I’ve been a Swedish translator for close to 20 years. Every once in a while potential clients question my prices. They look at the marketing pamphlet they want me to translate—just a few paragraphs on glossy paper—and wonder how one little Swedish translation can cost that much.
If they’d ever worked with a more popular language, like Spanish or Chinese, they’ve probably seen per-word rates far below what I’m offering. Or, perhaps, they got a quote from Fiverr or Freelancer that’s nowhere near as high.
Going with the lower price might get you a translated document, but you can expect the results to vary widely. Is it a good idea to price shop for translations? What goes into pricing a Swedish translation? Before we go any further, I thought I’d give you a thought exercise.
Trying to Determine Swedish Translation Costs
Close your eyes and imagine two cars. On the left is a shiny luxury sedan sold by Brand A. It’s spacious and roomy with an all-leather, imported interior, chrome wheels, performance driving, and extra safety features. To the right of the luxury brand vehicle is a simple economy car from Brand B. It has the same four doors and a basic silhouette. This vehicle’s windows must be rolled up by hand, and there is no Bluetooth.
The first car costs $55,000 and the second just $20,000. Either vehicle will get you back and forth to work, but which vehicle you ultimately choose depends on how much you value performance over the price tag. Is it the same when buying translations? Not really. It’s not that easy to see which translator offers a better value. There are four main reasons for this.
Why Price Can’t Encapsulate Everything When It Comes to Swedish Translation Costs
1. You Don’t Start with a Physical Product
If you stood in a car lot blindfolded and told to pick which car was better, you’d have a 50-50 shot of getting it right. When you purchase a service—like professional Swedish translation—you don’t have anything tangible to compare it to. Instead, you have to examine the English-Swedish translator’s website and past clients to see who’s the better fit. But you won’t know what kind of work you’ll end up with until the job is delivered.
2. Most Buyers Don’t Have the Skills Necessary to Spot a Good Swedish Translation
When you drive a luxury car and then hop inside a used, older one, you can tell the difference. The ride in the former is a little smoother, and the steering wheel a bit better suited to your fingers. Unfortunately, as somebody who doesn’t speak Swedish, you don’t know what a good translation looks like. Furthermore, as someone with limited knowledge of Swedish translation, you have no idea what qualifications a good translator should have. Here are some things you can look for, though:
- Professional certifications, accreditations, and credentials they have
- Their previous clients and their testimonials
- Samples of their work, portfolios, or case studies
3. Price Differentiators in Translation Aren’t Easily Comparable
Swedish translator A possesses 15 years of experience in the industry you’re looking for. Translator B only has two. How much is the extra experience worth? What about those SEO skills and direct experience with English Swedish transcreation? Unlike a car—which can be priced based on the labor and material cost—the cost of Swedish translations doesn’t fit into a generic pricing structure.
4. Average Pricing Doesn’t Capture the Industry’s Richness
Car A might have three or four different models. Finding the differences in cost on these is as simple as opening your browser. But there’s not as much info out there for translation costs. A little bit of research shows that a Swedish translator’s average per-word rate ranges between $0.14 per word to $0.22.
How do you know if your job justifies that price point? Is it highly technical with industry terminology that only a specialist would understand? Or is it a marketing text that needs creative translation and localization for the local market? Both would mean a higher price since you need a specialized translator for the project. What about cultural knowledge and industry expertise? Figuring out where your request falls on the difficulty spectrum isn’t easy.
5. It’s Not Always Apple to Apples
After getting quotes for your Swedish translation (at least three of them), you might be tempted to jump on the one with the lowest price. But you need to take a step back. Not all translators are created equal. The one with the higher price may also offer proofreading by a second professional linguist, hire a professional quality checker, and have 10+ years of experience in your niche. The one with the lower price could be just out of college with next to nothing in their portfolio and no auxiliary services. So, before you let price be your deciding factor, make sure you’re doing a fair comparison.
Things That Affect Swedish Translation Costs
Swedish translations are amongst the more expensive languages—likely due to the high costs of living in the Nordic countries. Please note, however, that the going rate for a specific translator and a specific document can vary widely depending on the following factors:
- Content Complexity: Content that requires a lot of field-specific knowledge, such as legal documents and marketing pieces, will cost more than something like a press release or cover letter.
- Delivery Time: Do you need the translation done in 24 or 48 hours? Rush jobs tend to come with added fees and an increased hourly rate.
- Volume: The larger the document, the more likely you are to receive a per-word discount. This is not always the case, however, and is something that should be discussed with your translator ahead of time.
- Pricing Structure: Some translators charge a fixed price per page, others charge a base hourly rate, while still more price based on the number of words in the source document. This can lead to a lot of price variation. Doublecheck what method your quoted translators are using before settling on a candidate.
- Their Experience: A new Swedish translator can’t command the same rates as a veteran one. It’s simple economics.
- Add-On Services: Does your translator’s pricing include editing, keyword optimization, cultural adaptation, or software localization? Is he or she less of a plain translator and more of a transcreator? Auxiliary services, which can often take up more time than the job itself, need to be built into their per-word rates.
How Do I Ensure I Don’t Pay Too Much for a Professional Swedish Translator?
As I mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of complexity involved in pricing out a translation job. While the average per-word rate for a professional Swedish translator is great for setting a baseline, the final price depends on what you’re looking for. Here are some things to consider.
- Calculate a ballpark per-word rate for your job by looking up your industry rate and the target language rate
- Check your potential translator’s website or profiles, to get a better understanding of their qualifications
- Verify your chosen translator belongs to a professional association, and even better, is certified by a professional organization.
- Ask for a quote that breaks down the services in black and white for easier comparison
- Confirm the time-to-completion for each vendor
- Look at the customer service you receive when contacting the translation providers
Google Translate Seems to Work Pretty Well. Can’t I Use That?
As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into determining the price of a Swedish translation. You might be tempted just to skip the hassle and throw your text into Google Translate. I get the temptation. I’ll be the first person to admit that machine translators—like Google Translate—have come a long way. But they’re still not at the same level as professional, human translators.
To capitalize on your price sensitivity, some translation companies offer a surprisingly cheap ‘basic translation service.’ But at that price, you might end up with a piece translated by a machine translation engine with some basic editing by a translator. If you published the resulting translation or sent it to stakeholders, or customers, you risk losing their trust and business.
Don’t be tempted to forego the above steps and plug your text into Google Translate, or hire the cheapest service out there. By the time a professional translator gets through fixing it, you’ll pay far more than the typical price of a professional Swedish translation.
If You Want Your Marketing to Succeed in Sweden, Pay for a Professional Swedish Translator
Unfortunately, there is no single, end-all-be-all price for Swedish translation. When selecting a translator for your marketing material, or important documents, remember that quality and price are often intricately connected. Many factors determine the price of a Swedish translation but fixating on cost often results in unforeseen consequences.
If you’re looking for marketing or technology translation at the lowest price, I am not the freelancer for you. If you want someone that has two certifications and nearly two decades of experience, however, I invite you to contact me for your English-Swedish translation needs. I would be happy to give you a no-obligation quote on the translation of your marketing material. You can contact Swedish Translation Services here.
Do you have any other questions about hiring me as a professional Swedish translator? I answer the most common questions here.
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