Translation price per word or per page: how to compare website quotes

Translators quote in different units: per word, per standard page, per line, per hour, or a flat fee for the job. A website has no pages in the print sense, so the only fair way to compare is to turn your site into one number first, the words a visitor reads, and convert every quote into a price per word and per language. Here's how to do that, and what quotes tend to leave out.

Why quotes come in different units

Ask three translators to price the same website and you can get three different units back:

  • Per word. The most common unit for websites and the easiest to compare. It's usually counted on your original text, so you know the price before the work starts.
  • Per standard page. Common in German-speaking countries (the Normseite) and for printed documents. A standard page is a fixed number of characters, not a page of your website, so a long web page can be several standard pages and a short one a fraction of one.
  • Per line. Also common in German-speaking markets, often counted on the finished translation. Then you only know the exact price once the work is done.
  • Per hour. Usual for editing, proofreading or small fixes, rarely for a whole site.
  • A flat fee for the project. Simple to read, hard to compare, unless the quote says how many words it assumed.

None of these is better than the others. They just can't be compared until they're in the same unit.

Step 1: turn your website into a word count

Before you ask for quotes, count what actually needs translating. That's more than the body text of your pages:

  • the text of every page and post,
  • page titles and the search descriptions (meta descriptions) Google shows,
  • image alt texts,
  • menus, the header and the footer, counted once, not on every page,
  • buttons, form labels and the confirmation messages people see after they send a form.

Numbers, code and text nobody sees don't count. The free word counter and translation cost calculator does this for you: enter your site's address and it counts the words a visitor reads, page text, titles, meta descriptions and alt texts, with menus, headers and footers counted once. It keeps the word counts for a day and nothing else.

Send translators that number, and the list of pages, rather than "about 20 pages". It saves a round of questions and gets you quotes on the same basis.

Step 2: convert every quote into a price per word

Once you know your word count, divide each quote by it:

  • Per-word quote: already done. Check whether it's counted on your text or on the translation.
  • Per standard page or per line: ask the translator how many characters a page or a line has and whether spaces count, then ask what they expect your word count to come to in pages or lines. Turning characters into words depends on the language, so let them do it for your text instead of guessing.
  • Flat fee: divide by your word count. If the quote is for "the website", ask which pages and how many words it covers.
  • Per hour: ask for an estimate in hours for your word count. Without one, you can't compare it.

Then put every quote side by side as a price per word, per language. That's the number that tells you who is cheaper.

Step 3: multiply by your languages

Every language is translated separately. 10,000 words into three languages are 30,000 words to pay for. A quote "for the website" is usually for one language pair, so check before you compare a translator's quote with a plugin's plan, which counts words across all your languages.

A worked example with the calculator's default rate of €0.12 a word, which you can change to the quotes you got:

Your site Into 1 language Into 3 languages
12,000 words, translator at €0.12 a word €1,440 €4,320
12,000 words, machine translation plus review at €0.04 a word €480 €1,440

The second line is our own assumption (about a third of a full translation), not a market price. Use it as a rough guide only.

What quotes tend to leave out

The per-word price is rarely the whole bill. Ask about these before you accept a quote:

  • Minimum fees. Small jobs (a new page, a price change) often cost a minimum charge, whatever the word count.
  • Updates. You pay again for every new or changed page. A site you update every month costs more each year than the first translation suggests. Our guide to keeping a translated website in sync covers how to keep that work small.
  • Proofreading. Some quotes include a second translator checking the text; some don't.
  • Formats. Copying text out of your website and back in takes time. Ask whether the translator works from a document you send, or whether putting the text into the site is your job.
  • Search details. Titles and meta descriptions are short but matter for Google. Make sure they're in the quote, not forgotten.
  • Specialist subjects. Legal, medical and technical texts usually cost more per word than general marketing copy.

When a per-word price is the right choice

For some text, a professional translator is worth every cent: terms and conditions, contracts, anything medical or legal, and your most important sales page if you sell in that market. Pay per word for those.

For the rest of a website, the pages you update often, the blog, the opening hours and the price list, the cost of translating every change adds up. That's the case FolioPress is built for: you write each page once, AI drafts the translation of the page, its title and its search description into every language you have switched on, and nothing goes live until you've reviewed it. There's no word count: it's €12 a month for a site in two languages or €19 a month for all 56 languages, website and hosting included (pricing). AI translation is included with a monthly allowance, and it's a draft for you to check, not a certified translation. You can still send the pages that matter to a translator and paste their text in.

If you're comparing FolioPress with translation plugins rather than with translators, the comparison page puts the plans side by side.

A checklist for your next quote

  1. Count your words, including titles, meta descriptions and alt texts.
  2. Send that number and the page list with your request.
  3. Ask for the unit, and whether it's counted on your text or the translation.
  4. Convert every quote to a price per word, per language.
  5. Ask about minimum fees, updates and proofreading.
  6. Decide which pages need a professional and which can be reviewed drafts.

Do that and the cheapest quote is easy to spot, and so is the one that will cost more later.