Who Should You Hire for Your Next Thai Translation Projects – Freelance Translator or Translation Agency?

In the process of looking for a partner to provide quality Thai translation services for upcoming projects, many business owners often have a headache between two options – hire a Thai translation agency or a freelance Thai translator? Each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. It’s not easy to make a decision. The deciding factor here probably depends on your needs, budget and requirements.

In today’s post, we outline some of the differences between a translation agency and a freelance translator. This will help you analyze to make the most suitable decision.

Freelance Thai Translators

Pros

• • Budget – Freelance Thai translators work independently with minimal costs, so this service is often cheaper than the other choice – Thai translation agencies.
  • Time – Saving time is the ultimate advantage of hiring a freelance translator. You can skip the intermediary steps such as contacting the salesperson/project manager and waiting for them to send your request to the in-charged translators. You can contact the freelance translators directly when there are any changes that need to be adjusted in your Thai translation project.

Cons

• • Workload – Freelance translators often collaborate and work with multiple clients. Therefore, if you require a large project, translation may not be completed in a short period of time. Because they may be busy with some other projects from their customers.
  • Quality – When it comes to quality, it can be a bit difficult to trust freelance translators as they don’t provide you with any certifications or quality guarantees. However, many freelancers can thoroughly understand the Thai documents that the company or project you are in need of translation for because of their expertise and experience.

Thai Translation Agencies

 Pros

• • Diverse types of services – Professional Thai translation agencies bring you a wide range of services. Besides basic services sục as translation, editing, and proofreading, their service range also includes steps such as Desktop Publishing (DTP), Linguistic Quality Assessment (LQA), Language Sign-off (LSO), etc. In addition, they can work with numerous documents in Medical, Engineering, IT, Software, Tourism or any field that needs translation into Thai.
  • Workload – For large volume Thai translation projects, a Thai translation company is the most optimal choice. Agencies can not only help you with your current translation requirements but also meet other needs that arise in an ongoing project. Regardless of the size of the project, you can always get your product done on time or faster than expected.
  • Numerous languages – A freelancer may only be capable of 1 to 2 language pairs. Meanwhile, translation companies can use their large network to find effective human resources to meet various language requirements.
  • CAT Tools – Translation memory (or TM) in CAT tools helps translators reduce the time it takes to re-translate identical text or terms and maintain the consistency of the entire document. It also benefits you in terms of cost.

Cons

• • Budget – Translation companies often have to spend a lot of money on management, software, training, planning and human resources. Therefore, the fee from translation companies will obviously be higher.
  • Communication – The client and the linguist do not communicate directly with each other in translation agencies. Instead, a team of PMs acts as an intermediary to communicate customer needs and requirements to translators and provide feedback from both sides. If a partner has any urgent changes, they still have to wait for the PM’s response. As a result, the progress of the project may be affected.

Which is the Right Choice for Your Thai Translation Projects?

It can be said that the world has never had as many small and medium enterprises as there are today. However, most businesses, when established, have to deal with the problem: How to sell goods, deploy effective marketing programs. According to statistics in the US, 60% of business failures are actually marketing failures. Therefore, the problem of translating advertising and marketing ideas from original text to a second language is an important problem for many businesses. Therefore, you need to consider a few things before choosing a Thai translation service for your project. So, you should consider some factors that affect your choice:

• • Nature of the project – The translated document can be simple or very complex. It requires highly specialized precision. The translation agency has a team of professionally trained and methodical translators. They not only know how to translate a language, but they also know a lot of other skills such as the ability to choose words that are suitable for the context, consider local or cultural references and influences, etc.
  • Budget – Freelance translators are a better choice for small businesses that have a limited budget or don’t require too much translation quality. If your business or project that needs Thai translation requires more professionalism and reliability, the quality of translations provided by translation companies probably needs no further discussion.
  • Time – Working with freelancers can be fraught with risks and challenges. As mentioned, they take tasks from many clients. If you contact them, they may have to rearrange their time to do many projects for other businesses. So, if you care about quality and time, then you should find a reputable translation organization that can guarantee the progress and quality of your Thai translation project.
  • Human Resources – Translation companies can build a team of Thai translators for different specialities. And for each speciality, special support tools and requirements are provided. On the contrary, if these projects are assigned to freelancers, the management will be quite difficult.

Wrap Up

In conclusion, whether you choose to work with freelance translators or Thai translation agencies, make sure you work with the most suitable ones, not just the cheapest ones.

We understand that it is not easy to find an agency with the most suitable quality among many different translation companies.  GTE Localize is confident to bring you guaranteed quality Thai translation with a professional translation process and an affordable price. Experienced and skilled Thai linguists will help you handle all documents and projects perfectly.

As a reputable name in the global translation market, GTE Localize is ready to meet all your translation requirements without any hindrance. Contact our team for a free consultancy and quotation.