Enabling a bilingual option is one approach to making your website more accessible to a larger audience. Although WordPress does not provide such a feature, constructing a multilingual website is still pretty simple with the help of translation plugins.
WordPress is the most popular CSM globally, but its reach is limited if your content is only available in one language.
How can you reach speakers of various languages if you speak at most one proficiently? A WordPress translation plugin is a good place to start.
In this article, we’ll review some of the best WordPress translation plugins for creating multilingual websites.
A Translation Plugin: What Is It?
A WordPress translation plugin translates the text on your website into various languages, enabling users to view it in the language of their choice.
Automatic machine translation and self-translation are the two categories into which WordPress translation plugins typically fall.
The first kind of plugin translates the content of your website using a translation API, like Google Translate. These machine translations have evolved but could still have grammatical errors and misspellings.
Remember that some plugins prevent you from editing automated translations, while others charge you extra to gain access to that kind of feature. Using a self-translation plugin is labor-intensive compared to automatic translation, but it is one of the safest ways to translate accurately.
You can update and modify the translations to fit your style using this plugin. But, you might need to use a qualified translator, which would raise your overall price.
Automated translation plugins are a great option for translating buttons, menus, and plain text.
We included both kinds of WordPress translation plugins in our list, so you may choose one that is affordable and provides the translation options you prefer.
Why Use a Translation Plugin for WordPress?
You can choose your favorite language in the native dashboard when you build your WordPress site. Go down to Site Language after selecting General from the Settings menu. From the drop-down option, select the dashboard language of your choice.
The language of your dashboard will change; as a result, however, if you want to build multilingual websites, you’ll need a plugin. These add-ons transform your website into a multilingual platform without creating numerous WordPress subdomains. Although many translation plugins exist for WordPress, they can be divided into two groups.
- WordPress multilingual plugins
- Automatic WordPress translation plugins
You can manually add multilingual material to your website using the multilingual plugins. The key advantage of these plugins is that your translations will be much higher caliber than those produced by any online machine translation engines.
The second category of WordPress translation plugins translates your text using internet translation providers. Although you don’t have to produce material in many languages to use these plugins, the translations are only sometimes accurate.
Let’s examine the top 9 WordPress automated translation and multilingual plugins in light of this.
Top Multilingual WordPress Plugins
Unlike automated WordPress translation plugins, these multilingual plugins let you manually translate every element of your website, such as the text, theme, plugins, and more.
The finest WordPress multilingual plugins listed below can quickly translate your complete website.
1) TranslatePress
To translate every element of your website, use the comprehensive WordPress multilingual plugin TranslatePress. The primary benefit of TranslatePress is that you can perform translations from the front end.
As the translation is done, you can quickly switch between languages, and the live preview will update. Translating content, themes, plugins, and even meta-data without affecting the user experience is another advantage of this strategy.
Manual translations are ideal for TranslatePress. You can translate your content or give any user on your site the custom translator user role. Despite needing access to the admin area, these people can translate text.
You can use Google Translate to use machine translations if manual translations sound like a lot of work. With this method, you may combine manual edits with AI-powered translations.
The plugin generates SEO-friendly URLs for every language, improving local SEO rankings.
Pricing: A personal license begins at €89.
2) GTranslate
A freemium WordPress plugin is GTranslate by Translate AI Multilingual Solutions. Your WordPress website is automatically translated using the Google Translate API.
It is more adaptable than many other translation plugins because it supports more than 100 languages. For websites that need to translate a lot of content, it also offers infinite words and page views, which is a great benefit.
Moreover, GTranslate is an SEO-friendly plugin. You can handle the translated content by choosing one of two custom URL structures. Thanks to the widget’s adjustable language selection options, your clients can easily switch languages.
The free version of this plugin is a fantastic choice for all WordPress users. Nevertheless, only the subscription plan, which starts at $9.99/month, is available for services like altering machine translations, language hosting, and search engine indexing.
3) WPML
One of the most widely used WordPress multilingual plugins is WPML. You may translate content, themes, plugins, and more using the included robust translation management system.
Multilingual blogs and Multilingual CMS license options are available for WPML. You’ll need the multilingual CMS plan for eCommerce, page builder support, custom fields, managing translation teams, and other capabilities.
It offers an intuitive interface that makes it simple to manage multilingual material on your website and add translations. Every post type, taxonomy, custom field, and string produced by your WordPress themes and plugins is supported by WPML.
You can also use it to link your website to outside providers of translation services. The translated material can then be sent directly to your website after being chosen for translation.
The Multilingual Blog edition costs $39, and the Multilingual CMS costs $99.
4) MultilingualPress
The MultilingualPress translation plugin is effective; however, it is mostly made for users who already have a translation of their website and need a method to use it. While this plugin supports automated Google translation, the main selling point is how simple it is to add your translations to posts and pages, categories, menus, and tags.
The plugin’s free version can handle the majority of blogs and websites’ translation requirements, but if you require more than what it offers, the Pro upgrade offers translations for WordPress taxonomies, page builder compatibility, custom fields, and language slug position changes (such as en.example.com versus example.com/en).
Free with Pro upgrade; the annual cost of $43.
5) Weglot
The fact that each translation takes up space on the server, in your post and page list, and necessitates manual maintenance is a significant problem that arises very frequently with multilingual websites. It is not a problem with Weglot. The plugin automatically translates your files and content, including content retrieved from outside sites. So, it is optional to maintain several duplicate and identical websites.
Setting instructions for how you want the translation on your site to appear is a useful feature of Weglot. You can choose a quick translation option, which will use Google, Yandex, and DeepL (among others) to translate your website immediately.
You have complete control over it and can manually enter your translations for other languages. A human translator can produce the most accurate information if you have the money and need one. Also, Weglot offers a glossary of words and phrases that it will never translate, such as your brand name, to ensure consistency throughout the website.
Beginning at €15 per month, price.
6) Google Website Translator
A plugin created by Prisna is called Google Website Translator. Individuals can use this open-source software to build their multilingual websites for free.
It allows you to automatically translate your material with Google Translate into more than 100 languages, much like the GTranslate plugin.
The number of words you can translate is unrestricted, and Google Online Translator is simple. Also, it is a lightweight plugin that won’t slow down your website.
Google Website Translator Plugin could be more adaptable, though. It cannot translate the URLs on your website, which disadvantages your postings in the eyes of search engines. The inability to alter the translated content is another drawback.
7) Loco Translate
While quick and light, Loco Translate is also packed with features. What Loco Translate delivers is also a hit with developers. They can connect to numerous language APIs, including those from Yandex, DeepL, Google, and Microsoft. Also, the plugin enables website owners to change their language files without going through a cloud service directly from the theme (or plugin) itself. And as a result, you can extract translatable strings from your source code to make some portions of your website accessible to all users.
If you’re looking to translate your WordPress themes or plugins, this is one of the most reliable plugins on the list, with over a million active users and a 5-star rating.
Up to 2,000 translations using the plugin are free. The commercial edition of Loco Translate starts at $5.95/month and includes limitless translations in addition to unlimited languages and revision history.
8) Multisite Language Switcher
Thanks to the Multisite Language Switcher plugin, a WordPress multisite installation now has multilingual capability. Users can control how articles, pages, custom post types, categories, tags, and custom taxonomies are translated. The plugin makes use of FamFamFam flag icons
Both Yoast SEO and the All-in-One SEO Pack are compatible with this plugin, allowing users to incorporate one or more languages. It is possible to establish different featured images for each language using free add-ons.
Price for Multisite Language Switcher: FREE
9) Polylang and Lingotek
A fantastic substitute for the previous, more expensive plugins is Polylang. With the help of language packs you can buy, you can translate your pages, posts, media, and more into the languages of your choice. Also, it includes a language switcher option so that users can easily switch between languages in your navigation menu.
To offer additional translation possibilities, Polylang also offers connectivity with Lingotek. With the Lingotek cloud platform, you may choose between machine translations, community/crowdsourced translations, and expert translations. This guarantees that the appropriate translation option will always be available. They also offer a different plugin for integrating WooCommerce.
One of the better alternatives for translator plugins is Polylang, which has over 500,000 active users and a 5-star rating.
Price: FREE with premium extensions and add-ons beginning at 99 euros for one site.
Conclusion
For your company, building a multilingual WordPress website is a great investment. With localization, it expands the audience for your website, helps your content rank higher in search engine results, and makes your website stand out from the crowd. It is possible to choose from a variety of WordPress translation plugins. The appropriate plugin selection, however, is a little trickier. Website operators should compare the type of material their site offers with the demands and demographics of their audience. With some plugins, stores work best. Others perform best on large enterprise blogs with numerous unique post kinds and taxonomies.
To improve businesses’ online presence, Clicc Media is committed to helping you update and optimize your WordPress websites. We are a web design company that can assist you with website optimization and create cutting-edge, distinctive designs. To learn more about optimizing your website design, get in touch with us right away.