Looking for a cost-effective alternative to Unbabel? WhosOn might be the solution you’re looking for.
Both services offer translation, but their scope and approach are somewhat different. So, to help you decide which solution is best for your business, we’ve put together a handy comparison.
What is Unbabel?
Unbabel is a crowd-sourced translation provider. It blends humans with artificial intelligence to offer companies “translation as a service”.
With Unbabel, the first stage of the translation journey happens via machine translation. Human input comes next, with a team of human linguists checking and refining translations.
These translations take up to 10 minutes for common language pairs. For less common translations, Unbabel instead works to a 60-minute delivery timeframe.
Finally, Unbabel focuses on customer service deployments, covering areas such as CRM and live chat translations in 28 languages.
What is WhosOn?
WhosOn is a feature-rich live chat solution developed to meet the needs of the global enterprise. Its specialism in real-time language translation makes it a viable alternative to Unbabel.
WhosOn supports the live, two-way translation of over 100 languages. This is powered by deep integrations with both Microsoft Translator and Google Translate.
With WhosOn, translation happens in real-time behind the scenes of the chat session. Both parties can chat in their own language, with seamless translation working to keep the conversation fluid.
Like Unbabel, WhosOn can also offer translation support across areas other than live chat, too. (Such as translating inbound emails and support tickets.) These extra services beyond chat alone come as a bespoke, made-to-order package.
Unbabel: translation service pros and cons
Unbabel is an expansive solution, with lots to consider. We’ve quickly summed up its main pros and cons, so you can review the service at a glance.
Pros:
- • Unbabel is highly accurate. That's because its service is powered via a human-AI partnership, meaning human quality goes into each translation.
- • An inbuilt quality estimation system is built into Unbabel. This scores each translation for accuracy, and flags any potential issues to human specialists.
- • Unbabel gets smarter with time. It uses self-learning algorithms, so the more data you put in, the smarter it becomes.
Cons:
- • Unbabel is limited in its language scope. The service covers only 28 languages, meaning that many millions of customers are cut off from support in their own language.
- • With Unbabel, there will always be a delay in language translations. Although this means humans review and edit, it also means customers face slower service and journey disruption.
- • The human element of translation also leads to data exposure. External translators are working on your messages, which may not be a desirable security consideration.
WhosOn: translation service pros and cons
For a fair assessment of WhosOn as an alternative to Unbabel, we’ve also drawn up a list of its key translation pros and cons.
Pros:
- • WhosOn supports over 100 languages. It covers the depth and breadth of the globe, making customer service accessible to an enormous international audience.
- • The translations powered via WhosOn are instant. They happen smoothly within the pace of a live chat session – with no delay for either party.
- • WhosOn translations are technological rather than human. So, there is no reliance on third-party interpreters, and no data exposure to translators outside your business.
Cons:
- • WhosOn is only as accurate as technology allows. Though best-in-class and highly precise, this means that the machine translation is the only translation – no human reviewing.
- • The WhosOn translation service comes as part of a broader live chat package. So, you purchase it alongside a chat solution, rather than as a stand-alone translation offering.
- • Any translations – i.e. email – beyond live chat are an additional extra. They’re not off-the-shelf, and are instead charged as a professional service.
WhosOn: the real-time alternative to Unbabel
So, is WhosOn the most effective alternative to Unbabel? Unbabel is great if you need minute accuracy in a non-urgent time context, and are prepared to pay for constant human reviewing.
WhosOn, on the other hand, is great for rapid translations as part of real-time customer conversations. It’s still accurate, still comprehensive, and still reliable. Plus, it’s all these things in over 100 languages.
Why not see for yourself? To use WhosOn as a real-time alternative to Unbabel, start a free live chat trial today.
Useful links
WhosOn real-time live chat translation
Key translation statistics to consider in your customer service strategy