While anyone working with or hiring a translation service needs to balance overall cost with quality, there are some dangerous drawbacks to going with extremely cheap translation services. If quality is not an issue, or you don’t need any official translations backed up by a guarantee, then cheap translation services might be the way to go.

If, on the other hand, you hire quality translators for a reasonable yet economical price, chances are you’ll be much happier with the work once it’s sitting on your desk. Here are three reasons why you might want to avoid cut-rate translation services.

1. Little Quality Control

Cheap translation services (too cheap) often cut costs by cutting quality control. This means less or no editing, little to no project management, as well as an absence of overall attentiveness. You might get the best rate in town, but you probably won’t get the best translation.

2. Machine Translation vs. Human Translations

If a translation service really wants to offer a cheap rate, they might rely a little too heavily on automated translations, also known as machine translation. While a machine translation (perhaps given the once-over by a human being, or not) might be all right for some, the chances of errors slipping in can increase substantially. Customers tend to notice when something is translated by a machine and doesn’t have a natural, “human” touch.

3. Translator Qualifications

A certified and qualified translator generally takes pride in his or her work. That doesn’t mean someone without the proper education isn’t talented and can’t do a good translation job — but without the proper training, the likelihood of an untrained translator making some rookie mistakes increases by many fold.

By choosing a company with competitive rates and a roster of qualified translators, you can ensure that you will get great translations every time — without breaking the bank.