DeepL Reviews 689

the translations feel off and too literal
the free version is super limited

I’ve been using this translator mainly for work emails and some longer documents. It handles full sentences much better than others I’ve tried, and the tone usually feels natural, not like a word-for-word translation.

I was really happy with Deepl Pro since 2021. But they introduced without warning in june 2025 a "new" version full of AI-like crap. See all comments here that prove that this version is a nightmare for professionnals. I can't understand why they have no human being in this company able to take the decision to backtrack to the previous release. Hey, oh, if you are a member of the Deepl dev team, it's time to listen to your intuition and put away the crappy cost-cutters that turn your company into garbage.

Complément du 19/08/2025 : je donne en revanche une très bonne note au support qui m'a écouté avec compréhension et m'a remboursé mon abonnement quand je leur ai fait part du côté bloquant du problème. C'est une qualité rare !

Having used this program extensively for several years, I find that I really cannot recommend it to most people.

If it worked, a specific feature it offers is very useful, namely the ability to click any individual word and have several alternative translations appear as suggestions. Why this isn't standard on all translators I do not know, but it isn't always, and it's very helpful.

Unfortunately the good stuff ends there. The desktop program itself is so mind-blowingly frustrating to use that I don't know where to begin. For a start, it will not stay logged in. Even if you log in, then have to close it because it locks up within two minutes, you will have to login again when you start it back up. Sometimes it just will not login, no matter what you do, which then limits you to short translations and no documents. I'm now in a situation where the app literally will not let me login because it keeps looping back to a web browser-based login, then reopening the desktop app, which gets stuck trying to login again. Infuriating. This is only the tip of the iceberg, they keep on making pointless changes and additions rather than focusing on making rock solid fundamentals.

When I first tried DeepL several years ago its translations seemed revolutionary, very lifelike and less robotic than something like Google, however in the last few years everyone else seems to have caught up and I find myself using it less and less. When this year's subscription is up I will be cancelling it and using someone else in future.

This monstrosity totally hijacked my keyboard, generated random new windows, lost text I had typed and at one stage started pasting what turned out to be Tagalog into my English.

I have worked with computers for over 50 years and this is the greatest load of crap I have ever come across.

I see there are already many negative reviews, and DeepL doesn’t seem to care much — but I’ll leave mine anyway. I was using the free version, but lately the restrictions have become way too harsh. I don’t use it in large volumes — just to quickly translate an incoming message or a word now and then. Still, they keep limiting usage — first daily, now monthly. You write one sentence, and it’s all pay, pay, pay. I just deleted it and switched to Google.

I understand that some limits are needed to encourage upgrades, but this is too much. Also, the translation quality leaves a lot to be desired. DeepL positions itself as a smart translator, but often the result is a word-for-word translation that misses the meaning and context entirely. The message on the receiving end comes across differently than what I intended. That’s why I always used ChatGPT for outgoing messages — the difference in quality is like night and day.

Another lovely detail: DeepL has no real customer support :) Website not working? Found a bug? Pay up to even report it! And yes, I’ve tried the paid version too. Not worth it. The quality is still mediocre, and features like rephrasing don’t work properly — they completely change the meaning. Some features don’t even exist for my language. There’s simply nothing there that justifies the price.

It’s a shame — the service was promising, gained popularity, had potential. But with a monopoly mindset, something clearly went wrong. Luckily, it’s no longer a monopoly. There are plenty of AI-based alternatives now — including ChatGPT — that work far better.

So goodbye, DeepL.

Been using DeepL and paying for the service for many years but the quality of the text (common languages such as English and German) has deteriorated to a point that it is worse than Google. The code also tries to impose its own language so it does not adapt any more if you change a suggested word. The staff at DeepL obviously know about this due to the hundreds of complaints online, so it suggests that the quality degradation is some sort of business move. That is a shame.

I have heavily relied on DeepL for work-related purposes when I had to daily work with a few foreign languages I didn't speak - out of all the translation tools I have employed, I have found DeepL to produce the most understandable results, plus the convenience of the browser extension helped me to be as efficient as possible, and I continued to use it while I could, as the combination of speed and translations that were accurate enough for my purposes were making it a champion for my needs as a CS agent in multiple companies.
Sadly, with the recent restrictions coming in effect, I can no longer rely on DeepL being a reliable helper in my work, and I'm sad to see it go as it has been a staple that I've been recommending to my colleagues for years now.
If you still have access to it - it's better than some other translators out there, though no translator ever will compare with knowing the language yourself.

I can only second the recent reviews of DeepL. I have been a paying customer for many years and have noticed a marked deterioration in the quality of the translations (German-English) in recent months, but especially since they added new, useless features such as the Clarify function (completely redundant, in my view), and the introduction of the next generation model. Now they have removed the option to switch between models and you can no longer edit the suggested translation by clicking on a word. I am thinking about cancelling my subscription.

of course if didn't do what it should have done. i just wanted to translate my document from German to French, and all that came out was weird gibberish. i wish i could give zero stars.

Free 30-day trial. Then you get an email asking what you thought. In the fine print of the email, you're advised that your card will be charged. Before you realize it, you've been charged for a year. I would think that if they trusted your judgement, they would allow you to pay by month (they advertize it as $8 per month), but should make clear that it's charged a year at a time. After I had been charged, I looked in the fine print, and sure enough, it's there. I guess I'm just naive, and expect a company to be more up-front.

Paying customer since years and just recently the quality of the xperience has become unbearable and next to unusable. Fragment suggestions totally ignore the rest of the text and changes made previously. No real workflow possible anymore.

Contacted helpdesk, no reply until now. I mean how can you push something live that makes the functionality sooo much worse. It is unfathomable.

Translation quality has become worse, the limit on the amount of text also caused problems. But they solved these problems perfectly and simply blocked the site for my region :).
This service is just garbage.

I can't delete the program file from my desktop. I tried windows settings, did not work. DeepL is blocking the cancellation.

The service experience is disastrous. My account dashboard now loads as a blank page, so the usual “Cancel subscription” button is invisible.

DeepL’s Terms & Conditions say that during the free-trial period either party “may terminate this Agreement at any time with immediate effect.” Great in theory, but there’s no working self-service route to execute that right, and no published e-mail in the Help Center.

To make matters worse, the public status page cheerfully reports “All systems operational,” even while the account area has been unusable for days.

I've been using this app for years, but now it's garbage, I don't understand why the best translation app has become so bad

Has been good for year but is getting much worse, sometimes horrible. Switching to Trados.

Dont you dare to sign with them. They ask you to sign free trial for 30 days. After 10 days, app doesnt work. Then , you will be not able to cancel your subscription.
I contacted CS, they answered after 10 days, and they still didnt help me to cancel my subscription.
They sent me links, to cancel myself. Links dont work.

I am not even joking. Thye will take your £89. Thiefs,

Dont read positive commments, they are fake.

Mispronunciation of the English name "Lawrence", in that spelling. Oddly, gets it right with the alternate spelling of Laurance.