Looking for the best WordPress translation plugins? Then you’re making a great decision to address the needs of the majority of active internet users.
With 1.13 billion websites on the internet and 5.3 billion internet users, what proportion of those websites would you guess are written primarily in just one language – English?
It might surprise you that 59% of all websites are English-based, with Russian in second place with 5.3% of websites, and sites written in Spanish coming in third place with 4.3%.
But to cater only to English-speaking visitors is to ignore three-quarters of all internet users since only 25.9% of internet users list English as their native language.
This demonstrates a very real discrepancy between what is needed and what is delivered.
If you have a WordPress-based website, then installing a translation plugin is not only helping your site meet the needs of a vastly wider audience but is also setting you apart from many of your competitors.
After all, if you can’t communicate with your potential customers, you’re unlikely to close a sale.
Since you’re clearly considerate enough to have already considered the needs of your potential customers, you’ve probably already thought of ways to achieve this.
Hiring professional translators might be an option you’ve considered, but this usually comes with a hefty price tag.
Using a tool such as Google Translate may be another option you’ve looked at, but there have been many examples of where this has failed to work properly – and put people off.
Easily, the best option if you have a WordPress website is to use one of the most established, reliable, and highly rated translation plugins available – but which one?
In this article, we’ve done the research, saving you even more time. Read on to discover what the best WordPress translation plugins are today, and which one you should use to make sure you’re reaching that other 74.1% of internet users.
Choosing The Right Plugin For You
When looking for a translation plugin, you should be clear on what your expectations are.
In our experience, a few seconds of planning will spare you from the horror of reinstalling and endless testing.
- Do you want to add translations manually?
- Would you like to have the luxury of a free trial?
- Does your plugin support the languages you require?
You may have tens of solid WordPress plugins running on your website without difficulty, but adding a single poorly built plugin might slow it down, or worse.
We have only selected plugins from established developers with a good track record of regular maintenance and updates. Therefore our picks should work reliably with other elements of your website.
Let’s get started!
#1: Weglot Translate – High-Quality Website Translations
Weglot Translate is a featherweight WordPress translation plugin with access to 100+ translation languages. You can also easily hire an expert translator through the Weglot Dashboard.
Got an ecommerce store? Weglot is able to translate WooCommerce product pages and checkout processes, and is trusted by over 70,000 businesses.
The free trial includes one language and 2,000 words so you can see how the plugin works for yourself. Following that, their pricing options run from 10,000 to 1,000,000 words per year, with a maximum of ten translated languages.
Pricing: Free, with paid versions range from $17-$769 per month.
Key Features:
- Fully compatible with WordPress themes and plugins, including WooCommerce and Elementor.
- Optimized for SEO
- Detects all the content on your website.
- The translations are updated in real-time, so there is no need for maintenance.
- Translations are made by the best machine learning software available.
- Assign specific translation tasks to either team members or Weglot’s professional translators.
Visit the Weglot plugin page for the full list of features.
Weglot has an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars from 1,592 reviews on WordPress.org.
Pros:
- Automatic workflow: any new content is automatically detected and translated.
- Edit translations: use post-editing tools, add your own translators, or order professional translation from directly within the plugin.
- No need for separate websites: Weglot creates subdomains for the different language versions of your website.
- Auto-redirection: automatically serve pages in your visitors’ own language based on their browser settings.
Cons:
- The free version is only 2,000 words.
#2: GTranslate – Best for Fast and Simple Translations
GTranslate is one of the most popular WordPress translation plugins, with over 500,000 installations. If you want to translate your website into over 100 languages with Google’s automatic machine translation, this is the right assistant!
It can translate websites on the go and automatically set the language based on the language preference in the user’s browser.
GTranslate has been a leading translation plugin since 2008.
It features a very straightforward setup, simple interface, and exceptional customer support. You can use it for free, but if you want additional features such as full SEO compatibility, you will need to go for the paid version.
Pricing: A free version is available. Paid plans start at $9.99 per month.
Key Features:
- 103 available languages.
- Free Google automatic machine translation.
- Can be integrated with Google Analytics.
- Automatically sets language based on the language defined in the user’s browser.
- WooCommerce shop translation feature.
- Translates menus, widgets, themes, and plugins.
- Translate websites on the fly.
GTranslate has been rated 4.9 out of 5 stars from 3,678 reviews. Many reviews mention helpful and responsive support.
Pros:
- Plugin has been running since 2008.
- Simple set up.
- Friendly user interface.
- Excellent support.
- Fully SEO compatible (for paid versions)
Cons:
- Many of the best features are only available in the paid plan.
#3: TranslatePress – An Excellent Alternative to GTranslate
TranslatePress and GTranslate are very similar, allowing you to use either manual or automatic website translation methods. The automatic translations are carried out by Google Translate, although this feature is not available in the free version.
TranslatePress has a great feature that allows you to translate your website from the front end and get a live preview of your translation while modifying it.
You can also put the language switcher anywhere on your website, making it easier for visitors to switch to their favorite language.
TranslatePress can also automatically detect the user’s country by their IP address.
Pricing: Free. Pro plan starts at $8.77 per month per site (billed annually at $97.64)
Key Features:
- Translate your entire website from the front end.
- Live preview of your translated pages while editing them.
- Manual or automatic translation.
- Integrates with Google Translate for automatic translation.
- Adjustable positions for language switchers using shortcodes, adding a menu item, or a floating dropdown.
- Exclude certain content from being translated.
- Compatible with WooCommerce.
TranslatePress was rated 4.7 out of 5 stars from 1,210 reviews on WordPress.org.
Pros:
- Quick and easy to use – edit your website from the front end.
- Detect the user’s country by their IP address for automatic translation
- Great support.
Cons:
- Some important features, such as automatic translation, are only available in the paid version.
#4: Polylang – Best for Manual Translation
The plugins mentioned previously all carry out translations automatically. Polylang is more aimed at website owners who want to translate their websites manually.
Pricing: Free. Pro version is available for $108.60 per website.
Key Features:
- Translate menus, widgets, pages, posts, categories, tags, custom post types, and taxonomies.
- Customizable language switcher widget and navigation menu item.
- Compatible with Yoast SEO.
- You can share the same URL slugs across languages.
- Integrates with WooCommerce via Polylang for WooCommerce plugin.
- You can either set the language code in the URL or use a different subdomain for each language.
Polylang has an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars from 2,543 reviews on WordPress.org.
Pros:
- Simple to use for manual translation.
- You can add as many languages as you want.
- Language switcher is an easy way for your visitors to switch to their preferred language.
Cons:
- Doesn’t automatically translate your website.
Conclusion – What’s The Best Translation Plugin?
There isn’t any single “best” translation plugin.
It all depends on your preferences, needs, and how large your website is. However, Weglot is widely recognised as one of the most versatile and reliable services as it combines automatic translation services with professional translations carried out by real people.
If you’re still not sure which plugin to use, we’d recommend starting with Weglot – that’s why we put it at the top of our list of WordPress translation plugins.
Want to learn about more useful tools? Check these resources:
- The Best WordPress Plugins for Agencies
- The Best Project Management Softwares
- The Best Image Compression Tools (Real World Testing + Comparison)
If you are going to use Weglot with a team of professional translators, then you’ll be assigning them tasks. This is, of course, something that will happen frequently within a digital agency, but can often be the primary cause of project delays.
Sending emails back and forth is inefficient, prone to misinterpretation, and can extend projects from days to weeks, or from weeks to months.
Which is where Atarim steps in.
With Atarim, you can leverage point-and-click collaboration to enable clients and stakeholders to point at what they’re referring to on any live web page, and immediately leave feedback, say what needs to be changed, and so much more.
Plus, you can also create milestones, divide them into tasks, and monitor performance.
If you want to receive feedback that makes sense, make it easier to collaborate with clients, and finish projects in days instead of weeks, sign up to Atarim today – with paid plans from just $20 per month.
- Integrated into the leading visual collaboration platform trusted by 13,000+ agencies (web dev, design, and beyond) worldwide.
- Supporting project delivery for 1,200,000+ of their clients and stakeholders.
- Deliver projects in days instead of weeks.
