Weglot vs. TranslatePress: Picking the Prime Translation Plugin for WordPress

You’ve started researching and come across many different translation solutions, including Weglot and TranslatePress, so you’re wondering which one you should choose.

While both tools are very strong, they still differ when it comes to the type of translation projects each is best suited for, user-friendliness, and overall feature set.

Even though we might seem biased, we want to help you make the best possible choice for your business by providing you with an honest, in-depth review of both tools.

Let’s start!

A Brief Overview of Weglot

‍Weglot is a multi-faceted translation tool created to help people translate their websites without the need for any technical knowledge. Even though it’s CMS agnostic, meaning you can use this solution on every major CMS platform, including WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix, Weglot started as a WP plugin. We invest a lot of time in our plugin, and WordPress is still our main CMS partner, with more than 60k active websites.

That said, being CMS agnostic is important to us as it allows our customers to use multiple CMS and third-party solutions on their websites. If you want to switch to another platform, you can do so with a minimal impact on the multilingual side.  

The main idea behind Weglot is to give business and site owners the opportunity to open up their websites to multiple nationalities, removing the restrictions that come with having a single-language website.

Let’s take a look at the main features:

• Automatic Content Detection and Translation: When you add a language and request the translation, Weglot automatically detects every piece of content. Then, it adds a first layer of automatic translation generated by top machine translation providers DeepL, Google Translate, or Microsoft Translator, depending on the language pairing. It then translates the content to the desired language.
• User-Friendly Centralized Dashboard: Every translation project is gathered in a simple dashboard you can access from your Weglot profile.

• Translation Glossary: With this feature, you can set specific rules for each language, which allows for better project consistency and gives you greater control over each language pair. For example, you can set a rule to avoid translating certain words, such as brand names, or add language-specific phrases to make sure the translation is consistent and makes sense in the target language.
• Multilingual SEO Tools: Weglot offers multiple international SEO features like metadata translation, dedicated language URLs, and hreflang tag implementation, that can help you create a truly multilingual website that reaches the intended audience with no issues.
• Translator Accounts: If you’re a Pro Plan user or above, you can add people to your translation project and control how much they can see and manage. There are three roles: Translator, Manager, and Admin, and each one has different levels of permissions.

A Brief Overview of TranslatePress

TranslatePress is a translation plugin for WordPress that focuses on providing users with the option to directly translate content from the front end of their website.

Its main features are:

• Dual Translation Approach: You can translate manually or use the automatic translation feature: Google Translate integration, which can be used for free, or DeepL integration, which is only available to paid subscribers.
• Multilingual SEO Tools: Similar to Weglot, TranslatePress offers multilingual SEO tools like metadata translation and hreflang tag implementation. This tool is crucial for businesses targeting an international audience.
• Support for multiple page elements: The page elements that TranslatePress can translate include text, images, dynamic strings, outputs from shortcodes, forms, and page builders. These are the same elements supported by Weglot’s automatic translation feature.
• Translator Accounts: This feature allows website administrators to create and manage separate accounts specifically for translators. These translator accounts have restricted access, meaning translators can only modify website content within the scope of translation tasks. This approach ensures website security and integrity, as translators cannot access other administrative functions.

Comparing Weglot and TranslatePress

Now that you’re familiar with both translation plugins, let’s dive into our in-depth comparison. We’ll look at the ease of use, translation capabilities, SEO capabilities, and pricing to give you a full picture of which option best meets your needs.

Ease of Use

Weglot

The setup process with Weglot is simple and straightforward.

1. First, create an account from the main website – it only takes 2 minutes!

2. Install the plugin directly from WordPress and activate it.

3. Then, you get a prompt to configure the main settings, which include the language pairs and the API key.

4. Get the API key from your Weglot account – you just have to copy and paste it.

5. Once you’re done, go back to your website, and you should be able to see the languages icon. For example, this is how it looks on a website that used Weglot to translate its content into Italian, English, and German:

Once Weglot is set up, it will automatically detect and translate any content on your website, including any new content added later. The type of content is not just limited to pages, posts, and products – it also includes lead generation forms, images, dynamic strings, outputs from shortcodes, pop-ups, and email confirmations.

Once everything is translated, you can still manage everything and perform manual changes from the unified dashboard. If you’re having trouble with some of the translations, it also gives you the option to order professional human translations – all within the same dashboard.

The glossary feature removes the need for editing common mistranslations and keeps everything consistent. The rules that you create can be applied to multiple language pairs at once.

Weglot is a translation tool that truly focuses on making the process as easy as possible for every user. The majority of features are almost completely automated and that includes content detection, translation, publication, and even multilingual SEO, minimizing manual effort significantly. It’s also compatible with any plugin and third-party app.

TranslatePress

Since TranslatePress is a plugin built solely for WordPress, the installation and management of the tool happens entirely in the WP interface.

Here is how you can start:

1. Install and activate the plugin.

2. Go to the settings of the plugin and choose the language pairs.

3. When you click on the Translate Site tab, it will take you to the visual translator, and you can start translating by strings. Keep in mind that you’ll need to translate strings one by one on your whole website, so it takes a lot longer to have the first version ready.

As we mentioned before, the automatic translation requires a bit more work in order to get started with it, and if you’re using a free account, you can only choose the Google Translate option.

1. Create a Google account (if you don’t have one). Add your billing info and activate the API for Google Translate on your Google Cloud Console.
2. Generate the API key.
3. Copy and paste it into the WordPress plugin settings.

The rest of the settings are pretty straightforward, so once you get past that step with the API, or if you’ve got the paid version, you should have no problems navigating around the plugin and translating different parts of your website.

Verdict

Both tools offer users an easy installation process, but Weglot is more user-friendly in enabling the automatic translation feature by default, allowing you to see the translated versions of your website in minutes.

On the other hand, with TranslatePress, you don’t have access to any automatic translation at the start because you need to generate the Google Translate API, which can be a bit harder for non-technical users. It also requires your billing information in order to start up. With Weglot, you don’t have to put in any payment methods, and everything starts working immediately.

Another factor that separates these plugins is that TranslatePress works exclusively in WordPress. While it may be an advantage to have everything in one platform, it can also be a security risk as you’ll have to invite each collaborator to your WordPress admin dashboard, particularly if you rely on external website translation services.

With Weglot, translations are kept separate from your website. And you can safely add and manage collaborators without compromising the safety of your website.

Finally, Weglot is compatible with any plugin. If you were to use a third-party app outside of WordPress, it would still work by detecting the content and allowing you to translate it.

Weglot is slightly ahead for its ease of use and straightforward collaboration, helping teams handle multiple translation projects using features like professional translations, team collaboration, and a glossary feature for efficient translation management.

Translation Capabilities

Weglot

Weglot is a tool that offers a very dynamic approach to translation. It automatically detects, translates, and displays content such as text and dynamic elements like media, shortcodes, forms, and page builders, using a combination of machine translation providers:

• DeepL
• Google Translate
• Microsoft

This combination allows the tool to provide users with the most accurate translation of their website in over 110 different languages.

Translations are centralized in the Weglot dashboard, through which you can access many essential functions:

• Add new languages.
• Manage existing translations.
• Order professional translation.
• Monitor and analyze translation statistics.
• Translate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) metadata.
• Decide which part of your website you want to display in each language.
• Create a custom glossary for each language.
• And much more!

A great option is the visual editor, which allows you to translate directly from the front end of the website.

Every single part of this dashboard is easily accessible and allows you to create a fully customized workflow for you and your team.

If you want to stop using the service, you can easily export translations and glossaries so you don’t have to lose your progress.

You can edit translations from the Visual Editor or through a Translations List.

If you don’t like a translation, you can either fix it manually or put in an order for a professional translation.

The platform’s translation glossary is a great feature for maintaining consistency in terms, phrases, and brand names, avoiding repetitive edits. This aspect is particularly useful for content localization, ensuring that translations are consistent and resonate with the target audience.

By including language-specific phrases and nuances, you can nurture a better connection with your international customers.

Another thing that helps in creating a consistently localized experience is Weglot's capability to automatically translate new content across every aspect of the customer journey, including forms and pop-ups added from third-party solutions, which isn’t possible with TranslatePress.

This works with a broad range of Content Management Systems (CMS), so you’re not restricted to WordPress should you decide to migrate or if you already have some parts of your website hosted elsewhere – for example, Shopify. Importing and exporting content with Weglot is done with only a few clicks from the main dashboard.

TranslatePress

TranslatePress users can automatically translate website content into 132 different languages and use the visual editor to make any necessary adjustments.

On the other hand, it allows users to choose two machine translation providers: Google Translate in its free version and DeepL for paid plans.

As we’ve seen, Google Translate needs manual integration and is subject to usage limits, while using DeepL incurs additional costs based on the amount of text translated.

Translations in TranslatePress are stored within the WordPress database, and the platform also offers a visual editor for manual translations. This editor allows for the translation of all content, including dynamic elements such as shortcodes, forms, and page builders, as well as images.

Keep in mind that if you don’t add any machine translation API, you risk not having all of your website content translated. That is unless you’re able to translate everything manually.

Verdict

Weglot offers a more versatile and automated translation experience, using multiple MT providers to ensure optimal translation quality for various language pairs. Its comprehensive dashboard facilitates easier collaboration and management of translation projects, while the translation glossary and emphasis on localization add significant value to the user experience. With Weglot, you also have the ability to order professional translations directly from the dashboard, which is great for times when you need expert input on new content.

In contrast, TranslatePress, while offering effective translation tools, requires more manual setup and management, particularly in integrating MT services and handling translations within the WordPress environment. Weglot's approach is more suited for users seeking a broad, automated translation solution, while TranslatePress caters to those who prefer a more hands-on, WordPress-integrated approach.

SEO Capabilities

Weglot

SEO for multilingual websites can be complicated, but with Weglot, that’s not an issue. With every plan, you get important multilingual SEO features, such as:

• Hreflang attributes: Weglot adds Hreflang attributes automatically. These HTML code attributes give information about the language of a website, including its specific geographical region, which in turn helps to ensure search engines serve content in the correct language to searchers.

“Hreflang tags are crucial for effective multilingual SEO because they signal to search engines the language and regional targeting of web pages. “

Rémy Berda, co-founder and CTO of Weglot

• Metadata translation: Meta descriptions and titles give important context to people and search engines about the content you post. It’s very important to accurately translate all metadata and make sure it’s relevant to the region you’re targeting, and Weglot takes care of this automatically.

All of the multilingual SEO capabilities are available for free, and you don’t need to pay extra for them.

TranslatePress

TranslatePress offers its SEO capabilities primarily through its paid SEO pack. This pack allows users to manually translate vital SEO metadata elements such as URL slugs, page titles, descriptions, image alt tags, and social media titles and descriptions.

Similar to Weglot, TranslatePress automatically sets hreflang attributes for translated content, ensuring proper language targeting for search engines. It also allows users to create multilingual sitemaps, which helps with site indexing.

Verdict

Both Weglot and TranslatePress excel in providing essential SEO capabilities for multilingual sites, although they use slightly different approaches.

From an SEO standpoint, both tools are competent, each bringing valuable features to the table that can significantly enhance the SEO performance of multilingual websites. Their respective strengths in automation and detailed control make them equally viable options, depending on user preference and the level of customization required.

However, multilingual SEO-friendliness is free for all plans with Weglot (save for URL translation, available at Pro plans and up). Plus, Weglot automatically implements multilingual SEO best practices once you install it on your website.

On the other hand, you’ll have to pay for multilingual features with TranslatePress, and you’ll have to manually set it up.

Pricing

Weglot

Weglot provides a free trial that allows users to experience its base translation capabilities for a single language. This includes AI translation, editing control, access to the multilingual glossary, multilingual SEO indexing, and visitor language redirection.

As you move up the pricing tiers with Weglot, the number of translatable words, monthly translation requests, supported languages, and websites increase. Advanced features like custom languages, translation import/export, and premium support become available in higher-tier plans.

The pricing begins at €15/month, scaling up to an enterprise plan with custom pricing, making it a versatile option for businesses of all sizes.

TranslatePress

TranslatePress offers a free version that includes translation to only one language via the Google API and manual translation through the visual editor. It does not include, however, the possibility of translating SEO titles, descriptions, and slugs or Yoast SEO support.

Its paid plans, which range from €7.99/month to €22.99/month for the Developer plan, unlock additional features. These include multilingual SEO tools, more languages, DeepL API integration (you need to pay extra for that), and the ability to use TranslatePress on multiple websites.

The highest plan offers full access to TranslatePress's features, including support for unlimited sites.

Verdict

Weglot proposes a more comprehensive, though pricier, solution. It offers a broad range of features, including multilingual SEO tools, media translation, AI translation, and multiple MT provider translations across all its plans, including the free version (save for URL translation, available starting in the Pro plan at €79). This pricing structure gives you the features and capabilities you’ll need as your website and translation needs grow. In contrast, TranslatePress, while more budget-friendly in the beginning, reserves some of its advanced features, like multilingual SEO tools, for its paid plans.

In essence, TranslatePress is a great solution with more basic features, mostly suited for smaller-scale projects. Weglot, meanwhile, suits businesses that want a complete, scalable solution while reducing the time spent on maintaining a website in multiple languages. Each tool's value depends on the specific requirements and scale of the user's project.

Other Translation Plugin Alternatives for WordPress : Polylang and WPML

If you’re already researching translation plugins, you’ve probably stumbled upon Polylang and the Multilingual Plugin (WPML), so in this section, we’ll take a quick look at both tools.

Polylang

Polylang is a popular translation plugin for WordPress designed to make creating a multilingual WordPress website straightforward and efficient.

Key features:

• It allows the translation of posts, pages, media, categories, tags, and even custom post types and taxonomies.
• It integrates into the WordPress admin interface, offering an efficient workflow with content duplication across languages.
• The plugin is SEO friendly, ensuring compatibility with major SEO plugins and automatic handling of multilingual SEO essentials like hreflang tags.
• Users can choose various language settings, including directories, subdomains, or separate domains per language.

Costs:

• The free version offers basic functionalities.
• Polylang Pro licenses start at €99 for a single site, scaling up to €495 for 25 sites. This version includes advanced features like XLIFF import/export, URL slug translation, REST API support, and more.

WPML

WPML is a comprehensive solution for building multilingual sites on WordPress. It caters to both simple blogs and complex corporate sites.

Key features:

• WPML supports 65 languages and allows the addition of custom language variants.
• The plugin can translate posts, pages, custom post types, fields, widgets, menus, and more.
• WPML offers flexible translation methods, fitting various needs from personal projects to large organizational websites.
• It integrates with major SEO plugins and handles multilingual SEO effectively.

Costs:

• WPML offers three main plans: Multilingual Blog (€39), Multilingual CMS (€99), and Multilingual Agency (€199).
• It’s a yearly plan that renews at 75% of the original price.
• The CMS and Agency plans include advanced features like automatic translation credits, string translation, and translation management tools.

Choose the Best Translation Plugin for Your Site

If you’re looking to expand your global reach and enhance user experience, you need to select the right translation plugin for your WordPress site. Both Weglot and TranslatePress, along with Polylang and WPML, stand as strong choices for bringing your web content to a diverse, multilingual audience. Each of these plugins offers unique strengths and features that cater to different requirements and website complexities.

It's essential to align your choice with your specific needs. Whether you prioritize automated ease-of-use, control over translations, SEO capabilities, or cost-effectiveness, there's a plugin that fits the bill.

Weglot comes out as the more comprehensive solution, offering an exceptional user experience with its powerful website translation capabilities and an impressive multilingual SEO toolkit. It simplifies the translation process, making it an ideal choice for businesses seeking an automated, efficient solution while keeping full control of the translation quality. On the other hand, TranslatePress demands more manual input but provides a strong platform within the WordPress ecosystem.

Your decision on a translation plugin can significantly impact your website's accessibility, market reach, and business growth. A well-chosen plugin not only breaks language barriers but also opens up new avenues for global engagement.

If you're curious about Weglot, take advantage of its free trial to experience firsthand its extensive feature set and how it can transform your website into a multilingual hub.