Localization Costs and Rates for Digital Products

You might fret over localization costs for lots of reasons. Maybe it’s wise to localize product and pricing pages only. Perhaps the market demand is too low. Or maybe the return on PPC marketing is higher. All valid concerns.

The good news is you can substantially lower localization costs to maximize its ROI.

Below I break down localization rates for video games, websites, software, and apps. Hopefully, it will help you make—pardon the pun—a calculated decision on whether localization is worth your while.

Let’s start!

Factors affecting localization prices

Look, I get it. You’re here for a quick overview of localization prices. But I would rather not provide them without explaining how they are determined.

Then, since translation is the biggest budget item in localization, I’ll overview translation rates and how they are derived. Finally, I will give you the costs of localizing video games, websites, software, and apps.

So, please bear with me. Or scroll ahead without me. I won’t tell.

Without further ado, localization costs are affected by these key factors:

Translation and editing cost

These are the biggest expenditures in your localization budget. For their complete breakdown, jump to this section.

Design cost

See this display ad?

A designer had to carefully add translations to it and adjust the layout to accommodate text expansion. It takes time, it takes effort, and, as a result, it takes money.

The same is true for website localization, where images and layout require adjustment. Like Centus did here:

This also holds for email localization, document localization, and app localization where images need translation.

Development cost

After your designers have adjusted the layout and images, somebody needs to implement the changes. And that somebody is usually a member of your development team.

LQA cost

You need to run localization quality assurance (LQA) or localization testing to check that your digital product functions as expected after localization. To this end, testers verify functionality, numbers, date and time formats, currencies, and a whole lot of other areas of your product.

Managerial cost

Somebody needs to oversee your localization project. And if it doesn’t seem like a big deal, consider its full scope:

But what if you’re localizing not a small app, but rather a full-fledged software? What if it also has a large website behind it?

In this case, your manager would need a localization management solution.

Localization tools

To manage large-scale localization projects, your team needs professional localization tools. They allow you to streamline cooperation between individual contributors, cut down localization costs, and minimize project chaos.

Translation and editing rates

Now, let’s see how much you’ll pay for translation when localizing your digital product. But first…

How are translation and editing rates calculated?

Translation and editing rates are calculated:

• per word
• per characters with spaces
• per hour

There are also those language experts who charge per page but they’re less common.

Since the cost per word is the most common, I will keep using it as a basic price unit for my calculations.

Translation and editing rates for common language pairs

Here are the average translation rates for the world’s most popular language pairs:

And here are editing rates for the same language pairs:

Now is the time to get squinty-eyed examining the factors that impact translation rates.

Factors affecting translation and editing prices

How much does localization cost? To calculate it, we need to know the key factors affecting the price:

1. Language pairs
2. Project domain
3. Translation quality
4. Turnaround
5. Translation technology
6. LSP service fee

These high-level factors are helpful. They point toward why localization is so expensive and what you can do to lower its cost. So let’s break them down:

Language pairs

Translation rates for language pairs are subject to the laws of demand and supply.

You’re likely to pay an average price for common language pairs, such as Spanish-English. Conversely, translators command much higher rates for rare language combinations, such as French-Swahili.

Note that under ordinary conditions, you’d pay low translation rates for languages with low demand. However, in the case of languages like Swahili, the supply is also low, which drives the price up.

Project domain

Translators and editors working in well-supplied domains, such as marketing, retail, or tourism, have average rates. Unsurprisingly, translators and editors specializing in niche fields, like healthcare or technology, command high rates.

Just like language pairs, project domains are affected by the dynamics of supply and demand.

Translation quality

It’s simple: less experienced translators have lower rates. The drawback? Lower translation quality. The same applies to proofreaders and editors who will work on your translations.

Turnaround

A shorter turnaround time translates into higher localization costs. And the reverse is also true.

Let’s see how urgency affects the cost of English-German translation:

Note, however, that there’s an exception to this rule. Machine translation allows producing cheap translations under tight deadlines. More on it below 👇

Translation technology

Machine translation with post-editing (MTPE) and regular human translation are two choices you face when localizing your website or app. MTPE is 2 to 5 times cheaper and faster than regular human translation.

LSP service fee

The factors detailed above contribute to the individual vendor cost of translation. But what if you’re working with a language service provider (LSP)?

Prepare to pay up to 40% higher translation rates. Hence, if a translator charges $0.1 per word, an LSP may charge $0.14 per word.

The exact translation fees vary across the industry. For example, instead of charging a markup price, some LSPs charge a flat management fee on top of the individual vendor cost. Usually, the flat fee is tiered: projects costing up to $100 have a fee of $20, projects costing up to $200 have a fee of $50, and so on.

Localization rates per product

I write this with some trepidation as it’s really difficult to calculate localization costs precisely. What is less difficult is calculating localization costs for an imaginary digital product, for the sake of an example. Which is exactly what I’m going to do 😉

So please bear in mind that your product is different and the cost of its localization will vary accordingly.

What will stay true for your app, website, or video game are the underlying principles driving these guesstimates. Hopefully, you’ll be able to apply them to your product and derive some value from my math.

Cost of software or app localization

Let’s estimate the localization cost of a small app. The same calculations hold true for software.

First things first—translation and editing.

For a small app localized into 5 languages, prepare to pay $1,250 for translation and $500 for editing.

Now design.

Expect your designers to spend 5-10 hours for 5 languages at $60 per hour. The total design cost for a small app would range from $1,500 to $3,000.

Then, of course, your developers need to implement the design changes. Expect them to spend 8-16 hours on design adjustments at $50 per hour. With the total development cost ranging from $400 to $800.

After development, you’ll need language experts to check translations and testers to check its functionality. Expect them to spend:

• QA time: 2-5 hours for 5 languages at $50 per hour
• Language expert time: 4-8 hours for 5 languages at $40 per hour

The total LQA cost for a small app would range from $1,300 to $2,850.

Now let’s add the cost of localization management. Let’s assume your localization manager spends 5-10 hours at $40 per hour to organize the localization of a small app. The total cost would range from $200 to $400.

To not drown in chaos, your localization manager needs professional tools.

A localization management platform Centus, which is used by plucky startups and established enterprises alike, will cost you around $295 per month. For a breakdown of localization tool pricing, refer to this page.

After crunching the above numbers, the total cost of small app localization ranges from $5,445 to $9,095.

Cost of website localization

Your website has images, code, and text that need to be altered during website localization. As such, the main localization stages and expenditures are very similar to those of app/software localization. Hence, I won’t take your time repeating the information from the previous section.

Instead, let’s focus on the unique expenditure associated with website localization. Namely, multilingual SEO.

On top of translation, editing, design, development, and testing costs, prepare to be invoiced by an SEO expert. They will need to provide translators with the list of keywords and ensure the content aligns with local search engine requirements. The SEO expert will also need to review metadata and adjust URLs.

Say, you’re localizing a 100-page website. To optimize it for 5 languages, the SEO expert will have to spend from 20 to 40 hours. Based on their hourly rate, the local SEO optimization will cost you from $1,000 to $4,000.

Cost of video game localization

Just as with app, software, and website localization, the guiding principles behind cost calculations for video games remain the same. Instead of repeating them, let’s discuss the cost of localized voiceover, which is unique to video games.

For a 5,000-word-long video game script localized in 5 languages, voice actors will charge from $200 to $400 per hour. Also, expect to pay from 20% to 30% of voice recording cost for post-production.

Thus, the total cost of localized voiceover for a small video game ranges from $8,500 to $18,000.

How to lower localization costs

Localization is an enormous benefit to international companies. So why don’t all international companies localize all their digital assets? Because math. The cold and unforgiving math I shared above.

Nevertheless, don’t let the localization costs scare you. After all, it’s not just an expense. Localization is first and foremost an investment. And to get a higher return on it, you simply need to minimize its cost. Here’s how:

Automate translation

Use a localization management platform, like Centus, where you can automatically translate content using Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, or DeepL. Centus also offers a centralized environment where the automatic translations can be refined by your translators and editors.

Using Centus’ machine translation, you can reduce translation costs by as much as 90%.

Automate localization workflows

Another way to keep the localization costs down—you guessed it—with more automation.

Use Centus to automate the following tasks:

• Manually exporting localization files
• Manually importing localization files
• Manually copying translations to PHP or other localization files
• Using spreadsheets for project management
• Using spreadsheets for terminology management

Automate localization testing

Manual testing is labor-intensive and budget-consuming. Instead, you can use Centus to automatically identify the following issues in translated strings:

• Spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors
• Placeholder differences in the source and target text
• Leading and trailing whitespaces
• Bracket differences in the source and target text
• Number differences in the source and target text
• Email address differences in the source and target text
• URL differences in the source and target text

Streamline localization design

Think of all the time it takes to manually copy-paste translations into designs. Not anymore!
With Centus, your design team can automatically expert translations to and from their favorite design tools.

Here’s what it looks like for Figma:

Parting thoughts

Don’t stress about the cost of localization. Think of it as a worthy investment—one your company needs to go global. And along the way, use Centus to keep your localization costs down and your journey smooth.

Happy localizing!