FAQ

If we get asked or emailed about something more than twice, we try to add it to the FAQ here!
(If you think something should be here and isn’t, please let us know.) Latest update: 16 Nov, 2023

Documentation here: https://docs.blackbird.io

Why would I use Blackbird?

Connecting to endless content repositories and creating highly automated, advanced workflows remain two big challenges for professionals in the localization industry. It's still a headache. Blackbird eliminates the need to commit engineering capacity to build integrations or custom, automated workflows. Software engineers and localization leaders can have more time to focus on performing the high-value tasks that they were primarily hired to do.

On a technical level, Blackbird offers a modern iPaaS (integration-Platform-as-a-Service) architecture to get integration and automation done. Blackbird allows businesses to integrate a broad variety of cloud and on-premise applications to facilitate hybrid data flows, synchronize data, improve operational workflows, and gain better visibility.

Ultimately, Blackbird can help your business adapt an agnostic - and headless - framework for connectivity.

New - Want to know how Blackbird is different from Zapier (or Make.com, Workato, Power Automate, etc.)? Read here >>

What applications do you support?

CMS: Contentful, HubSpot, Marketo Engage, Microsoft SharePoint, Salesforce Knowledge Cloud, Sitecore, WordPress, Zendesk.

TMS/TBMS: Crowdin, Crowdin Enterprise, Lokalise, MateCat, memoQ, Phrase TMS (Memsource), Plunet, Trados (Language Cloud API), Translate5, Smartling, XTM, XTRF.

CRM: HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive.

Cloud storage: Box.com, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Amazon S3.

MT/MTQE: Amazon Translate, Custom.MT, DeepL, Google Translate, Language Weaver, Microsoft Translator, Modelfront, ModernMT, TAUS Estimate.

AI/LLM: AI21 Labs, Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Comprehend, Anthropic, Cohere AI, Hugging Face, OpenAI, Pinecone, Stability AI.

A/V: Amazon Polly, Captionhub, OpenAI (TTS).

Productivity/Collaboration: Airtable, Asana, ClickUp, Google Sheets, JIRA, Notion, Trello.

Communication: Outlook, Slack, Teams, X (Twitter).

Development: GitHub, Amazon S3.

LSP tech: Comtec Dovetail, MyAcclaro, Supertext, TranslationOS.

Other: Azure Image Analysis, , ContentQuo, Google Analytics, QuickBooks Online, SFTP, Wise.

All our Public Apps are open-sourced, published on GitHub.

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In Development (Coming Soon): AWS Redshift, AWS Workdocs, AWS Sagemaker, Customer.io, OpenAI on Azure, Claude-2 (direct API), TermWeb, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Zoom.

Under Planning: Adobe Experience Manager, Gmail, ContentStack, Azure DevOps, Brightspot, Figma, GitLab, Google Docs, Google Vertex AI, Eloqua, Typeform, Smartcat, Looker, FlowFit, LBS Suite, Intento, Microsoft Excel, Monday.com, YouTube, Vimeo, SYSTRAN, Mailchimp, Intercom, Magento, Shopify, ZoHo, SAP, Webflow.

What if an application I need is not on your list?

You can request any application from us, and if there is a solid business case, we have a team that can build it (very) quickly. Some in just a few hours! More consequently, Blackbird offers a Software Development Kit (SDK) for building any connector - see our developer tools here.

I already have access to many plugins I need to use. How is Blackbird relevant for me?

Your plugins and Blackbird can co-exist and complement each other. You could think of it is a multi-tiered connector strategy where Blackbird could become a key new tier. Some of the advantages of using Blackbird’s technology:

#1 Blackbird connectors are highly usable, consistent, maintainable, and upgradable. You can extend and customize our Public Apps in flexible ways. You can start with one of our Public Apps and make it into your customized Private App. Our SDK is open-sourced and available on NuGet.
#2 Multipoint connectivity: you can connect any number of applications into any kind of orchestrated workflow.
#3 Beyond linear workflows: you can add non-linear steps like loops, branches, delays, and other advanced conditions.
#4 We may have connectors that your favorite loctech vendor don’t offer. E.g., memoQ doesn’t connect with HubSpot. Lokalise doesn’t connect with Plunet. Blackbird already enables these integrations!
#5 We don’t just connect CMSs to TMSs but really anything to anything. You can use Blackbird for process orchestration of internal operations, and not just exclusively for localization related tasks. You can use it to orchestrate tasks around marketing, sales, finance, support or HR. You can also use it to leverage emerging technologies like LLM and NLP apps.
#6 Sometimes, there are valid reasons to adapt an agnostic model, which Blackbird iPaaS offers. This can often mean not just winning independence and control, but cost savings too. Your business can get rid of a complex spaghetti architecture that is hard to maintain and change.

Beyond connectors, what is the product roadmap?

Please see our Roadmap pages here.

Is Blackbird secure?

Blackbird is a secure, cloud application running on Azure multi-tenant environment. Each Blackbird tenant runs under a separate account. Permissions limit access to customers’ own data. We enforce a strong password policy. We offer SSO and multi-factor authentication. Most important, we are SOC 2, ISO27001 and GDRP ready. We are compliant and certified by 3rd party auditors. You can read more about our security and compliance posture here.

How much does Blackbird cost and what is the pricing model?

See pricing information on our Pricing Page.

Do you offer professional services?

We do! We have an amazing team of Solution Architects and Software Engineers who can help our customers in designing, building, implementing complex solutions. We also offer custom training and premium support.

Can I become a Reseller or a Solutions Partner for Blackbird?

We are very open to enabling partners to become independent Blackbird consultants or even resellers. We are ready and open to discuss ideas, including value-added reseller frameworks with revenue sharing. Reach out to exchange ideas or read more about our Partnership Program here.

Where are you located?

We are headquartered in the USA, but have been functioning as a fully global, remote team from the beginning. We have key people who can work with customers and partners in the USA, in Canada, in the Netherlands and in Hungary. We also have engineers in Ukraine and Bulgaria. We cover a lot of time zones and plan to add more soon. See our job openings!