Home
Introduction to TMS
Learn who needs this manual and when a TMS is a better choice than a CAT tool.
How does it differ from CAT?
A CAT (computer-assisted translation or computer-aided translation) tool is software used to support a translator facilitating the translation process.

Introduction to TMS
Learn who needs this manual and when a TMS is a better choice than a CAT tool.
- What is a TMS?
  A translation management system (TMS) is a type of software used for comprehensive work with translation projects. It is a centralized platform that comprises various tools, performs an abundance of tasks, and allows to achieve numerous goals
- How does it differ from CAT?
  A CAT (computer-assisted translation or computer-aided translation) tool is software used to support a translator facilitating the translation process.
- Cloud vs. onsite system
  TMSs can be offered as cloud-based or on-premise solutions, or as a combination of both.
- Public, private or hybrid cloud
  You can decide to have your TMS installed in a variety of ways.
- Market overview
  There is a great number of Translation Management Systems available to meet different business needs.

How does it differ from CAT?

A CAT (computer-assisted translation or computer-aided translation) tool is software used to support a translator facilitating the translation process.

Its aim is to enhance speed, quality and consistency through various features, such as translation memory, term bases, metrics (file analysis), quality assurance and plug-ins (e.g. for machine translation).

As a result, a CAT tool is mostly used by translators and revisers, while TMSs are used also by project managers. Each TMS has a CAT tool as one of its components.

The most popular CAT tools in the market are:

Trados Studio
memoQ
Wordfast (Classic & Pro)
Déjà Vu
Across
Transit (by STAR)

There are also some free tools for users not requiring sophisticated features: