Phrase Localization Platform vs. Smartcat

I like Memsource because when I am not home and I don't have my laptop, I can borrow a computer, log in to my Memsource account and I'm ready to begin translating. I can even download the source files and check the TM and glossary there. It's not necessary to download the software and lose time on that.

Smartcat is well suited for documents longer than 500 words. It is less appropriate for audio-visual translation.

Incentivized

• The synching of the desktop app with the online app is great and very helpful.
• It is easy to look for all segments containing a specific term and correct them in a batch.
• Suggestions of other segments where a certain term already appears are very helpful.

Incentivized

• Segmentation.
• Translation overall quality.
• Customer service.
• Pricing.

Incentivized

• In the case of EN to JA translation, we enter text and then convert it to get the correct final text (word or phrase) which uses correct Chinese character(s), as there are often multiple Chinese characters with the same reading but different meanings. When those conversion options are displayed, it is usually possible to change our selection among them by hitting the Tab key, but in Memsource, hitting the Tab key makes us leave the text conversion and move to the source segment, so we must make sure to use arrow keys to choose the right conversion option when using Memsource.
• When there are tag elements used in the source text, the tags must exist in the target text of course, but the tag order also must be the same. The tags cannot be moved around in the segment, which causes problems in the case of the Japanese language, because the word order differs between EN and JA.
• In the Japanese language, Italics are basically not used, so there must be no texts between the tags which specify Italic font. But then the segment cannot be confirmed and the job status cannot be changed to "Complete".

• Performance has been an issue initially. Sometimes it takes longer for some things to load and it can be frustrating.
• UI seems a bit confusing at times. For example, I don't understand why I need to have a translator's profile when I'm clearly a project manager.
• Their support team can take a long time to reply which often crucial for urgent projects.

I use and manage an Academic edition (approx. 15 students) and the corporate license (10 users). In both cases, the features are easy to find, set and use. My students and my translators understand the dynamics of the platform easily and get used to them quickly.

It is designed to be a lean system, but that means that things are clustered in weird groups and a lot of trial and error is involved getting the settings right. If something goes wrong first level support is very quick and has very fast answers which are quite typical of first level support and essentially equate to asking you if you have switched it off and on yet. Anything more involved is challenging for support to address.

We rarely use support, but most questions were answered in a timely fashion, although we didn't exactly find them satisfactory. That's mostly the fault of the software and not the Support team because we asked for things that Memsource couldn't do.

Incentivized

It is very expensive and more difficult to navigate. Compared to the other support is slow and ineffective. Dealing with anything more involved is all but impossible. It has become more prone to bugs since being bought by TMS. Support suggests things like "use incognito" mode to log in. Use a different browser to log-in. That is a concern given the customer data involved if things at that level are not being fixed. If that's what it's like in the showroom, what is the kitchen like?

We also tried Memsource but it was lacking in terms of overall user experience and ease of use. Assigning projects in SmartCAT is a much more intuitive experience, plus it has all these other additional features that are absent from Memsource (like payment solution for freelancers). On top of that, the SmartCAT is absolutely free to use.

• Positive Impact due to saved time.
• Positive Impact due to not worrying about the format of the file (it is automatically taken care of).
• Positive Impact due to being able to follow the client's style guide clearly and without errors.
• Positive Impact due to avoiding common errors through QA feature.

• Translation memories and CAT tool help us ensure maximum consistency in our translations which is always appreciated by clients.
• Team collaboration made it easier for us to grow our business and take on bigger projects, which brings us more revenue.
• Payment solution helps us save money on wire transfer fees which is always great when working with multiple freelancers.