Weglot vs Polylang: automatic proxy or posts you translate

Weglot and Polylang take opposite approaches to a multilingual WordPress site. Weglot is a hosted service: connect it and it machine-translates each page as visitors reach it, then keeps doing so as the site changes. Polylang is a free plugin that makes every language its own WordPress post and leaves the translating to a person, with DeepL available one post at a time if you buy Polylang Pro.

I build LangRelay, a third approach covered at the end. The Weglot and Polylang facts come from weglot.com, polylang.pro and their help pages, read on 7 October 2026.

What you are managing#

With Weglot on WordPress there is one post per page. Weglot's plugin creates a URL per language, such as /fr/about/, without creating pages in the WordPress backend, and Weglot keeps the translations in its own database. You correct them in Weglot's dashboard or its visual editor rather than in the block editor.

With Polylang, four translated languages turn one page into five linked posts. Its REST API documentation describes each translation as a separate post linked to the original. You translate and edit each one in the normal WordPress editor, and the translations stay in your own database. Polylang can serve a language from a subdirectory, a subdomain or a separate domain, in the free version too.

Who translates, and when#

Weglot translates on demand. Its help center says translations are generated progressively, when a visitor, you or a search engine opens a page in the translated language, using DeepL where it supports the pair and Google Translate or Microsoft otherwise. You can order professional translation from the Weglot dashboard as well, at extra cost.

The free Polylang plugin has no engine. Polylang Pro connects DeepL through your own API key and translates one post, page or product at a time, saving the result as a draft for someone to publish. Polylang's features page says Pro has no one-click way to translate everything, and its DeepL guide says Elementor and Divi content is not supported. DeepL bills its usage to your account.

When the original changes#

Weglot picks up new and changed text on the next visit to the translated page and translates it, adding the words to your total.

Polylang's DeepL guide says editing the original does not update its translation. You edit the translated post by hand, or regenerate it and spend DeepL credits again. Polylang Pro's synchronized posts are a separate tool: they copy an edit to the same post in the other languages, so every language shows the same content.

Review and permissions#

Weglot's help center says languages are public by default. To check translations first, you can keep a language in private mode, or turn off automatic content translation so new content waits until you approve it.

Polylang's review is the WordPress draft: DeepL output waits as a draft until someone publishes it, and a hand-written translation goes live when its author publishes it. Polylang Pro can restrict a user role to one language, so a Spanish translator only edits Spanish posts.

What each one costs#

Weglot charges for the total unique words across your languages, a limit that does not renew, with languages capped per plan. Starter is €15 a month for one language and 10,000 words; Business €29 for three languages and 50,000; Pro €79 for five languages and 200,000; Advanced €299 for ten languages and 1,000,000. Prices exclude VAT.

Polylang is free on WordPress.org with no limit on languages. Polylang Pro is a yearly licence by number of sites, excluding VAT: €99 for one, €198 for three, €297 for five and €495 for 25. Machine translation runs on your own DeepL key and its quota, and a Pro licence you do not renew keeps working without updates or support.

A worked example: a 40-page site that keeps changing#

A worked example, priced from each vendor's page on 7 October 2026. A consultancy's WordPress site has 40 pages and about 25,000 words, translated into Spanish and German. Each month the team rewrites parts of about five pages.

Weglot's Business plan holds exactly the 50,000 words this site needs, so the first new page pushes it towards Pro. With Polylang the plugin cost stays flat and the cost moves into time: someone has to keep 80 posts in step with 40 originals.

Which one fits#

Weglot fits a site that changes often, run by a team without translators that wants automatic translation with an optional approval step. It also fits a business with sites on several platforms. Polylang fits a site with few pages and someone who writes the translations, where every language should be a real WordPress post that you edit in WordPress and keep after you stop paying. Polylang also fits a budget of zero for the plugin, or a site that needs a separate domain per language without a premium plan.

Where LangRelay fits#

LangRelay translates automatically like Weglot and can keep a person in charge like Polylang. It keeps one post per page and translates what WordPress renders, theme and page-builder text included. The plugin reports an edit about a minute after you save, and only the changed text is translated. 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, in a grid or in a visual editor on the page itself, choose Ask me first. The approved translations are served from your server under /fr/-style paths with hreflang and a canonical per language. It gives up what Polylang gives you: a translated post in your database that you edit in the block editor. During the pilot it supports nine languages, against Polylang's unlimited and Weglot's 110-plus. Plans are on the pricing page.

The LangRelay vs Weglot and LangRelay vs Polylang pages compare each with LangRelay. For other options, see Polylang alternatives, Weglot alternatives, and WPML vs Polylang for the other post-per-language plugin.