Multilingual Website Cost for an Industrial Mid-Cap in Berlin (2026)

The verdict in three sentences

For a Berlin industrial Mittelstand company targeting France and francophone Africa, a serious trilingual DE/EN/FR website costs €18,000 to €40,000 and ships in 10 to 16 weeks. Translation costs can double depending on the method: €0.12 to €0.20 per word for professional translation, roughly 40% less for post-edited machine translation. Hreflang, localised URLs and a headless CMS with per-country approval make the difference between a translated site and one that generates enquiries in Paris, Lyon, Casablanca or Dakar.

The real cost of translation

A full industrial website runs to 25,000 to 60,000 words: product pages, datasheets, application sectors, careers, news. The method should be chosen page by page.

A French buyer spots raw machine translation immediately, especially in technical terms (matériau, tolérance, taille de lot). The professional plus post-edited mix, backed by a glossary approved by your engineers, gives the best balance of cost and credibility.

Overall budget for a trilingual site

Beyond translation, multilingual sites carry technical and organisational costs. The table breaks down a typical project of 60 to 120 pages per language.

Localised URLs (/fr/produits/ rather than /fr/produkte/) and correctly declared hreflang stop Google.fr from showing the German version. Also budget €150 to €350 per month for maintenance and hosting, and €1,500 to €4,000 per year to translate new content.

Organising per-country approval

A headless CMS lets you assign each language to an owner: the sales agent in Lyon approves French, the distributor in Casablanca or Dakar checks local specifics (prices in MAD or FCFA, payment terms), and headquarters approves German. A publication status per language avoids blocking the whole site for one pending page. This workflow adds 1 to 2 weeks to the schedule but cuts post-launch corrections by a factor of three.

Mini case study

Thomas, sales director of a 280-employee precision engineering company in Berlin, exports 58% of revenue. His site has 42,000 words. Fully professional EN and FR translation: 84,000 words x €0.15 = €12,600. Recommended mix: 25,200 words at €0.16 plus 58,800 words at €0.08, i.e. 4,032 + 4,704 = €8,736, saving almost €3,900. With the rest of the project, the quote reaches €29,500. Six months after launch, quote requests from French-speaking markets rise from 4 to 11 a month; with an average order of €18,000 and 20% conversion, that represents about €25,000 of additional orders per month.

FAQ

What is the minimum budget for a trilingual DE/EN/FR site?

Plan on €18,000 for a site of about sixty pages per language. Below that, translation quality or multilingual SEO gets sacrificed.

Is machine translation good enough?

For datasheets and news, post-edited machine translation at €0.07 to €0.10 per word is enough. Sales pages deserve a native professional translator.

Do we need a domain per country (.fr, .ma)?

Not necessarily: a single domain with /fr/ and /en/ subfolders concentrates SEO authority. A .fr makes sense if you have a French subsidiary with its own stock.

How long does delivery take?

Between 10 and 16 weeks, including 3 to 5 weeks of translation and approval. Building the technical glossary should start in week two.

What is the annual cost after launch?

Budget €150 to €350 per month for maintenance and €1,500 to €4,000 per year for translating new content.

Let's scope your project. We scope your multilingual website (languages, word count, translation method, hreflang, per-country approval) within €18,000 to €40,000 and a 10 to 16 week schedule. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.