Translation · alternatives
Alternatives to MateCat
19 translation tools sit alongside MateCat in this directory. Below is what separates each from MateCat on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 19
- With a free tier
- 8
- Cheaper to start
- -
- MateCat starts at
- Free
Why people look past MateCat
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the MateCat entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is only one tier
MateCat publishes a single plan, MateCat at Free. There is no smaller tier to drop to if the fit is wrong or the budget moves.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Free, open source desktop CAT tool under the GPLv3, maintained by a volunteer community rather than a company
Priced and rated the same as MateCat on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Human-in-the-loop translation combining machine translation with human post-editing, priced per word rather than per character
- No free tier, where MateCat has one.
- Sold on a quote model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
Azure AI Translator, priced at $10 per million characters for standard text translation with volume commitment discounts available
- Sold on a Per million characters model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
- 3 tiers to MateCat's 1.
AWS machine translation API priced at $15 per million characters, with a 2 million character monthly free tier for the first 12 months
- Sold on a Per million characters model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
- 4 tiers to MateCat's 1.
Free consumer translation app and website, backed by the paid Cloud Translation API priced per million characters
- Sold on a Per million characters model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
- 4 tiers to MateCat's 1.
Consumer translation, dictionary and grammar tool with a free tier and a Premium subscription around $6.49 to $9.99 a month
- Sold on a Per user per month model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
- 3 tiers to MateCat's 1.
Every MateCat alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MateCat (this page) | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | |
| OmegaTIf you want a fully independent, volunteer-maintained desktop tool rather than a company-hosted browser service | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs MateCat |
| UnbabelIf you need managed human-in-the-loop translation rather than a self-service CAT tool | On request | Quote | 1 | vs MateCat |
| Microsoft Translator | Free | Per million characters | 3 | vs MateCat |
| Amazon Translate | Free | Per million characters | 4 | vs MateCat |
| Google Translate | Free | Per million characters | 4 | vs MateCat |
| Reverso | Free | Per user per month | 3 | vs MateCat |
| wxrks | Free, then $38/month | Per year by processed word volume | 8 | vs MateCat |
| POEditor | Free, then $14.99/month | Per month by string count | 4 | vs MateCat |
| Pontoon | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs MateCat |
| Plunet | On request | Quote | 1 | vs MateCat |
| XTRF | On request | Quote | 1 | vs MateCat |
| Systran | On request | Per user per month, or quote for Enterprise | 3 | vs MateCat |
| Gengo | On request | Per word | 2 | vs MateCat |
| Smartcat | $1200/year | Per year by Smartword volume | 4 | vs MateCat |
| SDL Trados Studio | On request | Quote | 1 | vs MateCat |
| Sonix | $10/month | Per hour of transcription | 5 | vs MateCat |
| Smartling | On request | Quote | 3 | vs MateCat |
| XTM Cloud | On request | Quote | 3 | vs MateCat |
| Wordbee | €150/month | Per power user per month | 7 | vs MateCat |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the MateCat badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (8)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- OmegaT , Free
- Microsoft Translator , Free
- Amazon Translate , Free
- Google Translate , Free
- Reverso , Free
- wxrks , Free, then $38/month
- POEditor , Free, then $14.99/month
- Pontoon , Free
What you would be giving up
MateCat is most often brought in for a freelance translator wanting a no-install, browser-based cat tool with built-in machine translation suggestions, a small agency wanting basic hosted project management without paying for a commercial tms, a translator who wants mt suggestions from multiple engines surfaced alongside translation memory matches in one interface, a team occasionally needing quick file translation through a browser without setting up desktop software. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If MateCat is broadly right and the question is cost, the MateCat pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Translation category lists everything the directory holds, and best translation tools ranks them.
MateCat runs on web. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about MateCat alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to MateCat?
- 19 other translation tools are listed in this directory, led by OmegaT, Unbabel, Microsoft Translator, Amazon Translate. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to MateCat?
- 8 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: OmegaT, Microsoft Translator, Amazon Translate, Google Translate, Reverso.
- Why do people look for an alternative to MateCat?
- On the figures on record, one thing stands out: there is only one tier. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from MateCat?
- MateCat is most often brought in for a freelance translator wanting a no-install, browser-based cat tool with built-in machine translation suggestions, a small agency wanting basic hosted project management without paying for a commercial tms, a translator who wants mt suggestions from multiple engines surfaced alongside translation memory matches in one interface, a team occasionally needing quick file translation through a browser without setting up desktop software. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to MateCat?
- None of the translation tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these MateCat alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Translation, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare MateCat against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against MateCat covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every translation tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Translation category, 19 tools beside MateCat. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.