LocalizePro Localization delivery Website Localization Pack · USD 79
German localization: 412 strings delivered, 9 need a product decision
Marketing site and signup flow. Glossary applied, length checked against the layout, and the strings that cannot be translated without someone choosing.
German runs about 30 percent longer than English, and your navigation has four items with no room to grow. That is not a translation problem, it is a layout problem that translation reveals. Eleven strings are flagged for length and nine for meaning.
The copy is done and reviewed. Nine strings cannot be finished without a product decision, most importantly what you call the thing your product does: Arbeitsbereich, Projekt or the English Workspace. Three of your competitors in DACH use the English word. That is a brand decision, not a linguistic one.
Scope
What was localized
| Area | Strings | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing pages, 6 | 188 | Delivered |
| Navigation and footer | 34 | Delivered, 4 length flags |
| Signup and onboarding flow | 96 | Delivered |
| Pricing page | 42 | Delivered, see clause 4 |
| Transactional emails, 5 | 52 | Delivered |
| Error and validation messages | 0 | Out of scope, in the app |
| Legal pages | 0 | Excluded, see clause 5 |
| Help centre | 0 | Not in this pack |
Target locale is de-DE. Formal register (Sie) throughout, agreed at kickoff. Austrian and Swiss variants are not covered and differ in places, including on pricing terminology.
Glossary
The terms, fixed once and applied everywhere
| English | German | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Dashboard | Dashboard | Kept. Standard in German SaaS, translating it reads as dated |
| Sign up | Registrieren | Not Anmelden, which is sign in and is the most common error in this pair |
| Sign in | Anmelden | Consistent throughout |
| Free trial | Kostenlos testen | Verb form. Kostenlose Testversion is longer and reads like software from 2008 |
| Plan | Tarif | Not Plan. Tarif is what a German buyer expects on a pricing page |
| Billing | Abrechnung | |
| Team member | Teammitglied | |
| Workspace | Not decided | Question 1 in clause 3 |
| Insights | Not decided | Question 2. No good German equivalent that is not vague |
| Get started | Loslegen | Informal but standard on buttons even with Sie elsewhere |
The glossary is delivered as a file and is the thing to keep. Every future release should be translated against it, which is what stops the product drifting into three words for the same concept.
Decisions
The nine that need you, not a translator
| # | String | The question | Options |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Workspace | Brand term or translated? | Workspace / Arbeitsbereich / Projekt |
| 2 | Insights | No clean equivalent | Insights / Auswertungen / Erkenntnisse |
| 3 | "Loved by 4,000 teams" | Is the number true for DACH? | Keep, change, or drop the number |
| 4 | "Cancel anytime" | Legal meaning differs | Needs your lawyer, see clause 5 |
| 5 | "14-day free trial, no card" | Is this offer the same in DACH? | Confirm with commercial |
| 6 | Pricing in GBP | Currency and VAT display | See clause 4 |
| 7 | "Book a demo" | Is a German speaking person available? | Keep or remove the CTA |
| 8 | Support hours, UK time | Stated as UK hours on 3 pages | State CET, or state the UK hours plainly |
| 9 | Company address in footer | Is there a DACH entity? | Affects what the footer must say |
Layout
Where German will break the design
| Element | English | German | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nav: Pricing | 7 chars | Preise, 6 | Fine |
| Nav: Integrations | 12 | Integrationen, 13 | Fine |
| Nav: Get started | 11 | Jetzt loslegen, 14 | Tight |
| Nav: Book a demo | 11 | Demo buchen, 11 | Fine |
| Button: Start free trial | 16 | Kostenlos testen, 16 | Fine |
| Button: Manage subscription | 19 | Abonnement verwalten, 20 | Overflows at 320px |
| Label: Payment method | 14 | Zahlungsmethode, 15 | Fine |
| Heading: Everything you need | 20 | Alles, was Sie brauchen, 22 | Wraps to 2 lines |
| Toast: Changes saved | 13 | Änderungen gespeichert, 22 | Overflows |
| Empty state, 2 lines | 68 | Umlaut, 89 | Overflows the card |
Eleven strings are flagged in total; the worst are shown. Shorter German alternatives are supplied for all eleven as a second column in the delivery file, so you can choose between changing the copy and changing the layout.
Excluded
What was deliberately not translated
| Item | Why not | Who should |
|---|---|---|
| Terms of service | Legal effect differs by jurisdiction | A German qualified lawyer |
| Privacy policy | Same, and the required content differs | A German qualified lawyer |
| Imprint page | Germany has specific requirements for what a business site must show, and you have no page at all | A German qualified lawyer |
| "Cancel anytime" | Reads as a contractual promise in German | Confirm before using |
| Any claim about data location | A factual claim, not a phrase | Your team |
A translated legal page is not a localized legal page. Translating your UK terms into German produces a document that says what your UK terms say, in German, which is rarely what you want and occasionally the opposite.
- Answer the nine in clause 3 before the pages go live, not after
- Fix or re-copy the three overflowing strings
- Decide the currency and VAT question with your finance lead
- Have a German speaker read the live pages once before launch
- Keep the glossary and translate every future release against it