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English German translation agency in Germany - the honest price comparison

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German translation agency — an honest comparison of what you pay for.

A binding fixed price before you order, from US$1.05 per standard line — no re-calculation, no hidden costs. We show openly what a freelancer, machine translation and a full-service agency really cost, and what each price actually includes.

Get a fixed price See the price comparison Germany +49 30 2023 5227 0 Austria +43 1 3050 647 Switzerland +41 44 586 82 97

Reviewed by our team before you get a quote · price binding before the order · affordable means a fair fixed price with the full service — never dumping at the expense of quality.

from US$1.05per standard line · guide
Fixed priceup front · binding
ISO 17100registered · Reg. 7U517
German and Englishnative-speaker

In short

A fair fixed price means the full service, not a bait rate.

termbase editorial team · price logic kept transparent · updated regularly

"Affordable" is not a bait price, but a fair fixed price with the full service. A reputable translation agency names the price before the order — binding, with no re-calculation and no hidden line items. You know in advance what the translation costs and what is included.

The price does not become low by cutting quality, but through translation-memory discounts on repetition, volume and framework agreements and efficient processes to DIN EN ISO 17100. Below you will find the honest price comparison, the three price groups and what is inside the fixed price. Whether you need certified translation for the authorities or specialised legal, medical or technical work, the logic is the same.

Price logic

How many translators a language has — that is what sets the rate.

The line rate depends above all on the language pair: how many qualified specialist translators there are for a language determines the price more than anything else. So we work with three clear groups — the exact fixed price follows the review.

Group 1

from US$1.05 per line — English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch

Common languages with many specialist translators — for example English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch.

Group 2

from US$1.15 per line — Polish, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese, Czech

Mid availability — for example Polish, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese, Czech, Romanian.

Group 3

from US$1.25 per line — rarer languages and demanding fields

Rarer languages and demanding fields — here availability decides, not price alone.

Prices are a guide value per standard line (55 characters incl. spaces). The binding total fixed price depends on volume, field, file condition and deadline. Full price overview →

Price comparison

Freelancer, DeepL or a full-service agency — what each price actually buys.

The lowest line rate is not automatically the cheapest order — what matters is what the price includes and whether the result is, in the end, recognised and professionally sound. An honest comparison:

Translation agency price comparison: machine translation, freelancer and full-service agency
RouteWhat you payWhat is includedSuited to
Machine translation (e.g. DeepL)very low to freeraw output only, no revision, no liability, no certificationinternal gist — not recognised by authorities
Single freelancerlow line rateone person translates alone, usually without a second check; availability and cover uncertainsimple, uncritical texts without deadline pressure
Full-service agency (termbase)fair fixed price from US$1.05specialist translator, revision by a second qualified person, QA & final check; for certified work also certification & dispatchauthorities, legal, medical, technical, business — deadline-safe and dependable

Why the bare line rate misleads: ours includes the second pair of eyes

Machine translation is not recognised. For authorities, courts and universities the certified translation by an authorised translator is what counts — a raw MT output is rejected. The apparently cheap route then becomes expensive, because the process starts again from scratch.

The price of an agency includes the second person. The process standard DIN EN ISO 17100 requires revision by a second, equally qualified person — the four-eyes principle is not a surcharge with us but part of the service. That is exactly what separates the agency price from the solo line rate.

Fields

One translator per field: law, medicine, technology, academia, the web.

A translation agency is only as good as the specialist behind the text. We assign a native-speaker translator with a proven field, so terminology, register and form are right for the receiving side — from a court to a notified body.

Law

Legal translation: contracts, judgments, commercial documents

Contracts, judgments, corporate and commercial documents — legal institutions stay demonstrable, not replaced by foreign ones.

Medicine

Medical translation: findings, studies, package leaflets, device files

Findings, studies, package leaflets and device documentation — precise terminology where accuracy is not optional.

Technology

Technical translation: manuals, data sheets, specifications

Manuals, data sheets and specifications, with consistent terminology managed through a translation memory.

Academia

Research and academia: papers, abstracts, dissertations

Papers, abstracts and dissertations rendered for publication and peer review, with the register the discipline expects.

Websites

Websites and e-commerce: content that reads natively in the target market

Content that reads natively in the target market, keyword-aware, ready for launch across locales.

Certificates

Certified translation: certificates and diplomas with a certification note

Certificates, diplomas and official records with a certification note, recognised by German authorities and courts.

Need it spoken rather than written? We also arrange interpreting for appointments, hearings and negotiations. Explore certified German ⇄ English translation →

A fair fixed price — named beforehand, held afterwards.

Affordable, with us, means the full service at a transparent price — not less quality at a lower line rate.

Certification & recognition

What an office actually checks: authorisation, certification note, ISO 17100.

Reviewed by specialists · termbase editorial team

For submission to German authorities and courts, a court-authorised translator (in German, ermächtigter Übersetzer, authorised by a German court under Section 142 (3) ZPO) produces a certified translation with stamp, signature and certification note — recognised nationwide. That is the form a registry office, an immigration office or a recognition body expects for certificates, diplomas and official records.

FÜD is registered with DIN CERTCO under DIN EN ISO 17100 (Reg. 7U517). Every job passes quality management and a final check; a separate second-person revision is included where it forms part of the agreed service scope. Where a document is destined for use abroad, an apostille may additionally be required; we check that in advance. The apostille itself is issued by the competent authority — termbase does not issue apostilles.

How it becomes cheaper

Where the price legitimately falls: translation memory, volume, clean files.

Translation-memory discounts. A translation memory stores segments already translated. Recurring and similar passages — in manuals, contracts or series of certificates — are recognised and charged at a lower rate. The more repetition, the lower the effective price, with consistent terminology at the same time.

Volume and framework agreements. For regular needs we agree fixed terms, a named contact and set procedures. That lowers the cost per order and makes budgets predictable — without specialist translators, revision or deadlines suffering for it.

Clean source files. Legible, editable files save time on formatting and post-processing. We tell you in advance how the file condition affects the price. Upload a document & get a fixed price →

What is inside the fixed price

Inside the fixed price: revision by a second person, certification, dispatch.

You see a guide value and, after the review, receive a binding total fixed price. No hidden costs, no follow-up charge if the scope is unchanged.

Binding fixed price
from US$1.05 / standard linestandard certificates at a flat fee per document
Price up front · no unannounced extra costs
Group 1 · common languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch)from US$1.05 / line
Group 2 · mid availability (Polish, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese)from US$1.15 / line
Group 3 · rarer languages & demanding fieldsfrom US$1.25 / line
Professional translation + revision by a second person (ISO 17100)✓included
Certification, advance PDF & postal dispatch (certified work)✓included

A standard line is 55 characters incl. spaces; standard certificates are a flat fee per document. The exact amount is named after a brief review and is then binding, with no unannounced extra costs. How the price is made up →

Request a fixed price

Quality at a fair price

Native speakers, a defined ISO 17100 process, technology behind them.

The native-speaker principle. As a rule, the person who knows the field translates into their mother tongue — so terminology, register and idiom are right. That is not a question of price but the basis of any usable translation.

Process, not superlatives. Our certification to DIN EN ISO 17100 (DIN CERTCO, Reg. 7U517) governs how the work is done: specification, translation, revision, release. Efficient processes are what make the fair price possible in the first place — not leaving out the check.

Human expertise, technology-supported. Every order is handled by qualified specialist translators, supported by terminology and translation-memory technology we have refined to DIN EN ISO 17100. You decide, and we name the price for it openly. See our price overview for the detail.

4.9 / 5 · as of 08/2026
The first question was which German-speaking country the document was going to. Two previous vendors never asked, and both times we found out from the authority instead.
★★★★★
Karen Mulvaney · Head of Legal Operations, New York

Translation agency on the ground

An office in each of the three countries your document has to satisfy.

Digitally and by post from anywhere in the world — with an office in each of the three countries your document has to satisfy: Berlin, Vienna and Baar.

We work exclusively between German and English — the one pair we specialise in.

FAQ

What buyers ask when comparing agencies.

What does a translation agency cost?

Professional translations start, as a guide, from US$1.05 per standard line; the exact fixed price depends on the language pair, field, volume, file condition and deadline. After the review you receive a binding total price — with no hidden costs and no follow-up charge if the scope is unchanged.

What makes an agency affordable without the quality suffering?

Affordable means a fair fixed price with the full service, not dumping. The price advantage comes from translation-memory discounts, volume and framework agreements and efficient processes to DIN EN ISO 17100 — not from cutting quality assurance.

Freelancer, DeepL or a translation agency — what is the difference in price?

A freelancer translates alone, without a second check; machine translation is cheap but is not recognised by authorities and is not professionally assured. The price of a full-service agency includes specialist translators, revision by a second person and — for certified translations — certification and dispatch. See the comparison in detail.

Are there discounts for recurring orders?

Yes. A translation memory recognises identical and similar segments and charges them at a lower rate; for regular needs we offer volume and framework agreements with fixed terms.

Is the fixed price really binding?

Yes. You receive the price before the order. If the scope is unchanged there is no follow-up charge; if the order changes, we agree any adjustment with you in advance.

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