Localisation: one word for at least four different budgets
Localisation covers everything from translating a button to re-casting a season. Four distinct budgets hide inside the word, and a sentence using it is true of one and false of the others without changing a character. As of 2026-09-22.
| Budget | What it buys | Documented by vendors here |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Menus, help, marketing pages | By nine vendors |
| Generated documents | Outlines and breakdowns in a language | By one |
| Voices | Spoken dialogue in a language | By nine, mostly as counts |
| Market adaptation | Names, setting, visible text | By one, in passing |
Inclusion rule. The layers the word covers, with how many of the vendors read here publish anything about each. Counts refer to published material, not capability. Order. Cheapest budget first.
1The word is the problem, not the concept
Applied to an interface it means strings. Applied to output it means a model will write or speak the language. Applied to a release it means names, settings and visible text. A page announcing wide support is usually making the first claim.
So the first thing to do with any localisation claim is to ask which layer it describes. That question is answerable from a vendor page surprisingly often, and the answer is usually the cheapest layer.
2The layers are filled by different companies
Among the vendors read here the longest interface declarations and the longest voice lists belong to almost disjoint sets. A reader who takes one as evidence of the other would pick the wrong vendor for either question.
That is the finding this register is organised around, and it is why the columns are never merged into a single figure. A merged column would rank vendors on a quantity nobody published.
3Two of the four layers are almost undocumented
Generated document language is published by one vendor. Market adaptation is mentioned by one. Those are the two layers a non-English production depends on most, and they are the two nobody has written down.
Recording that is more useful than estimating it. A buyer who knows the question is unanswered before purchase can ask it directly, which is the only route available.
A definition, not a measurement: no vendor figure appears here that is not also in the register. Each layer has its own column or its own term page in this register.
Nearby terms: Market version, Internationalisation. The whole vocabulary is at terms; nothing on this page is a claim about a named product.