memoQ vs Smartcat vs Wordfast for a Small Agency (2026)
memoQ, Smartcat or Wordfast for a small translation agency? 2026 prices, team costs, shared TMs, Trados file support and which fits your agency.
For a small translation agency, memoQ is usually the best of the three: it gives each translator a full desktop CAT tool, shares TMs through memoQ TMS, and handles the Trados files larger agencies send. Smartcat fits better if you sell AI translation, reviewed by your own linguists, through an online portal, and Wordfast is the cheapest way to equip a few translators who mostly work alone.
Prices and features checked on the vendors' own sites on 13 October 2026; the pages are listed under Sources. Each tool is covered in more detail in Trados vs memoQ vs Smartcat vs Wordfast, whose "Which CAT tool is best for a small translation agency?" section also brings in Trados and Phrase.
Comparison at a glance
memoQ: subscription; memoQ translator pro from $436 a year per translator; memoQ TMS Starter from €2,750 / $3,025 a year with one project manager and five linguists. Windows desktop, plus a web editor in memoQ TMS. Opens SDLXLIFF, imports Trados packages and returns them. Full TM, termbase and LiveDocs. Best for agencies that translate and manage projects in-house.
Smartcat: annual plans priced by usage. Adapt from $1,200 a year with 100,000 Smartwords and unlimited users; TM matches and repetitions not charged. Adapt's AI coworkers are Chief of Staff, Content Translator and Content Creator; the Reviewer coworker, Marketplace access and partner and vendor collaboration start with Accelerate, from $24,000 a year. Browser only. File support not listed on the pricing page. Best for agencies that sell AI translation reviewed by their own linguists, through a portal.
Wordfast Pro: three-year license per translator from $480, with 15 % off 3 or more licenses and 30 % off 10 or more. Windows, Linux and macOS (via Rosetta on Apple silicon). Imports SDLPPX, opens SDLXLIFF and MQXLIFF. TMX and TBX. TM sharing needs Wordfast Server or Wordfast Anywhere. Best for a few translators on a tight budget.
All prices are as of October 2026 and exclude VAT.
What a five-translator team pays
At list price, over three years, a team of five translators would pay roughly:
Wordfast Pro: $2,040 (five licenses at $480, less the 15 % bulk discount), not counting a server for shared TMs.
Smartcat Adapt: $3,600, with unlimited users but 100,000 Smartwords a year, and your own team does the review; heavier volume, Smartcat's Reviewer coworker or its marketplace linguists mean Accelerate, from $24,000 a year ($72,000 over three years).
memoQ translator pro for each translator: $6,540, with no shared server.
memoQ TMS Starter: $9,075, including the shared TMS, one project manager and five linguist subscriptions.
These numbers are only a starting point. Smartcat's cost follows your volume, memoQ's larger TMS plans are quoted by sales, and every vendor runs promotions.
memoQ
memoQ is a translator's workbench. Each linguist gets the full desktop editor with TMs, termbases, QA and LiveDocs, which uses aligned documents and bilingual files as reference. It takes other tools' files well: it opens SDLXLIFF and can import a Trados Studio package and send back a Trados return package, so you can accept work from Trados-based agencies without buying Trados.
When your team needs shared TMs and project management, memoQ TMS adds a server in the cloud or on premises. The Starter plan covers one project manager and five linguists; above that, pricing goes through sales. The main downside is Windows: on a Mac, each translator needs a virtual machine. The comparison with Trados is in memoQ vs Trados.
Smartcat
Smartcat now positions itself as an AI translation platform for companies, with AI translation, a CAT editor in the browser and a marketplace of human linguists. Its plans are priced by Smartwords rather than by seats, every plan has unlimited users, and TM matches and repetitions are not charged. There is a 15-day trial and no free plan.
What each plan includes matters for an agency. Adapt, from $1,200 a year, comes with three AI coworkers: Chief of Staff, Content Translator and Content Creator. Review is then done by your own users, which suits an agency with in-house linguists. The Reviewer coworker, access to Smartcat's Marketplace of more than 500,000 experts, and partner and vendor collaboration start with the Accelerate plan, from $24,000 a year as of October 2026.
For an agency, the model works when you resell AI output reviewed by your own linguists and your clients want a portal. It works less well if your translators want an offline desktop tool, or if confidentiality terms don't allow files on a third-party platform. Smartcat's pricing page doesn't list supported file formats, so run your clients' SDLXLIFF or memoQ files through the trial before you commit.
Wordfast
Wordfast Pro is a desktop tool licensed for three years, with upgrades and support, from $480 per translator and renewed at half price. Bulk discounts apply automatically (15 % for 3 or more licenses, 30 % for 10 or more). It imports Trados packages, opens SDLXLIFF and memoQ MQXLIFF files, and stores TMs as TMX.
The limit for an agency is sharing. A Wordfast Pro TM lives on one computer; to share it over a network or the internet you need Wordfast Server or Wordfast Anywhere, the browser tool, which is included for license holders. Wordfast Pro runs on macOS too, via Rosetta on Apple silicon, but Wordfast doesn't guarantee it on macOS 27, released in September 2026. The full comparison is in Wordfast vs Trados.
Which to pick
You translate in-house and receive Trados packages from larger agencies: memoQ. Start with translator pro licenses, then move to memoQ TMS when you need shared TMs.
You sell AI translation that your own linguists review, and clients want a portal: Smartcat Adapt. If you also need Smartcat's marketplace linguists or vendor collaboration, budget for Accelerate.
You have a few translators who mostly work on their own projects, or some use Mac or Linux: Wordfast Pro.
Your main clients require Trados by name: none of the three. Trados Studio is the right answer there; see memoQ vs Trados for the trade-off.
You need browser-based team plans with unlimited seats: look at Phrase TMS, covered in memoQ alternatives.
Free tools that help any of the three
TraduQ is not a CAT tool: it is a free marketplace where agencies post jobs and find translators, at 0 % commission. Its browser tools are free too and process your files locally, so nothing is uploaded. Three of them help a small agency alongside memoQ, Smartcat or Wordfast:
The TM cleaner removes duplicates, empty units and inconsistent translations from a TMX before you load it into a shared TM.
The QA checker checks XLIFF, SDLXLIFF and MQXLIFF files for number, tag, terminology and consistency errors before delivery.
The word count and quote tool counts words by match band against your TM and prices the job with CAT discounts, so your quotes follow the same bands you pay translators.