Comparison

Google Translate vs WordReference Dictionary

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Google Translate

Instantly translate text, voice, and images between hundreds of languages. Features include offline translation, real-time conversation translation, and the ability to save frequently used phrases.

Highlights
  • Text translation
  • Offline translation
  • Instant camera translation
  • Photo translation
  • Voice translation
  • Conversation translation
  • Phrasebook
Read full description

Translate between up to 249 languages. Feature support varies by language: • Text: Translate between languages by typing • Offline: Translate with no internet connection • Instant camera translation: Translate text in images instantly by just pointing your camera • Photos: Translate text in taken or imported photos • Dictation: Translate spoken words and phrases • Conversations: Translate bilingual conversations on the fly • Transcribe: Continuously translate someone speaking a different language in near real-time • Handwriting: Draw text characters instead of typing • Phrasebook: Star and save translated words and phrases for future reference Permissions notice: • Microphone for speech translation • Camera for translating text via the camera • Photos for importing photos from your library Translations between the following languages are supported: Abkhaz, Acehnese, Acholi, Afar, Afrikaans, Albanian, Alur, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Assamese, Avar, Awadhi, Aymara, Azerbaijani, Balinese, Baluchi, Bambara, Baoulé, Bashkir, Basque, Batak Karo, Batak Simalungun, Batak Toba, Belarusian, Bemba, Bengali, Betawi, Bhojpuri, Bikol, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Buryat, Cantonese, Catalan, Cebuano, Chamorro, Chechen, Chichewa, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Chuukese, Chuvash, Corsican, Crimean Tatar (Cyrillic), Crimean Tatar (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari, Dhivehi, Dinka, Dogri, Dombe, Dutch, Dyula, Dzongkha, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Ewe, Faroese, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, Fon, French, French (Canada), Frisian, Friulian, Fulani, Ga, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Guarani, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hakha Chin, Hausa, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hiligaynon, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Hunsrik, Iban, Icelandic, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Inuktut (Latin), Inuktut (Syllabics), Irish, Italian, Jamaican Patois, Japanese, Javanese, Jingpo, Kalaallisut, Kannada, Kanuri, Kapampangan, Kazakh, Khasi, Khmer, Kiga, Kikongo, Kinyarwanda, Kituba, Kokborok, Komi, Konkani, Korean, Krio, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Kurdish (Sorani), Kyrgyz, Lao, Latgalian, Latin, Latvian, Ligurian, Limburgish, Lingala, Lithuanian, Lombard, Luganda, Luo, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Madurese, Maithili, Makassar, Malagasy, Malay, Malay (Jawi), Malayalam, Maltese, Mam, Manx, Maori, Marathi, Marshallese, Marwadi, Mauritian Creole, Meadow Mari, Meiteilon (Manipuri), Minang, Mizo, Mongolian, Myanmar (Burmese), Nahuatl (Eastern Huasteca), Ndau, Ndebele (South), Nepalbhasa (Newari), Nepali, NKo, Norwegian, Nuer, Occitan, Odia (Oriya), Oromo, Ossetian, Pangasinan, Papiamento, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Punjabi (Gurmukhi), Punjabi (Shahmukhi), Quechua, Qʼeqchiʼ, Romani, Romanian, Rundi, Russian, Sami (North), Samoan, Sango, Sanskrit, Santali (Latin), Santali (Ol Chiki), Scots Gaelic, Sepedi, Serbian, Sesotho, Seychellois Creole, Shan, Shona, Sicilian, Silesian, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Sundanese, Susu, Swahili, Swati, Swedish, Tahitian, Tajik, Tamazight, Tamazight (Tifinagh), Tamil, Tatar, Telugu, Tetum, Thai, Tibetan, Tigrinya, Tiv, Tok Pisin, Tongan, Tshiluba, Tsonga, Tswana, Tulu, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen, Tuvan, Twi, Udmurt, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, Venda, Venetian, Vietnamese, Waray, Welsh, Wolof, Xhosa, Yakut, Yiddish, Yoruba, Yucatec Maya, Zapotec, Zulu

About

WordReference Dictionary

Access a comprehensive suite of dictionaries and translation tools for multiple languages. Explore conjugations, synonyms, and a vast forum with millions of answered questions. This app provides quick access to extensive language resources.

Highlights
  • Extensive multilingual dictionaries
  • Verb conjugators
  • Synonym finder
  • Language forums
  • English definitions
  • Spanish definitions
Features
Read full description

The app of the world's most popular and powerful dictionary translation website. It grants you quick access to our extensive dictionaries and forum discussions. WordReference.com's dictionaries: English to Spanish English to French English to Italian English to German English to Portuguese English to Polish English to Romanian English to Czech English to Greek English to Turkish English to Japanese English to Chinese English to Korean English to Arabic English to Swedish English to Dutch Spanish to French Spanish to Portuguese English definitions Spanish definitions Italian definitions Catalan definitions Conjugators: Spanish conjugator French conjugator Italian conjugator Synonyms: English and Spanish Forums contain over 3 million questions and answers about English and translation. Your questions have already been answered. NOTE: Requires internet access. WordReference is often misspelled as "Word Reference" in searches.

Screenshots

Google Translate4 screens
WordReference Dictionary4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Google Translate at 4.3 against WordReference Dictionary's 3.8. Google Translate also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (weekly vs every 6 weeks). WordReference Dictionary's advantage is review sentiment (60% vs 41%) and monetization model (ad-supported vs free with in-app purchases). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Google Translate holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Google Translate has 84K ratings behind it against 27, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 41% of Google Translate's written reviews are positive against 60% of WordReference Dictionary's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Google Translate ships an update weekly, WordReference Dictionary every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Google Translate versus WordReference Dictionary: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGoogle TranslateWordReference Dictionary
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (84K ratings) — better3.8 (27 ratings)
Positive reviews41.1% of reviews60.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings84K — better27
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesAd-supported — better
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size295 MB8 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperGoogleWordReference.com, LLC

Customer experience

Google Translate

All ratings83,720 ratings
Positive81.2%
Neutral5.3%
Negative13.4%
Written reviews1,466 reviews
Positive41.1%
Neutral11.1%
Negative47.7%

WordReference Dictionary

All ratings27 ratings
Positive70.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative29.6%
Written reviews379 reviews
Positive60.2%
Neutral11.1%
Negative28.8%

User reviews

Google Translate

From 84K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Spoken Cantonese & Jyutping recently added
  • 🚀 Fantastic for translating on the go
  • 👍 Easy to navigate
  • 👍 Useful for learning languages
  • 👍 Offline translation available

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inaccurate translations for some languages
  • 🐛 Buggy camera/image translation
  • 🐛 Inconsistent translation of formal/informal language
  • 🐛 Slow performance, especially offline
  • 🐛 Cluttered interface, poor UX design

WordReference Dictionary

From 27 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent translation tool
  • 👍 Comprehensive dictionary with examples
  • 👍 Helpful for learning languages
  • 👍 Reliable and accurate translations
  • 👍 Great resource for professional interpreters

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
  • 🐛 Buggy and unreliable performance
  • 🐛 Slow and unresponsive at times
  • 🐛 Inconsistent user experience across updates
  • 🔋 Requires internet connection, no offline mode

Bugs and requests

Google Translate

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Camera translation not working without internet connection
  • Inability to select and translate specific text in images
  • Inconsistent translation of words with multiple meanings
  • Predictive text feature providing inaccurate suggestions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more language support, especially for minority languages
  • Improve accuracy of translations, especially for Asian languages
  • Allow manual selection of text in image translation
  • Add option to toggle between formal and informal language
  • Improve offline performance and functionality

WordReference Dictionary

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes and freezes on various devices
  • Inconsistent performance on cellular vs. Wi-Fi connections
  • Search functionality not working as expected
  • Inability to delete or manage favorite dictionaries

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more languages (e.g. Hebrew, Persian, Latin)
  • Implement offline dictionary functionality
  • Improve search and navigation, including ability to search for phrases
  • Add user account and sync features to save favorites and history
  • Enhance verb conjugation and grammar tools

In-app purchases

None

Google Translate

No in-app purchases

None

WordReference Dictionary

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Google Translate free?
Google Translate is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is WordReference Dictionary free?
WordReference Dictionary is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Google Translate or WordReference Dictionary?
Google Translate is rated higher. Google Translate averages 4.3 out of 5 from 84K ratings, while WordReference Dictionary averages 3.8 from 27 ratings.
Do Google Translate or WordReference Dictionary have ads?
WordReference Dictionary shows ads; Google Translate does not.
Which is updated more often, Google Translate or WordReference Dictionary?
Google Translate ships an update weekly, and WordReference Dictionary every 6 weeks. Most recently, Google Translate was updated on September 27, 2026 and WordReference Dictionary on September 25, 2026.

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