TranslatePress vs WPML: one post or a post per language

TranslatePress and WPML are both WordPress plugins that keep translations in your own database, and both support WooCommerce and page builders. They store a translation in different shapes. TranslatePress keeps one post per page and saves each translated string in its own tables, to be swapped in as the page renders. WPML creates a separate WordPress post for every language and links it to the original. Most of the practical differences, from editing to what an edit costs, follow from that.

I build LangRelay, which the comparison tables further down include as well. The facts here about TranslatePress and WPML come from their own websites, documentation and WordPress.org listing, read on 7 October 2026.

Editing translations#

TranslatePress's editor works on the front end: you click text on a live preview of the page and type the translation, and that editor is in the free plugin. Because it translates the rendered output, text from shortcodes, forms and page builders is on the page to translate.

WPML's Advanced Translation Editor shows source and translation side by side, with a front-end preview you can click to edit. It is not on the €39 Multilingual Blog plan, which uses the standard WordPress editor instead; every other licence has it. A translated post in WPML is also an ordinary post, so you can open it in the block editor if you prefer.

Who approves what#

WPML gives you three settings for AI translations. Its PTC engine can publish straight away, hold AI translations as drafts until a Translation Manager approves them, or publish and add them to a review queue.

TranslatePress works per language. With automatic translation on, a string is translated the first time a visitor opens it in that language and shown from then on; TranslatePress's AI page says you won't need to review it unless you prefer to. The Multiple Languages add-on, included in every paid plan, lets you keep a whole language hidden until you publish it.

AI words and what an edit costs#

TranslatePress includes a quota of TranslatePress AI words with each yearly licence: 2,000 in the free plugin, 50,000 on Personal, 200,000 on Business and 500,000 on Developer. Words are counted per word and per language. Unused words carry over while the licence is active and are lost once it expires. An edited string counts as new, so changing a sentence costs that sentence again in every language. When a quota runs out, TranslatePress sells more words from your account page, 100,000 for €24.

WPML includes 22,500 AI words with Multilingual CMS and 45,000 with Multilingual Agency, adds 500 free each month, and charges pay as you go after that in monthly volume bands, from €3.00 per 1,000 words down to €0.40 only past 2,500,000 words in a month. Its prices exclude VAT. With Translate Everything Automatically and PTC, WPML records the highest word count you have paid for per page and language, and only words above it cost anything; WPML's pricing page says every other path pays per updated word.

Both have a glossary. WPML's works with PTC and DeepL; TranslatePress's applies to new automatic translations when TranslatePress AI is the engine.

SEO output#

TranslatePress adds hreflang to every page in the free plugin. Translated metadata, translated slugs and multilingual sitemaps come with its SEO Pack, which every paid plan includes. WPML outputs hreflang with an x-default in the page head, adds hreflang to the Yoast SEO and Rank Math sitemaps, and translates slugs by default.

Free versions, refunds and expiry#

A worked example: three sites in two languages#

A worked example with round numbers: one owner with three WordPress sites of 20,000 words each, all translated into two languages. That is 120,000 words of first translation, priced from each vendor's page on 7 October 2026.

TranslatePress Business covers three sites and includes 200,000 AI words for €199 a year, so the first translation fits inside the licence with 80,000 words to spare for later edits that year.

WPML Multilingual CMS covers three production sites for €99 a year and includes 22,500 AI words. The remaining 97,500 words are pay as you go. At WPML's monthly volume bands, translated in one month and counted across the three sites together, they cost about €178, so year one comes to about €277, more than TranslatePress Business in this example. WPML's pricing page does not say whether the bands count per site or per account, or whether the included words count toward them; counted site by site, the cost is higher. From then on, with Translate Everything Automatically and PTC, WPML's rule on edits keeps the cost of updating an existing page low, while TranslatePress draws each edited string from the yearly quota.

Picking between them#

TranslatePress suits a site whose owner wants to translate by clicking on the page, keep one post per page, and start for free with one extra language. Its yearly AI quota is easy to plan for when the site changes little, and TranslatePress's FAQ says the plugin keeps running as configured if you let the licence lapse.

WPML suits a site that wants a person to sign off on machine translations before they appear, or that wants each language as a post an editor can open and change on its own. It also suits sites that are edited often: with Translate Everything Automatically and PTC, WPML only charges for words above what a page has already paid for. If you need a translation agency involved, WPML's connection to more than 70 translation services is built in.

Where LangRelay fits#

LangRelay keeps one post per page and translates the rendered page, as TranslatePress does. By default a translation goes live as soon as it is ready, and free checks hold a page with untranslated text, the wrong language or a changed price. To approve every page yourself, as WPML can, choose Ask me first. Its plugin reports an edit about a minute after you save it, so a translation is ready before anyone visits the page. Unlike both, it keeps translations in its own service and serves the approved ones from your server; during the pilot it supports nine languages. The LangRelay vs TranslatePress and LangRelay vs WPML pages compare each one directly, and the TranslatePress alternatives page lists other options.