Unbabel is an AI-powered translation platform designed to help businesses provide seamless, multilingual customer support. By combining advanced machine translation with human post-editing, Unbabel enables companies to communicate with customers in their native languages across email, chat, and other support channels.
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, Unbabel serves global brands by helping them scale support operations without hiring native speakers for every language. It blends automation, human expertise, and secure integrations to offer high-quality, scalable translations that meet the demands of modern customer service teams.
Features
Unbabel’s core strength lies in its Language Operations (LangOps) platform, which blends neural machine translation (NMT) with professional human editors. The result is fast, fluent, and context-aware communication in over 100 languages.
The AI translation engine handles the initial translation, while professional linguists review and refine the output to ensure accuracy, tone, and cultural appropriateness. This hybrid approach ensures translations are both fast and reliable.
Unbabel integrates with major customer service platforms like Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom, Freshdesk, and Helpshift. This allows support teams to work in one language (usually English) while customers receive replies in their native tongue—without switching tools.
The platform includes real-time translation for live chat, asynchronous translation for email, and API access for custom integrations.
With built-in analytics and quality scoring, businesses can track translation performance, response times, and customer satisfaction metrics across different markets.
Security and privacy are key features—Unbabel complies with GDPR, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, and SOC 2 standards to ensure data protection across all language services.
How It Works
Unbabel works as an invisible translation layer between customer service agents and end-users. When a customer submits a message in their native language, the platform automatically translates it into the support agent’s working language (e.g., English).
The agent replies in their language, and the system translates the message back to the customer’s language. This process occurs in near real-time for live chat, or asynchronously for email and ticket systems.
Depending on the company’s setup, Unbabel can route translations through professional editors before final delivery, ensuring high accuracy for sensitive or complex communications.
Agents work within their existing helpdesk or CRM interface, with no need to manually copy-paste or use external tools.
Use Cases
Unbabel supports a wide range of industries and customer experience teams.
E-commerce and retail brands use Unbabel to serve customers across international markets with consistent support quality in local languages.
Travel and hospitality companies rely on it to provide 24/7 multilingual assistance for global travelers.
SaaS and tech companies use Unbabel to scale support across user bases in Europe, Asia, and Latin America without hiring full multilingual teams.
Financial services and fintech companies use the platform to maintain secure and compliant communication with clients worldwide.
Gaming and entertainment companies leverage Unbabel to offer live chat and ticket support in multiple languages during launches and events.
Pricing
Unbabel offers custom pricing based on usage volume, language pairs, and required turnaround time. Pricing depends on the number of words translated per month, the complexity of workflows, and whether human post-editing is included.
Plans are tailored for mid-sized to enterprise-level organizations with dedicated support operations. Interested businesses must contact Unbabel’s sales team for a personalized quote.
Some features—like API access, analytics, or SLA-backed turnaround—may be included only in enterprise packages.
Free trials or pilot programs are sometimes available to qualified prospects.
Strengths
Unbabel stands out for its hybrid AI + human model, which balances speed with linguistic quality. Businesses don’t need to compromise between fast automated translation and reliable human-reviewed content.
The deep integration with support tools makes it easy to adopt without disrupting existing workflows or retraining agents.
Support for over 100 language pairs helps companies expand internationally without building out separate language-specific teams.
With a strong focus on security and compliance, Unbabel is well-suited for industries that handle sensitive customer data.
The platform’s real-time capabilities, paired with rich analytics, allow businesses to optimize their global support performance over time.
Drawbacks
Unbabel is primarily designed for enterprise and mid-market companies. It may not be cost-effective or accessible for small businesses or individual users.
Pricing is not publicly listed, which could make budgeting and comparison with alternatives more difficult.
The platform is optimized for customer support use cases, so it may not fit other translation needs like content marketing, legal documentation, or academic research.
There is limited customization for businesses that require industry-specific terminology or tone of voice unless properly configured in advance.
Comparison with Other Tools
Unbabel competes with platforms like Lokalise, Smartling, and Google Cloud Translation, but with distinct differences.
Smartling and Lokalise focus more on localization for websites and apps, while Unbabel is purpose-built for customer support workflows.
Google Translate offers machine translation at scale, but lacks the human-in-the-loop quality assurance that Unbabel delivers.
Compared to other hybrid solutions, Unbabel’s edge is its seamless helpdesk integration and its focus on operational efficiency for support teams.
DeepL, another popular translation engine, offers highly fluent translations but does not provide human post-editing or workflow integrations.
Customer Reviews and Testimonials
Unbabel is used by global brands like Microsoft, Logitech, Booking.com, and Rakuten. These companies report increased customer satisfaction (CSAT), faster response times, and cost savings from not having to hire multilingual support agents.
Support managers praise the platform’s ease of integration and the ability to scale customer service without language barriers.
Case studies on Unbabel’s website highlight up to 75% faster response times and improved first contact resolution in global support teams.
Customers also note improvements in agent productivity and consistent support quality across regions.
Conclusion
Unbabel is a powerful AI translation platform built to solve the language barrier in global customer support. By blending machine translation with human editing, it ensures fast, accurate, and culturally relevant communication—without the overhead of maintaining multilingual teams.
With deep integrations into helpdesk platforms and a strong focus on security and compliance, Unbabel offers a scalable, enterprise-grade solution for businesses looking to expand internationally and deliver native-level service to customers worldwide.
If you’re looking to improve your multilingual customer experience, Unbabel is a strategic partner that brings the best of AI and human expertise into your support operations.
