Our Smartcat review
Smartcat earns its place in the AI tool shortlist for website localisation, provided quoted pricing only is not a dealbreaker.
We score Smartcat 3.9 out of 5 — acceptable ease of use, solid performance and solid value for money.
What Smartcat is
Smartcat is Smartcat's AI tool product, launched in 2016. AI translation and localisation workspace combining machine translation, translation memory and human review workflows.
It is aimed at intermediate users — the learning curve is moderate. Day one you would use it for website localisation and ongoing multilingual content. It runs on Web, with no mobile app, and there is an API if you want it inside your own systems.
Where it shines
In testing against the rest of the category, two things stand out: combines AI with vetted human review and scales across many languages. The feature set behind that is machine translation plus human review, translation memory, marketplace of linguists and website and app connectors.
We rate performance 4.2/5 and answer accuracy around 89% for the tasks in this category, which is why it holds up for website localisation and ongoing multilingual content.
Where it falls short
Where it frustrated us: quoted pricing only and overkill for a handful of documents.
Expect a real ramp-up — we rate the learning curve moderate. Budget time for it before judging the tool.
Pricing and value for money
Pricing is Quoted per organisation. There is no public per-seat price — it is quoted per organisation, so the real number depends on your team size and contract. There is no free tier, so trial it deliberately before committing.
Ask for the quote early: the alternatives below publish their pricing, so you can hold this one to a number you can compare.
Who should use Smartcat
Smartcat is the right call for website localisation and ongoing multilingual content. Skip it if quoted pricing only is a bigger problem for you than combines AI with vetted human review is a benefit.
We do not track a direct replacement for it yet, which is part of the argument for it.
Consider carefully: Smartcat at quoted pricing is best used for website localisation and ongoing multilingual content, and it earns 3.9/5 from us.