

Works really fast - faster than all the other web CATs. Convenient hot keys for adding glossary terms and so on. Displays progress in words - very important. Nice and user-friendly interface in general.

Nachteile

TXML files are not supported - the most important thing that prevents me from using this CAT as my primary CAT. Has no option to create accounts for my clients inside my agency/freelance account. Paid version is pretty expensive.

Vorteile

Fijn in het gebruik en het werkt met vele bestandsformaten

Nachteile

Plots ging mijn driemaandelijkse bedrag van 66 EUR naar 250 EUR zonder enig bericht. Het bedrag werd simpelweg afgehouden. Inmiddels ben ik meer dan 3 weken over en weer aan het mailen om een terugbetaling te krijgen. In plaats daarvan krijg ik als antwoord enkel help-artikelen. Ik kan het abonnement niet stopzetten, ik krijg geen refund en ik krijg simpelweg geen mens te spreken. Je kan op de site alleen een afspraak inboeken voor een demo. Daar houdt het op.

Vorteile

Nothing much.---------------------------

Nachteile

Almost everything. Especially the numerous false positives generated by the QA which we are 'obliged' to ignore by the client and an extremely lagggy interface.

Vorteile

The software combines so many diverse and useful features into an all-in-one package. There was no need to use any other tool, you could simply complete your project from start to finish using this software.

Nachteile

Our biggest problem was that the ideal engine we wanted to use, Google Translate, would not incorporate well with the Memsource software because the language we were using, Central Kurdish, had two separate tags. On Memsource, it was "Central Kurdish", but on Google Translate, it was "Kurdish Sorani". These two tags refer to the exact same language, but since they have different names, we could not use Google Translate in our workflow. It was frustrating how a small tag error like this prevented us from the machine translation part of the software.

Vorteile

I am delighted with the use of this software, as its many features and services help my work a lot. The translation suggestions, the comments, the proofreader and also the live editing allow me to see at a glance whether what I am writing is correct or well positioned. The different reports (before or after translation) are very useful to keep a visual record of your work. In fact, having used various programs, even well-known ones, my preference is for MemSource.

Nachteile

Very few things I don't like about this software. I find it so good against the others. I would like to see some kind of statistics, especially regarding the return of text that has been modified by proofreading. This service may be available to managers, but it's very interesting for a translator to know how to level out the work done.

Vorteile

There are many many things I like about PhraseApp and pinpointing to the one I like the most would be a difficult task. First of all PhraseApp got an elegant and convenient UI which makes working with it so much easier. The panels are all nice and shiny and the search works smooth.

I use PhraseApp to achieve a streamlined localization process and have translations on the go and translating web/app content from English to *insert a language in which you want the documentation to be* has never been much easier for the developers, who add translations to multiple languages so as to comply with documentation standards and have a wider reach with the app/website.

The best feature of PhraseApp is the ability to work on different projects and switch between them so efficiently!

Nachteile

Well I have used PhraseApp for quite a time and till now I do not have a single complain. Maybe I have not explored enough features to have some issues but all is really going well for me and I don't have anything to dislike and complain about!

Well there is a bit of a learning curve that comes with PhraseApp as it has so many features to explore but this comes with all the SaaS, so it is not a big deal! You'll get a hang of it once you have had a hands-on experience with some projects using PhraseApp.

P.S - I don't know if the features exists or not, but I would like to have the ability to integrate PhraseApp with a third party email management system so as to create new avenues with my new projects!

Vorteile

The things I liked the most about Phrase are -
1. The APIs to integrate with the DevOps CI/CD pipeline.
2. The In App Reviewer and Translator SDK that enabled In app review and translations for Portals. Would like to see this extended to the Mobile Apps too
3. The ability to default locales to a master locale
4. The ability to manage Translation Jobs
5. Last but not the least, the Product Support team of Phrase is always very quick to respond to your queries and requests for support and always provide a satisfactory resolution.

All of the above put together really makes Phrase a great new generation localization tool for Multi Country product development

Nachteile

The Phrase Portal at first used to be a little less intuitive (back in 2017), but they were quick to redesign it. I would also like to see a more advanced set of reports and analytics on key management that a Product Manager could use into the future.

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Vorteile

Highly intuitive, easy to use features/UI (which are not too many but not too few, just right).

Nachteile

Could be better if it has an enhanced "alignment" with the TMs created by other platforms.

Vorteile

The idea of the app is great. The design and features are very well done too. It's easy to use as you can see the material needs to be translated under the language of the text and the other language on the right side where the boxes are editable to allow adding the translation of the text.
I do like that it also divides the work into projects and locales so you can assign different collaborators to the same project and each one to the language they are fluent in without having to give them additional unneeded access.
I also like that it display the locales into the untranslated which is very helpful if you need to finish the translation then review after without having to go through the whole thing . Then you can see the whole language by clicking on the name of the language green bar, so you can review. I also like the feature that you can download materials even though I have not had the chance to use that feature.

Nachteile

One of the things I struggled with while using the app, was the search feature which defaulted to something that I didn't want. and every time I change the search, all the pages change and I had to go back and review all pages from the beginning.
Another issues that was not fun of, is the save option. I was not sure if I had to click on save after each translation or after each page, and why doesn't auto save instead of having to work long time and then forgetting to save?
Another thing which may have not been the app problem, is the codes. in some of the english text that needed translation, the text was just html codes that didn't really need translation not sure if that was problem of the uploaded files or an issue with the app

Vorteile

I know that when I have a project that I can work with Memsource there is a smaller chance something might go wrong. It gives me more control over keeping track of the progress of the translators working on the projects and more freedom when setting up the projects.

Nachteile

Only thing is it might get slow if the document is too large but desktop editor saves the day in projects like that. What can be improved is the price can be more competitive thus we can utilise more project manager licenses and it would give us more translator license because sometimes we need to go in users and deactivate some of them to make way for new users that can work on new projects.

Vorteile

I like how easy the product is to use. It's resources help me a lot to optimize my workflow and deliver the translations with the best quality possible, ensuring coherence in terms of terminology, for instance, and also making the translation process faster with the use of translation memories.

Nachteile

Sometimes the final archive, after you finish the translation and opens the document in the final format, has some parts missing - there have been one to three occasions in which this has happened to me in the past, causing my clients to request the missing parts and, somehow, harming my immage as a professional translator. I would also mention the price - since the changes to purchase a kind of signature instead of paying for the characteres used, for me, as a freelance translator from Brasil, it became quite expensive.

Vorteile

As UX Writer in our company, I am using PhraseApp daily to change translations, fill in new ones and keep a look on changes that happen in the different projects. I love the simple and easy-to-understand interface, which enables everyone to immediately start using this tool. The search is really good to find all text resources containing a certain word, in order to adapt them for example. I always directly see if a wording has been changed and needs my verification. I also really appreciate all the little helpful features, like for example marking a wording change as minimal, so translators of other languages know they don't have to recheck their translations of this text.

Nachteile

It would be great if it was easier to add screenshots/images to the different text resources, so the writers know better where in the product the text will be and what the context is.

Vorteile

Easy to use, without a whole bunch of features in the editor that just get in the way and which I never use. Does not use up PC space and is available everywhere. I can't work without it.

Nachteile

The saving of multiple targets for a source, for instance with typos, and how complicated it is to edit these out of the database. It should be possible to set up somewhere that targets get automatically overwritten if editing and confirmed again.

Vorteile

The interface is very easy to use with many essential features like quick spell check, strong translation memory and tracking tools to help you understand the progress of the ongoing project

Nachteile

Better support for languages that are read/written from Right to left as these somehow get challenging to navigate in the interface

Vorteile

The user friendly Web-UI offers a variety of nice features that are mostly self-explaning.
All common types of translations are supported. We use it for Android, iOS and partially Web and it works quite nice. A simple PULL via CLI (Command Line Interface), and you are set.
Imports via Excel, XML, localizable.string and many more formats included.
Plurals are supported as well.
The support is awesome. If you have a question, usually you get answers at the same day. Great!
I recommend PhraseApp if you would develop a multi-lingual app.

Nachteile

The support of iOS and Android in the same project is a little bit tricky. You must work with tags, that are not importable.
To offer context to the translators is a hard part (use comments, screenshots - but you should upload it manually. A possibility via API is given, but we didn't made the effort to implement our own logic for that).
When an error happened at import, it is very difficult to revert the last change. The changes are tagged, but it isn't intuitive to me and my team how to revert.
In large teams PhraseApp is pricy. We use the 50 Users-Package.

Vorteile

Being able to apply custom tags to the items allows me to specify which tags to synchronise on my mobile applications. As an example, I can say that a translation has the tags "Android" and "Home", and then I can create a rule on my Android app that creates a resource file for translations with that same tags. It makes my projects really organised.

Nachteile

I would love to see enforced mechanisms for better naming conventions. There are a lot of "fights" between different platform teams (Android, iOS) regarding naming, and it would be cool to have a convention suggested by the PhraseApp platform.

Vorteile

Memsource is very easy to use and quite swift

Nachteile

Not enough features, cloud - with all its cons (and pros), terrible TM search

Vorteile

Viewing the source and target texts side by side, segment by segment, so the relevant excerpts are easier to locate when translating and revising.

Nachteile

There is no longer a draft concept. As soon as we confirm a segment, everybody working for the client can see our name on it, although it may need revision.

Vorteile

It is very intuitive.

It allows me to access the origin language (English) and to some changes during the translation process (e.g. correct a misspelling).

I see all the projects in one window and can easily come back to an older project​ if I want to improve something.

It is easy to grant other people access and new joiners intuitively understand how to use the tool.

Nachteile

We often have similar translations. If I want to look them up, I need to open a spare window and look up the similar phrase manually.

I can't remember the website name, so I use Google. Once I am on the website, I click on login and then the system responds "you are already signed in". This seems like an unnecessary​ step.

When I expand the small screen where I type my translations to the right, it gets covered up by the settings screen. So the first layer is the settings bar and behind it is the small screen with the little icon to expand it or reduce the size. Obviously, once it's covered, I cannot do anything, but only click on "save" and reload the site.

Vorteile

It really helps with our translation tasks in general, probably the best platform to translate. Once you get a hold of it, it is easy to use as well.

Nachteile

The thing that ive hated the most is the UI design. It looks so complicated and hard to understand. I was not able to use the program without help at first. User experience could be better. Another thing is that software is not completely stable. Sometimes i had crashes which ruined my translations.

Vorteile

This product was born in the cloud, therefore it works seamlessly with any cloud based CAT tools.

Nachteile

It would be great if there were any training support services that would help Memsource users to adequate their processes to the platform. It would also be great if Memsource technicians were available to do conference calls and screen sharing sessions.

Vorteile

The product does the job. The advantage of web-based software is simplicity, ease of setup and ease of use. As a translator/editor, I am able to receive and accept tasks, do my translation and collaborate with co-workers. It is powerful enough to handle the major tasks related to translation memory and quality assurance. The web interface means there is no setup or software updates needed on the user end. It handles disconnections fairly well. There is still a PC version to allow off-line work.

Nachteile

The web-based interface can be a bit clunky or slow at times. It is also a fairly simple interface so it may not have all the features of more powerful software.

Vorteile

Thanks to its clever combination of CAT tool functions and project management features, Memsource caters to a variety of user groups, ranging from small LSPs to bigger companies. The editor is very intuitive and includes a lot of features you also find in solutions offered by other CAT tool providers (filters, live preview, etc.). Memsource cares a lot about the user experience and manages to introduce more and more features that help establish solid workflows. Thanks to API support, integration of third party solutions is done easily.

Nachteile

Memsource is probably not the tool most power users who are accustomed to more comprehensive translation editors would pick. Managing TMs (in the sense of cleaning and upgrading) is still possible, but does not come with the same benefits more feature-packed solutions like Trados Studio offer. QA features are solid, but could be improved in the future to avoid the use of external software.

Vorteile

The UI is clean and easy to use. We usually have tens and thousands of strings in our developing apps. Phraseapp provides an excellent interface to organize them in one place. You can easily re-write a string, and then just tap a button to next string to continue editing. It's really life-saving when you are dealing with the giant string table. Another cool thing is that Phraseapp supports plural form editing, and it fits well with iOS and Android's plural form formats. That's essential for app development.

Nachteile

The interface is designed for desktop and barely usable on the phone. Phraseapp complies 2-column UI in their interface, and it shrinks the spaces in mobile phones. Just a suggestion that they can do some responsive design in it.

Vorteile

Reliable tool with great customer service. Easy to use with add-ons that simplify my job. Very intuitive. It's a pleasure to work with it.

Nachteile

It would be great to integrate Memsource with other CAT-Tools already available on users PC, to have one only place where every translation project is accessible.

Vorteile

As translator with experience, the product is easy to use. This has to do with the displayed shortcuts and the user interface in your own language. Furthermore, Memsource saves much time due to the automatic notifications. I can access my job through the sent email and the product sends an email, when I have completed my job.

Nachteile

In some cases I would like to have more transparency (information) regarding changes in the Translation Memory and Term Base (in the form of a version history). It would be great, if pictures could be uploaded in the Term Base, too.