EB

Eva B.

Traductrice Anglais-Français

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

1/17/2019

"Powerful software, could be more user-friendly"

3.5/5

What do you like best about Trados?

SDL Trados Studio has many powerful features that help me to work more efficiently as a translator. It is easy to create a project and use translation memories and term bases. I like that I can estimate the length of a project with the analysis tool. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

The interface is anything but user-friendly, and it takes long internet researches to learn how to do anything new on the software. It is sometimes unnecessarily complex. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

LC

Lilach C.

Contract Translator - Freelance Hebrew/Spanish/English

Non-Profit Organization Management

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

1/1/2019

"I am a freelance translator and occasionally use SDL Trados Studio 2014 SP2. "

4/5

What do you like best about Trados?

I tried other CAT tools like MemoQ and found them useful, though each platform was slightly different. I decided to go with SDL Trados Studio 2014 SP2 since it had a good interface, editing, terminology and project management tools and was user-friendly. It has good translation memory (TM) which makes translations smoother when I work on similar files. There are newer versions available for purchase. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

There were some issues with certain file types and there were errors that popped up while opening this CAT tool at first. Installation and operation took longer than expected and there were some glitches though it worked out fine. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

UT

Verified User in Translation and Localization

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

12/27/2018

"Excellent product overall for translation professionals"

4/5

What do you like best about Trados?

I appreciate the speed and customisability - compared with an alternative programme that I have used, Trados is much more flexible and gives the translator much more freedom to decide how they want to approach the job at hand. Terminology and translation memories are easy to integrate, which makes life easier for the translator. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

Trados seems to periodically suffer from bugs which cause the programme to shut down unexpectedly. I have mitigated this by enabling auto-save more frequently, but ideally this would not happen at all. I used to enjoy the fact that the target file preview was generated in Microsoft Word, but it now comes out in the user-unfriendly WordPad which cannot be uninstalled from Windows 10 - meaning, as a result, that time is wasted manually saving and opening each preview to grammar-check and proof-read in Word. SDL could improve this by allowing the user to decide the default preview file format in the Options menu. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Trados:

If you have not previously used CAT tools, SDL Trados will make your life as a professional translator significantly easier by saving time and allowing you to build memories and termbases that will come in useful for future projects, ensuring greater consistency. If you have previously used CAT tools, Trados may offer more flexibility, greater ease of use and a wider range of customisation options via apps, settings and features -- as well as being more widely used, in general, by translation agencies which is a business plus-point in and of itself. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Trados solving and how is that benefiting you?

The business advantages of Trados are that it saves time, makes omissions much less unlikely compared with working directly in a word processor, means formatting is rarely if ever a worry, and can be easily packaged for review by another professional. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

UT

Verified User in Translation and Localization

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

1/8/2019

"Not worth the high price"

2.5/5

What do you like best about Trados?

You don't miss any sentences, and you get the occasional matches. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

It's not straightforward, their previous way not so expensive version worked just fine. It does not really speed up my translations as the previous version did. Their icons are minuscule. You need a magnifying glass to decipher what to click to exit, save, etc. I had complained about this but they did nothing of course.... Their online training seminars were lame, and I did not get much out of them.... Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Trados:

Nothing to recommend except that the prior versions were very easy and helpful. Not Studio. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Trados solving and how is that benefiting you?

No problems solved. Can't think of any benefits. Just paid a lot of money because clients are using it. I am a freelance translator and work for several translation agencies in Europe and the US. I am not an in-house translator working for only one company. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

UT

Verified User in Translation and Localization

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

9/24/2019

"Great software"

3.5/5

What do you like best about Trados?

It is a great and fast software, I have used it in my job as translator. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

The fact that sometimes it is impossibile to charge files. Also every year comes out a different edition, always more pricey than the year before Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

JW

Jennifer W.

Social Media Content Editor (part-time)

Translation and Localization

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

12/19/2018

"CAT Tool Trados Studio"

5/5

What do you like best about Trados?

Trados Studio is easy to use and can deal with a lot of different file types, which speeds up the entire process tremendously. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

It does have some bugs; when the program freezes for some reason, the percentage display (amount of text translated) may never update to the correct number again. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Trados:

It is the market leader for good reason. Even though it is expensive to purchase, it is very much worth it. And the purchased version can be used for many years, so you do not have to buy the newest version every year. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Trados solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use it for my day-to-day translation work and it speeds up my process, also thanks to the Translation Memory. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

CY

Cheng-Hao Y.

Translation/Localization Specialist

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

12/19/2018

Business partner of the seller or seller's competitor, not included in G2 scores.

"It's a business standard of the language service industry, but there's room for improvement"

3/5

What do you like best about Trados?

SDL Trados is like the mother of all the CAT tools out there in the market. If you can learn how to use Trados properly, then that means that you're not likely going to run into any other problems when learning other CAT tools out there. Plus, it's what everyone uses in the industry, it would be beneficial if you can have the common skills in this industry. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

Since there're so many features on the interface, it can be really hard to understand how to make use of each feature for beginners. In my opinion, Trados can use some improvements to simplifying some of its features or at least make those features simple and self-explanatory for the users like MemoQ. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Trados solving and how is that benefiting you?

Like I said before, Trados is the origin of all CAT tools out there. After getting through the growing pain of learning it, you're going to become a master of the other CAT tools out there because more often than not, they're like the simplified or perhaps improved version of Trados. When working with different LSPs, you might need to work with different CAT tools as well. Some people without the solid training with Trados might need to start from the beginning of learning how to use it, but for most Trados users, it's just the same tools with a tiny difference in most occasions.

As my professor put it, "If you can master Trados, you basically conquer every CAT tools out there." Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

MA

Marta A.

Freelance Spanish/English Translator; Spanish Writer; Multilingual DTP

Translation and Localization

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

12/16/2018

"Very reliable productivity and terminology management tool"

5/5

What do you like best about Trados?

With Trados, our translation team was able to achieve the highest level of consistency in terminology with the lowest level of time invested in other means to accomplish it. We were able to get rid of endless hours and meetings for terminology review and discussion. Instead we were able to translate and increase our output. Our number of request increases exponentially while our turnaround time was reduced. We went from being able to send our translations in three weeks to reliably meeting our requester needs in 2-3 days. That way we were able to free resources for other organizational neeeds like interpretation and translation in other languages. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

Lack of compatibility with MS Piblisher and google documents. It added time and steps to the translation process when we had to convert those format to Trados compatible formats. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Trados solving and how is that benefiting you?

After adding Trados as a tool for our team, were able to improve the work flow among same language team members and external agency translators and reduce the use of "zombie" documents in the organization (different translated versions of the same document and older translated versions of updated English versions). We stablished practices that required requesters of translation to always send documents to us before publishing. By checking against our TMs we were able to caught small edits to English documents that the "owners" of the English were not always aware that had happened. In the past, the use of those documents had created legal and compliance issues. We were able to almost completely eliminate those occurrences and reduce the amount of time dedicated to problem solve those issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

UT

Verified User in Translation and Localization

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

12/12/2018

"It is a good program but a frustrating experience"

2.5/5

What do you like best about Trados?

I love features like the option to align documents, the pre-translate option and the tools I can create for myself as well as the many customization options. I also like the language cloud option because it helps me think and work even though the results are far from being satisfactory. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

It takes forever to learn the program and when technical problems arise (happens frequently!) you are left to deal with it on your own, or you are forced to pay a hefty price for the technical support. It is an investment that translators need to make, but the price for additional features can add up quickly. Some formats do not work properly. I have to take additional steps to prepare documents before I can use them with SDL or otherwise content is lost. Customer service and the website require improvement. I would like to use some more of the plugins but learning how to do that costs time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Trados:

Just investing in the purchase of this program is not enough. You also have to invest a lot of time to learn all its features and deal with bugs and issues by yourself. Once you have mastered the program, it is a very useful tool. I would recommend to anyone who thinks about purchasing a license to compare SDL to other programs, too. Other CAT tools offer some of the same features but are more user-friendly and cheaper. Yes, SDL is the industry standard but you have to ask yourself if you really need it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Trados solving and how is that benefiting you?

I use it to work on my translations. SDL Trados Studio has many advantages and features that other CAT tools do not offer. Knowing how to use it can set you apart from the crowd and attract new customers. I like the customization options, which are important for terminology management (here in connection with MultiTerm). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

UT

Verified User in Translation and Localization

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

11/29/2018

Business partner of the seller or seller's competitor, not included in G2 scores.

"Useful but takes time to master"

4/5

What do you like best about Trados?

The program offers a bevy of options that prove useful for large-scale translations. Major projects can be managed more easily thanks to this. Once you get the hang of the program, it is great for multi-tasking several projects at a time and keeping tracking of them all in one place. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Trados?

The file types that are unique to the program may prove to be confusing at first for beginners. The program is also rather expensive for first-time freelancers and the initial cost may prove intimidating to someone trying to break into the translation business. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Trados:

Take the time to study the program in and out. Don't hesitate to contact support if you have any questions. Be careful with where you store your files as you'll usually be working with a variety of them when using Trados and it can get confusing whenever you return to a project you're in the middle of. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Trados solving and how is that benefiting you?

Managing large-scale projects. I can easily check and edit very specific segments of documents. It also keeps track of the percentage completed, giving you an idea of just how long you may spend on a project. This is crucial for when you have deadlines to meet. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.