How Much Does It Cost to Translate a Website into Multiple Languages

# How Much Does It Cost to Translate a Website into Multiple Languages

Translating a website has no fixed price — it depends on how many words you have, how many languages you want, and who does the work. As a realistic order of magnitude in Romania: a small presentation site (usually a few thousand words) translated professionally starts from a few hundred euros per language, while an AI-only translation with a light review can cost much less but comes with risks. Below we explain exactly what you're paying for and how to avoid wasting money.

Is it charged per word or per page?

The industry standard is per word — because a website has short fields (buttons, menus) and long pages (blog posts), and a "page" doesn't mean anything consistent. Translators usually work with a per-source-word rate, meaning the number of words in your Romanian text.

Practical step: export all your text into one document and count the words. In our experience, a presentation site usually has a few thousand words of real content (excluding code). Multiply that by the translator's per-word rate and you have the budget for one language. Technical or legal texts (terms and conditions, policies) cost more because they demand precision.

Watch out for what's not visible in the word count: SEO metadata (title, description), image alt texts, form error messages, automated emails. These get translated too — otherwise you end up with a "half-translated" site in the other language.

AI vs human translator — which do you choose?

Both have their place; it depends on the stakes.

Our honest recommendation: AI + human review is the best value for most small businesses. You let the AI do a first pass, then a native speaker fixes tone mistakes, robotic-sounding phrases, and technical terms. The pages that directly bring money — homepage, services/products page, pricing — deserve careful review. For a blog of 100 articles, AI with a quick check is reasonable.

What to avoid: publishing a 100% raw AI translation that no one has read. Mistakes in a language you don't speak can make your brand look careless in front of exactly the new customers you're trying to win.

What multilingual SEO means (and why it adds cost)

A proper multilingual site isn't just translated text. You need:

• Separate URLs per language (e.g. `/ro/`, `/en/`) — not a button that swaps text via JavaScript, because Google needs to index each version.
• Hreflang tags that tell search engines which version to show to whom.
• Translated metadata (title, description) for every page, in every language.
• Localized keywords — people don't search for the literal translation of your term. This is the difference between "translation" and "localization."

This technical part is separate work from translating the text, and it's why a properly built multilingual site costs more than pasting in some translated paragraphs. If you want to understand how this connects to local visibility, we have a guide on local SEO and one on AEO/GEO, the new AI-driven search.

Which languages are worth translating?

Don't translate into every language "just in case." Each added language means content you have to maintain forever. Choose based on data:

1. English — almost always worth it if you have clients outside Romania, tourists, or you want credibility. It's the default language of the internet.

2. Your actual clients' language — if you sell in Germany, German beats English. Look at where your visitors already come from (in Google Analytics) and where the money comes from.

3. Hungarian — relevant for Transylvanian businesses with a local audience.

4. Russian — useful if you target eastern markets or Russian-speaking communities.

The simple rule: a language is worth it if it brings you clients who otherwise wouldn't have understood your offer. If you have no one to serve in that language, the money is better spent elsewhere.

How to budget correctly

Think of the total cost in three parts: the translation itself (per word, per language), the technical work (multilingual structure, hreflang, metadata — a one-time setup), and maintenance (every new page has to be translated too). At MPO Web Studio we build sites ready for multiple languages from the start, so you don't pay twice to rebuild the structure. If you're still weighing the base budget, see our guide on how much a website costs and why you need a website.

A happy client in one language often leaves a review too — and reviews matter enormously; we have a separate guide on that: how to get Google reviews.

Conclusion

The cost of translating a website depends on the volume of text, the number of languages, and the AI–human mix you choose. Don't pay for languages without clients, and don't cut corners on the pages that sell. Want an estimate for your case? Message us on WhatsApp at wa.me/40750257140 and we'll make you a free demo, no strings attached.