--- title: "WPML alternatives: five plugins and services compared" description: "WPML alternatives for WordPress, from Polylang to hosted services, with dated prices and a worked example of what editing a translated page costs in each." url: "https://www.langrelay.com/wpml-alternatives" --- 1. [Home](https://www.langrelay.com/) 2. [Compare](https://www.langrelay.com/best-website-translation-software-compared-2026) 3. WPML alternatives: five plugins and services compared AlternativesCost and buying # WPML alternatives: five plugins and services compared WPML alternatives for WordPress, from Polylang to hosted services, with dated prices and a worked example of what editing a translated page costs in each. [Chris Jayden](https://www.langrelay.com/about) Founder Published 7 October 2026 Reading time 6 min read ![Travellers are welcomed at an oasis inn at violet dusk, through an arched gateway tiled in green and orange leaves.](https://www.langrelay.com/img/alternatives/wpml-alternatives/cover-1536.7a58610ced.webp) On this page 1. Why sites move off WPML 2. The alternatives, side by side 3. Polylang: the same model for less 4. TranslatePress and LangRelay: one post per page 5. Weglot and Linguise: hosted translation 6. A worked example: what one edit costs 7. Before you switch ## At a glance - WPML WordPress plugin, one post per language €39 a year A yearly licence by number of sites. AI translation counts source words once per target language; after the included words and 500 free words a month, pay as you go from €3.00 per 1,000 words, down to €0.40 with volume. Free: No free plan. 30-day money-back guarantee. Checked 7 October 2026. What it does well - Each translation is a WordPress post in your own database, linked to the original. - Translations keep showing on your site if you stop renewing. - Review controls: hold AI translations as drafts for a Translation Manager, or publish and queue them for review. - hreflang with x-default in the page head and in Yoast or Rank Math sitemaps, with settings for translated slugs. - Translates page builder designs, such as Elementor, and WooCommerce sites with popular extensions. - Multiple currencies and payment gateways for WooCommerce stores. - Sends content to more than 70 professional translation services from the WordPress admin. - Its own LLM-based engine, PTC, that learns from the edits you make. The WPML alternatives worth a look split into three groups. Polylang keeps WPML's model of one WordPress post per language at a lower entry price. TranslatePress and LangRelay keep a single post and translate the page WordPress renders. Weglot and Linguise are hosted services that take the translation work off your server altogether. Which group fits depends on what made you look beyond WPML. I build LangRelay. What follows about WPML and the four other vendors is as their own sites stated it on 7 October 2026. ## Why sites move off WPML WPML stores each translation as a WordPress post linked to the original, translates page builder layouts and WooCommerce stores on its CMS and Agency plans, and can hold AI translations as drafts for a Translation Manager to approve. Its translations also keep showing on your site if you stop renewing. The reasons people look elsewhere come from the same design. A post per language multiplies the content you maintain. A site with 40 pages, each translated into four languages, holds 200 posts, and a layout change made to an original has to reach the four posts that translate it. With Translate Everything Automatically switched on, WPML picks up edits and translates them; without it, you send each change to translation yourself. Price is the other reason. WPML has no free plan, and its prices exclude VAT. Multilingual Blog costs €39 a year for one production site but leaves out AI translation, the Advanced Translation Editor, String Translation and WooCommerce support. Multilingual CMS, at €99 a year for three production sites, includes 22,500 AI words. Past those and the 500 free AI words WPML gives each month, AI translation is pay as you go, priced in monthly volume bands: €3.00 per 1,000 words for the first 2,000 paid words in a month, falling band by band to €0.40 only past 2,500,000 words in a month. ## The alternatives, side by side Each vendor's entry price as listed on its own pricing page on 7 October 2026. | Option | Model | Entry price | Suits | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Polylang | Post per language, like WPML | Free on WordPress.org; Polylang Pro from €99 a year | WordPress sites from blogs to WooCommerce stores, and the agencies and developers who build them | | TranslatePress | One post, translations stored as strings in your database | Free plugin with one extra language; Personal €99 a year | Anyone translating a WordPress site on the page itself | | Weglot | Hosted proxy, translations in Weglot's database | Starter €15 a month, excluding VAT | Marketing teams without in-house language expertise who want AI translation of their website | | Linguise | Hosted service with a WordPress extension | START $15 a month per domain | Owners and agencies who want the whole site translated automatically | | LangRelay | One post, the rendered page translated; live by default; free checks hold pages with untranslated text, the wrong language or a changed price; or approve each page first | Free plan; paid plans on [/pricing](https://www.langrelay.com/pricing) | WordPress sites that change often | ## Polylang: the same model for less Polylang keeps WPML's model of a post per language and has a free version. The free plugin on WordPress.org has no limit on the number of languages and supports a subdirectory, subdomain or separate domain per language. Each translation is again its own post, so the maintenance cost of a post per language stays. The gap is machine translation. Polylang Pro, from €99 a year for one site, connects to DeepL with your own API key and translates one post, page or product at a time. Polylang's DeepL guide says the integration does not work with content built in Elementor, Divi and some other page builders, and that editing the original does not update its DeepL translation. WooCommerce needs a separate add-on, Polylang for WooCommerce, from €99 a year, which works with the free plugin or with Pro. If you translate by hand anyway, the free plugin may be all you need. The [WPML vs Polylang comparison](https://www.langrelay.com/wpml-vs-polylang) goes through the two plugin by plugin. ## TranslatePress and LangRelay: one post per page Both of these leave your posts alone and translate what WordPress renders, so a layout change made once applies to every language. TranslatePress stores each translation in its own database tables, one string at a time, and its front-end editor lets you translate on a live preview of the page, even in the free version. Paid plans start with Personal at €99 a year, which includes 50,000 TranslatePress AI words, its SEO Pack for translated slugs and metadata, and as many languages as you add. If the licence expires, TranslatePress's FAQ says the plugin keeps working as configured, without its AI. I found no approval step for single translations on TranslatePress's site; with automatic translation on, a new string is translated the first time a visitor opens the page in that language. By default LangRelay puts a translation 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 be set to do, choose Ask me first. Its plugin tells LangRelay about each edit roughly a minute after it is saved, only the new text is translated, and Relay, a built-in agent, drafts the changes you ask for in plain language. During the pilot LangRelay translates between nine languages, against WPML's 65 pre-configured ones, it does not write a multilingual XML sitemap, and translated slugs are set by hand. ## Weglot and Linguise: hosted translation A hosted service keeps translations off your WordPress database. Weglot stores them in its own database and charges by the total number of translated words your site holds across languages, a total that does not renew: Starter is €15 a month for one language and 10,000 words. Linguise charges per domain, counts source words times languages, and sells 200,000 words on START for $15 a month with no limit on languages. Both suit a site owner who would rather not run translation inside WordPress at all. By default, neither holds a new translation back for approval. ## A worked example: what one edit costs Say you rewrite a 300-word section of a 2,000-word page translated into three languages, and the page ends up the same length. A worked example, using each vendor's documented rules. | Tool | What happens to the three translations | Words charged | | --- | --- | --- | | WPML, with Translate Everything Automatically and PTC, its AI engine | The edit is picked up and translated | None: WPML charges only for words above the highest count already paid per page and language | | Polylang Pro with DeepL | Nothing changes; you edit three posts by hand or regenerate each with DeepL | Whatever DeepL bills your own account for a regeneration | | TranslatePress AI | Each edited string counts as new and is translated when a visitor next opens the page in that language | 900 TranslatePress AI words from the licence quota | | Linguise | The changed text is detected and translated; a manual edit you had made there is replaced | Counted against the domain's word quota, by Linguise's pricing page; the amount is not stated | | LangRelay | The plugin reports the edit, and the 300 words are translated into each language and go live like any other translation: right away by default, unless the free checks hold them | 900 words from the monthly allowance | WPML's rule makes it cheap to keep an existing page current, and that is worth weighing before you leave. It applies only with Translate Everything Automatically and PTC; WPML's pricing page says every other path pays per updated word. The cost of WPML shows up on new pages and on sites that need more AI words than a licence includes. ## Before you switch Moving from WPML to another post-per-language plugin means checking how the new plugin will link the posts WPML created, since WPML records those links in its own database tables. Moving to a one-post tool means the translated posts WPML created become unused content, and the new tool builds its translations from the originals. Either way, list the translated slugs you rely on first, so you can set the same URLs again. For a closer look at the pairs, read [TranslatePress vs WPML](https://www.langrelay.com/translatepress-vs-wpml), [Weglot vs WPML](https://www.langrelay.com/weglot-vs-wpml) and [LangRelay vs WPML](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-wpml). The [Polylang alternatives](https://www.langrelay.com/polylang-alternatives) page covers the next step if Polylang's manual workflow is the sticking point. ## WPML and LangRelay side by side From each vendor's own pages, on the dates in the sources below. | Capability | [LangRelay](https://www.langrelay.com/pricing) | [WPML](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-wpml) | | --- | --- | --- | | Delivery and SEOHow translated pages reach visitors and search engines. | | | | How translated pages are servedHow the translated page reaches visitors: from your own server, through a proxy, or swapped in by the browser. | Yes:WordPress plugin serves translated HTML from your server. A script tag works on any other site, without SEO. | Yes:WordPress plugin. Translations are WordPress content served by your site, in directories, (sub)domains or a ?lang= parameter.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/language-url-options/) | | WordPress: one post, no copies per languageWhether WordPress keeps one post per page, instead of a separate copy for every language. | Yes:Translates the rendered page. Your posts stay as they are. | NoEach translation is its own WordPress post, linked to the original.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-tables/) | | hreflang and per-language URLsA URL per language with hreflang tags, so search engines find and index each language. | Yes:Subdirectories (/fr/), hreflang with x-default, a canonical per language, and translated titles and meta. | Yes:hreflang with x-default in the page head and in Yoast and Rank Math sitemaps.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/multilingual-seo/) | | Translated URL slugsURLs in the visitor’s language, like /fr/a-propos instead of /fr/about. | PartlySet by hand per page and language. Automatic slug translation is on the way. | Yes:Translated by default, and editable.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/home/how-to-build-a-multilingual-wordpress-website/) | | Workflow and reviewWhat happens when content changes, and who decides what goes live. | | | | Picks up edits to the originalWhen you edit the original page, whether the tool notices and translates what changed. | Yes:The WordPress plugin reports an edit about a minute later, and only the new text is translated. Other sites can call a change hook from their CMS or deploy. | Yes:With Translate Everything Automatically on, new posts and edits are picked up and translated. Otherwise you send them to translation yourself.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/posts-and-custom-post-types/) | | Approve before it goes liveWhether a person can check a translation before visitors see it. | Yes:When you choose Ask me first. By default pages go live as they are ready, and free checks hold a page with untranslated text, the wrong language or a changed price. Legal pages, pricing pages and sweeping changes always wait for you. | Yes:PTC can publish at once, hold drafts for a Translation Manager’s approval, or publish and queue for review.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/customizing-wpml/ai-translation-settings/) | | Visual editorEditing translations on the page itself, rather than in a list of strings. | Yes:Click text on the rendered page to edit, at desktop, tablet and mobile widths. | PartlyThe Advanced Translation Editor is side by side, with a front-end preview you can click to edit. Not on the Blog plan.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/advanced-translation-editor/) | | GlossaryFixed translations for names and terms, applied every time they appear. | Yes:Per-language terms, “keep as source”, and match case. Paid plans. | Yes:Glossary for product names and terms to keep untranslated, with PTC and DeepL.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/glossary/) | | AI and integrationsHow much of the work AI takes on, and how you reach it. | | | | Machine translationThe machine or AI translation the tool uses. | Yes:AI translation that follows your glossary and each language’s formality. | Yes:PTC, WPML’s own LLM-based engine, by default. DeepL, Google and Microsoft remain as legacy engines.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/customizing-wpml/ai-translation-settings/) | | AI quality reviewAI that checks translations for mistakes, not only writes them. | Yes:Relay reviews any page you ask it to, the way a language expert would, quoted in AI credits first. It reviews legal pages, pricing pages and sweeping changes on its own while you have AI credits. | PartlyPTC learns from your repeated edits and suggests fixes. No separate reviewer found.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/customizing-wpml/ai-translation-settings/) | | AI assistant in the productAn assistant inside the product that you can ask in plain language. | Yes:Relay, a chat agent that reads your Site’s pages and translations and drafts changes for your approval. | Not foundNo chat assistant found. | | MCP server for your own AILets your own AI assistant, such as Claude or ChatGPT, work with the tool directly. | PlannedOn the way: connect Claude or ChatGPT to your Sites. | Not foundNot found on wpml.org. | | APIProgrammatic access for developers. | PlannedOn the way, for the Growth plan and up. | PartlyPHP filter and action hooks for themes and plugins. No public REST API for site translation found.[Source, checked 7 October 2026](https://wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-coding-api/) | - No · Not offered - Partly · With a limit - Planned · Announced, not shipped - Not found · Not on the vendor’s own pages when we checked - Yes · Included ### Where the table comes from WPML - [wpml.org/documentation/customizing-wpml/ai-translation-settings/](https://wpml.org/documentation/customizing-wpml/ai-translation-settings/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-coding-api/](https://wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-coding-api/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/posts-and-custom-post-types/](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/posts-and-custom-post-types/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/language-url-options/](https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/language-url-options/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/glossary/](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/glossary/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/multilingual-seo/](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/multilingual-seo/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/home/how-to-build-a-multilingual-wordpress-website/](https://wpml.org/home/how-to-build-a-multilingual-wordpress-website/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-tables/](https://wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-tables/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/advanced-translation-editor/](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/advanced-translation-editor/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [app.wpml.org/purchase](https://app.wpml.org/purchase) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/](https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/multi-currency-and-payment-gateways-for-woocommerce/](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/multi-currency-and-payment-gateways-for-woocommerce/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/professional-translation-via-wpml/](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/professional-translation-via-wpml/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wpml.org/documentation/automatic-translation/automatic-translation-pricing/](https://wpml.org/documentation/automatic-translation/automatic-translation-pricing/) (checked 7 October 2026) Product names and logos belong to their owners; shown to identify them for comparison, no affiliation or endorsement. ## Sources The pages this one cites, with the day each was read. 1. 01[WPML, Purchase](https://app.wpml.org/purchase)app.wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 2. 02[WPML documentation, Automatic translation pricing](https://wpml.org/documentation/automatic-translation/automatic-translation-pricing/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 3. 03[WPML documentation, Database tables](https://wpml.org/documentation/support/wpml-tables/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 4. 04[WPML documentation, AI translation settings](https://wpml.org/documentation/customizing-wpml/ai-translation-settings/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 5. 05[WPML documentation, Translating posts and custom post types](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/posts-and-custom-post-types/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 6. 06[Polylang on WordPress.org](https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/)wordpress.org, checked 7 October 2026 7. 07[Polylang, Polylang Pro pricing](https://polylang.pro/pricing/polylang-pro/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 8. 08[Polylang, Pricing](https://polylang.pro/pricing/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 9. 09[Polylang documentation, How to use DeepL machine translation with Polylang Pro](https://polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/how-to-use-deepl-machine-translation-with-polylang-pro/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 10. 10[TranslatePress on WordPress.org](https://wordpress.org/plugins/translatepress-multilingual/)wordpress.org, checked 7 October 2026 11. 11[TranslatePress, Pricing](https://translatepress.com/pricing/)translatepress.com, checked 7 October 2026 12. 12[TranslatePress, Frequently asked questions](https://translatepress.com/docs/frequently-asked-questions/)translatepress.com, checked 7 October 2026 13. 13[TranslatePress documentation, TranslatePress AI](https://translatepress.com/docs/automatic-translation/translatepress-ai/)translatepress.com, checked 7 October 2026 14. 14[Weglot, Pricing](https://www.weglot.com/pricing)weglot.com, checked 7 October 2026 15. 15[Weglot Help Center, What is the number of translated words and how is it calculated?](https://support.weglot.com/article/59-total-number-translated-words)support.weglot.com, checked 7 October 2026 16. 16[Weglot, Technical presentation](https://www.weglot.com/technical-presentation)weglot.com, checked 7 October 2026 17. 17[Linguise, Prices](https://www.linguise.com/prices/)linguise.com, checked 7 October 2026 18. 18[Linguise, WordPress automatic translation plugin](https://www.linguise.com/integrations/wordpress-automatic-translation-plugin/)linguise.com, checked 7 October 2026 19. 19[Linguise documentation, Edit translations using the front-end editor](https://www.linguise.com/documentation/edit-translation-with-rules/edit-translations-using-the-frontend-editor-tool/)linguise.com, checked 7 October 2026 20. 20[WPML documentation, Language setup](https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 21. 21[Weglot, AI translation quality](https://www.weglot.com/product/ai-translation-quality)weglot.com, checked 7 October 2026 22. 22[Polylang, Polylang for WooCommerce pricing](https://polylang.pro/pricing/polylang-for-woocommerce/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 23. 23[Polylang, Home](https://polylang.pro/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 24. 24[Linguise, Home](https://www.linguise.com/)linguise.com, checked 7 October 2026 [Chris Jayden](https://www.langrelay.com/about) Founder, LangRelay Chris Jayden is the founder of LangRelay. Chris has worked on websites of every size, from large e-commerce stores to small sites with a handful of pages, and started LangRelay after years of translating them the hard way. On this page 1. Why sites move off WPML 2. The alternatives, side by side 3. Polylang: the same model for less 4. TranslatePress and LangRelay: one post per page 5. Weglot and Linguise: hosted translation 6. A worked example: what one edit costs 7. Before you switch Share - [Share on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.langrelay.com%2Fwpml-alternatives) - [Share on X (opens in a new tab)](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.langrelay.com%2Fwpml-alternatives&text=WPML%20alternatives%3A%20five%20plugins%20and%20services%20compared) See it on your site A 30-minute walkthrough on one of your pages. [Book a demo](https://www.langrelay.com/book-a-demo) - WPML - translation plugins - WordPress ## Keep reading - Alternatives ### [Polylang alternatives when manual translation gets slow](https://www.langrelay.com/polylang-alternatives) Five Polylang alternatives for sites that publish often, with prices dated 7 October 2026 and a worked example of a year of new posts in three languages. - Comparison ### [WPML vs Polylang: two post-per-language plugins compared](https://www.langrelay.com/wpml-vs-polylang) WPML and Polylang both store each language as its own WordPress post. How their prices, machine translation, review and WooCommerce support differ in 2026. - Comparison ### [TranslatePress vs WPML: one post or a post per language](https://www.langrelay.com/translatepress-vs-wpml) TranslatePress keeps one post and stores translated strings; WPML adds a post per language. Editors, review, AI words and prices, checked 7 October 2026. Book a demo ## See LangRelay on your own site Book 30 minutes with the team. We translate one of your pages live and walk through review, publishing and multilingual SEO. [Book a demo](https://www.langrelay.com/book-a-demo)[See pricing](https://www.langrelay.com/pricing)