Bad news for DeepL aficionados: the super online translator is increasing the prices of its paid subscriptions while decreasing the character limit of its free version. What to go to Google Translate?
DeepL, the “best translator in the world” as he proclaims himself on his site, is experiencing a small upheaval which may not please its users! Created in 2017 by the German company Linguee, known for the site of the same name, it makes it possible to translate all types of texts – theatre, literature, poetry, financial reports, scientific or philosophical essays… – using functioning in the form of neural networks. Indeed, thanks to deep learning, it trains using a database of billions of high-quality translations collected by the algorithms and processes them using a super computer. Despite the fierce competition in the sector, DeepL has quickly established itself as an essential tool thanks to its efficiency and the quality of the translations it produces, deemed to be far superior to Google Translate – the service is just as fast, but more accurate and nuanced (see our practical sheet). One of the points that also appealed to users is that it is accessible via a free formula and other paying ones. And that’s where change is comingt, since the free version sees its limit of translated characters drop, and the prices of the packages increase.
DeepL: a lower character limit and higher prices
Until now, the free plan allowed you to translate up to 5,000 characters simultaneously, with just one click. Unfortunately, the platform has decided to revise its offer downwards and now limits this number of characters to 3,000. In itself, this is not very dramatic if you use the tool via a web browser since it suffices to segment its text via several tabs. For mobile (iOS and Android) and desktop (Windows and macOS) applications, however, it is more problematic. As for those who use the translator a lot, the different paid offers – which vary according to the needs in terms of the number of files to be translated, the number of glossary entries, etc. – are entitled to a nice increase:
- The Starter formula goes from 5.99 € to 7.49 € per month ;
- The Advanced formula goes from 19.99 € at 24.99 € per month ;
- The Ultimate formula goes from 39.99 € at 49.99 € per month.
For the moment, the change related to the character limit of the free version does not seem to be applied yet in France, but it is only a matter of time before it is. . The increase in the price of paid subscriptions, on the other hand, has already been applied. It happens right when the company comes, according to TechCrunch, to raise funds between 100 and 125 million dollars. All of this financing should enable it to extend its scope of action to larger companies and to develop new services. Thus, a writing enhancement tool currently in closed beta is expected to be released soon and Linguee will continue to invest in R&D.