Choosing church translation:
an honest guide
There are four real ways to bring every language into your service. Here is what each one is good at, what it costs — and where we are not the right choice.
Looking for named providers? Compare every feature with StreamLingo, CaptionKit, Breeze and LiveVoiceHuman interpreters
The gold standard for a single, large language community — a person who knows your church, your theology and your people.
- Best-in-class nuance on the hardest passages
- A relationship, not just a service
- One language per interpreter, every single Sunday
- Availability varies — sickness, holidays, fatigue
- Typically 7,000+ DKK/month for regular coverage
FM interpretation equipment
Transmitter-and-receiver systems, familiar from conference halls — reliable, and gentle on members who don't use smartphones.
- Rock-solid, no phones needed
- Works for hearing support too
- It only carries sound — you still need an interpreter per language
- Hardware cost per channel and per listener
Already own FM receivers? They keep working with OCvoice — your technician feeds our translated audio straight into the transmitter.
Generic translation apps
Free phone apps built for conversations and travel. Tempting price — but not built for a sermon.
- Free or nearly free
- Fine for one-on-one chats after the service
- Church vocabulary drifts — 'grace' becomes politeness, 'the Word' becomes a word
- Every phone listens and guesses on its own — no shared, controlled feed
- No worship handling, no subtitles feed, no soundboard route
Purpose-built church translation
Services built specifically for worship — OCvoice is one, and honest comparison shopping is healthy. Compare on the things that actually differ:
- Is church vocabulary a maintained dictionary, or a marketing sentence?
- Is pricing per use with all features included, or tiers and upsells?
- Phones only, or also your existing FM receivers and soundboard?
- Can you hear a real, unedited demo before paying?
When OCvoice is not the right choice
Honesty cuts both ways. We would rather tell you now than after you've signed up:
- If your whole congregation shares one language and you host an occasional single guest, a bilingual member sitting beside them beats any technology.
- If you have one large language community and a gifted interpreter who knows your church, keep them — technology complements that relationship; it doesn't replace it. Many churches use OCvoice for the other nine languages.
- If your service is fully liturgical with fixed, pre-translated texts, printed booklets may serve you better than live translation.
Eight questions to ask any vendor — including us
Take this list into every sales conversation. We've answered each one for ourselves, honestly.
- 1
Is church vocabulary handled by a maintained dictionary — and how large is it?
Ours: a fully stocked theological dictionary, curated in all 60 languages.
- 2
What happens during worship music?
Ours: the system hears the difference and rests — you don't pay to translate the songs. You choose how it behaves.
- 3
What happens when the preacher switches language mid-sentence?
Ours: Danish-English switches are detected and the whole thought is translated as one.
- 4
Does it work with the FM receivers and headsets we already own?
Ours: yes — your technician routes the translated feed into your existing equipment.
- 5
What does a normal month actually cost, all fees included?
Ours: pay per use, from roughly 250 DKK/month for a small church — the calculator on the pricing page shows the full math.
- 6
Do listeners need an app or an account?
Ours: no. Scan a QR code, pick a language, listen.
- 7
Where does our data go, and is it GDPR-compliant?
Ours: Danish company, EU data storage, automatic deletion after 90 days, no listener accounts. Details in the privacy policy.
- 8
Can we hear a real, unedited demo before deciding?
Ours: yes — the front-page demo is a real recording with its mistakes deliberately left in.
Compare us against anyone
Start with the real demo on the front page, then check the pricing calculator. If another option serves your church better, we genuinely wish you well.