SaaS localization studio · Brooklyn, NY
Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese for the parts of your product people actually read: onboarding flows, help-center articles, and the en.json nobody has opened since launch. Billed per project. Linguistic QA and a glossary handoff in every package.
The studio on Brighton 7th
Zipper & Thread is a localization studio at 3130 Brighton 7th, Brooklyn, NY, a short walk from the Brighton Beach boardwalk. We translate and culturally adapt SaaS products into three languages — Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese — and no others, which is most of the reason the glossaries are good.
Our block hears more languages before noon than most product teams ship in a year. We work in three of them. Every project is priced once, up front, per language.
Before we quote, one of us creates a trial account with a throwaway email and walks your onboarding the way a new user in Monterrey, Recife or Osaka would. Every screen gets a screenshot and a note, including the ones behind the “Skip for now” link.
You get: annotated screenshots, one per screenA native-speaking translator drafts. A second native-speaking reviewer reads the result cold, without the source beside it — because that is how your customer reads it. Anything that sounds translated gets flagged and rewritten.
You get: an LQA log listing every change and whyOn staging, or in screenshots if staging is a sore subject. We check truncation, plural rules, variables like {count} and {firstName}, Japanese line breaks, and whether “Workspace” should be translated at all. (Usually not in Japanese. Usually yes in Spanish.)
You get: a truncation report sorted by screenEvery package ends with a termbase: approved term, rejected alternatives, part of speech, and a one-line reason. It imports into Lokalise, Crowdin or Phrase, and still makes sense in a spreadsheet two years from now.
You get: glossary.csv + glossary.pdfHow a quote is built
A quote from us is a single figure per language. It is assembled from the parts below, and it does not move unless your source file does.
The expansion check
Your trial button is 140px wide. It was designed in English. Three of the four versions below don’t fit, including the one with ten characters.
+44%
wider in Spanish. The dashed line is your button. We flag it before your users in Lima do.
3
Languages, on purpose
Spanish (one variant per project: neutral Latin American, Mexican, or Spain), Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese. We stop at three.
2
Linguists per language
A translator and a separate reviewer. The reviewer is not allowed to look at the English first.
If it opens in a text editor, we can work in it. If it’s a PDF of your app, we will ask once, politely, for the source.
10
Business days
Typical for one onboarding package in one language. Rush is half that, at +30%. Quotes come back in 2 business days.
Attach your export to an email and name the languages. That is the entire intake form.
Email the fileThe difference, on one screen
Same welcome screen, same Spanish speaker in Bogotá. Left: what a literal pass returns. Right: what we hand back, with a glossary entry explaining each decision.
Literal pass · technically correct
app / es / bienvenida
¡Bienvenido a su2 viaje de incorporación1!
Haga clic en el botón de abajo para comenzar su prueba gratis.
Comenzar su prueba gratis de 14 días3Zipper & Thread · glossary attached
app / es / bienvenida
Hola, Marta. Ya puedes empezar.1
Tienes 14 días para probarlo todo. Sin tarjeta.4
Empezar2Same treatment in Brazilian Portuguese (você, not tu, unless your users are in Porto Alegre) and Japanese (です・ます by default; casual forms only if your English is genuinely casual, which it usually isn’t).
Per-project packages · priced per language
Every package includes linguistic QA by a second linguist and a glossary handoff. Pick the one closest to your file; we’ll tell you if a different one fits better and costs less.
Product UI strings
For a live app that needs its interface in another language by the next release.
Signup to first value
Signup screens, tooltips, checklists, empty states, and the six lifecycle emails that follow them.
Articles, macros, search terms
Up to 40 articles, re-imported into Zendesk, Intercom or Help Scout with internal links that still go somewhere.
Japanese packages are priced +22%: a second review pass, and the katakana-or-English decisions get their own meeting.
Over the word cap: $0.21 per word for Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese, $0.29 for Japanese. Rush: half the days, +30%. Invoiced per project, 50% to start, 50% on glossary delivery.
Before you send the file
For first drafts of long help-center articles, sometimes, and it says so on the quote. UI strings and onboarding copy are written by a person from the first word. Either way, two humans read every string before it ships.
One variant per project: neutral Latin American (our default for US-based SaaS), Mexican, or Spain. We don’t blend them. Vosotros and ustedes can’t share a button.
An export of your strings or articles, staging access or a folder of screenshots, and the name of whoever decides what your product calls a “workspace.” That last one saves about a week.
Changes under 5% of the word count are included. Past that, we quote the difference at the per-word rate and wait for your yes before touching it.
Lokalise, Crowdin, Phrase, Transifex, or a shared spreadsheet with frozen header rows. Invite newbusiness@zipperthread.com as a translator seat; we’ll handle the rest from there.
Product name, target languages, rough word count. A single number per language comes back within 2 business days.
Prefer email? newbusiness@zipperthread.com · or (934) 444-5944
| Mon–Thu | 11am–7pm |
|---|---|
| Fri | to 2pm |
| Sat–Sun | Closed |