Poll: What is your biggest frustration with modern Translation Management Systems (TMS) and CAT tools?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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ProZ.com Staff
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Jul 29

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What is your biggest frustration with modern Translation Management Systems (TMS) and CAT tools?".

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Lieven Malaise
Lieven Malaise  Identity Verified
Belgium
Local time: 15:06
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
CAT tools Jul 29

My biggest frustration is the shift to subscription models of software in general. It apparently makes a good reason to shamelessly double, triple or even quadruple prices compared to eternal licenses.

WolfgangS
Sebastian Witte
Li-Hsiang Hsu
Luis M. Sosa
Renée van Bijsterveld
Philippe Etienne
Philip Lees
 
Sebastian Witte
Sebastian Witte  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 15:06
Member (2004)
English to German
+ ...
CAT tools Jul 29

1. Paying fees for minor incremental updates. (Or rather, what Lieven said).
2. Laggy platforms. (We do not use browser-based editors when working in our own CAT tool).
3. AI features forced into them. (However, these can easily be ignored.)

Even so, we're 100% faster than when working with no CAT tool.


Maria Laura Curzi
Luis M. Sosa
Zea_Mays
 
Li-Hsiang Hsu
Li-Hsiang Hsu  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:06
French to Chinese
+ ...
Complexity and inconsisitency - an example of XTM Jul 29

There are at least three to five ways to connect to XTM to manage tasks, translations, and invoicing; such complexity, cumbersomeness, and lack of consistency do not reflect high-performance engineering, but rather sheer incompetence.

And its TM and concordance research barely work well.


 
Luis M. Sosa
Luis M. Sosa  Identity Verified
Ecuador
Local time: 08:06
English to Spanish
+ ...
Speed Jul 29

Question is for both PMs and translators. But I guess only translators will show up here.

I have the impression that I already have said this in a previous related poll.

With respect to CAT tools, large projects (>15k with large TMs) turn them to virtual elephants. QA checks also become quite slow or nightmarish, and, believe me, it does not depend on the internet connection speed. Could give 3 names, but it might sound incorrect.


 
Zea_Mays
Zea_Mays  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 15:06
English to German
+ ...
ouch 07:04

Luis M. Sosa wrote:

With respect to CAT tools, large projects (>15k with large TMs) turn them to virtual elephants. QA checks also become quite slow or nightmarish, and, believe me, it does not depend on the internet connection speed. Could give 3 names, but it might sound incorrect.


Ah, this touches a sensitive point! I often have to dismiss hundreds of false postives, and if you don't know how to do this in bulk, it can really drive you mad and cost a lot of time.
In a recent project with various 10ks words I asked the client to disable the live QA as it was slowing the editor page to prehistoric speed.
A very weak point in current CAT tools is surely the use of AI for translation. So far, none of them could beat trained neural engines, meaning you'll have tons of inconsistencies, ignored glossaries and TMs etc. etc. (AI bots do not remember things for longer periods.) I just hope that AI subscriptions will become so costly in the near term that these gimmics will disappear very soon!



[Bearbeitet am 2026-07-30 07:06 GMT]


The Shredder
 
Li-Hsiang Hsu
Li-Hsiang Hsu  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 15:06
French to Chinese
+ ...
Stupid AI QA checks 07:23

While I am quite OK with AI translation, which makes postediting rather like proofreading with somehow more mindful checks, I am really annoyed with so many stupid AI QA checks, which unnecessarily waste much time. In the end, I don't think AI saves us a lot of time.

[Edited at 2026-07-30 07:24 GMT]


The Shredder
Hideki Yoshida
Zea_Mays
 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:06
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
I feel your pain 12:12

Zea_Mays wrote:
Ah, this touches a sensitive point! I often have to dismiss hundreds of false postives, and if you don't know how to do this in bulk, it can really drive you mad and cost a lot of time.

Now, imagine that same problem but exacerbated by the fact that you're dealing with a CJK source language, where things like unit numbers (units of ten thousand, hundred million, etc.) are different to those used in English. Neither Trados nor Phrase have sensible support for this kind of thing - I had to create my own tools to deal with these issues, and many others.

Dan


 


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Poll: What is your biggest frustration with modern Translation Management Systems (TMS) and CAT tools?






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