WPML Review 2024 Pros & Cons | The best translation plugin?

WPML Review
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In this WPML Review, you will find out why WPML is one of the best to translate the content of your WordPress Website in different languages.
WPML
WPML Review

WPML is a WordPress translation plugin that help you to have a multilingual website.

Price: 99

Price Currency: EUR

Operating System: Wordpress

Application Category: Multilingual Plugin

Editor's Rating:
4.7

Pros

  • Allows SEO optimization.
  • Its compatibility with themes is high.
  • Also high compatibility with plugins.

Cons

  • Manual Translation can take time.
  • It might mess up your WordPress if you uninstall.

Carlos' Opinion -
WPML Review.

5 years as blogger, and could I really say which is the best translation plugin for WordPress?

I would rather say, which has been the one that have worked better for me as a blogger.

I have been focusing my blog to have written content. 

So how to convert the content in different languages? Which plugin is actually helping me achieve goals of internationalization? Which one is good for SEO?

I might consider myself a bit good on languages, but certainly I am not a fully polyglot. Plus, it would take a lot of time to really translate the texts by myself.

My path of multilingual plugins have gone from Google Translator, to WPGlobus, to WPML, to Weglot, and back to WPML.

Why? Well, I have tested for myself first which one has been the one that have worked for me.

I will put it to you like this. I have to ask myself, in which position am I, and what are my objectives.

In my case, I consider myself as a low budget blogger who is focusing on content creation. Now with my experience, I am looking to share it and help others to make better decisions.

Also, I am focusing to monetize through affiliate marketing. So this turns out to be a win-win-win, of course if the last decision maker is happy with his purchase. 

Now that I have my standards and goals, which of the plugins can I afford and which translation plugin would be the good one for me. 

The negative sides I saw on the plugins. Google translator doesn’t offer high quality translation

WPGlobus has a complicated page structure, which might affect page duplication.

WPML requires manual work.

Weglot has a higher price in comparison with the other plugins.

The positive sides I saw on the plugins.

Google translator has automatic translation and free.

WPGlobus is affordable and easy to use.

WPML now has automatic translation with Deepl and it is also affordable.

Weglot has a fast and accurate translation.

Decisions, decisions.

One of the things that I didn’t like about WPML was the amount of work, and copy paste that I have to do if I wanted to translate content.

The easiest and cheapest way to translate content with WPML was using Google Translator and copy the text to the translation manager.

That was time consuming and a repetitive work.

Therefore, I went out to try Weglot, a fast and accurate multilingual translation plugin.

But after testing Weglot, I noticed that the plugin could be expensive to maintain for me due to the amount of written content that I have in my blog, and also I wanted to have at least 5 languages.

5 languages multiplied by the number of words that I had in my website, made me reach pretty soon the word limit of the Weglot’s Pro Plan.

I faced myself into the decision, paying more for another Weglot’s plan or go back to WPML.

Paying almost €2000 per year was not an option.

I changed back to WPML and I noticed that WPML was starting to improve their automatic translations.

Couple months after I changed, they announced a big deal for the WordPress Automatic Translations, Deepl arrived to WPML.

Deepl is a german based service that has a pretty accurate translation, better than Google Translator. 

For now Deepl has a few number of available languages they could translate.

For WPML automatic translation you have to pay an extra fee depending on the credits that you use. 

WPML automatic translation is based on credits and not in the word count, as in Weglot.

Actually, it may sound as word count, but there is a technical difference.

The difference relies that with WPML you can have more control in which content you will spend your credits, and which translation service will you use for it.

For example, Microsoft translation costs 1 credit, Google translations costs 2 credits, and Deepl translations costs 3 credits.

Update: DeepL credits now cost 2 credits, being a 33% of decrease which is a big advantage of choosing it for the advanced translation editor. My point of view is that these should be the selected translation engine to be chosen for WPML WordPress multilingual plugin.

So, you can choose which translation service you want to use and how will you spend it.

In that, WPML has more control than Weglot, nevertheless it is worth mentioning that it is still time consuming, but way much better than in the past.  

I wanted to get deeper into the price comparison between Weglot vs WPML, I’ll try to get the exact price of a word, of course if I am not wrong. 

In the monthly Weglot Business plan, you pay $23.38 dollar for 50000 words, which is $0.00046 per word.

In the yearly Weglot Business plan which gets cheaper, you pay $233.77 per year, which per month is $19.48 for 50000 words, which is $0.00038 per word.

In a monthly payment for up to 100,000 WPML credits you pay $17, which if you use Deepl 3 Credits, that means it is 33,333 words, which is $0.00051 per word.

As you keep using higher number of credits in WPML, the price gets lower.

Nevertheless in that comparison Weglot shows better price per word.

The big BUT cames when Weglot establishes a Word Limit, and in WPML when you pay again for the credits you have new credits that you can use to translate new content.

Actually there is no word limit in WPML.

And even so, for now I am using free Deepl Windows Plugin to have a faster copy-paste of selected phrases, and combining the automatic translation.

I went back to WPML, because it was a plugin that I already know, and it adjusts to my budget.

It doesn’t have a word and language limit as Weglot.

But I am now spending again more time on the translations. 

I hope that the following aspects of this WPML Review let you know more about this multilingual plugin.

What is WPML?

When talking about WordPress Multilingual Plugin , or simply WPML , we refer to that WordPress plugin that is responsible for transforming a monolingual website, or blog, into a multilingual platform. Something that is more than necessary in recent times.

This is a very popular tool because it allows the user to translate the content of their domain into more than 40 languages with the benefit that the SEO work is not impaired at all.

WPML is one of the most popular WordPress plugin to translate website content for different types of websites for site owners such as blogs, e-commerce stores, portfolios and more.

Apart from being characterized by being intuitive, and having more than one resource that makes the entire translation process easier.

With this plugin, not only manual translation is achieved , but also automatic translation , where both can be worked in parallel, so that the user can ensure that a good job has been done with their content.

WPML connects with machine translations of DeepL, Google and Microsoft.

WPML advanced translation editor has a good interface making it easier to check out the computer-assisted translations and do any manual corrections that can be done by assigning user translator roles.

WPML wordpress translation plugin is compatible with most page builders like Elementor and Divi, and the language selectors as drop-down menu or vertical can easily be set up in headers and footers.

When it comes to multilanguage plugins, we must recognize WPML as the one that is most used around the world, since it is a tool that was born a lot of years ago, and updates continue to be periodically maintained to ensure that we offer you only the best to user.

In order to access the use of WPML, it is necessary to buy a license, and this is done through the brand’s platform. After purchasing it, you can install it in WordPress. The price of this tool starts at USD 29, and the renewal, after one year, is fixed at USD 21.

Many users who already have a multilingual website assure that this is one of those plugins that cannot be missing in their repertoire, so it is better not to leave it out and test if its advantages and benefits are also adapted to your domain.

WPML Features

For anyone, structuring a multilingual website can be a headache.

However, the features of WPML are responsible for making the task much easier, since there are many functionalities and advantages that these give to the tool in general.

WPML has language switcher options to add them in different common places, it complies with website localization needs and it is compatible with review forms plugins, e-commerce sites plugins, custom fields plugins, page building plug-ins.

In this WPML Review, here we state some of the advantages and disadvantages.

WPML Advantages

Allows SEO optimization.

The structure of the website after being translated is still in collaboration with what is technical SEO.

Besides, if you feel that this is not enough, you have complete control of your content so that you can optimize any other details you have in mind.

Its compatibility with themes is high.

We all know that one of the strengths of WordPress is that it has a wide range of themes, and that it never stops increasing.
The compatibility of WPML is very wide, so you will go perfectly with the vast majority of these.

Also high compatibility with plugins.

New versions of this plugin are approved frequently so that there are no differences when using themes.

But, another strong point is the fact that it is completely compatible with the most used plugins. As is the case of Rankmath, Yoast, Woo commerce , Contact Form 7, among others.

Provides optimal management in terms of translations.

This is achieved thanks to the fact that it is one of those translation plugins in which the user does not have to be left solely with automatic translation as an additional cost , and can actively participate from a manual mechanism to refine details.

What you should know about machine translation is that this is a more than simple process to carry out, and the platform takes care of collaborating with your intuitive design.

It’s something that takes just a couple of clicks to do, so it’s ready in a couple of minutes.

On the other hand, focusing now on manual translation is a strong point that is especially geared towards creating a higher quality of work.

Especially when it is carried out by people who really know the language which is being implemented.

You should know that, in case where you are not the person who will be responsible for the translation, you will have a panel granted by the tool where those who will be in charge of the work can work, and their access will only be limited to that content that must be changed of language.

The tool gives you access to a network of translators.

In case you do not have the right professionals to carry out your translations, the same tool offers you a network where you can find qualified translators to help you with the work on your website.

This is ideal if you are one of those who are so jealous of their project that they do not place it in the hands of just anyone.

The fact that the catalog of options is granted by the tool tells us that they will not only know the language, but also how WPML works.

Weglot Disadvantages

Slows down your Website.

It can make slower administration of the WordPress website, because it creates extra tables in the database, but they are improving their performance.

Manual Translation can take time.

Translating the content by yourself can take you time. Although they are adding automatic translation with Deepl, but still it will require some time.

It might mess up your WordPress if you uninstall.

If by some reason, you have to deactivate or uninstall WPML plugin, there might be some duplicated pages or posts in your WordPress environment.

WPML Pricing Update after September 2021

If you are planning to buy the WPML Wordpres plugin, I do recommend it to buy it, otherwise it’s price will go up.

The advantage of buying it now is that also the renewals will be at a lower cost, so you have guaranteed a better price.

The new WPML Pricing will be as follows:

Multilingual Blog: $39Multilingual CMS: $99 Multilingual Agency: $199

Multilingual Blog

39
/ Yearly
  • Translate posts, pages and custom types
  • Translate tags, categories and custom taxonomy
  • Translate WordPress menus
  • 1 Website you can register
  • One year of free updates
  • Renewal per year $21

Multilingual CMS

99
/ Yearly
  • Multilingual Blog Features
  • Translate widgets
  • Translate texts in theme and plugins admin
  • Manage attachments in different languages
  • 3 Websites you can register
  • One year of free updates
  • Renewal per year $59

Multilingual Agency

199
/ Yearly
  • Multilingual CMS Features
  • Unlimited Websites you can register
  • One year of free updates
  • Renewal per year $119

How to configure the WPML WordPress plugin?

WPML SEO

This video is about the setup of the aspects for WPML SEO.

Overall, WPML is the most complete website localization plugin for multilingual blogs, as in its advanced translation management the meta data can be easily translated for search engines optimization for international countries.

It is very simple to make the appropriate changes to set the proper URL Slugs, Title and Description and Alt Text translation.

As well, WPML sets up by itself the proper Hreflangs.

WPML Media Translation

This video is about how to translate the images and videos of your WordPress site with WPML. It is very simple to make the appropriate changes to display the image or video in the appropriate language.

In the Media Translation section of WPML you can access to make the corresponding changes to change the images.

While to change the language of videos you will have to do it from the String Translation section, find the URL of the video and change it in the language box by the URL of the target language.

As WPML has a page builder integration, images that are added in Elementor or Divi are as well translated, so as videos.

WPML Slug Translation

To translate URL Slug using the WordPress WPML plugin, first you have to set up in the Settings tab the option of Page URL Translate.

You can either choose to auto-generate from title, but this might not be highly recommended since it won’t be the exact keyword that you might aim for the other language.

Then, you can go to the post or page that you want to translate the URL Slug and then make the proper change from the translation manager.

After saving you can see that the URL Slug will be translated to the desired language.

WPML Flag Icon Change

This video is about how to change flag in WPML.

It is very simple to make the appropriate changes to display the icon Flag of the language.

The language switcher widget will allow to set the flags in different parts of your WPML website.

Of course, I do think it could be easier if they had a dropdown list or something related, but I do think WPML do it this way so that your database is not full of flags that you are not going to use.

You can select the language switcher style from the WPML plugin dashboard, or you can also change its look and feel from the page builder.

So as short instructions as in the WPML Flag Icon change Video you have to:

1. Go to Edit Languages under the Site Languages on the Languages tab.

2. Select Custom Flags.

3. Search for your corresponding flags on the following path of the plugin folder: sitepress-multilingual-cms\res\flags

4. Select your flag and save

Translating content in WPML multilingual plugin

WPML is the best multilingual plugin for WordPress that can help you to translate WordPress posts easily and have more control.

You can translate custom posts types, the WordPress media titles and ALT texts that will appear on the advanced editor,

WPML allow you to translate your website with both manual and automatic translation solutions connected with providers such as Deepl, Google and Microsoft.

This multilingual WordPress plugin has improved a lot with the powerful translation of Deepl, which it has lowered its costs and it is more accurate than Google translation.

You can use the advanced translation editor that can be set up with the fist core plugin installation, and it is now the default one as WPML has been upgraded in the last years.

You choose to do the translation work with a simple click within the editor, and the service you have selected will translate interface strings directly from within WordPress posts and pages and you will be able to do manual corrections.

As WPML is compatible with most common WordPress themes, you don’t have to really worry to much about if it lets you translate or not the content.

Once you have finished, you can click the done button and you will be redirected to the WordPress dashboard area of the posts or pages, and there you will see that the plus icon of WPML have been now turned into an update circle, and once the system has saved it properly, it will turn into a pencil.

If the update icon still continues to keep making circles, you can cancel it in the translation jobs section from the translation management, and go back to the post and set it as done again.

WPML Alternatives

Weglot

If we have to tell you clearly what is Weglot in a few words, and that you understand its operation and popularity, then we will say that it is an online platform that gives you the ability to translate a website into different languages, in a very short time, through your plugin.

The truth is that the use of Weglot is not limited only to WordPress, which we know is one of the most popular CMS today.

Weglot plugin can also be used without any problem in other platforms such as Shopify, Joomla, among others.

What stands out the most about this multilingual plugin is that, in just a couple of minutes, you will have the flags working perfectly with the respective translations.

And, from there, you can edit what you need so easily that even a child could do it successfully.

It has a free trial that lasts up to 10 days, which is more than enough to test all the features it offers, and to decide whether or not you want to pay for the subscription.

The best thing is that you can do this test without sharing any payment information.

Once your free trial has finished, you can decide if you subscribe to Weglot, and there are different plans, which are paid monthly, so you can only cancel when you need to.

You will not have to spend more money for services that really exceed what are the needs of your site.

Gtranslate

On GTranslate’s own official website, it states that at least 27 percent of pages per WordPress are English-speaking.

Which not only says a lot about this language, but which language we want to focus on for a multinational website.

The main drawback of this WordPress translator plugin is that it requests a payment for its use, but can give you 15 days where you can enjoy all its features.

You will find statistics, updates that will not affect your website, security, translations in a short time and much more.

Polylang

If you are looking for an alternative that offers you a free user and the possibility of accessing a paid version when you can see income on your website, then Polylang is your ideal translator plugin.

With the pro version you have the possibility to duplicate entries or pages and translate them into the language you prefer, you can deactivate and activate languages as you like, better functions.

And of course, you have premium quality technical support where you will be attended to as soon as possible, for only 99 euros for a single domain.

WPML Case Studies

A brief description of how WPML helped you increase traffic.

WPML has allowed us to access a global market at www.tucango.com.

We are now working on a German version too.

Thanks to the English version, we went with the Chilean Government (ProChile) to Miami and had multiple meetings with several companies wanting to buy our services.

It was a great and very productive experience. 

We have now clients in the United States, Sweden, Austria, South Africa, and many more!

We have also integrated WPML into several client websites to help the too.

What you usually do to boost SEO?

Content marketing has been very helpful for this.

We have even started giving this editorial service to our clients. I opened a new line of business at our Company.

Before and after figures that show how WPML increased traffic. 

A percentage is different for each company depending on its size. We have growed about 30% after we started using WPML to our websites and our client websites.

I have been using WPML since May 2018.

I am an international wedding photographer, so for me it is very important to be able to provide information in a language of international circulation, but also in my native language, Romanian.

WPML was the only way to implement this on my web page, without having two pages, respectively 2 different hosting packages, and a lot of work in duplicating the pages and posts related to the wedding photography.

It is very simple to make just one post and than translating it to English with just a few clicks.

The major gain is on the part of time spent online, but it is also reflected in the number of wedding photography contracts signed with English-speaking clients (over 50% of the total of a year).

Basically, the traffic on my page tripled in less than a year, without any major personal effort, and everything is accounted for by WPML.

Currently (January 2020) the traffic on my page has increased on average from 6-8 visits per day, to 60-80, fluctuating according to the wedding season and related searches.

When I was rebuilding, I spent time adding keywords that are important to SEO, and now, when I’m posting, I’m looking for words about where I photographed the wedding I’m going to post, and I’m focusing more on Romanian texts.

According to my Google Analytics, I have seen a 25% increase in traffic in just three weeks since I started translating my content with WPML.

It’s amazing to see results showing up that quickly.

Normally it would take several months.

To use or not to use WPML?

As recommendation in this WPML Review, WPML should be used in the case that you have plenty of wordpress content to translate.

The advantage now that WPML has Deepl, is that you can translate faster and with better quality.

But as well, it is recommended that if you have a WordPress website that focuses more on the commercial side with WooCommerce, then Weglot could be a better option, since it would reduce the risks of having bugs in between.

As the icl_post_languages database grows, it can make a bit bulky your server, so it is recommended for site owners to optimize constantly the database, which can be easily done with WP Rocket.

WPML can create translator accounts so that if you have a team for your website, then you can assign according to the mother language the translator account to a specific page or post.

WPML pricing is among the normal price range in comparison with some WPML alternatives.

As reminder here are some WPML key aspects to consider:

It has a translation editor already built into the WordPress administrator.

It has an extensive language directory so you have the ability to choose the language you want without limit.

You can create, or update, language files directly from the translation manager or from product and page posts.

With WPML you have more control over translations, so translating your WordPress Website will be under your control.

You have control on what you translate and what not.

As many translation plugins, it has its advantages and disadvantages, but as established in this WPML Review, if you are aiming for high volume content translation, go for it.

Give it a try.

Results of an International SEO Strategy with WPML

Analytics Map SEO Localization
Barrazacarlos Traffic Google Analytics

It has been nearly 2 years since the relaunch of this website and in hand with WPML.

Our International SEO strategy is giving results day by day as we produce content and also translate it in different languages.

WPML is the best WordPress translation plugin for content websites as it doesn’t have a limit on the words to be translated, and as we are producing content often, more and more words are needed to be translated.

SEO translation and localization activities has helped us to be ranking in different countries, specially in Mexico, Germany, France and USA.

We are looking forward to keep growing internationally with the support a plugin such WPML gives to sites like ours.

Therefore, if you are also aiming for a multilingual website, go for WPML as the top WordPress translation plugins to be chosen.

Frequently Asked Questions about

WPML

Certainly, WPML is one of the best wordpress translation plugins for websites that are oriented to have text content and aim for multiple languages. For E-commerce, Weglot is a better option.

There is no WPML free version. WPML pricing plans start from $29.

WPML is compatible with different plugins such as Yoast, Rank Math, Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, ACF, Slider Revolution and more that can be checked at https://wpml.org/category/compatibility/

WPML is a WordPress Multilingual Plugin. WPML makes it easy to build multilingual sites and run them. It’s powerful enough for corporate sites, yet simple for blogs.

More about Multilingual WordPress.