3w ago

Opinions on best online translator?

I was using DeepL, but it turns out that it's proprietary, and it's also been getting somewhat enshittified as of late. What do my fellow lemming use?

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If you feel like selfhosting, OmniPoly is a great option.
Key Features:
Translation: Text translation across multiple languages (see: libretranslate).
Grammar Checking: Ensures your text is not only translated but also reads well with proper grammar and style (see: languagetool).
AI-Powered Insights: Utilizes Large Language Models to analyze sentiments and extract interesting sentences, adding depth to your translations (see: ollama).
Firefox and derivatives (e.g. Librewolf) have private built-in, on-device translation.
- Wish they kept the toolbar addon :/ I know you can access it using about:translator, but it's not as accessible.
Apertus PublicAI is also capable to translate in a lot of lenguages, among other uses. Swiss made, privacy focused and FOSS. On eye level to the most advanced US AIs. It use the infrastructure of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS)
About Apertus
- This immediately asks for an account. Not great honestly…
  
  Account is free, minimum data (nick and mail, if you want, use an disposable one), well, also Lemmy need an account like almost any other service you use. The account is not shared, but with account you can customize it with plug ins and for an API. Otherwise you can selfhost it, but than you don't have the power of the supercomputer from the swiss datacenter, the same used by the LHC of the CERN, but only the server you use to host it. It don't store previous chats if you don't want, otherwise only stored in your HD.
  Webbkoll test
Linguist extension (Chromium/ Firefox)
Modular translators system
You can use any translation service like Google, Yandex, Bing, DeepL, ChatGPT, etc.
Custom translators: you can use your own translator module
Offline translation. With embedded Bergamot translator, you can translate texts right on your device. Keep your privacy
All-in-one translation solution
Full-page translation with flexible auto-translation configuration
Highlighted text translation
Translate any text input
Dictionary with saved translations
Translations history, to remember recently translated words
Text-to-speech (TTS)
or Crow Translate on Desktop
Translate and speak text from screen or selection
Support 125 different languages
Low memory consumption (~20MB)
Highly customizable shortcuts
Command-line interface with rich options
D-Bus API
Available for Linux and Windows
To be honest, Yandex's proprietary services are irreplacable and significantly better than Google. Many more languages too.
https://codeberg.org/ManeraKai/simplytranslate
https://codeberg.org/aryak/mozhi
https://github.com/LibreTranslate/LibreTranslate
https://codeberg.org/gospodin/translite
- Really? Yandex? Whoda thunk.
  Would probably prefer to use open source one though, which of the ones you mentioned do you like best?
In my experience the kagi translator was the best
i just use google and deepl, maybe some yandex if i'm doing russian->english. would like a better alternative but i'm not aware of any.
mozhi
Humans. Not a joke. Computers can generate a best guess, but they don't hold a candle to human understanding and expression
- Humans.
  Is it open source though?
  
  Everything's open source if you can read its assembly code
- That's why I employ a staff of a few dozen multilingual interpreters to follow me to the supermarket to translate the ingredient labels in the import isle.
  
  You joke but for the visually impaired that is absolutely a service in demand. Check out Be My Eyes if you want to volunteer
There should be more on https://alternativeto.net/ when you search "DeepL" for alternatives
Since many are listed here but I am sure there are more
I use the FluentRead browser extension with a locally-hosted LLM.
For phone? Android? Do you need to translate photos (restaurant menus, signs on the street, etc...)?
Stay with DeepL
I'd stay away from Yandex. Former user here is excellent but: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/meta-and-yandex-are-de-anonymizing-android-users-web-browsing-identifiers/

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