Searching for the top WordPress translation plugins? The tables below illustrate some of the most important features to look for when picking your plugin. This is a head-to-head comparison of the top solutions on the market.
TranslatePress vs WPML vs Polylang vs MultilingualPress vs Bablic vs GTranslate
Let’s start by looking at the key features and prices of each solution:
| Features | TranslatePress | WPML | Polylang | Multilingual Press | Bablic | GTranslate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Translation Interface ?From where do you translate your content | WordPress frontend | WordPress backend | WordPress backend | WordPress backend | Bablic cloud interface | GTranslate cloud interface |
| Translate all types of content ? Check out the detailed comparison table below | 10/10 | 9/10 | 6.5/10 | 7.5/10 | 8/10 | 8/10 |
| Main translation focus | Both | Both | Manual | Manual | Automatic | Automatic |
| Automatic translation support ?If it integrates with automatic translation services, such as Google Translate | ||||||
| Edit automatic translations ?Ability to edit the automatic translated content |
?Requires a paid version
|
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| Where are translations stored | Your database | Your database | Your database | Your database | Bablic servers | GTranslate servers |
| Will you keep your translations if you stop paying ?Will you be able to use the translated content if you decide to cancel your subscription? | ||||||
| SEO friendly ? Separate URLs for each translated version, ability to translate URL slug, SEO plugin support, ability to add the hreflang attribute | ||||||
| WooCommerce compatibility ?Out of the box WooCommerce compatibility, allowing you to translate products, attributes, shop page etc. |
?Requires a paid extra plugin
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| Theme and Plugins compatibility ?Works out of the box with ANY theme or plugin, including page builders | Partially ?Requires extra compatibility code added by theme or plugin developers | Partially ?Cannot handle dynamic gettext strings and cannot translate images. | ||||
| Uses existing Gettext translations ?Existing translations added by themes, plugins or WordPress itself are recognized and used. | ||||||
| Can edit Gettext translations ?Edit the translated content added by themes, plugins or WordPress itself | ||||||
| Translation Management ? Create or allow existing users to translate the site without admin rights | ||||||
| Integration with Human Translation Services | ||||||
| Editorial Control ?Publish language only when all your translations are done | ||||||
| Automatic language detection ?Detecting language based on IP and/or browser language | Partially ?Only by browser language, not IP | |||||
| WordPress native ?Whether the plugin is GPL and self hosted | ||||||
| Easy to setup ?Intuitive, few settings, easy to translate all types of content, no switching between multiple translation interfaces | ||||||
| Starting Price | Free | $39 | Free | $99 | 288$/year | Free |
| Premium version | from 89€ | from 99€ | from 99€ | 299$ | from 288$/year ?With just 1 extra language support | from 120$/year ?With just 1 extra language support |
| Find out more |
Comparison between different top WordPress translation plugins based on the ability to translate various types of content
The table below illustrates what types of content each solution is able to translate. Premium versions abilities were considered.
| Types of content | TranslatePress | WPML | Polylang | Multilingual Press | Bablic | GTranslate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Posts and Pages | ||||||
| Categories and Tags | ||||||
| Menus | ||||||
| Theme and Plugin Texts (Gettext) | Partially ?Cannot handle dynamic strings such as Hello %username% | Partially ?Cannot handle dynamic strings such as Hello %username% | ||||
| Site Title and Description | ||||||
| SEO Attributes | ||||||
| Slug translation | ||||||
| AJAX Content | Partially | Partially | ||||
| Dynamic content | ||||||
| Translate entire paragraph | ||||||
| Database options | Partially | Partially | ||||
| Find out more |
A detailed look at the top WordPress translation plugins
TranslatePress
For total transparency, TranslatePress is our own flagship plugin. However, it has proven to be one of the best WordPress translation plugins out there. And it’s not just us saying so. All you need to do is check out the user reviews.
The are three main things that stand out about TranslatePress and have earned it its spot on this market. First is the user-friendly interface. You can do everything right on the frontend of your site – meaning, you’re looking at the site as it appears to normal visitors as you’re translating it.
Second, many of the features that the competition charges for are free in TranslatePress. Third, and perhaps most importantly, no string of text is locked out of translation through TranslatePress. In other words, if you see it on the screen, TranslatePress can translate it.
This actually goes not only for normal text content, but also images, SEO details of pages, and WooCommerce data (such as products). Plus, if you can’t be bothered and would prefer for your translations to be done automatically, TranslatePress can do that for you as well.
👉 If you want to learn more about TranslatePress, click here.
👉 Here’s how to translate your WordPress site using TranslatePress.
WPML
WPML is another viable solution on our list of the best WordPress translation plugins. The two key details about it from the user’s point of view are that this is a premium-only plugin and that the interface is more backend-based.
This means that instead of looking at your website content like any other visitor would, you do all the translations by jumping into the WordPress dashboard and working from there.
Specifically, after selecting a page from the backend (or a post), you’ll be able to go through each string of text from the page’s content, one by one, in a list form. While this is not any less functional, it can create some design issues since you don’t see what the translation looks like visually on the final page.
That being said, a strong point of such an interface is that it’s easier to identify the content that has already been translated vs content that hasn’t.
WPML might also be a good solution for you if you want to bundle up all your text content that needs translating and send it off to an external translator. WPML has features for doing that.
Polylang
Polylang is another backend-based WordPress translation plugin. It’s fully functional, and no features are missing per se. However, as usually with these things, this plugin has its own spin on how it handles the main task.
First off, again, you do your work in the WordPress dashboard rather than on the frontend of the site.
Second, it lets you create separate versions of your posts and pages, and assign them to different languages that you’ve set up on the site. This means that you can even make those alternative pages look completely different from their original language version. This can be a big benefit for certain types of sites.
There’s a free version of Polylang that allows for basic translations, which should be enough for the majority of users. However, if you want to translate content on your WooCommerce store, want to translate your URL slugs, or integrate this WordPress translation plugin with Advanced Custom Fields, you’re going to need to upgrade to the pro version.
MultilingualPress
MultilingualPress is an original take on a WordPress translation plugin. Basically, everything happens inside a WordPress Multisite installation.
So instead of adding new interface elements to the standard WordPress dashboard and running your additional languages there, MultilingualPress lets you set up a separate WordPress site for each of your languages.
This can be a very interesting solution if you value complete control over your different language versions. At the same time, this approach lets you set up completely different-looking websites for each of your languages and not be bound by the original website structure imposed by your original language.
One thing you should know is that MultilingualPress has a specific relationship with the WordPress plugin directory. The version of this WordPress translation plugin that’s available there for free is MultilingualPress 2 (which is not compatible with the block editor). The newest versions – 3.X – are only available through the MultilingualPress website. The prices on these start from $99.
Bablic
Bablic is more of a website translation management service rather than a standalone WordPress plugin. Granted, there is a WordPress plugin available called Bablic, but it only serves as an integration layer between your site and the main Bablic platform.
Bablic appears like a more business-centered or enterprise solution that’s meant to help you offload your translation tasks to either your own contractors, pick one of Bablic’s partners, or use automatic translation.
As I said above, you actually don’t do any of your work in the dashboard of your WordPress site. Once you activate the Bablic plugin, all you can do is launch the Bablic Localization editor, which is an in-the-cloud-like interface.
The WordPress translation plugin itself is free, but don’t let that fool you. The prices of Bablic start from $24 / month.
GTranslate
GTranslate is another cloud-based solution on this list, but at its core, it works in a significantly different way than Bablic, for instance.
GTranslate’s offering is two-fold. If you want to get started for free, all you get is a language selector widget for your WordPress site. That widget will trigger an automatic language translation via Google Translate.
Also, such a translation isn’t stored in your database. All translations happen on the fly and the page’s content will be replaced dynamically through JavaScript.
If you’re willing to try out GTranslate’s paid solution, then you get access to their Translation Delivery Network, which does store your translations and also displays them to the visitors – using a network of distributed servers (similar to how a CDN works).
If you want to edit your translations, you can do that through GTranslate’s cloud interface.