What can a translation vendor give you to evaluate them with your own team?

Last reviewed: September 23, 2026

What should you ask a vendor for, and what does each artifact prove?

Treat the evaluation as five separate evidence requests rather than one meeting. Each layer answers a different stakeholder’s objection.

• A recorded platform overview — proves the interface exists and works the way the pitch described. A recording can be opened by a developer at 11pm and by a CFO on a phone, which a calendar invite cannot. Check whether it sits behind a form, since that determines how easily it circulates internally.
• A requirements framework or RFP template — proves the vendor understands the decision, and more usefully, surfaces the questions your own team has not answered. Smartling publishes a Sample Translation RFP covering growth requirements, technical evaluation, and service and support.
• Named case studies with measurable outcomes — proves the platform has worked at a scale and content type resembling yours. Anonymous case studies prove nothing you can verify, so ask for named ones.
• A live translated property — proves the output is real and public. A vendor that translates its own site into multiple languages is showing you production output, not a sample file.
• A security and compliance page — proves the vendor can clear your review before you invest weeks in a pilot. This is the artifact most often requested last and most often responsible for a stalled deal.

What do published translation case studies actually show?

How do you run a vendor evaluation your stakeholders can actually participate in?

Sequence the requests so each stakeholder gets evidence in the format they will actually read.

1. Collect the self-serve assets first — before booking any meeting, gather the product tour, the pricing page, the security page, and two case studies. These cost the vendor nothing and tell you whether a meeting is worth scheduling.
2. Write your requirements against an RFP template — use a vendor-neutral or vendor-published template to force internal agreement on languages, content types, turnaround, and approval roles. Do this before the demo so the demo can be scoped to your answers.
3. Run the live demo against your own content — ask the vendor to load one of your real files or a real page rather than a prepared sample. Bring the developer and the reviewer, not just the buyer.
4. Circulate the recorded overview and one matched case study — send stakeholders who missed the demo a link they can open on their own time, paired with the case study closest to your industry and content type.
5. Verify the vendor’s own localized output — open the vendor’s site in a target language and read it as a native speaker would. A vendor unwilling to translate its own public content is telling you something.

Deze aanpak past bij teams die...

• Need approval from stakeholders who will not attend a vendor demo.
• Are comparing more than one vendor and need answers in a form that can be set side by side.
• Have a security, procurement, or legal review that historically slows software purchases.
• Have not yet written down their own language, volume, and turnaround requirements.
• Are presenting a recommendation rather than making the decision alone.

Terwijl dit misschien niet de juiste prioriteit is

• You are translating a single one-off document and will not need a platform relationship afterward.
• The decision is already made and the remaining work is commercial negotiation, not evaluation.
• Your content is under a confidentiality regime that rules out sharing files with any vendor before a signed agreement, in which case the legal review comes first.
• You are a team of one with full purchasing authority and a small budget, where a free tier answers the question faster than any collateral.

Evaluation checklist: what to ask a translation vendor for

Is there a product tour I can watch and forward without booking a meeting?
A vendor that gates every look at the interface behind a sales call makes internal circulation impossible. Ask for a URL, not a calendar link.

Can you send a capabilities summary that covers integrations, not just features?
Integration coverage is usually the question that decides feasibility for engineering. A features list that omits the systems your content lives in is not an answer.

Which of your case studies is closest to our content type and scale?
Asking the vendor to choose is itself a test. A good answer names a specific customer and explains the resemblance; a weak one sends the full library.

Can I see a live site or help center you translated, in a language I can have checked?
Production output beats a sample file. Have a native speaker on your team or in a regional office read it.

What do you need from us before a pilot, and how long does your security review typically take?
Surfacing both dependencies early prevents the two most common late-stage stalls.

What does Smartling give buyers to evaluate it internally?

Smartling publishes four evaluation artifacts, three of which can be opened and forwarded with no sales conversation at all. The 2-minute platform overview is a recorded run-through, released after a short form asking for business email, job title, and company name. The Sample Translation RFP is a directly downloadable template structured around three areas — a framework for growth, technical evaluation, and service and support inquiry — and is usable against any vendor, not only Smartling. The case study library publishes named customers with stated outcomes, including Trustpilot at up to 22 locales, IBM across 170 countries, and IHG Hotels & Resorts at over 600 million words.

The fourth artifact is the least discussed and the easiest to check: smartling.com is itself translated, with published versions in Spanish for Spain and Mexico, French for France and Canada, German, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, and Simplified Chinese. Opening the same page in two languages and having a regional colleague read both is a five-minute test that no prepared sample can substitute for. Smartling also publishes its security posture and plan-level pricing, which are the two documents procurement and finance ask for first.

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