Proxylang vs Weglot vs DeepL vs Google Translate: Real Translation Examples
In our blind test of 280 sentences on 2026-10-14, Proxylang scored 4.53 out of 5, DeepL 4.54 and Google Translate 4.00. Weglot's help center says its automatic translations come from DeepL whenever DeepL supports the language pair, which covers Korean, Japanese and English. So on plain sentences Proxylang and DeepL (and Weglot's first pass) are level, and both beat Google Translate. The widest gap is Korean to Japanese: Proxylang 4.35, DeepL 4.30, Google 2.85.
How the test worked
We took 40 sentences per language pair from FLORES-200, a public test set of news and science sentences with professional reference translations. Seven pairs: English to Korean, English to Japanese, English to German, Korean to English, Japanese to English, Korean to Japanese and Japanese to Korean.
Each sentence went through Proxylang, the DeepL API (its quality-optimized model) and the Google Cloud Translation API. A separate AI model then scored every translation from 1 to 5 against the source and the reference. It did not know which system wrote which translation, and the order was shuffled for every sentence.
Two limits matter. Proxylang ran without the glossary, brand names and page context a real website gives it, so this is its plain first pass. We also did not run Weglot separately: for these pairs its automatic layer is DeepL, so the DeepL column shows what Weglot starts from. Weglot also sells an AI language model and AI rewrite suggestions, which this test does not cover.
Scores by language pair
Scores are the average judge score out of 5.
| Pair | Proxylang | DeepL (Weglot's first engine) | Google Translate |
|---|---|---|---|
| English to Korean | 4.65 | 4.75 | 4.40 |
| English to Japanese | 4.53 | 4.55 | 4.40 |
| English to German | 4.22 | 4.63 | 4.53 |
| Korean to English | 4.63 | 4.42 | 4.17 |
| Japanese to English | 4.72 | 4.50 | 4.35 |
| Korean to Japanese | 4.35 | 4.30 | 2.85 |
| Japanese to Korean | 4.60 | 4.60 | 3.33 |
| All 280 sentences | 4.53 | 4.54 | 4.00 |
Proxylang leads on Korean and Japanese into English. DeepL leads on English into German and, by a small margin, English into Korean. Google Translate holds up on English into other languages but drops hard between Korean and Japanese.
Where Google Translate breaks: Korean and Japanese
Most of Google's low scores came from Korean words read as the wrong Chinese characters. Korean and Japanese share thousands of words built from the same characters, so the wrong pick still looks like a real Japanese word.
| Korean source | Google Translate | Proxylang |
|---|---|---|
| 초인종 (doorbell) | 超人種 ("superhuman race") | ドアベル (doorbell) |
| 난관에 봉착했다 (ran into trouble) | 難関に封じ込んだ ("sealed into a hard barrier", not Japanese) | 困難に直面しました (faced difficulties) |
| 보안회사 (security company) | 保障会社 (guarantee company) | セキュリティ会社 (security company) |
We go through more of these in why Google Translate gets Korean and Japanese wrong.
Where DeepL slips
DeepL makes fewer errors, but the ones it makes change facts.
- Wrong institution. A Korean sentence named 스웨덴 한림원, the Swedish Academy that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature. DeepL wrote スウェーデン王立科学アカデミー, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the physics and chemistry prizes. Proxylang wrote スウェーデン・アカデミー. Google wrote ハンリムウォン, the Korean sound spelled out in katakana.
- Who said no, reversed. A Korean sentence says the panel on the show Shark Tank declined to fund the founder's startup. DeepL wrote "a contestant had turned down funding from a startup", and Google wrote "a show cast member rejected funding from a startup". Both reverse who refused whom. Proxylang wrote "the show's investors had declined to fund his startup."
- Part of a title dropped. A Japanese sentence names the song 「オーディション（The Fools Who Dream）」. DeepL kept only "The Fools Who Dream". Proxylang and Google kept the full title, "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)".
Where Proxylang loses
English into German is Proxylang's weakest pair in this test: 4.22 against DeepL's 4.63. The German was correct but the judge preferred DeepL's wording in 24 of 40 sentences. English into Korean was close, 4.65 against 4.75.
So the honest summary is "as good as DeepL on plain sentences, well ahead of Google Translate", not "better than DeepL" across the board.
What a sentence test misses on a real website
A web page is not a list of clean sentences. Three things change the result:
- Links and bold text inside a sentence. Japanese and Korean put the verb last, so a linked phrase has to move. A tool has to move the link with it and keep its edges on whole words. See how links and bold text survive translation.
- Names and terms. Proxylang applies your glossary and never-translate list to every page, so a product name stays the same in all 77 languages.
- Numbers and prices. Proxylang keeps a price as written, "$50" stays "$50", and never converts it into another currency.
Weglot keeps some HTML tags in translation too, according to its help center, so bold and linked words stay marked. For Korean and Japanese the words themselves come from DeepL first.
Which one to pick
If you need raw text translation through an API, DeepL is the strongest of the three engines on most pairs here, and Google Translate is the weakest between Asian languages.
If you need a whole website translated, compare website tools, not engines. Weglot builds on DeepL. Proxylang matches DeepL on plain sentences and adds the website layer: one script tag, per-language pages that Google and AI assistants can index, and live chat that translates both ways.
You can check this on your own pages. Proxylang's free trial needs no signup: paste one prompt into your AI coding tool and it sets the trial up, with 2,000 words in one language.
Frequently asked questions
Is Weglot's translation the same as DeepL's?
For its automatic first pass, mostly yes. Weglot's help center says it uses DeepL when DeepL supports the language pair, and Google Translate or Microsoft when it does not. You can then edit translations by hand or use Weglot's AI suggestions.
Is Proxylang better than DeepL?
Not on plain sentences overall. In our 280-sentence test the averages were 4.53 for Proxylang and 4.54 for DeepL. Proxylang scored higher on Korean and Japanese into English, DeepL on English into German.
Why does Google Translate score so low on Korean to Japanese?
In this test Google scored 2.85 out of 5 on Korean to Japanese. Most errors were Korean words read as the wrong Chinese characters, such as 초인종 (doorbell) turned into 超人種 (superhuman race).
Can I test Proxylang on my own site without signing up?
Yes. Paste this into an AI coding tool: "Add Proxylang to my website so visitors can read it in another language. Follow https://proxylang.dev/agents.md (no signup needed)." Or open https://proxylang.dev/start and type your site's address.
Sources
- Weglot uses DeepL when possible, and Google Translate or Microsoft when DeepL does not support the pair: support.weglot.com
- Weglot keeps some HTML tags, such as bold and links, in translation: support.weglot.com
- FLORES-200 test set: github.com
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