Tools for language checking, terminology, and translation of technical documentation

Market overview of recommendable language checkers (spelling, grammar, style, terminology) and terminology databases, especially in connection with the creation of technical documentation and user assistance. Plus a market overview of recommendable tools for translating and localizing technical documentation and user assistance.

For information on the indicated price levels , see Price levels.

Spelling, grammar, and style checkers

Congree

Authoring assistance tool that helps to create rule-compliant and style-compliant text. Available for Microsoft Word and other editors.

Price level: not published

Grammarly

Web-based proofreader that corrects contextual spelling mistakes, checks for grammar errors, and enhances vocabulary usage.

Price level: free (freeware)

LanguageTool

Customizable proofreading software. Implements many checks in particular for English and for German texts. Can be used on a website, as a stand-alone desktop version, and with various editors via plugins – among them Word, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Oxygen XML, LyX, TeXstudio.

Price level: diverse

InstaText (NEW ENTRY)

Aims to make you write like an English native speaker.

Price level: low

Vale

Command line based style checker.

Price level: free (open source)

Duden-Mentor

Excellent language checker for German. Both online and also available as a Microsoft Word add-in.

Price level: diverse

Microsoft Word

Better than some standalone spelling and grammar checkers, particularly for the English language.

Price level: medium

WordPerfect

Also comes with a fairly good syntax checker.

Price level: medium

ProWritingAid

Checks for a large number of issues.

Price level: medium

Ginger

Grammar checker, sentence rephraser, and more.

Price level: medium

ClearEdits

Performs some basic checks such as sentence length, repeated words, and wordiness.

Price level: low

Antidote

Provides a corrector, dictionaries, and language guides. Available for English and French.

Price level: low

After the Deadline

English grammar, style, and contextual spelling checker. Available for a variety of programs such as WordPress, Confluence, Firefox, Chrome, and OpenOffice.

Price level: free (open source)

Hemingway App

Highlights lengthy, complex sentences in English texts as well as some common grammar errors. There is also a low-cost desktop application available.

Price level: free (web application)

TextLab

Advanced analysis tool to improve the readability of German texts.

Price level: not published

Textanalyse-Tool

Basic analysis tool to improve the readability of German texts.

Price level: free (web application)

Additional online language checkers

Terminology checkers and terminology databases

PerfectIt

Ensures consistency with house styles and between multiple authors. Requires Microsoft Word.

Price level: low

Term checker for Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100)

Helps to make sure that text conforms to ASD Simplified Technical English (ASD-STE100). Uses LanguageTool.

Price level: medium

termXact

Checks Word, FrameMaker, InDesign, Flare, and other documents for terminology defined in an Excel file.

Price level: not published

Kalcium Checkterm + Kalcium Quickterm

Terminology checking and terminology management.

Price level: not published

AnyLexic

Simple terminology management system. Can import existing glossaries.

Price level: low

[i]-match

Terminology and consistency tools and checkers. For Word, FrameMaker and XML editors.

Price level: not published

Lingo

Utility for creating terminology lists.

Price level: low

evoTerm

Web-based terminology management system.

Price level: medium

TermWiki Pro

Enterprise terminology management system.

Price level: high

TermStar, WebTerm

Price level: not published

acrolinx

Guides writers to create content that’s accurate, consistent, search-ready, and translation-friendly.

Price level: not published

HyperSTE

Quality assurance software for standardized documentation. Ensures compliance with corporate terminology and style guide rules.

Price level: not published

UniTerm

Software solutions for creating, managing, and disseminating corporate languages.

Price level: not published

Lexeri (NEW ENTRY)

Terminology management solution.

Price level: medium

LogiTerm

Combines a full-text search engine with various translation and terminology tools.

Price level: medium

MAXit Checker

Monitors technical texts for compliance with Controlled English or ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English. There are versions available for FrameMaker, Microsoft Word, Arbortext, XMetal, and UltraXML.

Price level: not published

Finalyser TERM CHECK

Checks the consistent use of terminology in Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe InDesign, Microsoft Word, and Powerpoint. In other editors you can check terms via the included Finalyser Clipboard Listener. For the database, you can choose between an XML database and a UniTerm database. Also supports the inclusion of foreign languages.

Price level: not published

TermWeb

Web-based terminology management system.

Price level: not published

flashterm

Online database that helps you to collect, develop, and apply your organization's terminology.

Price level: not published

termXplorer

Web-based terminology management system.

Price level: not published

SynchroTerm

Extracts terms and creates terminology records from source and target document pairs and from translation memories.

Price level: medium

TermSuite

Toolbox for terminology extraction and multilingual term alignment.

Price level: free (open source)

MY STE-BUDDY (NEW ENTRY)

Web Application that checks pasted text for compliance with ASD Simplified Technical English (STE).

Price level: medium

Miscellaneous language tools

Technical documentation knowledge base

Companion through all stages of a user assistance project, from the analysis of requirements through structuring the content and designing templates, writing, illustrating, proofreading, and translating.

Price level: low

TextSTAT

Reads text files, Microsoft Word files, OpenOffice files, and HTML files, and then generates word frequency lists and concordances from these files. Can spider a whole website or browser-based help system.

Price level: free (open source)

AntConc

Corpus analysis toolkit for concordancing and text analysis.

Price level: free (freeware)

Capitalize My Title

Automatically capitalizes an English heading according to AP style, APA style, Chicago style or MLA style.

Price level: free (web application)

CopyChar

Tables to copy special characters from. Categories include Letters, Punctuation, Math, Numbers, Currency, Symbols, Arrows, and Emoji.

Price level: free (web application)

Tools for rephrasing text with the help of AI

DeepL Write

Price level: free (web application)

ChatGPT

Price level: free (web application)

QuillBot

Price level: free (web application)

Wordtune (NEW ENTRY)

Price level: low

UnFluffer (NEW ENTRY)

Price level: diverse

Tools for machine translation of technical documentation

DeepL

Automatically translates text between various languages. Achieves outstanding results.

Price level: free (web application)

MachineTranslation.com (NEW ENTRY)

AI-supported aggregator for machine translations. Displays a clearly arranged comparison of the results of several translation services, which can be particularly helpful when translating problematic or highly important sentences.

Price level: free (web application)

Some other generic neural machine translation systems:

Specialized machine translation systems are offered by the following vendors, among others:

Translation memory systems and translation management

Trados Studio

Price level: not published

Déjà Vu

Price level: medium

Wordfast

Price level: medium

Transit

Price level: medium

Across

Price level: not published

MadCap Lingo

Price level: medium

MemoQ

Price level: medium

Soluling (NEW ENTRY)

Price level: medium

Phrase

Price level: medium

Fluency Now

Price level: medium

XTM Cloud

Web-based translation memory and translation management system.

Price level: medium

CafeTran

Price level: low

Swordfish Translation Editor

Price level: medium

Fluenta DITA Translation Manager

Tool designed to simplify the translation and localization of DITA projects combining the two open standards DITA and XLIFF.

Price level: medium

OmegaT

Price level: free (open source)

MateCat!

Price level: free (open source)

Anaphraseus

For OpenOffice / LibreOffice.

Price level: free (open source)

Plunet BusinessManager

Translation management software.

Price level: not published

Wordbee

Web-based translation management software and CAT editor.

Price level: medium

Smartling

Centralized web-based translation platform.

Price level: not published

translate5

Translation management platform. Partially open source.

Price level: diverse

Miscellaneous translation tools

Sysfilter

Utility to transfer text from Visio, Excel, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, or CorelDRAW into Microsoft Word. After translation, texts can automatically be re-transferred back into the original document.

Price level: medium

ErrorSpy

Quality assurance software for translations. Can check for terminology, consistency, number errors, completeness, tags, acronyms, typography, and missing translations. Reads Trados, Transit, and XLIFF files.

Price level: medium

Okapi Framework

Set of components and applications that support localizing and translating documentation and software. Also provides many interesting features for technical writers, such as powerful find and replace, and various conversions.

Price level: free (open source)