Alternative to WPML – .com

There is an interesting alternative to WPML, called Multilingual Press. Let’s see the differences of these two multilanguage plugins for WordPress.

Multiple languages ​​in WordPress

The Americans have it very easy. Only one language, English, which, in addition to reaching more than 400 million people, turns out to be the one that comes by default in WordPress. They don’t have to do anything and they have everything ready.

The rest of the world we have to deal with translations WordPress through .MO and .PO files and sometimes we have to because it is not translated or the translation is very bad.

But there is a third degree of complication that you discover when you want to have a WordPress in several languages. We are talking about multilanguage WordPress. In other words, have all the content translated into several languages, so that the user can choose the one they prefer. Something that seems so simple, but at the same time is so complex.

To date I have always done all multilanguage WordPress projects with WPML. I even have a step-by-step guide on how to set everything up from start to finish.

But increasingly, I have started to use another approach that is lighter, faster, and even non-blocking. I’m talking about , a plugin with a completely different approach. Let’s see the two ways.

WPML: The Dinosaur

WPML is a fantastic plugin, but what happens to many others who have followed this path: They have been growing based on patches and more and more additions, and now it is an oversized monster that just by installing, we already notice a drop in the website performance. And I don’t tell you when we mix it with another “powerful” plugin like WooCommerce.

WPML’s operation is very simple: Basically what it does is multiply our content as many times as we have languages, and through filters it only shows us the language we want.

For example, if we have a website in Spanish, English and French, each of our posts, menus, pages, or any other content will be in all three languages. And then it filters two of them out, depending on who is looking at the web.

One of the problems with that solution is that we are completely tied to that plugin, and we will never be able to change it again, because if we do, all of our content will suddenly appear in triplicate and in several languages in the same place. In other words, suddenly we will see all the posts, menus, pages, and more content in three languages ​​on the same website. Imagine the havoc that this can cause at the level of SEO…

Multilingual Press

The other option involves making life a little more complicated, but in the long run it is well worth it. We talk about . It is a freemium plugin, that is, it has a free basic version in the WordPress repository, so you can try it.

The Multilingual Press approach is completely different from WPML. Instead of multiplying the content on the same site, what it does is multiply the sites. So we actually have one site per language.

This is done thanks to WordPress Multisitean option that WordPress has (a little hidden, yes), which allows us to have several websites in the same WordPress installation. If you want to know more about how to install and configure it, take a look at the .

But the idea is the following: Why have the same site with everything tripled, when we can have three sites each with its own language?

Many of you will think that it is more convenient to have it in the same site since we have everything centralized in a “one-stop shop”, and we don’t have to go from site to site every time we add something.

Well, that’s exactly what Multilingual Press solves. The plugin “connects” all of our sites so we can easily add translations without having to go from one site to another manually, and it matches each page with its equivalents in the other languages.

But unlike WPML, it doesn’t affect site performance, as we actually have separate, individual sites, each handling its own content, with its own language, rather than having to juggle several.

In addition, the plugin does not have a lock, since if one day we wanted to deactivate it, nothing would happen. Each site is independent and would continue to be, so the only thing that would be lost would be the language selection dropdown. But we would not find a single site with Babel syndrome and all the content mixed, but three independent sites, each with its own language.

incompatibilities

But without a doubt, the main advantage of Multilingual Press over WPML is the issue of incompatibilities.

It turns out that WPML affects practically all WordPress functions related to content: Posts, pages, menus, widgets, CPTs… in short, practically everything. And the problem comes when another plugin it also touches one of those components. And we already know what happens if two plugins play the same thing without talking to each other… they mess up brown.

A comparison would be as if a couple who is opening a flat began to decorate and set up each one on their own, without speaking beforehand. One would start painting a wall in one color and the other in another… or they would buy two refrigerators, or even contract ADSL from different companies. It would be chaos. That has to be talked about. Another classic example is when several people edit the same text document. In the end there is always someone who crushes the changes that someone else made, because they worked at the same time without having spoken about it. That’s what plugins incompatibilities are: Lack of communication between them.

The way to minimize these incompatibilities is not have multiple plugins that do the same thing. Obviously, it never occurs to anyone to have two SEO plugins at the same time, or two eCommerce plugins at the same time, because it would be messed up for sure, since surely both “touch” the same things.

And the problem with WPML is precisely that. It touches almost everything. And that makes it very easy to conflict with any other plugin. The only way for this not to happen is for the WPML plugins to “adapt” to the rest of the plugins. (there are only tens of thousands), or that the rest of the plugins adapt to WPML. And not only that! But also, they are kept up to date every time one is updated, so that “nothing breaks”.

To give you an idea… for WPML to work well with WooCommerce, you need to have 6 plugins installed, so that there are no problems between these two. Five of them paid and one free. And that’s just for being WooCommerce compatible!

Instead, what about Multilingual Press? Well, quite the opposite, since “don’t touch anything“. Each site is an independent site, and “nobody has to talk to Multilingual Press”, since it only limits itself to connecting the sites together. Each one of them can have all the plugins installed, and they will behave as if it were a normal site, in a single language.

conclusion

Adding several languages ​​to our WordPress is (let’s do how we do it) a chore. One approach is to do it with WPML (one site, duplicate content for each language). Another is with Multilingual Press (one site per language, all interconnected).

The option you choose will depend on your case, but we could say that WPML could be a good option for small sites that do not use too many plugins. (a blog, or a basic corporate page, for example), and Multilingual Press for those slightly more complex projects that require several plugins to achieve all their features. Personally, I already use it in all my clients and projects.

And if you liked it, prepare yourselves, because during the course we are going to see it live, and if you are interested, there will be a whole course for it;)