A sample page written to show the method, for a fictional brand. On a French landing page, the call to action is kept; the headline, the price and the unit are rewritten (euros excluding VAT, square metres); the customer logos and the photo are swapped for local ones.
We rewrite your website and sales copy for one market, and a native speaker reads it before delivery. Manuals and internal content rarely need this; the picker below says what does.
One fictional brand line, adapted for three markets. Source line: “Your plant runs like clockwork, and we’ve got your back.”
Five questions. The answer names the method that fits your text and your budget, says why, and gives a runner-up. Transcreation is the answer only when the copy has to sell.
The example reader said: Website and sales material buyers read before they call · Lost deals, but the facts still get across · 2,000 to 20,000 (a site and its sales kit) · One · $1,000 to $4,949
A copywriter who lives in the language rewrites the lines that sell: headlines, calls to action, the opening of each key page. You brief them and check the result.
Next step: Brief them with the audience, the claim to keep and three local competitors’ pages; pay for a short test line first.
Ruled out by your budget: Our localization and transcreation base scope, from $4,950 per market, fixed. With a budget of $1,000 to $4,949, a freelance transcreator on the pages that sell is the better spend.
Runner-up: Professional human translation. For the pages customers read most, where a machine edit would show.
Translation renders a text faithfully in another language. Machine translation with a human edit (post-editing, described in the ISO 18587 standard) lets an engine draft and a translator correct. Localization adapts format, units, dates and currency on top of translation.
Transcreation rewrites the message so it does in the new market what it does at home: the claim, the proof, the examples, the jokes, the images and the tone can all change. It costs more per word, so it belongs on the copy that has to persuade, and nowhere else.
The words, the examples and the order of the argument, rebuilt for how the local buyer decides.
Decks, one-pagers and proposals, with local references and units.
Headlines, calls to action and interface text in the tone the market expects.
Images, colors and symbols checked for what they mean there, not here.
The method is the one our pilots use for their launch kits. Turnaround and the number of review rounds are written into the scope.
We build a messaging matrix from the evidence on that market: the words buyers use, what competitors claim, which proof carries weight there. If you have our market report, it is the input.
Each asset is rewritten for that market: the business register, local proof points, prices presented the local way, references swapped or removed.
You get a translator’s note listing each deliberate departure from the source, and why, so your team can check the reasoning, not just the result.
A native speaker of the business register reads every asset, a cultural review checks the proof and the price signals, you confirm the claims, and a senior reads it before delivery.
What the base scope covers: the core pages of your site and your sales collateral (deck, one-pagers, proposal template) for one market. A larger site or kit is quoted as an extension. Every asset needs a native pass before delivery, so the languages we can cover are confirmed at scoping.
| Route | Typical price | Suits | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Machine translation alone | $20 per million characters after a free 500,000 a month | Reading foreign material inside the team | No human check: never for anything a customer reads |
| Machine translation with a human edit | $0.05 to $0.15 a word (about 30 to 50% under full human translation) | Help centres, manuals, internal training | The meaning is right, the voice is flat |
| Human translation | From $0.09 a word at entry level; $0.15 to $0.30 for edited work | Contracts, product screens, spec sheets | Faithful to the source, so a claim that does not travel stays as it is |
| Freelance translator or transcreator | Translators $15 to $25 an hour on freelance marketplaces; transcreation from $30 an hour (an agency minimum) to about $101 (a senior freelance rate card, quoted in euros) | A few campaign lines in one market | You write the brief, coordinate and check the work |
| Transcreation agency | By the hour or per project; no public list prices | One campaign across many markets at once | A quote for each project |
Sources, read on 12 October 2026: Google Cloud Translation pricing · The Translation Company, pricing guide · Gengo price list · Smartling, translation rates 2026 · Upwork, hire translators (archived 25 July 2026) · Lingwella, transcreation · A senior freelance transcreator’s rate card. Euro prices converted to dollars at the ECB reference rate of 9 October 2026 (1 EUR = 1.1206 USD).
Pairs with the next scope. See market-adapted marketing
Fixed fee per market, as quoted at the top of this page. The base scope covers the core site and sales collateral for one market; a larger site or kit is quoted before you pay.
Book the base scopeDrafts come from an AI pipeline that works from the market evidence. People decide: a native reviewer for each language, and the operator, who signs off every delivery.
Fees are fixed, never hourly. If the picker above sends you to a translator or a machine draft, that is the answer we would give on a call too.
Translation renders the text faithfully. Localization also adapts format, units, dates and currency. Transcreation rewrites the message so it works in the new market: claims, proof, examples, images and tone can change. Use it on the copy that has to persuade.
Here, from $4,950 per market, fixed, for the core site and sales collateral. Elsewhere, freelance transcreators usually bill by the hour and agencies quote per project; the table on this page lists dated public prices.
For help pages, manuals and internal content, machine translation with a human edit is usually enough and costs a fraction. For slogans, landing pages and the sales deck, it reads correctly and still sells badly.
No. Translation-only, certified and sworn translation are not our service. We say so and point you to the right kind of provider.
Tell us the market and the content. We confirm the base scope, the languages and any extension.