Plug-in options for website translation on WordPress.

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• Tips for translators, Translation curiosities, Translation tools

WordPress is the main platform for the creation and management of web contents. Upon creating a new website we have different capacities, installed by default for the website, according to the chosen theme. The multilingual translation plug-in does not come included and we must install a multilingual translation plug-in that helps us to manage our contents in the different languages of interest.

There is a large quantity of multilingual translation plug-ins available for WordPress, we let you know some of the most common options and their features.

WPML

WPML is probably the strongest multilingual translation plug-in of the market. The plug-in is paid and its cost varies according to the type of licence.

The main advantages of WPML for the translation of your website are:

• It has quality technical support, it is compatible with the majority of WordPress themes and has constant updates.
• Easy to manage for the translation of every element.
• SEO administration for each language.
• It allows the creation of different users to assign the content to professional translators.
• By default, it comes with 40 languages and idiomatic variants can be created.

The main disadvantage is that it is a paid plug-in and that it creates additional tables that can make the content management slower, but this does not affect the speed of the website.

Polylang

Polylang is a highly rated multilingual translation plug-in by users. It’s main advantages are that it is a free plug-in, it doesn’t use many resources and is easy to use. The main disadvantage is that updates with the new versions of WordPress are not carried out as quickly as other plug-ins, therefore we run the risk of incompatibilities.

qTranslateX

qTranslateX is one of the most downloaded multilingual translation plug-ins. The main advantage is that it is a free plug-in, easy to use and does not create additional tables in the database.

The main disadvantage is that it has very limited technical support and some screens do not work correctly. Additionally, the translation of some elements (visuals, sliders, forms) can be a little more complicated and usually take more time than other plug-ins to update versions compatible with the new versions of WordPress.

GTranslate

GTranslate is an automatic translation plug-in, non-professional translations that use Google Translate so that the user can access the translated content.

The main advantage is that it has a free version that frees us from translating the contents, since it does it through Google Translate.

The disadvantages are clear, it is an option full of many risks since there are not translations carried out by professionals and we already know errors that automatic translations from Google Translate can generate. Additionally, if you want to edit the content you have to have the paid version.

Before opting for this option, you should analyse the importance of the content of the website, the repercussions on the SEO and the brand that you want to convey to users.

We hope that these options help you a determine which plug-in to use for the translation of your website. If you need help with the translation of your website, do not hesitate to tell us about your project.

AltaLingua

AltaLingua es una agencia de traducción e interpretación de referencia que brinda servicios lingüísticos integrales para empresas en España y el mundo. AltaLingua cuenta con sistemas de gestión de calidad según las normas ISO 9001:2015, ISO 18587:2020 de servicios de posedición multilingüe y UNE-EN 17100:2015 de servicios de traducción.