Free Online Spanish Translation Guide - English to Spanish Translation Services

This Free Online Spanish Translation Guide article looks at the pros and cons of using a translation agency versus a freelance translator. At the bottom of the page, you'll also find additional help, including price comparison information about English to Spanish translation services. (Were you looking for a free online translation?)

Comparison of professional Spanish translation options

Should you send your English to Spanish translation to an agency or hire a freelance Spanish translator? The right solution for your translation will depend on your needs and budget.

- Ease. The agency will take care of everything for you: translator recruitment, project management, and quality control. This can save you a lot of time and stress, especially if you have translations in multiple languages.

- Expertise. A good translation agency knows how to find and select the right translators for your project, how to manage complex document formats, etc.

- Safety. If there are problems with a translation project, the agency is responsible for solving them. If you're working with a freelancer and something goes wrong, then you're on your own.

- Quality assurance. A good translation agency builds in additional layers of quality assurance such as sending each translation to a second translator for editing.

Attention: We have been told that some translation agencies that sell "revision" or "proofreading" as part of their service do not actually use a native editor to check the translation. Ask detailed questions about the revision process carried out by your English to Spanish translation services provider. You can check up by requesting a copy of the editor's revisions along with the final document.

- Savings. Working with a freelancer can be much cheaper than working with an agency. Translation agencies often charge their clients double what they pay the translators to do the work. Your savings can be even greater if your translation is short because agencies often apply very high minimum charges on small jobs.

Compare costs of English to Spanish translation services in the Free Online Spanish Translation Guide.

- Transparency. If you hire a freelance translator, you know exactly what you're getting. If you send your translation to an agency, you have to trust them to find a translator who's qualified for the job and to follow through on their quality control promises.

- Control. You can contact a freelance translator directly to give them instructions, express your preferences, and answer questions that arise as they're working. If you hire an agency, all this gets filtered through a project manager, and you lose control over the translation choices that are being made.

- Relationship. If you have frequent translations in one language combination such as English to Spanish, you can build a relationship with a specific freelance translator. Over time, this person will get to know your preferences and become an expert in the subject matter of your translations. This can be a huge advantage. When you send your translation to an agency, they are likely to source it to a different translator each time.

Eva Obregon, a Spanish language translator, offered her thoughts on choosing between types of English to Spanish translation services:

I think if your company has a steady stream of translations in just one language combination, it might be a good idea for you to have a couple of freelance translators that you work with habitually because they'll get to know your company. It's probably going to result in higher-quality work because, after a while, they get to know the client's projects, and they know the terminology you use, and basically, it's like they’re part of the staff but they don't work in the building. But if you do a lot of multilingual translations -- into several languages -- obviously, it's going to be a nightmare for you to coordinate all that, so it's better to hire an agency. And if it's just something sporadic, if you normally don't have to do translations, then maybe it's quicker to go through an agency. But if the text is something that's very important for you, then it might be worth looking for translators to work directly with the company. Because they'll grow with you. Whereas an agency will usually work with the same translators anyway, but they'll send your text to whoever's available.

Read more advice from Eva on English to Spanish translation services in our Free Online Spanish Translation Guide

Free Online Spanish Translation Guide - Comparing English to Spanish Translation Services

Comparison of professional Spanish translation options

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