AI changed what translation should cost. Most companies aren't capturing the value.

• Outsourcing your language needs to a translation agency can be costly, and you lose control over your content

• Building an in-house translation department means hiring specialists, buying expensive software, and managing it all yourself.

• Maven is the third option.

Calculate your savings Or book a conversation

TRANSLATION AGENCY

You hand it all over, and pay the markup.

  • Hidden markups on every word.

    No clear view of what you actually pay for. Repetitions, reused content, and AI savings are not fully  passed back to you.

  • Translation memory locked in.

    Your language data sits inside different agencies and different tools. You cannot easily access it, move it, or reuse it.

  • No real control.

    You never fully own the quality & process.

IN-HOUSE TRANSLATION DEPARTMENT

You build an in-house translation department.

  • Building an in-house translation team is costly and time-consuming.

    Recruiting, onboarding, and training a cohesive team requires significant investment without guaranteed results. CAT toolsComputer-Assisted Translation platforms — software translators use to work on files and reuse past translations., QA softwareQuality assurance software that checks translations for errors, consistency, and terminology compliance., and AI engines add $1,000+ monthly.

  • Fragmented vendor management.

    In-house linguists, your own freelancers, and outside agencies — all managed separately to cover different languages and needs.

  • Freelance vendors charge premium rates as direct clients.

    When you hire freelancers directly, they quote higher rates than they charge through Language Service Providers (LSPsLanguage Service Providers — companies that deliver translation and localization services end-to-end and aggregate freelance vendor capacity at preferential rates.).

There is a better way to run this.

Maven delivers the expertise and technology of a professional language operation — as your own in-house team, without the cost, complexity, or risk of building one.

What Maven is NOT

A SaaS you have to figure out.

You are not logging into a tool and learning it yourself. You are not paying for seats. Software is what we use — not what we sell you.

A traditional agency.

Agencies make money by marking up word rates. The more words you translate, the more they earn. We don't work that way.

A freelancer marketplace.

We are not a platform where you pick linguists and manage them yourself. You don't manage anyone — we do.

What Maven IS:

Project management for language operations — delivered as a service.

PMaaS
Project Management as a Service
BPO
Business Process Outsourcing

We handle the full process of running your translation — people, technology, vendors, quality, payments — the way a BPO provider handles payroll, accounting, or IT. The "project management" part means you pay for the expertise of running it — not for markups on every word that passes through.

Your language department.

Everything you need. We handle it all.

  • AdminContracting, documentation, payment processing, vendor management, account management.
  • VendorsIn-house linguists, your own freelancers, and outside agencies — managed by us.
  • TechnologyTranslation platforms, AI engines, CAT tools, QA tools, and CMS connectorsIntegrations that move content between your content management system and the translation workflow automatically — no copy-paste. — we bring them all.
  • Translation assetsTranslation memoriesDatabases of everything you've ever translated — so identical or similar sentences never get paid for twice., glossaries, and neural training data — owned by you, maintained by us.
  • Project ManagementWorkflow coordination, vendor assignment, quality assurance, DTP, terminology control, peer review, and consistent standards across all languages. We handle the operational complexity.

What you pay for

01

Retainer

Fixed monthly fee covering a set number of project management hours. Includes partial software coverage and full vendor management. Higher-volume plans carry higher retainers. Payable in advance for 3-month periods.

02

Project management hours (overage) 

Additional project management hours, if you exceed those included in your retainer, are scaled to your actual project volume and complexity. Billed based on usage at the end of each month.

03

Vendors & AI/Machine Translation (at cost) 

Actual cost of human linguists at LSP Language Service Provider — companies that deliver translation and localization services end-to-end and aggregate freelance vendor capacity at preferential rates. rates, AI/MT engines, DTP, and quality assurance. Billed based on usage at the end of each month. Run your numbers through our pricing calculator to see what your usage may look like and the savings you can expect.

Available plans

Priced on project management, not volume. Vendor costs billed at transparent rates. Minimum 3 months subscription.

Free trial
One week, on us — 5,000 AI-translated words included.
No credit card required
Included with every package
Managed by Maven
  • Usage of professional translation tools and software: AI engines, CAT tools, QA assessment (new tools added regularly)
  • Glossaries and translation memories
  • Maintenance of workflows
  • Vendor (freelance linguists) management — sourcing, vetting, contracting, payments
Self-Service
  • Unlimited seats for your team with granular permissions: editor, glossary, view-only, translation memory-only, etc.
  • Access (view & edit) to statistics, repetitions, term-bases, and translation memories
Savings vs outsourcing to traditional translation agencies
  • At-cost per-word rates for all translation workflows  with freelance (human) linguists, discounted with volume.
  • Full transparency on actual cost of translation, repetitions, choice of workflows & linguists, etc.
Savings vs having an in-house translation department
  • Effective & efficient project & vendor management.
  • Access to latest translation technologies and software at fraction of original cost.
  • Reduced management overhead.

Calculate your savings.

Enter your current volumes, languages, and vendor setup. We'll show your monthly delta — line by line — in under two minutes.

Open the calculator

Frequently asked questions.

How do I know if your service is a good fit for my organization?

You'll likely be a good fit if any of the following apply.

You translate at least 15,000 words a month across all languages (or have a project with a total volume of 30,000 to 45,000 words running over 3 to 4 months), in workflows that involve human linguists. The more you translate, the better the economics work. And any of the following:

  • You want your own staff, stakeholders, or subject-matter experts involved in reviewing translations.
  • You want to save money and stay in control of your translation work without hiring an internal team.
  • You have mixed language needs — different content types, different tools, plus interpretation — and want one partner instead of several.

If you're an NGO, NPO, IGO, UN agency, or government body, then you're definitely a good fit. These are the organizations we work with most.

What makes your service different?

vs. a traditional translation company (Maven also offers traditional translation services for smaller-volume clients or those not requiring the PMaaS model): we don't apply margins on AI/MT (at cost) or human linguist per-word rates (at freelancers' rates). We charge only the retainer and project management.

vs. a self-service translation platform: we cover sourcing, vetting, quality assurance, DTP, vendor payments, and delivery. We use the right MT/AI engines and translation software (QA tools, workflows, connectors, website translation tools) for each project, rather than locking you into one tool or one engine. What we do centralize is editing — on one platform, with no limits on users, words, projects, or integrations. That's what you have access to.

vs. building an in-house translation department: we manage hiring, payroll, training, and HR for a localization team. Scale from 15,000 to 1.5 million words a month without worrying about vendor management costs — we handle the scaling and absorb the cost. You also access our vendor network at agency rates rather than direct-client rates, plus platform licences and QA software.

Can I import or export translation memories and glossaries?

Yes to both. Your TMs and glossaries are yours, and you can move them in and out at any time. We handle the import for you as part of onboarding, and export as part of offboarding or on request at any point during our engagement.

What am I paying for?

There are three elements:

  • Monthly retainer* — covers the platform, vendor management, and standing capacity to handle your work
  • Project management time — included in your retainer up to your plan's hours; anything above is billed at a clear hourly rate
  • Translation cost** — AI, MT, or human linguist rates. Freelancer rates are passed through with no hidden markup

*Retainer is paid 3 months in advance.
**Translation costs (AI, freelancers, DTP, QA) are billed at the end of each month based on usage, due within 14 days.

Why a 3-month minimum?

There are no onboarding or setup fees. The first few weeks involve real work — setting up the platform, importing your TMs and glossaries, onboarding your team, registering vendors, and building workflows. The 3-month minimum lets us absorb that cost without charging for it separately.

What's in the retainer?

A small part of the retainer covers software. The bigger part covers managing the people doing the work — freelancers, partner agencies, and in-house contributors. That's why it scales with the plan: vendor counts can go above 100 on Scale and above 350 on Enterprise.

Each plan includes a set number of project management hours and an estimated vendor count tied to that volume. Smaller plans can still involve large vendor pools when the work calls for it — every vendor on a project is managed by us, regardless of plan size.

Can we use our own freelancers, in-house linguists, or other agencies?

Yes. Editors can be ours, your in-house team, freelancers you already trust, or other agencies you use for specific language pairs. Everyone works in the same environment.

Onboarding and day-to-day management sit with us. Payment processing is optional — we can pay vendors on your behalf, or you can pay them directly. In-house staff stay on your payroll. There are no limits on the number of vendors or users.

How does your AI/MT compare to DeepL, Google, and other engines?

It's exactly the same — we're not a software/AI company and we don't have our own engines. Our platform uses the same engines you'd buy directly (DeepL, Google, and others), and you can choose your preferred one or let the platform pick automatically based on your language pair, direction, and subject matter.

What you're paying for in our per-word AI/MT rate isn't just the engine — it's the professional translation environment around it: translation memory reuse, glossary enforcement, file format preservation (Word, InDesign, HTML, XML, JSON, software strings), automatic engine selection, collaboration in one place, centralized assets, and a user-friendly setup most people are productive on within an hour.

What can my team actually do on the platform?

At any time, your team can:

  • Access every project, past or present — files, statistics, editor view, full edit history
  • View and edit glossaries and TMs
  • See live progress and every edit as it happens
  • Run AI translation and edit in-house — in this case you're charged only for the AI translation, with no PM hours, as long as the editors are on your payroll and we're not processing their payments
  • Upload files and run word counts and repetition analysis

Permissions can be granular: view-only, view-and-edit, or full admin, across glossaries, TMs, projects, and vendor management. You can have one or more super admins on your team who hold full rights.

Let's run the numbers together.

A 30-minute conversation. We'll map your current setup and show you, line by line, where Maven fits.

Email
info@maven-international.com
Schedule
Book a 30-minute call