Top 5 WordPress Translation Plugins

If your goal is to conquer global markets, having a multilingual site should be one of your priorities. Fortunately, creating a multilingual WordPress site is not that difficult, you can easily achieve it with a WordPress translator plugin.

A translation plugin is a tool that helps with the localization of your website for other languages. It can help you translate everything on the WordPress site: the content, the menus, the widgets, etc.

What should the plugin have?

Each WordPress translator plugin has its own distinctive features. Therefore, you should analyze your needs first.

This step will make you pay attention to what to look for in a WordPress translation plugin.

You should choose the translation methods that suit you best. Some translation plugins require human translation, while others rely on machine translation.
Some plugins like combine these two methods to produce more accurate and reliable results.
Consider additional features and pricing plans. Some plugins may support translation, while others require you to purchase the Pro version to use this feature.

TypeNote: Before choosing a translation plugin, make sure your WordPress theme supports translations. You can find such information in the theme description or in the documentation.

Now let’s move on to the best WordPress translation plugins.

1.

Weglot is one of the best tools to create a multilingual site. This plugin is used by more than 20 thousand websites and the 5-star rating speaks for itself.

Weglot tops our list for its user-friendly interface and useful features. There are more than 60 language options available in the free version.

However, the free version only allows you to choose one target language. Additional target languages are available only on paid plans.

After you activate it, Weglot’s automatic translation will do the hard work, translating all the words on your site into your chosen language.

two.

GTranslate uses Google’s automatic translation service. The plugin has a 4.8 rating and over 100,000 active installs.

This plugin allows users to choose their preferred languages from the widget dropdown. It has more than a hundred language options that will allow you to cover up to 99% of Internet users. Luckily, all target languages are available for free.

More features of the free version of GTranslate:

mouse-over effect
Dropdown Widget Styling
Alternative flags for some countries
Language bar with flags in the menu
WooCommerce Compatible

The free version of GTranslate offers quite a few features; however, it has some limitations. That’s why purchasing the paid version is a smart investment to unleash its full potential.

Some features of GTranslate premium are:

Neural translation: machine translation with a human touch
Editing the translation result
SEO friendly URLs in target languages
Translations of meta descriptions and keywords
Google Analytics Integration
Language accommodation. You can host the target language on the local top domain, so your site has a better chance of getting better results on local search engines.

Prices: Free. Paid version starts in $14.99/month

3.

Being the most popular WordPress translator plugin with over 400,000 active installations, Polylang has its place on our list.

Polylang offers a wide selection of languages; you can choose from more than 100 target languages.

Polylang translations must be done manually. However, you can integrate Polylang with the service and get help from professional translators.

Since Polylang requires human translation, you can control what content you want to translate. In addition to that, you can also translate the functions and system text by going to Languages -> Strings.

You can try the basic features of Polylang for free; however, by purchasing its premium version for $99 you get access to more features like slug translation and premium support.

Four.

Nothing beats TranslatePress for its modern translation experience. It offers an interface similar to the WordPress customizer. All you need to do is mark the text you want to translate.

While you are translating the text, TranslatePress will take care of the back-end. This plugin will make sure that your translation is suitable for SEO.

If you think manual translation takes too much time, TranslatePress also allows you to have automatic translation. Being integrated with the , Translate Press gives you high-quality machine translation results. You can also edit the results yourself to improve the translations.

The free version is great; however, the paid version unleashes its full potential with features like:

SEO Pack Extension: Translate , , the alt text of images, etc.
Customizable language selector
Translator account extensions: allows users to translate the site without having administrator permission
Navigation based on language option: set different menu options for different languages
Automatic detection of the user’s language

5.

Google Language Translator automatically translates your site with the help of the Google Translate API. The process is really simple.

After activating the plugin, you just have to choose your original language and the target languages.

Then this plugin will create a Translate button in the widget area. Whenever users want to see your site in their preferred languages, they just have to press this button.

This plugin is free and does not have a premium version. Here are some additional features of this plugin:

Over 80 languages to choose from
Show/hide Google logo
Choose specific languages or all languages available for translation
Add shortcodes to display the translation tool anywhere

Even though this plugin is simple, it also has some weaknesses. First, forget about the SEO benefits of translating your site; this plugin is not SEO friendly.

Second, you cannot edit the translated text. This means that if the machine translation is inaccurate, there is nothing you can do.

Conclusions

Having a well-translated page is important if you want to attract international visitors.

The good thing is that it is not necessary to invest a lot of time or money for this task, since there are different WordPress translator plugin alternatives that can help you achieve it successfully.

Gustavo is passionate about creating websites. He focuses on the application of SEO strategies at for Spain and Latin America, as well as the creation of high-level content. When he is not applying new WordPress tricks you can find him playing the guitar, traveling or taking an online course.

What should the plugin have?