If you’ve ever tried to manage a website in 6 languages using only email and Excel sheets, you know that that simply does not work.
The translated text can be too long for the buttons, and the English version can be updated while the French version remains untranslated. All your localizations get messy very fast.
Data from independent market research firms confirms that the vast majority of global consumers will not buy from a website that isn’t in their native language.
That’s why you need not only Google Translate, but practical localization tools. Check out the list of tools that can simplify your business localization.
1. Translation Management Systems (TMS)
You can’t manage a global business through email. You need a Translation Management System (TMS). It’s basically a library for every sentence you’ve ever translated.
For example, when you translate “Add to Cart” once, the TMS saves it in the Translation Memory. The next time you need that phrase, the tool fills it in for you. This stops you from paying for the same work twice and keeps your brand from sounding like five different people wrote it.
Basically, a Translation Management System (TMS) is the first tool you should set up. All the next tools listed in the article are available inside a TMS. Check out the best TMS software reviews at G2 website. Best options include Crowdin for enterprise software & apps, and Weglot for SMEs’ websites.
2. Website Version Control
Once your TMS is set up, you need a way to get your website content into it. The old way of localizing a site was like: export the text to a file, send it to a translator, wait a week, then manually paste it back into your website. By the time you’re done, your English site has already changed. It’s hard to maintain all the website versions manually. This leads to a partially translated website, and your content becomes inconsistent.
But there’s a smart way to track changes across all languages: modern website translation solutions can automatically track your content. If they detect some untranslated lines, they can automatically create a task for translators.
3. Make Sure the Design Doesn’t Break
Even if your text is perfectly synced, it might not fit. Here’s a fun fact: German is usually 30% longer than English. If you design a button for the word “Edit” and the German word is “Bearbeiten” – sorry, your button will be broken.
Use Design plugins (like Figma and Adobe XD). Instead of waiting until the site looks like a mess, translators can use plugins to see how translations appear directly in the website design. They will try to find words that fit well in the design.
Designers can also use those plugins to identify where the design breaks, making it more flexible. They can see right away that the German text is overlapping a photo or that the Japanese font looks weird. It saves weeks of redesigning things.
4. Context is Everything
Translators usually work in spreadsheets. They see a single word like “Home” and don’t know if it means “Homepage”, “A House”, or “Back to Start”? But in a sheet, every word looks the same. Without context, your translator is just guessing.
To fix this, look for tools that offer:
Live Previews: In-context editors that let translators work on a mirrored version of your live site.
Automatic Screenshots: If a live preview isn’t possible, the TMS can automatically attach a screenshot to every line of text.
Developer Comments: Developers can leave notes in the code that appear directly in the translator’s workspace.
5. Connectors for Your Tools
Of course, your website isn’t the only thing that needs localizing. Do you manage your knowledge base in Intercom, handle emails in Braze, and do eCommerce with Shopify? And all that content needs translation, too.
The good news is that TMSs always offer integrations with popular services, so you can auto-sync all your content and manage translations in one place.
6. Video Localization
While text is easy to sync, video remains one of the hardest (and most expensive) assets to localize. Traditional dubbing requires studios, actors, and time.
AI Dubbing tools have changed the world. You can upload an English video, and it will “re-speak” the audio in Spanish or Dutch, cloning a voice that sounds just like the original speaker. And with an AI lip sync, you will get even more synchronized lip movements.
AI Dubbing is perfect for training videos or quick social ads where you don’t have the budget for a full recording studio.
Now video dubbing is even available inside the TMS, so there’s no need for another tool.
7. AI Localization
Last but not least is AI. Artificial Intelligence is in hype and in the localization industry too. Why do I need to hire humans if AI can translate everything in seconds?
Yeah, that’s right, but anyway, you need professionals who can ensure that translated content is accurate and aligns with cultural norms. Look for the tool that promotes the hybrid approach (AI + Human), see the next chapter about MTPE.
And even with that, take into account that your sensitive content pages (sales pages, creative, legal) should be translated by a human.
8. Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE)
MTPE is a hybrid approach in which an AI provides a first translation, and a human professional polishes it.
The software scans your untranslated content and immediately fills it with a raw translation (from Google, DeepL, etc.).
The translator doesn’t write, they edit. It is much faster to fix a sentence that is 80% correct than to write one from scratch.
There are even Quality Estimation tools on the market that show human translators only the poor translations that require their work. These tools automatically detect high-quality machine translations and mark them as “Translated”, so linguists only need to review the “bad” output rather than every single sentence.
Which Tools Do You Actually Need?
Don’t try to buy everything at once.
If you’re a small business: Just get a basic TMS and a website connector. Focus on being fast.
If you’re a growing business: Add the Figma integration so your designers and translators finally start talking to each other.
If you’re an enterprise: Look into customization, complex workflows, the number of connectors, and Machine Translation Post-Editing.
Your goal isn’t to have the most expensive tools. Look for tools to automate the manual tasks that are still slowing you down.