Weglot vs WPML: a hosted proxy or a WordPress plugin?

Weglot and WPML both translate WordPress sites, but they sit in different places. Weglot is a hosted service: Weglot keeps the translations in its own database, its WordPress plugin serves them on a URL per language, and you pay each month for the total number of words your translated site holds. WPML is a plugin that runs inside WordPress, stores each translation as a post in your database, and is sold as a yearly licence with AI words on top. If you run sites on other platforms as well, Weglot covers them and WPML does not.

I make LangRelay, which the comparison tables further down include alongside both. Weglot's and WPML's facts come from their own websites and help pages as published on 7 October 2026.

Where the translations live#

Weglot's developer docs say its WordPress plugin creates a URL for each language and returns the translated content there, without creating pages in the WordPress backend. Its technical presentation says translations are stored in Weglot's database, and describes the reverse proxy and CDN that serve them for its subdomain and subdirectory integrations. WPML writes each translation into your WordPress database as a post linked to the original.

So with WPML the translated posts sit in your own database, and WPML says they keep showing if you stop renewing the licence. With Weglot, nothing translated sits in WordPress, and the same service works on the other platforms Weglot supports: its integrations page lists WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, Wix, Squarespace and Framer.

How each one charges#

Weglot's plans, excluding VAT: a free plan for 2,000 words and one language, then Starter at €15 a month (one language, 10,000 words), Business €29 (three languages, 50,000 words), Pro €79 (five, 200,000), Advanced €299 (ten, 1,000,000) and Extended €699 (twenty, 5,000,000). The word limit counts unique translated words across all languages and does not renew; Weglot's own example is an 8,000-word site in three languages, about 24,000 words.

WPML's licences are yearly, excluding VAT: Multilingual Blog €39 (one site, no AI translation), Multilingual CMS €99 (three sites, 22,500 AI words) and Multilingual Agency €199 (unlimited sites, 45,000 AI words). AI words beyond those, and beyond the 500 free each month, are priced in monthly volume bands, from €3.00 per 1,000 down to €0.40 only past 2,500,000 words in a month.

The two meters behave differently over time. Weglot's total grows as you add pages or languages, and once it passes the plan's limit, a plan change follows. WPML charges for words translated, and with Translate Everything Automatically and its PTC engine, later edits to a page cost only the new words above the highest count already paid for it.

Engines and publishing#

Weglot picks DeepL when it supports the language pair, otherwise Google Translate or Microsoft, and offers AI Suggestions to rephrase or shorten a translation. WPML uses PTC, its own LLM-based engine, by default, with DeepL, Google and Microsoft kept as legacy options.

Weglot publishes by default: its help center says languages are public and new text is translated automatically, unless you turn off automatic content translation and approve new items, or keep a language in private mode. WPML's PTC settings offer three modes: publish at once, hold drafts for a Translation Manager, or publish and queue for review.

Slugs, languages, sites and human translators#

A worked example: the first year of a 15,000-word site#

A worked example: a 15,000-word WordPress site translated into three languages, priced from Weglot's and WPML's pages on 7 October 2026.

Weglot counts 15,000 words times three languages, 45,000 words. Business covers three languages and 50,000 words, at €29 a month or €290 for a year paid upfront. Adding a fourth language, or about 1,700 more words of source text, moves the site to Pro at €79 a month.

WPML needs Multilingual CMS for AI translation, at €99 a year with 22,500 AI words. That leaves 22,500 pay-as-you-go words. At WPML's monthly volume bands (500 free, then €3.00, €2.80, €2.40 and €2.00 per 1,000 as the month's volume grows), translating them in one month costs about €52, so the first year comes to about €151. That assumes the included words do not count toward the bands, which WPML's pricing page does not say. With Translate Everything Automatically and PTC, later edits cost only new words above what each page already paid for.

On these numbers WPML costs less in year one. Weglot keeps nothing translated inside WordPress and also works on sites outside it.

Picking between them#

Choose Weglot when WordPress is one of several platforms you translate, when you would rather not keep translations in your WordPress database, or when you want professional translators ordered from the same dashboard. Budget for the word total rising as the site grows, since each new page and each new language adds to it.

Choose WPML when everything you translate runs on WordPress and you want the translated posts in your own database, where they stay if you stop renewing. Its licence is priced per site rather than by words held, and with Translate Everything Automatically and PTC a large site with few changes costs little to keep current, and a Translation Manager can approve AI output before it goes live.

Where LangRelay fits#

LangRelay is a WordPress plugin like WPML, and keeps one post per page like Weglot. It translates the page WordPress renders, keeps the translations in its own service, and its plugin serves approved ones from your server under /fr/-style paths with hreflang and a canonical per language. 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, choose Ask me first. Edits are picked up from the plugin within about a minute. During the pilot LangRelay supports nine languages, and on sites outside WordPress its script embed translates in the browser without SEO value. See LangRelay vs Weglot and LangRelay vs WPML for each pairing, or the Weglot alternatives page for the wider list.