Each piece of software has its own pros and cons. In addition to the functionality available for the translator him or herself, there are also corporate versions which incorporate project management components and facilitate the consistency of translations and terminology.
It’s fair to say that all of these tools are widely used across the globe and are constantly in development. That’s around $820 or €765. We’re certainly not talking small change! At the time of posting, the Freelance version of SDL Trados Studio alone costs £545 (£685 if you want the Freelance Plus version which allows you to use the software on two machines – e.g. Currently, these are SDL Trados Studio ( MemoQ ( WordFast ( and Atril’s Déjà Vu ( Rather unsurprisingly, these tools also rank amongst the most expensive there are (in decreasing order of market share). Like it or not, just as Microsoft and Apple have a monopoly in the personal computer market place, there are three or four CAT tool providers who hold the majority of the market share. Here’s TransTeach’s low-down on what’s hot and what’s not in the CAT tool world and where best to invest your money for long-term benefit. However, this can leave new translators reeling from information overload and unsure as to what CAT tools any prospective clients are really going to be excepting them to use. With constant new additions to the market place, every translation software provider would have you believe that their product is the best. There is a wealth of training available to educate us about their functionality and use, whether this be as part of a degree or masters programme or a course dealing specifically with one piece of translation technology.
Challenge 3: How to invest wisely in CAT Toolsįor anyone not already in the know, CAT tools stands for Computer Assisted Translation tools (without this key piece of information the rest of this post may not have made quite as much sense!) These are essentially the pieces of software that the translation industry now regularly relies upon.