If you want to expand your WordPress site‘s reach and connect with a global audience, one of the most important steps is to make your site multilingual. By providing your content in multiple languages, you can make your site accessible to the billions of non-English speakers around the world.
Not only does translating your site help you reach more people, it also provides SEO benefits. You can rank your site for keywords in different languages and tap into less competitive non-English markets. Overall, translation is essential for any WordPress site with global ambitions.
The easiest way to create a multilingual WordPress site is with the help of a translation plugin. These plugins allow you to translate all of your site‘s content and display it to visitors in their preferred language.
To help you find the right solution for your needs, we‘ve compared the 10 best WordPress translation plugins for 2024. The plugins featured include:
- TranslatePress
- WPML
- Weglot
- Polylang
- GTranslate
- Loco Translate
- MultilingualPress
- Babble
- qTranslate X
- TranslateWP
Let‘s take a detailed look at each plugin and how it can help you translate your WordPress site.
1. TranslatePress
TranslatePress is a user-friendly WordPress translation plugin that lets you translate your entire site directly from the front-end. It provides a visual translation interface that works similarly to the WordPress Customizer.
To translate content, you simply hover over the element you want to translate, click the pencil icon that appears, and enter your translations in the sidebar. This intuitive approach makes it easy to understand the context of what you‘re translating.
One of TranslatePress‘s standout features is its out-of-the-box compatibility with virtually any theme or plugin. It can automatically detect and translate dynamic content, including strings generated by page builders, forms, and WooCommerce products. This saves you the hassle of figuring out how to translate plugin content separately.
TranslatePress supports both automatic and manual translation. For machine translation, you can use either Google Translate v2 or DeepL APIs. All translations are stored locally on your server, so you don‘t need to worry about API quotas.
Key features:
- Visual front-end translation interface
- Supports Google Translate and DeepL automatic translation
- Translates plugins and themes out of the box
- No additional setup needed
- Optimized for multilingual SEO
- Ability to translate SEO metadata
- Automatic language detection and redirection
- Separate navigation menus by language
- Support for translator accounts
TranslatePress offers a limited free version that allows you to translate your entire site into one additional language. Paid plans with pro features like multiple languages, SEO options, translator accounts, and more start at €79 per year.
2. WPML
WPML is one of the oldest and most popular WordPress translation solutions around. It‘s known for its powerful features and compatibility with major themes/plugins. Many WordPress developers consider WPML compatibility when building products.
With WPML, you can create completely separate versions of your site for each language. It supports different URL structures for translations:
- Subdomains – es.yoursite.com
- Subdirectories – yoursite.com/es/
- Different domains – yoursite.es
You have several options for translating content with WPML:
- Manually translate it yourself
- Use WPML‘s Advanced Translation Editor for more control
- Purchase professional translation from 70+ integrated services
- Outsource to your own translators or employees using WPML‘s translator roles
The Advanced Translation Editor provides a side-by-side view of original content and its translation. You can also send content to machine translation from here and tweak the automatic translation afterward.
For translating theme and plugin texts, you‘ll need to use the separate String Translation interface. It gets the job done but feels a bit disjointed compared to solutions like TranslatePress that let you translate everything from one place.
WPML has excellent support for multilingual SEO. You can translate permalinks, SEO titles/descriptions, open graph tags, and more. It also includes a built-in SEO feature called DuplicateContent that automatically adds hreflang tags and canonical URLs.
Other notable features include the ability to translate WooCommerce stores, sync content between languages, and display different navigation menus for each language. WPML is also built with performance and scalability in mind – it‘s optimized to handle millions of visitors per day.
WPML has no free version. Pricing starts at $29 for limited features, but realistically you‘ll want the $79 Multilingual CMS plan to access more advanced capabilities. If you exceed the 2000 words/month translation quota, you‘ll need to purchase additional API credits.
3. Weglot
Weglot takes a unique SaaS-based approach to WordPress translation. Rather than storing translations on your own server, it hosts them on its cloud platform. When a user visits your translated site, Weglot displays the translations from its servers.
The upside of this approach is incredibly fast and easy setup. Once you install the plugin and add your API key, Weglot instantly machine translates your entire site. Weglot parses your site‘s front-end code to detect all translatable content, so it works with any theme or plugin with zero extra configuration.
You can tweak these automatic translations as needed using Weglot‘s visual editor. It shows a live preview of your site that lets you click on any text to edit its translation. You also get a list view for translating content not visible on the front-end, like SEO meta tags.
Since Weglot delivers translations from its servers, one thing to be aware of is the concept of translation "page views". Each time Weglot serves a translated version of a page, it counts against your plan‘s monthly page view allotment.
Key features:
- Cloud SaaS translation platform
- Automatic machine translation of your entire site
- Visual front-end translation editor
- Supplements machine translation with professional human translators
- Compatibility with any theme or plugin, no setup needed
- Optimized for multilingual SEO
- Automatic language redirection based on browser settings
- Supports subdomains, subdirectories, and separate domains
- Ability to exclude certain URLs from translation
Weglot has a limited free plan that includes one language with up to 2000 words. Paid plans start at €9.90/month and scale up based on your word count and page view needs.
4. Polylang
Polylang is a popular free WordPress multilingual plugin that lets you create separate translations of posts, pages, custom post types, categories, and tags. It‘s a solid choice if you‘re on a budget and don‘t mind a bit of manual setup work.
With Polylang, translations are managed by creating new entries linked to the original with a special "translations" metabox. For example, to translate a post, you‘d create a new post for each language and link them together. It‘s not as intuitive as other methods but gives you full control.
Some key things to note about Polylang:
- No built-in automatic machine translation (requires add-on)
- Theme and plugin content not translated out of the box
- Uses separate string translation interface for theme/plugin text
- No live visual translation preview/editor
While the core Polylang plugin handles WordPress‘ built-in content types, you‘ll need a paid add-on to translate URLs, widgets, plugins, and WooCommerce products. These add-ons are quite pricey at €99/year each.
On the SEO front, Polylang lets you create separate sitemaps for each language and specify hreflang tags. But you‘ll need the Pro version to translate custom URLs and SEO metadata.
So in summary, while Polylang can get the job done for free, it requires more legwork and technical setup compared to user-friendly solutions like TranslatePress or Weglot. The price of the Pro add-ons also diminishes the "free" appeal for many users.
Other WordPress Translation Plugins
While TranslatePress, WPML, Weglot, and Polylang are the most popular solutions, there are several other translation plugins worth considering:
5. GTranslate
GTranslate is a free Google Translate-powered WordPress plugin. It can automatically translate your site into 100+ languages using a front-end language switcher. The downside is that translations aren‘t indexed by search engines. To rank multilingual content in Google, you‘ll need the €190/year paid plans.
6. Loco Translate
Loco Translate is a free plugin primarily designed for developers to translate WordPress plugins and themes directly. While you can use it to translate regular content, it‘s overkill for non-developers. There‘s no live preview or ability to connect translation services.
7. MultilingualPress
MultilingualPress lets you connect separate WordPress sites as translations of each other, with each language running on its own subdomain or domain. It starts at €199/year for up to 3 languages. If you already have multiple sites set up, it could be a good solution. But for most users, a traditional plugin is better.
8. Babble
Babble is a unique WordPress plugin that lets you create translations via the WordPress REST API. You can manage translations in third-party apps using the API, or use Babble‘s JavaScript library to translate content in the front-end. It‘s an interesting approach for headless WordPress setups but too technically complex for regular sites.
9. qTranslate X
qTranslate X is a free WordPress translation plugin that stores all translations in a single post. It replaces the content with the relevant translation when a user switches languages. This keeps the admin clean but isn‘t great for multilingual SEO as search engines can‘t crawl the separate language versions effectively.
10. TranslateWP
TranslateWP is another WordPress plugin that‘s more convenient for developers to translate themes or plugins than regular users looking to create multilingual sites. Like Loco Translate, it doesn‘t provide any front-end translation management or visual preview capabilities.
Tips for Translating Your WordPress Site
Here are some tips to keep in mind when making your WordPress site multilingual:
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Choose a reputable translation plugin that supports your needs and provides a user-friendly interface, compatibility with your theme/plugins, and good documentation.
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If machine translating your content, remember to review and refine the translations. Automatic translation is never perfect, especially for nuanced or creative content.
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Consider hiring professional translators for the highest quality, especially if you‘re translating a business or eCommerce site.
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Optimize your multilingual site for SEO by translating metadata, using dedicated URLs for each language, and specifying the appropriate hreflang tags.
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Translate images, graphics, and PDFs too, not just text. You may need to create separate media files optimized for each language.
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Make it easy for visitors to switch between languages by adding a prominent language switcher.
By following these tips and using one of the translation plugins featured here, you‘ll be well on your way to creating a successful multilingual WordPress site.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the best WordPress translation plugin?
The best WordPress translation plugin depends on your specific needs. TranslatePress and Weglot are great user-friendly all-in-one solutions. WPML is very powerful and customizable but a bit more complex. Polylang is a solid free option if you don‘t mind a bit of extra setup.
How can I translate my WordPress site for free?
Polylang is probably the best free WordPress multilingual plugin. TranslatePress and Weglot also offer limited free plans. You can also use automatic Google Translate widgets, but these aren‘t indexed by search engines.
Can I use Google Translate on my WordPress site?
Yes, you can use Google Translate to automatically translate your WordPress site for free via the GTranslate plugin. However, the free versions of these tools have major SEO limitations. The translations also won‘t be as high quality as manual professional translation. It‘s worth investing in a more robust translation solution if possible.
How do I add languages to my WordPress site?
To add languages to your WordPress site, first install a WordPress translation plugin. In the plugin settings, choose which languages you want to add. How you actually input the translations will depend on the plugin, but most provide a localization panel or sidebar where you can add translated content for your chosen languages.
Conclusion
Translating your WordPress site is one of the best ways to expand your global reach. By providing your content in multiple languages, you can connect with billions of non-English speaking users around the world.
While WordPress doesn‘t have built-in multilingual features, the plugins featured in this post make it easy to create a fully translated site. Whether you‘re a blogger looking for a simple free solution or an eCommerce store seeking enterprise-grade translation management, there‘s a WordPress translation plugin that will meet your needs.
The WordPress translation space continues to evolve, with automatic machine translation and visual editing tools making the process faster and more user-friendly than ever. As WordPress moves towards its long-awaited Phase 2 release with full multi-language support built into WordPress core, we expect to see translations become an increasingly essential part of every WordPress site.
By jumping on the multilingual bandwagon now, you‘ll be ahead of the curve and positioned to connect with an entire world of new users. Choose one of these top WordPress translation plugins and start globalizing your site today.
