Wordly or Koine for translating a conference?
Wordly puts every language in every session for one fixed price, starting at about USD 1,500 for a ten-hour package used over twelve months, with each tier quoted by sales and the price depending in part on attendee volume. Koine publishes a price you can work out yourself: USD 10 per language-hour, or plans from USD 96 a month, charged per language and per hour and never per listener. The deciding difference is the shape of the bill. Up to eight languages at once, Koine's published arithmetic comes out below Wordly's entry package; from nine to 20, Koine's answer is the Campus plan, priced on request, and above 20 a quote, while Wordly's one price already covers every language, and a procurement department will get through Wordly's paperwork faster.
What each one publishes.
Every figure about Wordly below is what Wordly states on its own site — the pricing page, the FAQ, the security page and its blog — checked on 17 September 2026. A dash means we could not find it advertised, not that it does not exist. Prices change; the sources are linked under the table.
| What | Wordly | Koine |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | "AI Translation & Captions For Meetings and Events": translated audio and captions on the attendee's own phone. A separate product, Silent Theater, puts the presenter's untranslated audio on their phones instead of the room PA. | One audio feed from the room — a microphone, a soundboard line or a livestream link — becomes translated voice and live captions on every listener's own phone, in the browser. |
| How attendees receive it | "Attendees use a QR code or link. No equipment, no downloads, no friction." No account either, and they "choose how they want to receive translations - text, audio, or both". Wordly also publishes iOS and Android apps. | A QR code or a link, in the phone's own browser. No app, no account, no receivers to hand out. A listener app is optional, for notes and replay. |
| Languages | "Over 60 languages" and "3,000+ Language Pairs", with "no limit on the number of languages you can use in a Wordly session". A spoken-output count separate from captions is not published. | 132 languages, all with translated voice and captions; in some, the voice reads the finished captions aloud, about ten seconds behind. Up to 3 at once on Lite and Standard, 5 on the free event, 8 on Pro and one-off event hours, 20 per room on Campus; more than 20 is a quote. |
| Delay, as published | "Total latency typically under three seconds from spoken word to delivered translation." | No measured average published. Translated voice runs a few seconds behind the speaker and varies by language. |
| Price | US dollars. "Pricing starts at about $1,500 for a 10-hour package which can be used in any increment for up to 12 months", with "all languages for 1 fixed price". Six annual-hour tiers, 10 to 500+, each "Contact Sales for a Quote". Volume discounts "from 10% to 30% or more", and a further 10% for non-profits and education on Wordly Pro (25 hours) and larger packages only. No free trial is advertised. | USD 10 per language-hour for a one-off event. Plans: Free, Lite USD 96, Standard USD 169 and Pro USD 399 a month, also in NOK, SEK and EUR, with annual billing saving two months; Campus is priced on request. Above roughly 150 language-hours, quoted. |
| Listeners | "You can scale from a 10-person team sync to a 10,000+ attendee conference." No per-seat price is published, but the FAQ names attendee volume as one of the things pricing depends on. | Each language is translated once and shared by everyone who selects it, so the bill follows languages and hours, never heads, and nobody is cut off. Plans are sized for a typical audience: 25 on the free event, 75, 150 or 500 on Lite, Standard and Pro, unlimited on Campus. One-off event hours at USD 10 per language-hour have no listener limit. |
| Human interpreters | Not advertised. The pricing page sells against them: "Save up to 90% versus the cost of traditional human interpreters." | Only your own. Koine does not supply or book interpreters, but an interpreter you bring can voice any language from their phone, with Koine's AI as backup. The AI does not replace a qualified interpreter for medical, legal or contractual conversations. |
| Afterwards | Session transcripts on every tier, "ready within minutes" and "in dozens of languages"; transcript translation, MP3 voice transcripts and summaries from Pro+ upward; configurable data storage on Enterprise. | A translated transcript per language, and a recording only if it is switched on, which it is not by default. Highlights and notes, a permanent organization page, and questions answered from the transcript. |
| Screens and platforms | "Works with Zoom, Teams, Meet, WebEx, Cvent, and much more"; the homepage adds Google Meet and Encore. ProPresenter, OBS and vMix are not named on the pages we checked. | Captions on the room screen through ProPresenter, EasyWorship, OBS or vMix as a browser source, or the desktop overlay with PowerPoint and Keynote. Remote listeners join the same link at no extra cost. |
| Where the data goes | SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA and CCPA; self-certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework; encrypted at rest and in transit on AWS and Google Cloud; a stated commitment against training models on customer data. EU residency and retention are not advertised. | Live audio is relayed through Amsterdam; accounts, session metadata and join pages are in Stockholm. Speech recognition and translation run at OpenAI and Google, which may process them outside the EU. Set retention to temporary and no transcript line is written to the database. |
| Where it wins | Scale and paperwork. Six million translation users and a billion translated minutes on their own counter; SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, the Data Privacy Framework and a VPAT; every language in every session for one price; Silent Theater. | A price you can work out before you call, per language-hour and never per listener. An EU relay and EU account storage, published. Captions on the room screen. |
Sources: Wordly's homepage, pricing page, FAQ, Silent Theater page, church page, security page and the blog post on how AI translation works, all checked 17 September 2026; the pricing page's discount terms were checked again on 24 September 2026. The last question below draws on Microsoft's live captions help page and Zoom's translated captions article, checked the same day. Koine figures are from our pricing page, the product page and the privacy policy. If a figure is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
When Wordly is the better choice
Wordly's price has one shape: you buy hours, and every language comes with them, with "no limit on the number of languages you can use in a Wordly session". Koine charges per language per hour; its event hours stop at eight languages at once, and its Campus plan at 20 per room. Ten hours in three languages is 30 language-hours, USD 300 on our rate; ten hours in eight languages is USD 800, against an entry package Wordly advertises at about USD 1,500 for ten hours with every language included. Above eight languages at once Koine's answer is the Campus plan, priced on request, with up to 20 languages per room; above 20 it is a quote. Wordly's package already covers every language, so a one-off conference in a dozen or twenty languages fits Wordly's shape better. Its volume discounts, and a further 10% for non-profits and education on Wordly Pro and larger packages, move larger bookings further their way.
The second reason has nothing to do with the room. Wordly counts six million translation users and a billion translated minutes on its own homepage, and holds SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA and CCPA compliance, self-certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and a VPAT. A procurement team working through a supplier questionnaire, an accessibility review and a security review will finish sooner with them than with us.
Third, two specific things. Silent Theater sells the presenter's own untranslated audio to attendees' phones by QR code, a real product for a hall where the PA is the problem; Koine can stream original room audio as hearing assistance, but Wordly has packaged and named it. And if your event already lives inside Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Webex or Cvent, Wordly names all five.
When Koine is
The first reason is that you can price the event yourself. USD 10 per language-hour, and plans at USD 96, 169 and 399 a month, are on our pricing page in dollars, kroner and euros. Wordly publishes one number, about USD 1,500 for ten hours, and then six tiers that all read "Contact Sales for a Quote". For a church, a festival or a public body that has to put a figure in a budget line before anyone may talk to a salesperson, that difference decides it on its own.
The second is that the number of people in the room does not change the bill. Wordly's FAQ says pricing "depends on your usage - including session hours and, attendee volume". Koine translates each language once and shares it with everyone who selects it, so a hundred listeners and four hundred cost the same. Nobody is cut off: each plan is sized for a typical audience (75, 150 or 500 listeners, unlimited on Campus), and if a room regularly runs bigger we suggest the plan that fits, afterwards. One-off event hours, at USD 10 per language-hour, have no listener limit at all. For a one-off conference that is usually the simplest way to buy.
The third is where the audio goes and what stays behind. We publish it: the relay runs in Amsterdam, accounts and join pages sit in Stockholm, speech recognition and translation run at OpenAI and Google (which may process them outside the EU), and with retention set to temporary no transcript line is written to the database at all. Wordly's security page is thorough on certifications and encryption, and does not advertise EU data residency or a retention period. For a public hearing in Europe, somebody will ask you that.
What the table cannot show
Both of these are machine translation, and neither of us will tell you whose is better. The honest test is ten minutes of your own speaker, in your own hall, with somebody bilingual sitting in the room. Wordly's delay figure, under three seconds, is the vendor's own, and we have not seen an independent test of it; Koine publishes no measured average, only that translated voice runs a few seconds behind the speaker and varies by language.
Wordly's quote-only tiers make the arithmetic above a starting point rather than an answer. Discounts move it, and the price also depends on attendee volume, so a conference that doubles in size can move a number a language count alone would not predict. Three other things Wordly does not publish: how many of its languages arrive as spoken audio rather than captions, where the data sits, and how long it is kept. We have written "not advertised" rather than guessing, and they may well have good answers.
Neither product is an interpreter. Wordly does not advertise human interpreters and positions itself against them; Koine does not supply them either, though an interpreter you bring can voice a language through Koine with the AI as backup. Where the law or the stakes require accredited or signed interpretation, that is a different purchase: Interprefy and KUDO both sell one, and the comparison with an interpreter sets out where the line falls.
Common questions.
What does Wordly cost?
One figure is published: "about $1,500 for a 10-hour package which can be used in any increment for up to 12 months", in US dollars, with all languages included. The six annual-hour tiers, from 10 hours to 500 or more, each read "Contact Sales for a Quote". Church packages of 60, 120 and 300 hours a year are listed without figures.
Is Koine cheaper than Wordly?
It depends on how many languages run at once. At USD 10 per language-hour, ten hours in three languages is USD 300 and in eight languages is USD 800, against Wordly's entry package of about USD 1,500 for ten hours with every language included. Koine's event hours stop at eight languages at once and its Campus plan, priced on request, at 20 per room; above that we quote, while Wordly's package already covers every language. Wordly's volume discounts, and 10% off for non-profits and education on Wordly Pro and larger packages, apply to bigger bookings.
Does anyone have to download an app?
Not with either. Wordly's FAQ says attendees "join via browser on their computer or QR code on their phone" with no download and no account, choosing text, audio or both. Koine works the same way; its listener app is optional.
Does either one give me human interpreters?
Neither. Wordly does not advertise interpreters and sells against their cost; Koine does not supply or book them, though an interpreter you bring can voice a language through Koine with the AI as backup. If your event needs accredited humans, or signed interpretation, look at Interprefy or KUDO instead.
Where is the audio processed?
Koine relays live audio through Amsterdam and stores accounts and session metadata in Stockholm; speech recognition and translation run at OpenAI and Google, which may process them outside the EU. Wordly encrypts on AWS and Google Cloud, holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, and self-certifies under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, a mechanism for transferring EU personal data to the United States. EU residency is not advertised.
Can we just use the translated captions in Teams or Zoom?
If the event already runs in one of them, look there first. Microsoft documents live translated captions as a meeting and event feature needing Teams Premium and Microsoft Copilot on the organiser's account, with 50 or more spoken languages into 29 translation languages. Zoom documents them in a meeting or webinar on Business Plus and Enterprise tiers or as an add-on, in over 35 languages. Both are captions only, and neither documents a QR code for people sitting in a physical room.