How to Translate Support Documentation: Tools, Methods & Platform Guide (2026)

Translating support documentation is the fastest way to reduce ticket volume from international customers. When your help center, knowledge base, and FAQ content exist in your customers' languages, they find answers without contacting your team.

But there's no single right way to do it. Your approach depends on your help desk platform, budget, article volume, and how often content changes.

This guide covers the three main translation methods, compares the tools available in 2026, and walks through platform-specific approaches for the most popular help desk systems.

Why Support Documentation Translation Matters

Self-service support scales. Translated support documentation scales it globally.

The math is simple: if 30% of your customer base speaks a language you don't support in your help center, those customers either struggle through English articles, skip your docs entirely and submit tickets, or churn. A translated knowledge base addresses all three.

Key metrics that improve with translated support docs:

• Ticket deflection — Customers find answers in their language before opening a ticket
• First-contact resolution — When tickets do come in, agents can reference translated articles
• Customer satisfaction (CSAT) — Customers rate support higher when documentation exists in their language
• Time to resolution — Shorter resolution times when customers can self-serve

Three Methods for Translating Support Documentation

1. Manual Translation (In-House or Freelance)

Your team or hired translators manually translate each article.

Best for: Small documentation sets (<50 articles), highly regulated industries, content that rarely changes.

Pros:

• Highest quality when done by native-speaking domain experts
• Full control over tone, terminology, and brand voice
• No ongoing tool costs

Cons:

• Doesn't scale: 100 articles × 5 languages = 500 translation tasks
• Keeping translations in sync when source articles change is a manual nightmare
• Slow turnaround (days to weeks per batch)

Cost: $0.08–$0.20/word for professional translators. A 1,000-word article costs $80–$200 per language.

2. Machine Translation (API-Based)

Feed articles through a translation API (Google Translate, DeepL, AWS Translate) and publish the output.

Best for: Large documentation sets, fast-moving content, budget-constrained teams.

Pros:

• Near-instant translation
• Low per-article cost
• Handles bulk content efficiently

Cons:

• Quality varies by language pair and domain. Technical support docs with product-specific terms often translate poorly without customization.
• No awareness of your help desk platform's formatting, metadata, or publishing workflow
• Requires manual review for customer-facing content

Cost: DeepL API: $25/month for 500K characters. Google Translate API: $20 per 1M characters.

3. Integrated Translation Tools

Purpose-built tools that connect directly to your help desk platform, translate articles, and manage the sync workflow.

Best for: Teams using Intercom, Zendesk, Freshdesk, or other major help desk platforms who need ongoing translation with minimal manual work.

Pros:

• Articles translate in context — formatting, images, and links preserved
• Automatic sync when source articles update
• Translation status tracking per article and language
• No copy-paste between systems

Cons:

• Tied to specific platforms
• Monthly subscription cost
• Less control over translation engine choice (depends on the tool)

Cost: Varies. TranslateDesk starts at $0 with 5 free article credits. Crowdin starts at $45/month. Lokalise starts at $120/month.

Tool Comparison: Support Documentation Translation (2026)

Tool	Platforms	Translation Engine	Sync	Price (Starting)
TranslateDesk	Intercom	Multiple (DeepL, Google, OpenAI)	Auto-sync on publish	Free tier; credits from $10
Crowdin	Zendesk, Intercom, Help Scout	Multiple	Manual + API	$45/mo
Lokalise	Zendesk, Intercom	Multiple	API-based	$120/mo
Weglot	Zendesk, custom	Proprietary + DeepL	Proxy-based	$15/mo
Localize	Any (JS snippet)	Multiple	Real-time proxy	Custom pricing
Lingpad	Freshdesk, Zendesk	Multiple	Native integration	$39/mo

Key differentiator: Most tools are general-purpose localization platforms that happen to support help desk content. TranslateDesk is built specifically for help center article translation, which means tighter integration, less configuration, and workflow features designed for support teams.

Platform-Specific Translation Guides

Translating Intercom Help Center Articles

Intercom supports publishing articles in multiple languages, but provides no built-in translation. You create the language versions; Intercom hosts them.

Your options:

1. Manual: Export articles, translate, paste into each language version. Time-consuming but works for small help centers.
2. TranslateDesk: Connects directly to your Intercom workspace. Select articles, choose target languages, translate. Articles publish to the correct language slot automatically. Formatting and images preserved.
3. Crowdin/Lokalise: Requires API setup and a localization workflow. More powerful for large-scale projects but more complex.

Read the full breakdown: Does Intercom Support Translation?

Translating Zendesk Help Center Articles

Zendesk Guide has built-in multi-language support with language-specific article versions. Translation still requires external tools or manual work.

Your options:

1. Zendesk built-in: No translation engine. You manually add translated versions per article.
2. Crowdin/Lokalise: Strong Zendesk integrations. Crowdin's Zendesk app pulls articles, translates, and pushes back.
3. Weglot: Proxy-based approach — translates your help center on the fly without modifying Zendesk content.

Read the full breakdown: How to Translate Zendesk Help Center

Translating Freshdesk Knowledge Base Articles

Freshdesk supports multilingual knowledge bases, but translation quality depends heavily on your approach and article volume.

Your options:

1. Freshdesk built-in: Multi-language support exists, but no translation engine. Manual process.
2. Lingpad: Purpose-built Freshdesk integration. Translates articles within the Freshdesk interface.
3. Crowdin: Supports Freshdesk via API. Suitable for teams already using Crowdin for other localization.

Read the full breakdown: Building a Multilingual Freshdesk Knowledge Base

How to Choose the Right Approach

Small help center (<30 articles), 1–2 languages: Manual translation works. Export, translate, import. Consider a tool only when you add more languages or articles start changing frequently.

Medium help center (30–200 articles), 2–5 languages: Integrated translation tools pay for themselves in time saved. Choose based on your help desk platform. For Intercom, TranslateDesk. For Zendesk, Crowdin or Weglot. For Freshdesk, Lingpad.

Large help center (200+ articles), 5+ languages: You need a localization platform (Crowdin, Lokalise, or Phrase) with API integrations, translation memory, and team collaboration features. Budget $200+/month.

Keeping Translations in Sync

The hardest part of support documentation translation isn't the initial translation — it's keeping translations current when source articles change.

Questions to ask when evaluating a sync strategy:

1. Change detection: Does the tool know when a source article was updated?
2. Partial re-translation: Can it translate only what changed, or does it redo the entire article?
3. Status tracking: Can you see which translations are current vs. stale?
4. Notification: Does it alert you when translations need updating?

TranslateDesk tracks translation freshness per article and flags stale translations automatically. Most general-purpose tools require manual tracking or custom API workflows.

For more on this topic: Best Practices for Managing Translated Content

Getting Started

1. Audit your current documentation. Count articles, identify your most-viewed content, and determine which languages your customers need.
2. Pick 10 high-traffic articles. Translate these first as a pilot. Measure ticket deflection before and after.
3. Choose a method based on your platform, volume, and budget (see the decision framework above).
4. Set up a sync process so translations don't go stale when you update source articles.
5. Measure impact — track ticket volume by language, help center pageviews per language, and CSAT.

Most teams see measurable ticket reduction within 30 days of publishing translated help center content.