After trying free translation plugins for WordPress such as qTranslate, Transposh, or Polylang and spending a lot (a lot) of time trying to fix the problems they caused us, we decided to purchase the premium plugin WPML.
If there is any drawback, there are two:
- It does not perform automatic translations. If that is what you are looking for, we recommend the free plugin Google Language Translator, but for us, automatic translation is not an option; we want to be able to manage the translations ourselves and make sure every last comma and semicolon is correct for a native speaker.
- It is paid, but time is money and in the long run it will be worth it. For us, it has been a very good purchase, and if you are a developer and are going to build multiple websites for clients, it is definitely worth it.
The advantages are many:
- Easy setup. In this article, we have prepared a tutorial with the basic configuration; you will see that in minutes you have your website ready to implement translations.
- Flexibility:
- Place the language selector wherever you want on your website (sidebar, widget areas, menus…) and if none suit you, there is a PHP code snippet to place it in your child theme.
- URL: you can choose each language to be your main domain plus /en /fr /de etc., or they can be completely different domains.
- Selector with texts/images: you can select flags, or have the language appear as text and have it shown in the native language (or not).
- Format: vertical, horizontal, with text or just flags (this last one is our favorite).
- Compatible: you can translate all elements of your WordPress site: texts, menus, taxonomies, custom types, etc.
- SEO: you can work on SEO in each language using the Yoast SEO plugin.
- Support in your language backed by a company, with a forum where you will likely find answers to your questions, or if not, they respond quite quickly.
Pricing and money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied
There are 3 tiers; with one payment you can register unlimited sites, and the best part is you can start with a lower tier and later upgrade to the Multilingual CMS by only paying the difference. You also have 30 days to see if it convinces you, and if not, you can return it and get your money back, no questions asked.
- Multilingual Blog: $29 the first year and renewal of €21 annually. (You can register 1 site)
- Multilingual CMS: $79 the first year and renewal of €59 annually. (You can register 3 sites)
- Unlimited Multilingual CMS: $159 the first year and annual renewal for $119 (You can register as many websites as you want, ideal for agencies)
Just in case prices change, here is a direct link to the WPML.org page with updated pricing.
Here is a banner that takes you to the WPML page where you can find more info, see what options each tier offers, purchase the plugin, and if you have any questions you can ask us. We are working on an article with the basic WPML configuration, which we will publish soon!
The banner above is an affiliate link, so if you purchase the WPML plugin through it, Marabelia will receive a small commission (although it will cost you the same). At Marabelia, we recommend this plugin because it is the one we use in developing our multilingual sites and we firmly believe it is the best on the market today.
