VerbalizeIt is a human powered translation and interpretation platform that connects users or businesses with real, professional translators in different languages.
It started as an app that let travelers or companies get instant translation or interpretation help from people not just machines. You could upload text, audio, or video, and someone fluent in that language would translate it accurately and naturally.
VerbalizeIt the background
VerbalizeIt is a technology platform that connects companies needing translation with a curated community of human translators.
It supports translation of documents, websites, mobile apps, audio and video content.
It started as a crowd based translation marketplace, then later focused more on enterprise translation needs.
In 2016, Smartling (a cloud translation firm) acquired VerbalizeIt, integrating its human translation network into a larger localization ecosystem.
How VerbalizeIt works
You submit content (text file, web content, video, or audio).
VerbalizeIt routes it to qualified translators for your target language.
The system provides you a quote instantly per word or per minute (for media).
Translators translate, then a reviewer checks before returning final output.
You can track progress in dashboards and manage your translation workflows.
Core features & strengths
Access to curated human translators for accuracy and context.
Support for varied media: documents, website localization, subtitles, audio.
Instant quoting and routing to the right talent.
Workflow dashboard & management tools to see status, versioning.
Quality review layer: human review ensures fewer errors.
Industry & domain specialization: legal, medical, marketing content.
Scalable for business use: handle large translation volumes with consistency.
Pricing & cost model
VerbalizeIt originally charged by word for text, and by minute for media. For example, document translation might run ~$0.17 per word.Audio/video translation was priced per minute (e.g. ~$15.15/minute in earlier model)
Live voice calls (interpretation) cost per minute (e.g. ~$1.75/minute) in its earlier marketplace mode.
Now under Smartling the pricing is integrated into enterprise localization contracts, combining machine translation, human editing, and platform tools.
Thus, the modern cost depends on volume, languages, media type, turnaround tier, and usage of automation vs full human.
Pros
Human translation gives better nuance and accuracy.
Versatility: from docs to video and web content.
Enterprise tools: workflow, dashboards, version control.
Domain expertise: knows jargon for legal, medical, marketing.
Integration potential: works within localization stacks for businesses.
Cons
More expensive than pure machine translation.
Turnaround times depend on translator availability.
For very small tasks, overhead may feel heavy.
The original crowd model is less visible now it’s more enterprise oriented.
Small clients may find pricing opaque or less flexible.
