Our Translators Over 6,000 dedicated translators.
Behind every tolingo project is one of our translators: a native-speaker specialist who lives in the target-language country, is contractually bound to confidentiality, and is permanently assigned to your account. That keeps your terminology consistent, your content confidential, and your quality steady even when someone is on holiday or off sick.
4x ISO certifiedMore than 140,000 customers have trusted tolingo since 2007
- Who translates: Over 6,000 vetted core translators in a worldwide network, every one a native speaker living in the target-language country.
- Qualifications: A university degree in translation or at least five years of documented professional experience, to the standards set out in ISO 17100.
- Confidentiality: An NDA before every project, EU-based servers, documented access rights. Certified to ISO 27001.
- Consistency: A dedicated team for every account that knows your terminology. A backup translator in every language, so holidays or sick leave never cost you anything.
Five requirements every translator must meet
What gets checked before anyone works on your project
Translators aren't booked through a marketplace. They only join our network if they meet all five points. Vetting happens in the selection process through our vendor management, documented in our internal system, and reviewed annually.
Translators only ever work into their own native language. Anyone translating into French lives in France, or in French-speaking Belgium, Switzerland or Canada. That keeps their language current and culturally grounded.
A university degree in translation, or at least five years of documented professional experience as a specialist translator. Verified against certificates, references and proof of professional practice. The minimum standard under ISO 17100.
Every translator works within clearly defined specialist fields. Medical translators don't take on marketing copy, and legal translators don't handle mechanical engineering manuals. It's recorded in our system, and every project is assigned to the right specialist.
Every translator signs a confidentiality agreement before their first project. For particularly sensitive content, classified material or GDPR-relevant texts for example, we add your own NDA on top.
Before joining our core network, every applicant translates a trial text specific to their field, which is assessed by a second qualified translator. Day to day, every revision feeds into an ongoing performance rating for each translator.
Anyone who wants to work for tolingo goes through our documented application and selection process. Find out more on our become a translator page.
The dedicated-team model
Why not every project at tolingo lands with a new translator
For every account that works with us regularly, we put together a dedicated language team of translators assigned specifically to you. That's the key difference from marketplace models, where every project can land with a new person who doesn't know your brand, your products or your internal terminology.
Your dedicated team knows your brand, your product names and the wording you prefer. Terms are translated the same way in every follow-up project as they were the first time, recorded in your translation memory.
For every language and specialist field, your dedicated team includes at least two qualified translators. If someone is on holiday, off sick, or the workload spikes, the backup translator steps in, with access to the same translation memory and the same style guide.
On your first project, your dedicated team gets up to speed on your brand and your style. From the second project onward, that knowledge is already there. You skip the briefing rounds, the glossary clarifications and the "why is this worded differently from last time" conversations.
Someone who already knows your content and your glossary translates follow-up projects in a fraction of the time. That's why 24-hour express delivery works especially well for existing long-standing clients.
Who could be behind your next project
Example profiles from our core translator network
A small selection of typical profiles from our core network. Who gets assigned to your project depends on the language pair, specialist field and delivery deadline. Your project manager is responsible for the assignment.
Studied chemistry and translation studies. Specialisms: technical documentation, safety data sheets, regulatory texts.
Studied German studies and book studies at Smith College. Specialisms: marketing, political communication, humanities and social sciences.
Master's in translation from ITIRI Strasbourg, trainee at the European Parliament. Specialisms: medical devices, clinical trials, pharmacology.
Studied translation and interpreting in Tokyo, advanced German course at Uppsala University. Specialisms: software localisation, subtitling, marketing.
Studied commerce and German at University College Cork, ten years of in-house localisation at an international software company. Specialisms: SaaS, software documentation, technical communication.
Studied business translation at the University of Milan, seven years of experience in finance and legal subject areas. Specialisms: annual reports, terms and conditions, contracts, compliance.
Note: the profiles shown here are anonymised examples from our network. For a specific enquiry, we're happy to tell you which core translator is assigned to your account.
What you don't have to figure out yourself
Four typical procurement questions we answer upfront
| Question | What it looks like without us | What we take care of |
|---|---|---|
| Is the translator really a native speaker? | On freelance marketplaces, self-reporting is the only source. Language certificates are rarely verified. | Verified during the selection process, documented in the vendor profile. Residence in the target country as well. |
| Does the translator have specialist expertise? | Self-declared specialisms are often very broad. A "generalist" translates both marketing copy and clinical trials, even though these are two very different worlds. | Specialist fields are recorded in our system and verified through a trial project. Projects only go to matching specialists. |
| What about confidentiality? | NDAs have to be drawn up, sent and tracked for every project yourself. With freelancers, compliance is inconsistent. | An NDA with every translator in our core network before the project starts. Your own NDA can be built into the workflow on request. Our data-handling process is ISO 27001 certified. |
| What happens if the translator is unavailable? | In a direct relationship, the project is delayed or has to be briefed all over again if your translator gets sick. | At least two core translators are on file for every language and specialist field. The backup steps in with access to the translation memory and style guide. |
Frequently asked questions about our translators
Selection, confidentiality, backup, performance
Who will work on your project?
Send us your language pair, specialist field and text volume. We'll reply in ~10 minutes (within business hours) with a quote, a delivery date and an idea of the translator profile suited to your project.
~10 minutes (within business hours) · native speakers · NDA-bound · ISO 17100