{"id":806,"date":"2018-08-08T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T10:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/?p=806"},"modified":"2026-05-06T18:39:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T16:39:50","slug":"freelance-vs-agency-vs-lsp-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/freelance-vs-agency-vs-lsp-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Freelance vs. Agency vs. LSP &#8211; Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Your son has the opportunity to go study abroad in Spain! He\u2019s in charge of packing his bag. And you \u2026 well, you have to take care of everything else. Including that mountain of paperwork. All in Spanish, of course. The problem is that you haven\u2019t&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/tips-maintaining-language-skills\/\">practiced Spanish<\/a>&nbsp;in a while, probably since high school, and the program organizers are very strict when it comes to the paperwork.&nbsp;<strong>You have to hire someone to translate it all, but who?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several options available in the world of translation. The three most important ones are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Freelance Translators<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Translation Agencies<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Language Service Providers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Before we get started we\u2019d like to stress that none of the above options are inherently better than the others. They\u2019re all good, but choosing one over the other depends on the particular circumstances. That being said, today we\u2019re going to talk about the pros and cons of freelance translators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Freelance Translators<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Freelance translators work for themselves<\/strong>, which means that they\u2019re truly hard workers. Aside from translating, they also have to worry about looking for clients, keeping up an image and a brand, and making their way in a highly competitive market. And let\u2019s not even get started on daily problems freelance workers face (crazy hours, different taxes, job insecurity).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From your point of view as a customer,&nbsp;<strong>the biggest advantage of working with someone who works for him\/herself is usually the rates<\/strong>. Since it\u2019s just one person that\u2019s doing the translation, costs are generally lower. They may also be more open to negotiating, especially if it\u2019s for a new client.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as there is only one linguist involved in the whole translation process, you may pay less, but the service you\u2019re getting is less comprehensive since there won\u2019t be any editors, proofreaders, layout designers, etc. To get the best quality service, it&#8217;s recommended that at least one other person edits\/proofreads the translated text. Freelance translators may offer additional services for a slightly higher price. Sometimes they even offer proofreading services subcontracted to another linguist. If this is not the case, however, you\u2019ll have to look for a proofreader on your own or settle for an unedited text, which can be a bit risky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it\u2019s true that freelancers have a reputation in the translation sector as being tireless workers, they have their limits like any other human being. They can\u2019t translate into all languages nor can they cover all areas of&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/specialized-translation\/\">expertise<\/a>. And their days still only have 24 hours. This means that they can\u2019t accept any job that comes their way and that they\u2019re not always available to take on new projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hiring freelance translators is a great choice if you know someone that\u2019s reliable and that fits the profile that you\u2019re looking for. If you usually need the same type of documentation translated and you have reasonable deadlines, this is the cheapest and most comfortable option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In in our next article,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/translation-agencies\/\">Part II<\/a>&nbsp;of the series, we\u2019re going to discuss translation agencies. In the&nbsp;third and final article&nbsp;we will talk about our experience as a&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/language-service-provider\/\">Language Service Provider<\/a>. Follow us on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ExeroSolutions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ExeroSoluciones\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, or check out our&nbsp;Website&nbsp;to make sure you don\u2019t miss a thing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your son has the opportunity to go study abroad in Spain! He\u2019s in charge of packing his bag. And you \u2026 well, you have to take care of everything else. Including that mountain of paperwork. All in Spanish, of course. The problem is that you haven\u2019t&nbsp;practiced Spanish&nbsp;in a while, probably since high school, and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categorizar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807,"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions\/807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exerosoluciones.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}