Translation · head to head
Gengo vs Reverso
Gengo
Translation
Human translation marketplace and API, priced per word from $0.06, owned by Lionbridge since 2019
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Reverso
Translation
Consumer translation, dictionary and grammar tool with a free tier and a Premium subscription around $6.49 to $9.99 a month
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Reverso has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Gengo it is not a fit for specialised legal, medical or literary translation, since the crowdsourced model is built for higher-volume, lower-complexity content.; Reverso there is no meaningful volume-priced developer API, so it is not a fit for embedding translation into an application the way Google, Microsoft or Amazon’s APIs are.
- They diverge on capability: Gengo covers Standard and Pro quality tiers, Reverso covers Context search.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Gengo and Reverso actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Translation).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Gengo
- Standard and Pro quality tiers
- Developer API
- No minimum spend
- Crowdsourced translator network
- Bulk file upload
- CMS and platform integrations
Only in Reverso
- Context search
- Text and document translation
- Grammar and rephrasing checker
- Vocabulary trainer
- Browser extensions
- Offline mobile access
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Gengo
- An e-commerce seller translating product listings into multiple languages without a minimum spend requirementnot Reverso
- A company integrating the Gengo API into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translationnot Reverso
- A support team needing occasional human-translated responses without committing to Unbabel’s enterprise minimumnot Reverso
- A publisher needing straightforward, transparently priced human translation for shorter, lower-stakes contentnot Reverso
Reverso
- A language learner wanting real bilingual example sentences alongside a raw translation, not just a single output stringnot Gengo
- A translator using context search to check idiomatic usage before finalising a phrasenot Gengo
- A student or writer subscribing to Premium for ad-free use, offline access and a grammar checker in one toolnot Gengo
- A small business needing occasional document translation within the Pro tier’s 200,000-word annual capnot Gengo
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Gengo
- It is not a fit for specialised legal, medical or literary translation, since the crowdsourced model is built for higher-volume, lower-complexity content.
- Quality consistency depends on which individual translator from the crowdsourced network is assigned, which can vary more than a dedicated agency relationship would.
- Turnaround, while fast for its category, is still meaningfully slower than a machine translation API, since every job requires a human to complete it.
- Since being acquired by Lionbridge in 2019, Gengo’s product direction is now set within a much larger localisation company’s priorities rather than as an independent business.
- Per-word pricing, while transparent, is still substantially more expensive per unit of content than a machine translation API, so it is a poor fit for translating very large volumes of low-stakes content.
Reverso
- There is no meaningful volume-priced developer API, so it is not a fit for embedding translation into an application the way Google, Microsoft or Amazon’s APIs are.
- Document translation is capped by annual word count even on paid tiers, ruling it out for high-volume automated translation workloads.
- It has no on-premises or enterprise-scale deployment option, unlike Systran, so organisations with data residency requirements cannot use it for sensitive content.
- The free tier is ad-supported and limited on document translation, pushing regular users toward Premium fairly quickly.
- Context search quality depends on the size and domain coverage of its bilingual corpus, which can thin out for less common language pairs or highly technical terminology.
Pricing, plan by plan
Gengo
On request- Standard$0.06/month
- Human translation, $0.06 per word starting rate
- No minimum spend or setup fee
- Pro$undefined/month
- Higher-quality tier, rate varies by language pair and content type
- Human translation with additional review
Reverso
Free- FreeFree
- Text translation and context search, ad-supported
- Limited document translation
- Premium$6.49/month
- Billed annually; $9.99 if billed monthly
- Ad-free, 50,000 words/year document translation
- Premium grammar checker, offline mobile access
- Pro$19.99/month
- 200,000 words/year document translation
- Larger file size support (up to 120MB), more formats
Which should you pick?
Choose Reverso if
- You need context search.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, Chrome.
- You also want text and document translation.
Questions people ask
- Is Gengo or Reverso better?
- Neither clearly leads. Gengo starts at On request and Reverso at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Gengo or Reverso?
- Reverso has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Gengo and Free for Reverso.
- Does Gengo or Reverso run on more platforms?
- Gengo runs on Web. Reverso runs on Web, iOS, Android, Chrome.
- Can I use Reverso for free?
- Yes. Reverso has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Gengo starts at On request.
- What is Gengo best used for?
- Gengo is most often used for an e-commerce seller translating product listings into multiple languages without a minimum spend requirement, a company integrating the gengo api into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translation, a support team needing occasional human-translated responses without committing to unbabel’s enterprise minimum, a publisher needing straightforward, transparently priced human translation for shorter, lower-stakes content. Of those, an e-commerce seller translating product listings into multiple languages without a minimum spend requirement and a company integrating the gengo api into a content pipeline to automatically route text for human translation are not what Reverso is typically brought in for.
- What can Gengo do that Reverso cannot?
- Gengo covers Standard and Pro quality tiers, Developer API, No minimum spend, Crowdsourced translator network. Reverso covers Context search, Text and document translation, Grammar and rephrasing checker, Vocabulary trainer.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Gengo: Is Gengo machine translation or human translation?
Human translation. It should be compared with Unbabel, not with Google Translate, Microsoft Translator or Amazon Translate, which are machine translation APIs.
Reverso: Is Reverso a machine translation API for developers?
No, it is a consumer-facing product with no significant developer API business; Google, Microsoft or Amazon are the appropriate choice for embedding translation into an application.
Gengo: Is there a minimum spend?
No, Gengo publishes per-word pricing with no minimum spend or setup fee, unlike Unbabel’s enterprise-gated rate structure.
Reverso: What is the context search feature?
It shows real bilingual example sentences from translated documents and subtitles alongside a translation, which is useful for checking natural usage rather than a raw one-line output.
Gengo: Who owns Gengo?
Lionbridge, a larger localisation and AI data services company, acquired Gengo in January 2019.
Reverso: How much document translation do I get on Premium?
50,000 words a year on Premium; the Pro tier raises that to 200,000 words a year with larger file support.
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