Choosing the right translation provider in Russia is vital. Compared to Western Europe and the US the market is young and not yet as developed. Over a 1000 companies operate in it, offering varying quality of services and costs from 5 to 20+ euros a page for popular languages. If you Google for contractors, you are equally as likely to find a professional or a fraud.
Turning to directories, blueboards and even available market reports, you will probably be embarrassed how little helpful information they offer. Perhaps a dozen largest brands stand out, but many smaller highly specialized and professional companies are virtually invisible.
This lack of information prompted me to create translationrating.ru – a page that ranks translation agencies and provides criteria for their comparison.
Disclaimer
Two warnings. First, the ranking of LSPs is based on aggregated recommendations from industry professionals. As a rendition of collective opinion, scores are influenced by charisma of CEOs, shared activities, proximity and other subjective factors. Some of the top places may have been attained by a group vote of friends/business partners. Likewise, less popular but still very well established firms did not get all the acclaim they deserve, simply because fewer people keep them in mind.
Second, the company data has been provided by the LSPs or otherwise copied from their official websites, and is therefore their responsibility. Some of the LSPs may have mildly inflated their figures.
I recommend using the table as pre-selection tool to choose a range of fitting providers, and then researching these companies further before placing an order. For more information on companies (clients, financials, CEO contacts), please use Russian version of the website.
| Ranked | Logo | Website | Key subject areas | Main office | Year est | Employees | TM-tools_used | Score |
| 1 |  |
neotech.ru | oil and gas, automotive, IT | Moscow | 1991 | 115 |   |
312 |
| 2 |  |
januswwi.com | IT, software localization, consulting services , marketing/advertising | Moscow | 1996 | 167 |      |
267 |
| 3 |  |
roid.ru | medical, legal, finance | Moscow | 1998 | 56 | |
267 |
| 4 |  |
logrus.ru | IT, ERP, technical, business, manufacturing engineering | Moscow | 1993 | 150 | |
252 |
| 5 |  |
palex.ru | software localization, IT, technical, medical | Tomsk | 2002 | 63 | |
246 |
| 6 |  |
egotranslating.ru | oil and gas, automotive, energy sector, manufacturing engineering, tool engineering, IT | St.Petersburg | 1990 | 200 | |
234 |
| 7 |  |
allcorrect.ru | videogames, software localization, chemical production, automotive | Samara | 2006 | 39 | |
231 |
| 8 |  |
norma-tm.ru | medical, pharmaceutics, technical | Moscow | 2001 | 12 | 155 | |
| 9 |  |
intent93.ru | electric technology, automation equipment, electronic equipment, air conditioning equipment | Moscow | 1993 | 14 | |
142 |
| 10 |  |
t-link.ru | government, military, technical, business, legal | Moscow | 2003 | 123 | |
116 |
| 11 |  |
intext.ru | technical, engineering, IT, medical, legal | Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine) | 2002 | 25 | |
111 |
| 12 |  |
perevedem.ru | software localization, marketing/advertising, legal, technical | Moscow | 2003 | 93 | |
111 |
| 13 |  |
primavista.ru | oil and gas, IT, legal, medical | Chelyabinsk | 1999 | 27 | |
110 |
| 14 |  |
traktat.com | technical, finance, IT | Moscow | 2000 |  |
109 | |
| 15 |  |
ex-primo.com | technical, oil and gas, legal, medical, government | Moscow | 2006 | |
107 | |
| 16 |  |
akmw.ru | wide range of subject areas | Moscow | 1999 | 35 | |
105 |
| 17 |  |
alphom.ru | technical, finance, legal, medical, science | Moscow | 1991 | |
86 | |
| 18 |  |
perevodural.ru | technical, simultaneous interpreting, wide range of subject areas | Yekaternburg | 1994 | 8 | |
70 |
| 19 |  |
littera.ru | technical | Moscow | 2003 | 3 | |
68 |
| 20 |  |
libra-k.ru | finance, insurance business, oil and gas, multimedia translation | Moscow | 1992 | 11 | |
67 |
| 21 |  |
marktranslations.ru | legal, finance, аудит, marketing/advertising, business | Moscow | 1992 | 12 | 66 | |
| 22 |  |
aum.ru | oil and gas, patents, general business, business, tool engineering | Novosibirsk | 1996 | 32 | |
55 |
| 23 |  |
tlservice.ru | finance, audit, medical, oil and gas, legal | Moscow | 2000 | 115 | |
55 |
| 24 |  |
megatext.ru | personal documents (b2c), simultaneous interpreting, websites | Moscow | 2004 | 35 | |
53 |
| 25 |  |
neoland.ru | technical, legal, medical, multimedia translation | Moscow | 2005 | |
51 | |
| 26 |  |
martinperevod.ru | finance, oil and gas, technical | Moscow | 2006 | |
50 | |
| 27 |  |
mirperevoda.ru | technical, business, general business, customs | Moscow | 2000 | |
50 | |
| 28 |  |
profperevod.ru | oil and gas, legal, finance, manufacturing engineering | Moscow | 1999 | 35 | |
50 |
| 29 |  |
rperevod.ru | interpreting, simultaneous interpreting, government, general business, technical, mass media, book translation | Moscow | ? | |
49 | |
| 30 |  |
perevod3000.com | IT, telecom | Kyiv (Ukraine) | 1998 | |
48 | |
| 31 |  |
pravoislovo.ru | legal | Moscow | 2000 | 10 | |
48 |
| 32 |  |
enrus.ru | IT, medical, book translation | Moscow | ? | |
47 | |
| 33 |  |
fonetix.ru | technical, IT, websites | Moscow | 1988 | |
45 | |
| 34 |  |
translations-bureau.ru | energy sector, manufacturing engineering, machine tools industry, aviation | Chelyabinsk | 1987 | 23 | |
39 |
| 35 |  |
trans-lit.ru | finance, legal, energy sector, construction, oil and gas, IT | Yekaternburg | 2008 | 9 | |
38 |
| 36 | perevodmsk.ru | machine tools industry, oil and gas | Moscow | 2006 | 18 |  |
38 | |
| 37 |  |
itbfirst.ru | technical | Kolomna | 2006 | 20 | |
37 |
| 38 |  |
perewod.ru | oil and gas, finance, medical | Moscow | 1996 | 24 | |
37 |
| 39 |  |
delovoyazyk.ru | military, oil and gas, legal | Moscow | 1988 | 12 | |
35 |
| 40 | cogitum.ru | software localization, IT | 1992 | |
33 | |||
| 41 |  |
tra-service.ru | software localization, technical, marketing/advertising, legal, websites | St.Petersburg | ? | |
32 | |
| 42 |  |
delos.ru | technical, software localization, websites | Moscow | ? | |
31 | |
| 43 |  |
interlingua.su | automotive, legal, technical, marketing/advertising | Moscow | 2002 | 10 | |
31 |
| 44 | perevodperevod.ru | websites, technical | Moscow | 2009 | 6 | |
31 | |
| 45 |  |
tran.su | technical, legal | Tomsk | 2006 | 9 | |
30 |
| 46 |  |
perevodchik.ru | legal, finance, technical, marketing/advertising, personal documents (b2c) | Moscow | 2000 | |
29 | |
| 47 |  |
tolmach.ru | personal documents (b2c), legal, technical | Moscow | 1997 | 28 | |
26 |
| 48 |  |
mtagency.ru | legal, technical, finance, automotive | Moscow | 2006 | 51 | |
23 |
| 49 | — | — | — | — | — | |
22 | |
| 50 |  |
artranslating.ru | legal, finance, pharmaceutics, technical | Moscow | 2006 | 6 | |
20 |
| 51 |  |
contrast.name | interpreting, simultaneous interpreting, multilingual guides | Moscow | 2006 | 2 | 20 | |
| 52 |  |
databridge.ru | IT, technical, electronics, marketing/advertising | Ivanovo | 2005 | 11 | |
20 |
| 53 | lingva-by.com | legal, software localization, tourism, industrial safety | Minsk (Belarus) | ? | 2 | |
20 | |
| 54 |  |
lingvoas.ru | technical, finance, legal, business, book translation | Moscow | 2009 | 7 | |
20 |
| 55 |  |
logica-tran.ru | legal, IT | Nizhny Novgorod | 2008 | 15 | |
20 |
| 56 | nashperevod.ru | finance, business, general business, insurance business, energy sector | Dubna | 2008 | |
20 | ||
| 57 |  |
ostperevod.ru | oil and gas, construction, IT, legal, interpreting | Rostov-on-Don | 1998 | 10 | |
20 |
| 58 |  |
tran-express.ru | general business, tourism, hotels, websites | St.Petersburg | 2008 | 8 | |
20 |
| 59 |  |
etservices.ru | electronics, telecom, control systems, patents | St.Petersburg | 2009 | 1 | 20 | |
| 60 |  |
intertransl.com | technical, IT, software localization, oil and gas | St.Petersburg | 1988 | 40 | |
19 |
| 61 |  |
london-moscow.ru | legal, business, technical, medical | Moscow | 2002 | |
19 | |
| 62 |  |
pa-mir.ru | science, technical, legal | Moscow | 2006 | |
19 | |
| 63 |  |
id-buro.ru | legal, visa translations | Yekaternburg | ? | |
18 | |
| 64 | ruslan.com | legal, patents, marketing/advertising | Toronto | ? | |
18 | ||
| 65 | trema.ru | technical, patents, general business, marketing/advertising | Chelyabinsk | 2002 | 18 | |||
| 66 |  |
investnik.ru | interpreting, simultaneous interpreting, government | Yekaternburg | 2007 | |
17 | |
| 67 |  |
pt-lingvo.ru | technical, science, materials science, manufacturing engineering, tool engineering, medical | Moscow | 1998 | |
17 | |
| 68 |  |
tranpro.ru | personal documents (b2c), general business, websites | Chimki | ? | |
17 | |
| 69 |  |
translate-spb.ru | legal, finance, book translation | St.Petersburg | ? | |
17 | |
| 70 |  |
www.runa.info | foreign economic activity, conferences, wide range of subject areas, technical | Arkhangelsk | 1990 | |
17 | |
| 71 |  |
aardvark.ru | simultaneous interpreting, IT, finance, consulting, legal | Moscow | 1999 | |
16 | |
| 72 |  |
augmentive.com | software localization, IT, videogames | Moscow | ? | |
16 | |
| 73 |  |
era24.ru | legal, software localization | Moscow | 2005 | |
16 | |
| 74 | gtg.ru | technical | Moscow | 2006 | |
16 | ||
| 75 |  |
iti.ru | IT, software localization, mobile phones, medical, general business | Moscow | 1992 | 28 | |
16 |
| 76 |  |
lingvopro.ru | legal, general business | Moscow | ? | |
16 | |
| 77 |  |
sfera-translating.ru | technical, legal, multimedia, interpreting | St.Petersburg | ? | |
16 | |
| 78 |  |
tisinter.ru | wide range of subject areas | Moscow | 2006 | |
16 | |
| 79 |  |
trans-tech.ru | military, aviation, ship building, energy sector, nuclear power, tool engineering, metallurgy | St.Petersburg | 2004 | |
16 | |
| 80 |  |
trans.agtc.ru | aviation, finance, business, military, manufacturing engineering, legal, pharmaceutics, electronics | Moscow | 2004 | 110 | |
16 |
| 81 | alcor-center.ru | electro technology, science | Moscow | 2003 | |
15 | ||
| 82 |  |
disaron.ru | legal, general business | Moscow | ? | |
15 | |
| 83 |  |
leo-davinci.ru | technical, legal, business, medical, oil and gas, book translation, marketing/advertising, IT | Moscow | 2006 | |
15 | |
| 84 |  |
Multilize.com | software localization, IT | St.Petersburg | 2004 | |
15 | |
| 85 |  |
Perevodim.ru | energy sector, IT, legal, marketing/advertising | Moscow | 2005 | |
15 | |
| 86 |  |
Promova.ua | technical, software localization, IT | Kharkov (Ukraine) | ? | |
15 | |
| 87 |  |
russian-translators.ru | wide range of subject areas | Moscow | ? | |
15 | |
| 88 | vash-perevod.ru | technical, science, legal | Moscow | ? | |
15 | ||
| 89 | bilinguist.ru | general business, legal, technical, websites, foreign economic activity | Yekaternburg | ? | |
14 | ||
| 90 |  |
govorunby.com | wide range of subject areas | Minsk (Belarus) | 2001 | 15 | |
14 |
| 91 | 7771000.ru | legal, personal documents (b2c) | St.Petersburg | ? | |
14 | ||
| 92 | translatemaster.ru | legal, personal documents (b2c) | Moscow | ? | |
14 | ||
| 94 | v6.spb.ru | technical, oil and gas, construction, medical, automotive, business, legal, personal documents (b2c) | St.Petersburg | 2001 | 70 | |
13 | |
| 95 |  |
l-translate.ru | technical, legal, business, medical | Moscow | 2001 | |
13 | |
| 96 | lingva.su | business, technical, medical, legal | Moscow | ? | |
13 | ||
| 97 | perevod-spb.ru | personal documents (b2c), science, technical, medical, general business, legal | St.Petersburg | ? | |
13 | ||
| 98 | transguild.by | general business, technical, legal, interpreting, simultaneous interpreting | Minsk (Belarus) | ? | |
13 | ||
| 99 | 7-70.ru | personal documents (b2c) | Moscow | ? | |
12 | ||
| 100 |  |
passoavanti.ru | personal documents (b2c), wide range of subject areas | Yekaternburg | 2008 | |
12 |
How it was made
Generally ratings rank companies by their revenues. In Russia that wouldn’t work. Most translation agencies prefer not to disclose their sales figures to media, and there is no way to get up-to date data through official requests. When you see a market report with revenue figures for several LSPs, know that for each company listed in it there are 5-10 of the same size that haven’t been mentioned. Or the researcher obtained “some figures that may be close to the truth”. You never know.
Revenue figures being a no-go for a rating, I had to find an alternative way to rank companies, one that would include all important players despite them providing or not providing corporate data.
The answer came in the form of recommendations from competent professionals. I have decided to collect opinions of LSP CEOs and sourcing managers, which companies are the best. In a survey conducted in Nov-Dec 2011, the experts were asked to provide their own version of top 10 language service providers. Each reference earned the companies points, which were aggregated in the final score. Thus LSPs with recommendations from several experts and higher places earned top places in the table.
| Place in expert ranking | Points |
| 1st | 19 |
| 2nd | 18 |
| 3rd | 17 |
| 4th | 16 |
| 5th | 15 |
| 6th | 14 |
| 7th | 13 |
| 8th | 12 |
| 9th | 11 |
| 10th | 10 |
| Extra | 5 |
| Companies received for filling in the questionnaire | 20 |
Company CEOs also filled in a questionnaire with relevant data such as specialization, number of employees, implemented CAT and TM tools, financials, etc.
Over 250 translation companies active in the Russian market had been invited to participate, and 44 agencies agreed, including most of market leaders. Several professional sourcing managers added their opinions to the poll.
About the author
Konstantin Dranch has worked as a business journalist and freelance translator in Samara (Russia) and is now a part of the team that hosts Translation Forum Russia conference. Currently residing in Kosice, Slovak Republic.
He can be reached kvdranch@yandex.ru