6 Best Freelance Translation Websites and Marketplaces (2024)

Searching for the best freelance translation websites to hire a freelancer for your next translation project?

In this post, we did the work to curate our picks for the six best freelance translation websites and marketplaces.

We’re approaching things from the perspective of a business looking to hire a freelance translator. But if you’re a freelance translator looking for work, you also might find this list helpful.

For each website, we’ll highlight general pricing details, pros and cons, and how you can start hiring your first freelance translator.

Let’s dig in!

Six Best Freelance Translation Websites and Marketplaces

1. Upwork
2. ProZ.com
3. Freelancer
4. Gengo
5. Fiverr
6. TranslatorsCafe

1. Upwork

Upwork is one of the most popular freelance marketplaces in existence.

Upwork is an open marketplace, so it covers all kinds of services that go beyond translation, such as copywriting, coding, data analysis, and lots, lots more.

But as part of that marketplace, you can find thousands of translators for pretty much any language pair (and any budget),

You can either post a job and accept applications or reach out to a freelancer directly by browsing the talent lists. Once you make a hire, you can then work directly with the translator on your project.

To help you vet the translator, you can read reviews from other clients and see other data such as job completion rate and overall earnings.

Pricing

The pricing at Upwork depends entirely on what you negotiate with the translator – there are no preset rates.

You can pay hourly or at a project rate. If you opt for hourly billing, Upwork has software that will periodically take a screenshot of the freelancer’s desktop to ensure the accuracy of the billing.

Most of the top-rated freelance translators seem to fit in the $10-$30 per hour range. But again – it depends entirely on which freelancer you choose and different languages might have higher or lower rates.

In addition to what you pay the freelance translator, Upwork also charges a 5% marketplace fee on top of all payments that you make to freelancers.

For example, if you pay a freelancer $100 to do a job, your total cost will be $105 ($100 to the freelancer and $5 to Upwork).

Upwork also charges a one-time $4.95 contract initiation fee.

Pros

• Upwork has a huge pool of translators to choose from for all different types of languages.
• You can post your own translation job or browse the marketplace, which gives you two different ways to connect with freelance translators.
• You can find freelance translators for pretty much any budget – from very affordable translators to top-tier talent (that’s priced accordingly).

Cons

• Upwork charges an extra 5% marketplace fee on top of what you’re already paying to the freelancer.
• Upwork doesn’t vet the quality of its freelance translators, so you’ll need to read the reviews and make sure you’re making a quality hire (though Upwork does give you lots of tools to help you do this).

How to Get Started

1. Register for an Upwork account – it’s free to register – just make sure to choose “I’m a client, hiring for a project” when you sign up as there are different account types for clients and freelancers.
2. Connect with freelance translators using one of these options:
   • Post a job – freelance translators will then apply for that job and you can choose one or more who fit your needs.
   • Browse the talent – you can connect with a freelance translator directly if you like their profile.

2. ProZ.com

ProZ.com is a longstanding online community for freelance translators and one of the most popular freelance translation websites. It’s been around since 1999, so it’s had a lot of time to build up its reputation and create a very large collection of translation professionals.

In total, ProZ.com has over 960,000 registered users in 200+ countries around the world, including both translation agencies and freelance translators of all types (e.g. full-time freelancers or people who are just translating as a side hustle).

To connect with these freelancers, ProZ.com offers a job board where you can post your project, as well as a directory where you can browse freelance translators.

If you’re after high-quality freelancers, there’s also a “screened professionals” filter that lets you only browse vetted freelance translators.

Another nice thing about ProZ.com is that you can use different filters such as:

• Native in target language
• Native in source language
• No native language requirement

ProZ.com can also tell you how many qualified translators it has based on your filters.

Pricing

In terms of translation rates, ProZ.com lets you work directly with the freelance translator so there are no fixed prices there.

If you’re hiring translators, creating an account is also free. Rather than charging people looking to hire work, ProZ charges the freelance translators.

If you’re a freelance translator looking to find work, you’ll likely want one of the paid memberships, which cost $120 or $180 per year depending on the membership.

Pros

• ProZ.com has one of the largest pools of freelance translators.
• ProZ.com is free to post jobs – the site primarily monetizes itself by charging freelancers/agencies a membership fee.
• You get some really handy search/filter options to find the right translator, including only browsing high-level translators.

Cons

• The ProZ.com interface can be a little dated in parts, though the site is working on upgrading it.

How to Get Started

1. Register for a ProZ.com account – while ProZ.com does offer paid memberships, the memberships are mostly for the translators. The free account lets you post jobs and connect with translators.
2. Connect with freelance translators using one of these options:
   • Use the search/filter options to browse freelancers – these can help you find qualified translators for your specific language pairs.
   • Post a job – freelance translators can then bid on your project.

3. Freelancer

Like Upwork, Freelancer is another general-purpose freelance marketplace where you can find tons of freelance translators, along with all other types of freelancers.

One difference between Freelancer and Upwork, though, is that Freelancer seems to also allow translation agencies in addition to individual freelancers, whereas Upwork is pretty much exclusively individual freelancers.

Depending on your goals, that could be a pro or a con. But even if you don’t want to work with an agency team, Freelancer still has plenty of individual translators.

Like Upwork, you can connect with freelancers by posting your own job or you can reach out to them directly by searching the talent lists.

Pricing

The price that you pay at Freelancer will depend entirely on what you negotiate with the freelance translator. You can pay a fixed project rate or pay hourly depending on your preferences.

In browsing the top translators at Freelancer, the common hourly rates seem to be between $10-$30 per hour, but there’s a lot of variation.

Like Upwork, Freelancer also charges you a fee on top of what you pay the freelancer. However, it’s a little bit lower than Upwork – you’ll pay 3% on top of what you pay the freelancer for both fixed price and hourly projects.

Posting a project to receive bids is free. However, there are some optional upgrades that you can purchase to help your job get better visibility. For example, creating a featured listing will cost you $10.

Pros

• Freelancer has a large pool of translators to choose from.
• You can post a job and have freelancer translators bid on it or reach out to a freelancer directly.
• You can find freelance translators at any rate, including very cheap options and more premium options.

Cons

• Freelancer doesn’t vet the quality of its freelance translators so you’ll need to assess their skills yourself.
• Freelancer charges an extra 3% fee on top of what you pay the freelancer.
• Freelancer mixes in agencies and individual freelancers, so you’ll need to skip some agencies if you prefer to work directly with a freelancer.

How to Get Started

3. Register for a Freelancer account – it’s free to register
4. Connect with freelance translators using one of these options:
   • Post a job – freelance translators will then apply for that job and you can choose one or more who fit your needs.
   • Browse the talent – you can connect with a freelance translator directly if you like their profile.

4. Gengo

Gengo is sort of a blend between a translation agency and a freelance translator marketplace.

It gives you access to a pool of 22,000+ individual translators around the globe. But unlike most of these other freelance translation websites, you’ll work through the Gengo service, rather than creating a direct relationship with the translator.

This also lets Gengo offer fixed per-word prices, which makes it easier to plan your costs.

However, if you do want to work directly with a freelance translator, you might prefer using a different website.

Note – Gengo comes from Lionbridge, a large company that made our list of the best website localization services.

Pricing

Gengo offers fixed per-word pricing for its translation services. The exact rate will depend on your language pairs and the translation tier that you choose.

There are two tiers:

1. Standard – from $0.06 per word – these are translators who passed Gengo’s basic quality test.
2. Advanced – from $0.12 per word – these are translators who passed Gengo’s more advanced skills test, so they should theoretically offer better quality.

Pros

• Gengo offers fixed-rate per-word prices, which makes it easy to estimate your costs.
• Keeping with the previous point, there are no added fees above the translation costs (like you might pay at Upwork or Freelancer).
• There’s no need to manually vet freelancers – Gengo has already done that for you. All you need to do is add your text.

Cons

• While fixed-rate prices have advantages, they can also be a con because you don’t have any chance to negotiate a good deal.
• You won’t work directly with the freelance translator, so it’s not a good option if you’re looking to build a long-term one-on-one relationship.

How to Get Started

1. Go to the Gengo order page.
2. Add your text and choose languages to instantly get a quote.

5. Fiverr

Fiverr is another generic freelance marketplace like Upwork and Freelancer. However, it includes lots of translators so it makes another great option to consider if you’re looking for freelance translator websites.

Unlike Upwork and Freelancer, there’s no option to post your own job and receive bids from freelancers. 

Instead, freelance providers post their services in the marketplace and then you can hire them via those service listings.

For example, if you search for “translate English to Spanish”, you can find all the service providers who offer that type of translation.

You can browse all services to find low-cost options or enable the “Pro services” toggle to browse more premium, high-quality service providers.

Pricing

With Fiverr, the price that you pay will depend on the service provider’s listing.

Unlike Upwork or Freelancer, there are no extra charges beyond what you see on the service page. Fiverr makes its money by exclusively charging the service provider.

Pros

• You can read reviews for the translation service, which helps you gauge its quality.
• You can find some very low prices, all of which are fixed rate so that you know exactly what you’re paying.

Cons

• You can’t post your own freelance translation job at Fiverr.
• There’s no hourly option or per-word rates – you need to use the preset pricing on the service provider page.
• While Fiverr does offer some tools to filter service listings by quality, you’ll largely be responsible for vetting the service provider by reading reviews and looking at other details.

How to Get Started

1. Register for a free Fiverr account.
2. Search the service provider listings to find one that meets your needs.
3. Choose a package on the service provider page and send over the content that you need to be translated.

6. TranslatorsCafe

Like ProZ, TranslatorsCafe is another freelance translator website that’s exclusive to translation, rather than a general freelance marketplace.

The interface can look a little dated, but it’s been around since 2002 and built up a community of over 439,000 registered users.

To connect with freelance translators, you can either post your own job or browse the library of registered freelance translators.

To search translators, you can browse by language pair as well as the physical location of the translator. There’s also an advanced search that lets you look for specializations. 

For example, if you’re translating technical documentation, you might look for someone with related technical skills.

Pricing

The price that you pay will depend on which freelance translation professional you choose.

There’s no cost to register for an account and contact translators.

The site makes money by selling a Master membership to translators to help them better market their services.

Pros

• TranslatorsCafe has a large community of over 439,000 registered users. While not all of those users are active, you still get access to a lot of freelance translators.
• TranslatorsCafe is free to post jobs – the site primarily monetizes itself by charging freelancers/agencies a membership fee.
• You can browse translators by specialization, which is great if you’re looking for a freelance translator with certain domain-specific knowledge.

Cons

• The interface is a bit dated and it’s not always the most user-friendly website to use. It definitely shows its age.

How to Get Started

1. Register for a free TranslatorsCafe account.
2. Connect with freelance translators using one of these options:
   • Use the search/filter options – these can help you find qualified translators for your specific language pairs, location, and/or specialization.
   • Post a job – freelance translators can then bid on your project.

How to Work With a Freelance Translator on Your Website

If you’re hiring a freelance translator to translate your website, you might also be searching for the best way to have the translator translate your content.

While you can just send them the raw content of your website, that’s going to add extra work for you because you’ll then need to manually add all of that translated content to your website.

If you’re using WordPress, a better option might be to use the TranslatePress plugin and its Translator Accounts feature.

With the Translator Accounts feature, you can create a dedicated user account for each of your freelance translators.

Then, those translators will be able to add translations directly to your WordPress site using TranslatePress’s visual, point-and-click translation management interface:

Translators don’t need any special knowledge or software – all they need to do is point and click to translate every single part of your WordPress site.

At the same time, translators will not have access to any other sensitive areas in your WordPress dashboard – they only get the minimum access needed to manage your site’s translations.

If you don’t want to have the freelancer translate your site’s content from scratch, you could also generate your site’s baseline translations automatically using Google Translate or DeepL automatic translation.

Then, you can just have the freelance translator edit and revise the machine translated content as needed.

Try These Freelance Translation Websites Today

That wraps up our guide on the best freelance translator websites and marketplaces.

If you’re looking to hire a freelance translator, we hope one of the sites can help connect you with the right professional.

On the other hand, if you’re willing to pay a little more, you also might want to check out our list of the best translation agencies, which can offer a more turnkey alternative to working directly with a freelance translator.

If you’re searching for a freelance translator to translate your WordPress website, one of the easiest solutions is to use the TranslatePress plugin and its Translator Accounts feature.

You can give the freelancer an account to add translations directly to your site using a visual interface, which will save you a lot of time and effort.