Do you need a translator but you’re not sure whether to hire the services of a translation company or those of a freelancer? The first thing you should ask yourself is what your needs and priorities are: translation quality, price, delivery time, reliability... These and other factors are the ones you should take into account, prioritizing them based on the expected results.
Benefits of hiring a translation company
A transitional company is ready to face tasks that require translation into different languages, a large amount of words or immediate availability. All of which is carried out by a great team of translation professionals who are specialized in different fields. The following are a series of reasons why a translation company is a safe bet in any situation that may arise.
Large amount of words
For large projects in which you also need greater specialization or translation into different languages, you will need a team of translators with substantial productive capacity. In this case, a translation company is capable of taking up large amounts of work and adapt to the client’s characteristics and needs. These companies have a specialized translator portfolio, segmented in such a way they can cover different projects at once, programming and revising them before their definite delivery.
Technical complexity of the project
Additionally, the technical complexity your project may require is another factor to consider. Large translation teams have stronger organizational skills and a clear infrastructure, allowing them to offer the final files translated into the corresponding language or languages in any of the formats you may need. Also the layout of the documents so they are ready to be published.
Availability
A translation company’s availability will always be higher than that of a freelance translator. And, not only does it have a group of translators dedicated to the most frequent clients, but also a database of external collaborators. As you can see, their professional networks are very extensive.
In this sense, when companies have a wide portfolio of professionals, they are better capable of adapting to high peaks in demand offering a quick response to their clients and maintaining the level of specialization required for the project. In the case of a freelance translator, the truth is it is quite common to come across their lack of availability due to their engagement in other projects that take up their time and work capacity.
Reliability
Specialized companies offer the possibility of getting acquainted with them before contacting or hiring their services. How? Through platforms that offer the possibility of obtaining information about their experience, success stories and the specific services they offer. Therefore, you can find out about the agency’s experience, as well as its degree of solvency. Hiring a freelancer is based on a previous interview and review of their resumé, but you should take into account that it is very probable they will not be able to provide you with the guarantees you may need for certain services.
Urgent translations
Lots of times you might need an urgent translation. If that’s your case, or it has ever happened to you, despite not notifying the company and the freelancer sufficiently in advance, it is very probable the former will be able to meet your demands, even if this means an increase in the price estimate. In these cases it is very difficult to rely on a freelancer given their lower organizational capacity.
That said, whether you hire the services of a translation company or a freelancer to manage your project, it will depend on your needs and those of the project. Assess all these instances thoroughly and make a decision. We will help you in everything you may need.
