Best for
Best for development teams that build translation into their own applications and want to pay per character.
Translation & Localization Comparison
Azure Translator vs. Wordfast
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for freelance translators who want a desktop CAT tool that handles Trados and memoQ files without a monthly subscription.
- Freelancers
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Azure Translator | Wordfast |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free; from 10 US Dollar / million characters Pay-as-you-go S1 rate for standard text translation, as listed for US East. Document translation is 15 US Dollar and custom translation 40 US Dollar per million characters. The free F0 tier covers 2 million characters per month. | From 9.90 US Dollar / month Wordfast Anywhere in the browser, after a 30-day trial for 1 US Dollar. Desktop licences cost 400 Euro for Wordfast Pro or Wordfast Classic and 500 Euro for both as Wordfast Studio, each valid three years. |
| Free trial | Free F0 tier with 2 million characters of standard translation and custom training per month | Wordfast Pro runs in a demo mode until a licence is activated; Wordfast Anywhere has a 30-day trial for 1 US Dollar |
| API | Yes, REST APIs for text and document translation with client libraries | Yes, a REST API for Wordfast Anywhere translation memories and glossaries |
| Languages | More than 100 languages | Any language supported by Microsoft Word |
| Hosting | Azure cloud, processed in the region of the Translator resource; Translator containers, connected or disconnected, after an approval application | Wordfast Pro on Windows 7 (64-bit) or later, macOS 10.11 or later and 64-bit Linux; Wordfast Classic inside Microsoft Word; Wordfast Anywhere in the browser; Wordfast Server self-hosted on Windows |
| Language coverage | More than 100 languages and dialects for text and document translation, with automatic language detection | Any language supported by Microsoft Word, including Eastern European, Cyrillic, Asian and right-to-left languages |
| Files and formats | Batch document translation of PDF (with OCR for scanned files), Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, RTF, HTML, MHTML, Markdown, CSV, TSV, TXT, XLIFF and Outlook .msg files, plus JPEG, PNG, BMP and WEBP images, keeping the original layout | Wordfast Pro reads Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RTF, TXT, PDF (Windows only), HTML, XML, InDesign, FrameMaker, Visio, ASP, JSP, JSON and Java files, plus TTX, XLIFF, TXLF, SDLXLIFF, MQXLIFF and RWS Trados packages (SDLPPX); translation memories read and write TMX 1.4b |
| Machine, human or both | Machine translation by Microsoft's neural models, by custom models trained on the customer's own data, and in the 2026-06-06 text API optionally by selected large language models such as GPT-4o for tone, gender and style | Human translation in a CAT tool, with translation memory matches and suggestions from several machine translation engines, which can be given a penalty against TM matches |
| Glossary and terminology | Glossaries in CSV, TSV or XLIFF for document translation, a dynamic dictionary for text translation, and phrase and sentence dictionaries in Custom Translator | Wordfast Pro imports and exports glossaries as tab-delimited text or TBX, over 1,000,000 entries each and any number at once; Wordfast Classic reads tab-delimited glossaries of up to 250,000 entries |
| Review and collaboration | Custom Translator workspaces can be shared with owner, editor and reader roles | TMs and glossaries are shared over the internet or a LAN through Wordfast Server or Wordfast Anywhere; Wordfast Anywhere invites colleagues to share TMs, glossaries and files in real time; Wordfast Classic shares one TM with up to 1,000 translators on a local network |
| Integrations and connectors | Microsoft Translator connector for Power Automate, Power Apps, Logic Apps and Copilot Studio, plus a no-code playground in the Microsoft Foundry portal | Imports RWS Trados packages and reads SDLXLIFF and memoQ MQXLIFF files; Wordfast Classic runs inside Microsoft Word; translation packages export and import for round-trip delivery |
| Data handling and privacy | Text translation does not store customer data; document translation stores files only while processing and then hard-deletes them. Content is processed in the region of the Translator resource, under what Microsoft calls its no-trace policy | Wordfast Pro and Classic run on the translator's own computer and Wordfast Server is hosted by the customer; Wordfast Anywhere keeps TMs, glossaries and files in a private, password-protected workspace on the vendor's server, which the vendor states is never shared with any third party |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), On-premise | On-premise, Browser-based |
| Onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Live online demos and webinars |
| Company size | Not stated | Freelancers |
| Integrations | more entries Power Automate, Power Apps, Logic Apps, Copilot Studio, Microsoft Foundry, Azure Blob Storage | Microsoft Word, Lara |
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The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Azure Translator Free; from 10 US Dollar / million characters Wordfast From 9.90 US Dollar / month
- Free trial Azure Translator Free F0 tier with 2 million characters of standard translation and custom training per month Wordfast Wordfast Pro runs in a demo mode until a licence is activated; Wordfast Anywhere has a 30-day trial for 1 US Dollar
- Deployment Azure Translator Cloud (SaaS), On-premise Wordfast On-premise, Browser-based
- Hosting Azure Translator Azure cloud, processed in the region of the Translator resource; Translator containers, connected or disconnected, after an approval application Wordfast Wordfast Pro on Windows 7 (64-bit) or later, macOS 10.11 or later and 64-bit Linux; Wordfast Classic inside Microsoft Word; Wordfast Anywhere in the browser; Wordfast Server self-hosted on Windows
- Languages Azure Translator More than 100 languages Wordfast Any language supported by Microsoft Word
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Azure Translator
Strengths
- A free tier covers 2 million characters a month
- Text sent for translation is not stored, and documents are deleted after processing
- Custom models can be trained on a company's own translated material
- Containers allow translation outside the Azure cloud, including fully disconnected
Limitations
- Requires an Azure subscription and a Translator resource before the first request
- Batch document translation needs an Azure Blob Storage account
- Containers need an approved application and support fewer features than the cloud service
Wordfast
Strengths
- A licence for an individual translator covers two computers at once
- Wordfast Pro runs on Windows, macOS and Linux
- Opens Trados packages and memoQ XLIFF files directly
- Desktop licences are paid once for three years instead of monthly
Limitations
- Desktop licences expire after three years, and renewal costs 50% of the list price at that time
- The store gives no refunds once a licence is bought
- PDF import in Wordfast Pro works on Windows only
- Wordfast Server runs on Windows only
Plans
Pricing
Azure Translator
- F0 Free Free 2 million characters per month of standard translation and custom translation training combined.
- S1 Pay as you go 10 US Dollar / million characters Standard text translation, US East list price. Document translation 15 US Dollar and custom translation 40 US Dollar per million characters; images 8 US Dollar per thousand. Custom model hosting 10 US Dollar per model and region per month.
- Commitment tier 2,055 US Dollar / month 250 million characters of standard text translation per month, overage 8.22 US Dollar per million characters. Further tiers at 1 billion and 4 billion characters per month.
Wordfast
- Wordfast Anywhere 9.90 US Dollar / month Browser version, after a 30-day trial for 1 US Dollar. Free for holders of a valid Wordfast Pro, Classic or Studio licence.
- Wordfast Pro 400 Euro Three-year licence including support and upgrades. Renewal at 50% of the list price at the time of renewal.
- Wordfast Classic 400 Euro Three-year licence including support and upgrades, runs inside Microsoft Word.
- Wordfast Studio 500 Euro Wordfast Classic and Wordfast Pro together, three-year licence.
- Wordfast Server From ~111 Euro / month Priced by concurrent users and quoted through the enterprise page.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Azure Translator
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Wordfast
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Reviews are not published yet. The form on a tool's page works and reaches us, but nothing from it appears on this site, so no score here is based on a review. The rules below are the ones that will apply once reviews go live.
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What we cannot do is verify a purchase. There is no shop here and no account, so whether the author really used the tool rests on what they tell us, plus the plausibility of what they write. We say so rather than implying a check that does not exist.
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Azure Translator https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/ai-services/ai-translator · checked against the official source on 2026-10-24
Wordfast https://www.wordfast.com · checked against the official source on 2026-10-28
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.