Weglot vs WPML Comparison (2023) – Which Is Better Multilingual Plugin?

International companies need a multilingual website to compete in today’s global economy as you can target more markets and more potential clients. To accomplish this task with the WordPress site, you need a good multilingual plugin. In this Weglot vs WPML comparison, I will show the differences between them.

You can excel in new niches and specialties when you broaden your reach into foreign nations. You can take a more proactive approach to your marketing and sales strategies. Translating your site into multiple languages can help you accomplish your goals of expanding customer base and increasing sales, revenue, and profitability.

Weglot and WPML are very popular and effective plugins and great choice when it comes to translating WordPress websites.

Weglot vs WPML

Most sites use English as a primary language. Translating your site into more than one language can be very beneficial for your business. Using a good WordPress translation plugin can complete translation tasks quickly.

Site translation can really pay off in the end. Site visitors tend to spend more time on sites that can be read and navigated in their native language.

Organizations that regularly sell goods and services to people and businesses in different countries have a greater need for a multilingual website. They can find more customers and sell more products when their site content is translated into languages that their clients can read and understand.

This is why I have compared Weglot vs WPML so that you can make an informative decision in which plugin is a better option for your business needs.

• Name
• Price
• Free Version
• Basic translation controls
• Translation Management
• Menu translation
• Menu sync
• Translate pages created with page builders
• Translate site title and description
• Translate theme and plugin texts
• WooCommerce support
• Integration with translation services
• Flexible language URLs
• Quiet translation mode
• SEO features
• Theme compatibility
• Plugins compatibility
• RTL editing
• Gutenberg ready
• Automatic machine translation option
• Number of available languages to translate using automatic machine translation
• Visitor language redirection

  Your site's visitors will automatically be redirected to translated information according to their browser's language preferences
• Multisite support
• Possibility to add team members
• Translated pageviews statistics
• Export & Import translations

• WPML MULTILINGUAL CMS PLAN
• $79 for three sites/yearly
• 100+
• WPML itself doesn’t add team members but you can WordPress users or use third-party plugin.
• You can use XLIFF files

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• WEGLOT PRO PLAN
• 490 EUR/year for three sites

  Plans range from 9.9EUR to 499 EUR per month
• 100+
• Available only in Enterprise and Corporate plan.

Learn More

For more info, be sure to check my WPML review and Weglot review.

How Do They Work?

Weglot and WPML take different approaches to translate site content. Here’s how each plugin works in a nutshell:

• WPML will create a duplicate of your post or page for every new language. That duplicate will then be saved as a typical WordPress post before linking the duplicates with the original. You will then need to translate that content manually, automatically, or using a third-party translation service.
• Weglot detects all of your original page content and submits it to a translation API, and the translated version will then replace the original. Nothing else needs to be done in WordPress on the backend. You can then manually check if everything is correctly translated and fix what needs to be corrected.

Installation

WPML and Weglot also differ in terms of installation. Installing WPML is just the first step in the process. Additional actions need to be performed before your site content can be fully translated. After Weglot’s been installed, your site content will have been translated automatically for you.

Translation

One of the main differences between these tools is the fact that you can’t use WPML to translate all of your WordPress site’s content automatically. WPML addon plugin will be needed to translate any content outside of your WordPress editor.

People who use WPML to translate their website should pay attention to the following:

• If you want to use the automatic translation feature, you’ll need to buy the Multilingual Agency package or the WPML Multilingual CMS add-on.
• It will take more than just a single click of the mouse to translate your whole site automatically.
• You’ll need to use the WPML interface to send commands to have your content translated manually. This will need to be done one post at a time.
• WPML doesn’t provide automatic site translation free of charge. The first 2,000 words can be translated for free. After that, there are additional costs.

Weglot takes a different approach to content translation:

• Weglot will automatically translate your entire site. This also includes any information from your plugins or themes that can be translated.
• Automatic translation will begin as soon as the plugin is installed.

For more info on how automatic translation works with Weglot and WPML, I suggest you check my article where I discuss the best ways to translate WordPress site automatically.

Dashboard

Weglot and WPML’s dashboards both have many of the same functions. They each allow you to manage and edit all translations. You can also outsource translations to a trusted translation team or a professional translation service. Weglot’s dashboard is a little easier to use than WPML when you’re managing your content translations.

Weglot lets you search for translations that were made according to SEO metadata, media translations, or page URL. All of your site content will be shown together. This includes any text that other plugins created.

With WPML, you’ll need to switch between two different editors to see the content from your website and content from outside the WordPress editor.

Weglot has a visual translation editor which simplifies translation management. A live preview of your multilingual site can be seen from the Weglot dashboard via the in-context editor option. Translation will synchronize with your site in real-time as you click on translations to edit them.

Translating Third-party Content

Most people naturally start with pages and posts when creating a WordPress site that can be read in multiple languages. If you want your site visitors to have the best possible experience, you should also ensure that other site content is appropriately localized.

Sidebars, taxonomies, menu items, site taglines, WooCommerce, and other active plugins will need to be considered.

One area where WPML falls short compared to Weglot is that you can’t translate any content that isn’t in the WordPress editor with WPML.

With WPML, you’ll need to buy the Multilingual CMS package (or higher) to manage this content through the additional plugin interface. All of those elements will have to be translated manually.

On the other hand, Weglot performs the following actions:

• Advanced machine translation will automatically translate all of your third-party content. They will then be flagged so that you can check if all is good.
• You won’t need to translate any extra translations manually. For instance, let’s say that you’re creating an eCommerce store with WooCommerce. Weglot will automatically translate your checkout page, shop pages, and product pages.
• The same interface is used to manage all translations.

Language Switcher

A language switcher is usually displayed on the site front-end (menu, sidebar, etc.). Site visitors use this option to change between different languages on a website.

Weglot adds a language switcher to your site automatically. WPML has more language switcher options than Weglot. You can select the order of the languages, determine where the language switcher will be shown, customize it, etc. You add switcher either PHP code or using WPML shortcode.

Weglot adds a language switcher to your site automatically by default. You won’t need any technical expertise or knowledge to customize your language switcher.

Available Languages

Another important factor is how many languages are supported by a WordPress translation plugin. This can vary based on what Weglot and WPML currently support and the languages you want your site to translate into.

WPML has translation services in 64 languages at this time. Weglot can actively translate more than 100 different languages. They are working on adding more languages that can be translated. You can find the complete list of all languages that Weglot supports here.

Compatibility

Weglot works well with many WordPress plugins and themes. As Weglot code is executed at the end of the page loading, it does not depend on any other themes or plugins.

It would be best to use plugins and themes compatible with WPML to ensure that WPML properly translates your site content. If you don’t, you may end up having some content that’s you can’t translate or may only have portions of your website translated.

SEO Management

For search engine optimization (SEO) in multiple languages, Weglot abides by Google’s best practices guidelines:

• Every translated version of your web page will have its own automatically created URL. Subdirectories (such as /es” for Spanish or ‘/fr for French) will also be created.
• Google can know about the different variations of your page because hreflang tags will be added automatically.
• The translation is not conducted solely on the client-side (like what JavaScript Solutions would do). Translation also occurs on the server-side.
• Meta descriptions and other relevant SEO tags will be translated.

WPML also follows Google’s best practices rules and has the following features for SEO optimization:

• Every translated version of your web page gets its own URL. You have to choose the kind of URL that you want to use during the setup process.
• Hreflang is also added. You need to specify the location in your HTML code where it should be added.
• The translation is completed on the server and client sides.
• Any meta descriptions or other SEO tags that you may have will also be translated.

Performance

Weglot will not cause any delays in loading time because Weglot doesn’t require you to store translations. It is compatible with WP Rocket and other cache plugins. This can help to improve loading times for your site.

WPML may cause a slowdown on the admin side from time to time since it is linked directly with your database.

Free Plan

You may want to test a product before making a purchasing decision. Weglot gives you ten days to use their features free of charge. You can ask the Weglot team questions and experiment with different settings and functions. You can also translate up to 2,000 words on your website with Weglot’s free plan.

WPML doesn’t offer a free trial, but if you’re not completely satisfied with what they have to offer, you can return the plugin within 30 days to get a full refund.

Pricing

The following restrictions apply to the free Weglot plan:

• Translations are only allowed in one language.
• A maximum of 2,000 words can be translated.

Premium features can be tested for ten days for free. This should give you plenty of time to decide whether or not this tool is ideal for you.

Premium pricing plans for each plan is based on these factors:

• How many languages you want to use
• The number of words that you want to translate

Plans can be paid for on a monthly or annual basis. A yearly plan is a better deal because you will only pay for ten months, whereas you’d be paying for twelve months of service under the monthly billing option. You can use Weglot on an unlimited number of sites. Word count is your only limit. Weglot pricing goes from 99 EUR per year to 4,990 EUR. Weglot is definitely not for every pocket.

WPML doesn’t have a free version. However, it does have several pricing options that are very affordable for most budgets. The plugin comes in the following paid plans:

• Multilingual Blog – This plan is available for $29/year. You can use this plan on a single site. Navigation content, eCommerce, custom fields, theme strings, and widgets can’t be translated with this plan.
• Multilingual CMS – You can purchase this option for $79 per year. This plan can be used on up to three websites. You can translate all of your site content with this plan.
• Multilingual Agency – The agency plan can be purchased for $159 a year. It includes all of the features found in the Multilingual CMS and Multilingual Blog plans. You can use this version on as many sites as you want.

A 30-day money-back guarantee is provided for each of the above paid subscription plans. If you’re not fully satisfied, you can get a complete refund.

WPML’s automatic translation feature isn’t entirely free. You have to pay extra charges according to the size of your website. This is an additional expense besides the cost that you’ve already paid for the paid plan.

The Multilingual CMS and Multilingual Agency packages have 2,000 free automatic translations credits. WPML resets those credits every month. If you run out of credits during a particular month, you’ll have to buy more if additional site content needs to be automatically translated. The translation engine that you select will decide how many translations credits you will receive.

Weglot vs WPML Conclusion

WPML and Weglot are great multilingual site translation plugins. Both resources can help make your site more accessible to customers from various countries.

I can’t tell you which option will best meet your needs. That’s something you’ll have to choose for yourself. Translation needs can vary from one website to another. Take a look at what each tool provides before making your decision. Hopefully, this Weglot vs WMPL comparison has given you enough information to make your selection easier.

I would say, if you have the budget, go with Weglot. If not, WPML is a great choice.