What Is SaaS Localization? (And why I stopped calling it "Translation" years ago)

There is a question I hear surprisingly often: “What exactly do you translate?”

When I answer that I specialize in SaaS localization, people usually picture me translating software interfaces… buttons, menus, error messages and the occasional “Forgot your password?” screen. Which is not entirely wrong.

They’re just missing about ninety percent of the job (!)

Localization is one of those professions that tends to disappear when it’s done well.

Translation scholars have been making a similar observation for decades. In his seminal work The Translator’s Invisibility, Lawrence Venuti argues that readers tend to perceive a translation as “good” precisely when they stop noticing it’s a translation at all. Fluency creates the illusion that the text was originally written in the target language, quietly erasing the translator’s intervention from the reader’s mind.

While localization has become increasingly intertwined with software development, UX writing and product design, it’s worth remembering that it remains, first and foremost, a linguistic discipline. The theories that have shaped translation studies—including the long-standing debate around the translator’s invisibility—didn’t suddenly become irrelevant when translators started working with JSON files instead of novels.

So… Users don’t notice that a product has been localized. They simply navigate through it without hesitation, understand every message instinctively and complete tasks without ever stopping to wonder whether the software was originally designed for someone else.

Ironically, the opposite is also true: most people only become aware of localization when something feels… off.

Perhaps the checkout page asks for a ZIP code in a country that doesn’t use ZIP codes. Maybe a button suddenly overflows because French politely decided that three words were necessary where English managed with one. Or perhaps an onboarding email sounds oddly robotic, technically correct but unmistakably translated. These aren’t just cosmetic issues.

Every awkward sentence introduces a tiny moment of hesitation, every inconsistency slightly weakens the trust users place in your product. Individually, those moments seem insignificant, but together, they shape the overall user experience.

Over the years, one lesson has come back again and again: the biggest challenge is rarely language itself.

It’s understanding products.

What is SaaS localization? (and why I stopped calling it “translation” years ago)

Every now and then, someone asks me what I actually do for a living.

“I translate software,” I usually reply. It’s a convenient answer… It’s also wildly incomplete.

It’s a bit like saying architects draw houses or chefs heat food. Technically correct, but missing most of the interesting parts.

The longer I’ve worked with SaaS companies, the less I’ve thought of my job as “translation”. Not because language has become less important (quite the opposite) but because language is only one piece of a much larger puzzle.

A typical day might involve reviewing interface strings that have lost all context somewhere between the design mock-ups and the translation platform. It might mean debating whether a single term should remain consistent across hundreds of screens, figuring out why a button suddenly overflows in French, or explaining that “Save” cannot be translated until someone tells me what, exactly, is being saved.

Sometimes, the biggest linguistic challenge of the day isn’t finding the right translation.

It’s finding the person who actually knows what the string is supposed to do.

Developers, product managers, designers, UX writers, marketers and localization specialists all look at the same product through a different lens. Good localization happens when those perspectives meet. Poor localization happens when translators are introduced to the conversation five minutes before release and handed a spreadsheet with 3,000 strings labelled “Final_v8_REAL_FINAL.xlsx”.

If that filename sounds oddly specific… Let’s just say I’ve seen worse.

Why SaaS localization is unlike any other type of translation

Imagine you’re translating a novel. You receive the entire manuscript. You know who the characters are, how they speak, what happened in the previous chapter and what will happen in the next one. Every sentence exists within a story.

Now imagine translating software.

Instead of chapters, you receive this: Save

That’s it. No screenshot, no interface, no explanation, just one word…

Should it become Save, as in save a document? Or Save, as in save your settings? Or perhaps Save, as in save money?

English doesn’t make the distinction, but French does. Without context, even experienced translators have to investigate before making a decision. Okay, now multiply that situation by several thousand. Welcome to software localization! 😁 But context isn’t the only difference.

Let’s imagine you’re using a project management platform. You create a workspace. Inside that workspace, you create projects. Inside those projects, you create tasks. Simple enough.

Now imagine the product has been translated over several years by different people.

Suddenly, workspace becomes:

• workspace / work area / project space / work environment

Meanwhile, project is occasionally translated as “workspace”, because… well, someone didn’t have enough context that day. Technically, none of these translations is necessarily wrong. For users, however, the experience becomes surprisingly confusing.

“Wait… wasn’t this called a workspace five minutes ago?”

Consistency is one of those things people rarely notice when it’s there. They notice almost immediately when it’s gone.

Localization also extends far beyond the application’s interface. Let’s take a fictional HR platform.

A new customer signs up. Their journey might look something like this:

1. They discover your website through Google.
2. They compare your pricing page.
3. They create an account.
4. They receive a welcome email.
5. They complete the onboarding tutorial.
6. They invite colleagues.
7. They browse the help centre.
8. They contact customer support.
9. They receive product updates.

Every one of those touchpoints contains language. Each of them contributes to the perception of your product. If only the interface is localized, the experience quickly starts to feel fragmented.

• The buttons speak fluent French.
• The onboarding emails sound translated.
• The documentation remains in English.
• The SEO pages target keywords that French customers would never search for.

The product works. The experience doesn’t quite. That’s why I rarely describe SaaS localization as simply translating software.

You’re not translating an application: you’re localizing an ecosystem, an experience! Every screen, every email, every notification, every support article and every landing page contributes to the same conversation between a product and its users.

When localization is done well, nobody notices. Which means your greatest professional achievement is often… complete invisibility. It’s a strange career choice, if you think about it.