DeepL translates beautifully. SofiLingo works when there's no signal.
DeepL is the translator people choose for quality, and for a paragraph, an email or a document it reads more naturally than we do. It also covers more languages. SofiLingo is built for something narrower: reading the sign, the menu and the timetable in front of you abroad, on a phone that may have no signal. Five things work differently.
Translating with no signal
Typing works offline in every one of the 58 languages. Download the ones you need over hotel wifi before you go. The camera reads most languages on the phone itself, and for the rest SofiLingo keeps the photo and finishes the translation the moment you are back online.
DeepL translates online. Its iPhone app can save favourite terms to read offline, but translating anything new needs a connection. What works with no internet.
A camera that reads Greek
Point SofiLingo at a sign in Greek, Russian or Ukrainian and it reads it. Those scripts need a connection to read; with no signal, the photo is kept and translated when you are back online.
DeepL's camera translation does not accept Greek, or languages written in Cyrillic such as Russian and Ukrainian, as the language you are translating from. You can still type them into DeepL, and it translates them well. How the camera works.
Your text is not training data
Typed text and translations never leave your phone, so there is nothing on our side to learn from. Photos are sent for text recognition only in the languages the phone cannot read well, and only when there is a connection. What does and does not leave your phone.
DeepL's free version processes what you translate for a limited time to train and improve its models. Its paid plans do not: texts are deleted after translation and never used for training.
No account to make
No sign-up, no email address, no password. There is nothing to sign in to.
DeepL lets you translate everyday text without signing in. Translating files and saving favourites need a DeepL account.
Pay for the trip, not the year
SofiLingo is free with ads: after the first 15 translations, a short video earns more. The Holiday pass is $4.99 for 14 days without ads. It is one payment and it does not renew.
DeepL has a free plan too, with a monthly allowance. DeepL Pro is a subscription, $10.49 a month or $8.74 a month billed yearly in the US, and it adds file translation and keeps your texts out of training.
What this page says about DeepL (offline use, which languages its camera reads, how free and paid texts are handled, accounts and prices) was checked against DeepL's own pages on 10 October 2026.
Where DeepL is better
The translation itself. For long text, letters and documents, DeepL's translations are more natural than ours, it covers more languages, and it has apps for your computer and browser too. If you have a signal and a page to translate, use DeepL.
Try it on the thing in front of you
The first 15 translations are free, with no card and no account. Keep DeepL for the long things. SofiLingo is for the sign in front of you.
Get SofiLingo on the App StoreNext: translating with no internet · translating with the camera · how this differs from Google Translate · all 58 languages