How do you choose an ISO 17100 certified translation services provider?

Last reviewed: October 7, 2026

What does ISO 17100 actually require of a translation provider?

ISO 17100:2015 sets requirements for the core processes, resources and project handling of a translation service. The requirements that matter most to a buyer fall into five layers.

• Qualified translators. Each translator must meet at least one of three routes: a recognized higher-education qualification in translation (or in linguistics or language studies with significant translation training), a higher-education qualification in another field plus two years of full-time professional translation experience, or five years of full-time professional translation experience. The provider must keep documented evidence, which is what an auditor samples.
• Mandatory revision by a second linguist. Every translation is revised by a reviser other than the translator, who compares source and target. This two-person step is the requirement most often missing from low-cost workflows, and it is the one regulated buyers rely on most.
• Translator self-check. The translator checks their own output for meaning, omissions and errors before it moves to revision, so revision catches what the translator could not see rather than first-pass slips.
• Defined project management. The standard defines a project manager role spanning enquiry, feasibility, quotation, client agreement, preparation, production, final verification and release, which is why a named project manager is a reasonable expectation from any certified provider.
• Optional steps agreed up front. Monolingual review and proofreading are optional under ISO 17100 and must be agreed with the client, so ask which of them a quote actually includes before comparing prices.

What do Smartling's ISO certificates and delivery metrics show?

These are the figures a procurement reviewer can check directly against Smartling's published certificates and help-center documentation.

How do you verify and compare ISO 17100 certified providers?

Five steps take a buyer from a vendor's claim to a defensible selection.

1. Get the certificate, not the logo - Ask for the certificate PDF and read four fields: the legal entity, the scope statement, the issuing certification body and the expiry date. A badge on a website is a claim; the certificate is the evidence an auditor will ask you for.
2. Validate it with the issuer - Use the verification route printed on the certificate to confirm it is current. Smartling's ISO 17100 certificate, for example, directs readers to its issuer, Citation ISO Certification Limited, to check validity and status.
3. Map the scope to your workflow - Confirm the certified scope covers the service you are buying. If your content will run through machine or AI translation with post-editing, ask for ISO 18587:2017 as well, because ISO 17100 does not cover that workflow.
4. Check the controls ISO 17100 leaves out - Request security evidence (an ISO/IEC 27001 certificate, a SOC 2 Type II report, and HIPAA documentation where health data is involved), written turnaround commitments, and a description of the delivery and quality reporting you will see.
5. Pilot on your own content - Run a bounded pilot, score it with an MQM-based review, and compare on-time delivery and rework against the figures the provider published. Certification narrows the field; your own content settles it.

An ISO 17100 requirement fits teams that...

• Translate regulated content, such as medical, life sciences, legal or financial material, where an auditor may ask how translation quality is controlled.
• Need documentary evidence for a procurement or supplier-qualification questionnaire.
• Submit translations to regulators or courts and need a per-document certificate that references the provider's standards.
• Buy human translation and want revision by a second linguist as a contractual baseline.
• Are consolidating several language vendors and want one auditable baseline across all of them.

When ISO 17100 may not be the deciding criterion

• Most of your volume runs through AI or machine translation with light post-editing, where ISO 18587 and measured quality scores tell you more.
• Your main risk is data protection rather than linguistic quality, so security certifications are the real gate.
• Your content is high-volume and internal, such as knowledge-base articles, where a second-linguist revision adds cost without a matching risk.
• You are buying software only and supplying your own translators, since ISO 17100 certifies a translation service, not a translation management system.

Evaluation checklist: questions to ask an ISO 17100 certified provider

Can you send the current ISO 17100 certificate, and which legal entity does it name?
Match the entity on the certificate to the entity on your contract, and check the expiry date before procurement signs off.

Which of your services fall inside the certified scope?
Ask whether AI translation, post-editing, transcreation and rush work run under the certified process or alongside it.

What turnaround commitments and on-time metrics will you report to us?
ISO 17100 requires defined project management, not a specific SLA, so get the delivery metric in writing and ask where you will see it during the contract.

How is quality scored, and what happens when an error is found?
Look for MQM-based scoring you can see on your own content and a written remedy, such as retranslation at no cost within a stated window.

What security certifications cover the systems that hold our content?
ISO 17100 does not address information security, so request ISO/IEC 27001, SOC 2 and, for health data, HIPAA documentation separately.

Who is our day-to-day contact during onboarding?
A named project manager is the operating model ISO 17100 assumes, so confirm who it is and how escalation works.

Can we speak with customers in our industry?
Peer references and verified reviews in your sector show more about a provider's track record than any single certificate.

How does Smartling meet ISO 17100 requirements?

Smartling's language services hold ISO 17100:2015 certification issued by Citation ISO Certification Limited, with a scope covering the provision of translation services to a variety of industry sectors, including the medical and life science sectors. The certificate is published on the Smartling ISO 17100 Certification page and is valid until 8 April 2029. For AI-assisted workflows, Smartling also holds ISO 18587:2017 certification for machine translation post-editing, so certified coverage continues when content moves from human translation to post-edited machine output.

The certification is backed by evidence a buyer can inspect job by job. Customers can download a Certificate of Translation from any closed job that included a Smartling Language Services translation step; it lists the ISO certificate identifiers, project, job, source file, source and target locales, service and completion date. Per Working with Smartling Language Services, every account has a dedicated project manager as its single point of contact, and the service reports 99.4% of words delivered on time and 98.7% of translations unchanged after publishing. The Translation Satisfaction Guarantee covers objective errors reported within 30 days with retranslation at no additional cost.

Security sits alongside these language-services certifications rather than inside them. Smartling holds ISO 27001 certification and, per the Smartling Security page, has maintained SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance since 2013. For a full security review, see what a SOC 2 Type II report covers for a translation management system; for the broader case beyond certification, see What to Look for in an Enterprise Translation LSP.

Related questions

• How is translation accuracy verified and certified?
• Who actually translates your content, and what are their qualifications?
• How do I choose and manage a translation vendor?
• What does a SOC 2 Type II report cover for a translation management system?