Software Translation Services cost - ballpark idea

Question

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody could give me ballpark figures for translating resx files. Let's say I have 10 Resx files with each about 10K words. What would be the cost to translate those from English to Spanish (or English to German)?

For the details, we are using Infragistics controls in our application. IG does not provide their software and controls in any other language than English (another reason not to use them... but that's a long story). The way they require to do localizable strings is a pain at best and we are looking at an approach that would be a bit more automated. The side effect is that we would have all strings resources localizable. One of the argument against that is the additional effort for 3rd parties that deliver our systems in a different language appears more significant. We are trying to weigh the pros and cons of either approach. (The other approach is to manually identify which strings do need to be localized and to manually create the code that allows that).

Regards,

Eric.

Answer 1

As far as pricing is concerned: http://www.proz.com is a excellent translators forum. It's probably the best place to start with.

Answer 2

A ballpark would be .10~.20 USD per word.

You need to be careful when translating resx files, especially if translatable and do-not-translate content is mixed together. There are tools like Alchemy Catalyst and Lingobit Localizer that can help you and your translators manage these resources better.

For example, in Catalyst, a developer could go through each resx file and lock certain strings to protect them from the translator.