While the WordPress core itself is available in multiple different languages, the platform doesn’t have a native feature to create multilingual sites.
This can be a problem if your audience comes from a variety of different countries. After all, not everybody can speak English.
Localization is an important factor in any online business if you’re aiming to reach a global audience. Luckily, there are plenty of WordPress translation plugins you can make use of.
In this article, I’ll cover the top eight choices.
Why Should You Make Your Website Multilingual?
Once a website is online, it can reach people from all around the world. The problem is most website content is language-specific, which might make people leave the site.
Statistics show that 54% of websites publish content in English while the majority of internet users are from non-English speaking countries.
It’s kind of clear, that having a multilingual site can benefit your business in various ways. Here are some examples:
Increasing Sales
Statistics show, that 55% of customers are more encouraged to buy a product if they understand the language of the store. So, having a multilingual website will increase your chances of having more sales, thus making more money.
Expanding Market
Since not everybody speaks English, it’s recommended to have a multilingual website if you want to expand your market.
Having multiple language options will cater to multiple demographics.
For example, the tech-giant Facebook now supports more than 100 languages, which increases its user experience.
Reaching a wider market will result in having better traffic. And we all know, that more traffic equals more sales!
Improving SEO
Having a well prepared multilingual content will help you rank high on search engines in different locales. This means you won’t only be popular in English speaking countries, but all across the world.
You can use SEO keywords in different languages if you want to reach various locales.
Top 8 WordPress Translation Plugin Worth Using
There are plenty of different WordPress translation plugins. They all serve the same purpose, however, the functions they offer might differ. Some only offer automatic translations, while others give you the opportunity to include human translated content as well.
Here are our best WordPress translation plugins:
1. WPML
One of the best WordPress translation plugins is WPML. It supports 60 languages by default and lets you add more language options as needed.
You can use it on different domains and subdomains, which is extra handy.
Once installed, you can translate any posts and pages, including tags, categories, menus, and more. WPML works on most WordPress themes and is WooCommerce-ready.
WPML has three pricing plans: Multilingual Blog (one site), Multilingual CMS (three sites) and Multilingual Agency (unlimited sites). The cheapest one costs $29/year ($21/year for renewal) and gives you free updates and support for a year, unlimited manual translation and browser language detection.
The Multilingual CMS plan costs $79/year ($59/year for renewal) and gives you all the standard features plus custom field translation, page builders, ecommerce support, and translation management.
The most expensive plan costs $159/year ($119/fear for renewal) and you get all of the features for unlimited sites.
The Good
- 30-days money-back guarantee
- Excellent support speaking 9 languages, that is available six days a week, 16 hours per day
The Bad
- WPML offers no free or trial version
The Verdict
With 60 pre-installed languages, ecommerce features and freedom to add your own language, WPML is recommended if you are ready for the premium plan. However, if you are on a budget, this might not be the best option.
2. GTranslate
GTranslate has been downloaded more than 3 million times and has many features that will help you to make a multilingual website easily.
GTranslate has great SEO features. It supports a separate URL for each language. Not only that, it has URL translation features as well.
One more great thing is that this WordPress translation plugin has automatic features, so you never have to worry about doing it manually.
Unlike WPML, Gtranslate offers a free version and 15-days trial for the paid plan. Unfortunately, the free version only gives you automated translations — powered by Google and Bing. If you want more features, you can get one of their paid plans.
Their Startup plan costs $14.99/month to get all free features plus search engine indexing and translation editing.
Their Business plan costs $24.99/month to enjoy all startup plan’s features plus URL translation.
If you want to enjoy all the features, including Language Hosting, you can get their Enterprise plan for $34.99/month. In addition, you can choose their custom pricing plan starts from $5.99/month.
The Good
- GTranslate offers a free and trial version
- It offers custom pricing plan to let you get only the specified features you need
The Bad
- Their monthly pricing is a bit expensive
The Verdict
While you can use this WordPress translation plugin for free, if you want to get more features, their monthly pricing plans are a bit costly.
3. Weglot Translate
Another great WordPress translation plugin is Weglot. With more than 20,000 active installations and 4.8 out of 5-star rating, this plugin is among the best for making a multilingual site. In fact, many big names such as Microsoft and Sennheiser trust Weglot.
You don’t need to worry about compatibility issues with your installed themes and plugins like WooCommerce.
Weglot has many great features that make website translation effortless. It boasts its fast installation and automatic content detection.
Not only that, you can easily manage your content with both automatic and manual translation using built-in context editor. You can have unlimited team members for collaborative translating work.
Weglot has a free version offering one targeted language, 5,000 page views per month, and basic support. Their yearly premium plans are Starter plan ($112), Business ($216), Pro ($547), Enterprise ($2,270) and Corporate ($5,694).
The Good
- Visitors auto redirection features will help you to minimize bounce rate
- Professional translators available
The Bad
- No matter your plan you choose, there are limited words and translated page views per month
The Verdict
While Weglot Translate is quite expensive, it is a great option for those, who need a professional solution for their business. The features of this WordPress translation plugin offers are simply amazing and will cover all of your translation needs.
4. Polylang
Polylang is a free WordPress translation plugin that does not offer automated translation. That being said, you will have full control of your website translation. While this might require you to hire a professional translator or put forward your language skills, you can ensure the quality of the contextual translation.
With more than 500,000 active installations and 4.7 out of 5-star rating, Polylang is a great, easy-to-use plugin to translate your content, including posts, pages, custom post types, and URLs.
Polylang is lightweight so it won’t harm your website’s performance. Also, it has no compatibility issues with most SEO plugins.
If you want to have more features such as slugs translation and premium support, you can get their Pro license starting from $112/year. Or, to support your ecommerce store, you can get Polylang for WooCommerce starting from $112/year and Business Pack, starting from $158/year.
The Good
- You can use this plugin free of charge
- Won’t affect your website speed
The Bad
- All translations are manual
The Verdict
This plugin is for those who want to handle manual translation for their websites to ensure translation quality.
5. TranslatePress
Unlike others, TranslatePress is a handy WordPress translation plugin that allows you to translate your website without switching between editors.
Not only that, this plugin has a Browse As features, so you can view your website either logged in or logged out.
The plugin comes with 221 integrated languages that you can add based on your needs. It also has editorial control to ensure the quality of translated content.
While the free plan offers great features, you can have SEO Pack Add-on and Multiple Language Add-on for $89/year of Personal plan.
The Business plan costs $158/year to enjoy personal plan features plus automatic user language detection and Browse As User Rule add-on.
To get all the features, you can get the Developer plan for $226/year.
The Good
- Easy to use and packed with features
- 15-day Money Back Guarantee.
The Bad
- All translation is stored locally so you need to manage your own database server
The Verdict
If you want to translate your website using a WYSIWYG approach, this plugin is for you.
6. MultilingualPress
MultilingualPress is a WordPress translation plugin that is great for separating your multi-lingual sites. Each language has its own website — with its own domain — equipped with auto-redirection features. What’s more, each website can have its own design and functionalities.
Reaching more than 200,000 downloads and Gutenberg editor ready, MultilingualPress has many outstanding features. Apart from being WooCommerce and SEO ready, this plugin has a powerful duplicate sites feature that allows you to copy an existing site along with its content to a newly created one.
MultilingualPress comes with more than 800 languages and allows you to add and edit the existing language through the Language Manager.
This plugin has four different plans you can choose. The Standard plan costs $199/year for full support and updates of one site. The Developer plan costs $299/year for five sites while the Agency plan costs $599/year for 25 sites. You can also get a custom plan for an Enterprise solution.
The Good
- This plugin supports multi-site translation
- You can enjoy automatic redirecting with no lock-in issues as each website stands individually.
The Bad
- The free version does not support Gutenberg editor, meaning you should use the premium plan
The Verdict
This is perfect for those who want to build a network of multilingual websites.
7. Scrybs
If you want a translation plugin that offers a hybrid method, Scrybs can be your choice. It lets you manually translate your website, use a professional translator, or rely on machine translation.
This WordPress translation plugin is fully compatible with most themes, so you will find no compatibility issues.
Once installed, you can manage your translation from their powerful dashboard. Scrybs provides very easy installation and great performance. Not only that, it has content synchronization.
This plugin has three plans you can choose from. The Startup plan costs $39/year to enjoy all features for one website and up to three languages.
The Business plan costs $69/year for three websites and a maximum of five languages. If you want to have unlimited websites and languages, you can get the Enterprise for $99/year.
The Good
- Hybrid translation method offers flexibility in managing your translations
- It provides 24/7 support
The Bad
- The free version is not regularly updated
The Verdict
This plugin has great content synchronization and is suitable for those who need a hybrid translation. So if you are looking for a more precise solution, this WordPress translation plugin might be the best pick!
8. Lingotek
Lingotek is a reliable WordPress translation plugin which is often used together with Polylang. With more than 20,000 active installations, this cloud-based translation plugin can help you create a multilingual site in no time.
Basically, your content will be transferred to Lingotek servers, processed and sent back to your site. Lingotek provides you a bundle translation into one reusable profile.
This plugin offers a hybrid translation: automatic, manual or in-workbench. So, it allows you to either automatically publish translated pages or review the translation before manually publishing it.
You can download this plugin for free!
The Good
- Free plugin with many great features
- A cloud-based translation that ensures a faster and easier process
The Bad
- You should request a professional translation workflow to ensure high quality translated content
The Verdict
If you are on a budget but want high-quality translations – this might be the perfect choice for you.
No More Language Barriers
Having a multilingual site is important. It will open a door for the possibilities of increasing sales, expanding your market, gaining better traffic and improving your SEO.
There are many WordPress translation plugins available you can choose depending on your budget, translation method and features you need.
- WPML — Supports ecommerce and has wonderful translation management.
- GTranslate — An amazing translation plugin that offers an affordable custom plan.
- Weglot Translate — Great plugin for multisite translation and auto-redirect features
- Polylang — A free, lightweight plugin for those who prefer manual translation.
- TranslatePress — The only one translation plugin that offers frontend translation.
- MultilingualPress — A great freemium plugin for multi-sites translation.
- Scrybs — Freemium plugin that offers hybrid translation and 24/7 support.
- Lingotek — Free plugin with cloud-based translation.
Now, get ready to make your multilingual site reach more visitors from around the world.
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