MateCatvs
OmegaT
OmegaT: If you want a fully independent, volunteer-maintained desktop tool rather than a company-hosted browser service
MateCat
Free, browser-based CAT tool under the LGPL, developed and hosted by the translation company Translated
As of 1 September 2026, MateCat is free to use. An online computer-assisted translation tool, free to use, that originated as an EU-funded research project and is now developed and operated by the commercial translation company Translated. Softwr lists it under Translation. MateCat is made by Translated srl, available on Web.
Overview
What MateCat does
MateCat is a browser-based CAT tool offering translation memory, machine translation suggestions, quality assurance checks and project management for translators and small teams, requiring no software installation since it runs entirely in a web browser. It began as a three-year research project (2011 to 2014) funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme, receiving over 2.5 million euros of EU funding before being carried forward commercially. The fact that distinguishes it from OmegaT is who maintains it: MateCat is released as open source under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), but its ongoing development, hosting and commercial operation sit with Translated srl, an Italian translation company, rather than with a volunteer community. That gives MateCat a browser-based interface, built-in machine translation suggestions pulling from multiple engines, and hosted project management, at the cost of depending on Translated’s continued operation and infrastructure decisions for the hosted version most users actually use, even though the underlying code is technically open source and self-hostable. Buyers, again in the adoption sense, are freelance translators and small agencies who want a free, no-install CAT tool with modern machine translation integration built in, without paying for Trados or memoQ. The trade-off is that Translated’s own paid services and business interests sit alongside the free tool, and organisations wanting guaranteed long-term control over their tooling need to weigh depending on a company-run hosted service against OmegaT’s fully independent desktop alternative.
What people use it 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
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about MateCat.
- The hosted version most users rely on depends on Translated srl’s continued operation and infrastructure decisions, unlike a self-run desktop tool.
- It is developed by a commercial translation company whose own paid services sit alongside the free tool, which is worth being aware of when evaluating vendor neutrality.
- Being browser-based, it requires a stable internet connection, unlike OmegaT’s fully offline desktop application.
- Advanced terminology management and enterprise-scale project features are more limited than a paid commercial TMS such as memoQ or Smartling.
- Self-hosting the open source LGPL code independently of Translated’s hosted service requires technical setup effort that most individual translators are unlikely to undertake.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of MateCat
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- MateCatvsUnbabel
Unbabel: If you need managed human-in-the-loop translation rather than a self-service CAT tool
Pricing
What MateCat costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
MateCat
Free
- Free browser-based CAT tool, LGPL licensed
- Hosted and operated by Translated srl
Capabilities
Features
Browser-based CAT interface
No installation required, runs entirely in a web browser
Machine translation suggestions
Built-in MT engine integration suggesting translations alongside translation memory matches
Translation memory
Segment-level leverage and fuzzy matching across projects
Quality assurance checks
Automated checks for consistency, terminology and formatting errors
Project management
File upload, assignment and progress tracking for small translation teams
File translation
Support for common document formats translated directly through the browser interface
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is MateCat really free?
Yes, it is free to use as a hosted browser-based tool and released as open source under the LGPL.
Who maintains MateCat?
Translated srl, an Italian translation company, develops and hosts it; this differs from OmegaT, which is maintained by a volunteer open source community.
Can I self-host MateCat instead of using Translated’s hosted version?
The code is open source under the LGPL and technically self-hostable, but doing so requires meaningful technical setup most individual users skip in favour of the hosted service.
Keep looking
Where to go from MateCat
- MateCat alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- MateCat pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- MateCat badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Translation softwareThe full category
- Best Translation softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Translation software for
Compare MateCat with
- OmegaT
- Gengo
- Unbabel
- SDL Trados Studio
- Twine
- Pontoon
- XTM Cloud
- Smartling
- Google Translate
- XTRF
- Localazy
- Wordbee
- Sonix
- wxrks
- SDL Trados Studio
- Pontoon
- XTRF
- Localazy
Other Translation software
Free, open source desktop CAT tool under the GPLv3, maintained by a volunteer community rather than a company
Open source10 researched notesHuman translation marketplace and API, priced per word from $0.06, owned by Lionbridge since 2019
10 researched notesHuman-in-the-loop translation combining machine translation with human post-editing, priced per word rather than per character
Pricing on request10 researched notesWindows desktop CAT tool that agencies treat as the default exchange format
Pricing on request11 researched notesMozilla open source localisation platform that you host yourself
Open source11 researched notesEnterprise translation management from XTM International, now the centre of a private-equity backed roll-up that also owns Transifex
Pricing on request12 researched notesEnterprise translation management sold alongside first-party language services priced per word
Pricing on request12 researched notesFree consumer translation app and website, backed by the paid Cloud Translation API priced per million characters
Free plan11 researched notesTranslation business management system for language service providers, with published pricing starting at $9,000 a year
Pricing on request11 researched notesLocalisation platform priced per source string, where adding target languages costs nothing extra
Free, then $34/mo12 researched notesLuxembourg translation management priced at a flat 150 EUR per power user per month, with translators and requesters not counted as seats
From €150/mo12 researched notesAutomated transcription and translation with per-hour pricing published up front
From $10/mo12 researched notesTranslation platform formerly called Bureau Works, priced by processed words per year with unlimited seats and a real free tier
Free, then $38/mo12 researched notesWindows desktop CAT tool that agencies treat as the default exchange format
Pricing on request11 researched notesMozilla open source localisation platform that you host yourself
Open source11 researched notesTranslation business management system for language service providers, with published pricing starting at $9,000 a year
Pricing on request11 researched notesLocalisation platform priced per source string, where adding target languages costs nothing extra
Free, then $34/mo12 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for MateCat, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on MateCat
MateCat alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
MateCat pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare MateCat
Put it head to head with anything we hold
MateCat badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Translation software alternatives
Azure AI Translator, priced at $10 per million characters for standard text translation with volume commitment discounts available
Per million charactersFree, open source desktop CAT tool under the GPLv3, maintained by a volunteer community rather than a company
Open source, no licence fee
Consumer translation, dictionary and grammar tool with a free tier and a Premium subscription around $6.49 to $9.99 a month
Per user per monthHuman translation marketplace and API, priced per word from $0.06, owned by Lionbridge since 2019
Per word
Business and translation management system for language service providers and in-house translation departments
quoteFree consumer translation app and website, backed by the paid Cloud Translation API priced per million characters
Per million characters
AWS machine translation API priced at $15 per million characters, with a 2 million character monthly free tier for the first 12 months
Per million characters