Several solutions are available to you for set up a multilingual site. One of the most popular alternatives at the moment is called Weglot, a solution that I invite you to discover in a few lines, and for which I have opted for most of my new websites under WordPress.
Indeed, Weglot works and is very easy to install whatever the CMS, from WordPress to Shopify via Prestashop, Wix or Magento. With a simple tag, Weglot can be installed on any site other than these famous CMS.
The revolutionary solution for creating a multilingual site
Weglot translate is a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution that allows developers, bloggers, webmasters to make their site multilingual. In the same way as all other existing solutions, for example under WordPress – WPML, TranslatePress or even Polylang, Weglot prides itself on being easy to install and to offer a particularly advantageous configuration.
Simply create an account on the official Weglot website (https://weglot.com/). Then, if like me you are using WordPress, simply retrieve and copy the API key provided during registration, in the WordPress plugin options page.
From there, the translation is done immediately. Magic !
How it works ? Automatic translation by default, and manual if necessary!
Concretely, Weglot add a language selector in your website to allow your visitors to view all content. To do this, they simply connect to the different translation solutions available on the internet such as Bing, Google Translate or Deepl. As a result, you get a automatic translation of your site. But you can also do it manual way. And that’s precisely what’s revolutionary!
The main features of Weglot
The operation of Weglot is essentially based on the content of the site which it automatically detects. It loads all this content into a unique and dedicated dashboard on Weglot. It then offers to automatically translate into all previously selected languages, with the possibility of modifying and editing the translations manually.
Weglot also authorizes purchasing professional translations from third-party professional translator services. This is very practical when you want to translate some of your key articles in an extremely precise and professional manner.
It also allows the creation of a fully customizable button, to juggle between several languages. For each page and each language, it allows the creation of unique URL and multilingual SEO optimization.
The multilingual distribution of the created site is done constantly and in real time for all users. In the same way, the site creator can also permanently and remotely access his translation library, directly in his dashboard. Weglot.
Finally, in addition to its sentence-by-sentence translation tool, Weglot allows you to translate your site in “visual editor” mode! Yes, you read correctly, all you need to do in the admin is: Weglot go to the visual editor, and you find yourself on your own site, translating what you want, into “wysiwyg”!
Otherwise, it will be in “classic” mode, as you can see in the screenshot I took for you:
Translate your WordPress site with Weglot
- Register on the Weglot website
- Retrieve the Weglot API key provided upon registration
- Install and activate the Weglot extension
- Go to the “Weglot” tab at the end of the installation
- Add the Weglot API key retrieved previously, your original language as well as your destination languages
- Enjoy the result!
Why choose Weglot?
Easy and immediate handling
Weglot is a revolutionary solution that allows you to translate a website into several languages in less than 3 minutes, without necessarily requiring technical skills or knowledge of code. Access and editing is done in exactly the same place.
A multitude of translation sources
Thanks to an instant proposal of the best machine translation available, you can immediately display several foreign versions of your site, with a minimum investment. It is a tool which is therefore particularly useful for both bloggers and showcase sites.
In addition, with manual modification, you can also improve the translation yourself, or have it done by translators of your choice, or those offered by the translation marketplace. Weglot !
Optimized multilingual SEO
Weglot participates in the SEO optimization of translated pages. To do this, the tool uses the basic methods imposed by Google, including the creation of unique subdirectories (URLs) for each language, as well as the detection and translation of meta description tags, like those of Yoast SEO under WordPress for example.
A simple and lightweight solution
Combined with the API approach,hosting all your translations in Weglot databases avoids overloading or weighing down your site with different files. Additionally, the risk of dependencies with other plugins is reduced.
Weglot price
You can find Weglot prices directly on their website. We are at 2,000 words translated for free (i.e. a little more than the number of words used to write this article), then the offer goes from €99 / year for a site and 10,000 years (a showcase site, ultimately) to offers which can reach several hundred or thousand euros / year for large engines.
A Weglot demo?
If you want to see Weglot at work, nothing could be simpler, I invite you to visit one of my multilingual sites where I use it by clicking here!
WPML vs Weglot for WordPress: which solution to choose?
WPML presents itself as the essential multilingual translation solution For WordPress. But although it is much less known than WPML, Weglot already offers itself as an alternative that is easier to install and use than this one. To be completely objective, each extension has its advantages and disadvantages. Let's see this together.
Outsourced or in-house translation
These two WordPress translation plugins approach the challenge of multilingual translation. The advantage with Weglot, is to be able to benefit from a automatic translation of your site as soon as the plugin is installed. There is no impact on the database, and it is Weglot which hosts all translations. The approach is therefore very light.
With WPML, it's different, you create a new table which will contain your future translations, and which you will write yourself little by little. And these translations are indeed internalized, in your database.
One has the advantage of simplicity, while the other has the advantage of security, if you prefer to internalize everything.
Automatic VS manual
Another major difference in the functioning of these two solutions is that WPML was not originally designed to automatically translate your entire website into another language, but to allow you to do it yourself, depending on the articles you wanted to translate.
Moreover, WPML had, and still has, the aim of personalizing each translated part of your site according to your needs, where Weglot is truly plug & play.
Let's take an example ! You have a WordPress + BuddyPress installation with a community of members who have profiles. Weglot will translate the entire pages, including profiles, where WPML will only translate the functionalities of the site, the editorial content if you wish, but certainly not the description that an individual will make of themselves on their BuddyPress profile! From then on, you have more control and mastery of the situation with WPML, especially if you manage relatively complex sites where you want to maintain control.
So, depending on your objective, you are warned.
Universality of Weglot VS specificity of WPML
With Weglot, the entire site is automatically translated, without the need for specific compatibility or manual intervention. The translation launches automatically after installing the plugin, or the tag provided by Weglot.
Conversely, with WPML, it is essential to have a site running under WordPress, and the extension updated each time, with the "heaviness" that this can cause in terms of monitoring, which is not the case with Weglot.
WPML And Weglot both offer some similar features, but credit goes to Weglot for its intuitive side, and WPML for its advanced customization side.
Budget VS savings
The essence of WPML, is to allow you to translate your site yourself, at a lower cost. The business model is based on the sale of the plugin, and not on the quantity of words to translate. Therefore, if you are ric rac and prefer to translate everything, it is WPML which will suit you.
Conversely, if you have a translation budget, but you don't want to take care of that, Weglot will do the trick with its auto mode, or manual for complicated sentences, or even pro by calling on translators.
Conclusion
In my opinion, Weglot is the best plugin there is to quickly and easily translate your WordPress site (or your site in general) into several languages. Less heavy than its friend, WPML, it will not overload your database or slow loading. It even allows you to outsource the translation to several other freelance translators via their platform. In the same category, WPML now offers an entirely similar service, but I would tend to reserve it for websites with some specificities.
But be careful, the example that I took previously on a relatively complex installation with WordPress and BuddyPress does not mean that WPML is only reserved for complicated cases! Let's take examples:
- You have a simple showcase site, and you are 2 or 3 employees to manage it. You really want to translate each page word by word, from your dashboard, while having control over the translation to offer your visitors the best possible experience, whatever the language. In this case, opt for WPML.
- You have a news blog, and you have the translation budget because you know that you will find your way there (be careful, it increases quickly with the number of words!), and you think that automatic translation will be sufficient, particularly for articles in the format short (I'm thinking of entertainment sites), you can opt for Weglot. Simple, light and effective.
- You have a premium content site, and you really want to offer a good experience to foreign users, then you will have to choose between the two solutions, the choice may indeed be difficult to make. For my part, I would opt for Weglot initially, in order to sniff out the market, and if it works, you will then advise whether it is worth internalizing everything, and writing everything yourself inside your WordPress for example, via a plugin like WPML.
Personally I use both plugins for my sites (and also a little Loco Translate to translate my themes). But in conclusion, if you had to make a simple and quick choice to start, I would advise you Weglot eyes closed !
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