--- title: "WPML vs Polylang: two post-per-language plugins compared" description: "WPML and Polylang both store each language as its own WordPress post. How their prices, machine translation, review and WooCommerce support differ in 2026." url: "https://www.langrelay.com/wpml-vs-polylang" --- 1. [Home](https://www.langrelay.com/) 2. [Compare](https://www.langrelay.com/best-website-translation-software-compared-2026) 3. WPML vs Polylang: two post-per-language plugins compared ComparisonCost and buying # WPML vs Polylang: two post-per-language plugins compared WPML and Polylang both store each language as its own WordPress post. How their prices, machine translation, review and WooCommerce support differ in 2026. [Chris Jayden](https://www.langrelay.com/about) Founder Published 7 October 2026 Reading time 5 min read ![A fisher shows a child how to cast a net from a mangrove walkway at dawn, its end platform laid with green and orange leaf tiles.](https://www.langrelay.com/img/vs/wpml-vs-polylang/cover-1536.4efc2bcd67.webp) On this page 1. What the two share 2. Price 3. Machine translation 4. Keeping translations current 5. Review 6. Slugs, languages and outside translators 7. A worked example: an agency with five sites 8. Picking between them 9. Where LangRelay fits ## 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. - Polylang WordPress plugin, one post per language €99 a year A yearly licence priced by number of sites. Machine translation runs on your own DeepL API key and its quota. Free: Polylang on WordPress.org, with no limit on the number of languages. Checked 7 October 2026. What it does well - A free plugin with no limit on the number of languages, and 900,000+ active installations on WordPress.org. - A subdirectory, subdomain or separate domain per language, in the free version too. - Translations are ordinary WordPress posts, linked to the original. - A Pro licence that is not renewed keeps working, without updates or support. - Pro exports and imports XLIFF files for outside translators. WPML and Polylang solve multilingual WordPress the same way: every translation is a WordPress post of its own, linked to the original. The choice between them comes down to how the translating gets done. WPML is paid only, and from its Multilingual CMS licence up it does the translating for you with its own AI engine, behind review settings you choose. Polylang is free, sets no limit on languages, and expects a person to translate, with DeepL available one post at a time in Polylang Pro. The vendor facts below are from wpml.org and polylang.pro, read on 7 October 2026. I build LangRelay, which works differently from both and is included in the comparison tables further down. ## What the two share Because both create a post per language, a translated page in either plugin is something you can open in the block editor, query like any post and edit by hand. Both put each language on its own URL: Polylang offers a subdirectory, a subdomain or a separate domain per language in its free version, and WPML offers directories, domains, subdomains or a `?lang=` parameter. Both output hreflang tags. And both leave your translations in place if you stop paying: WPML says translations keep showing when you stop renewing, and an unrenewed Polylang Pro licence keeps working without updates or support. Both carry the same upkeep: a post per language means four languages turn one page into five posts, and every edit to the original has to reach the other four. ## Price WPML sells three yearly licences, priced excluding VAT, each with a year of support and updates and a 30-day money-back guarantee, but no free plan: - WPML Multilingual Blog, €39 a year: one production site, no AI translation, no Advanced Translation Editor, no page builder or WooCommerce support. - WPML Multilingual CMS, €99 a year: three production sites, 22,500 AI words, page builders and WooCommerce. - WPML Multilingual Agency, €199 a year: unlimited sites, 45,000 AI words. Polylang is free on WordPress.org. Polylang Pro is priced by sites, excluding VAT: €99 a year for one, €198 for three, €297 for five and €495 for 25. WooCommerce stores need the separate Polylang for WooCommerce add-on, which works with the free plugin or with Pro: €99 a year for one site, €198 for three, €297 for five and €495 for 25. ## Machine translation WPML's default engine is PTC, its own LLM-based engine, which learns from the edits you make; DeepL, Google and Microsoft remain as legacy engines. Multilingual CMS and Agency include AI words (Multilingual Blog has no AI translation), WPML gives 500 more free each month, and beyond that it charges in monthly volume bands, from €3.00 per 1,000 words down to €0.40 only past 2,500,000 words in a month. With Translate Everything Automatically on, WPML translates new posts and edits as they arrive. Polylang has no built-in engine. Polylang Pro connects to DeepL with your own API key, translates one post, page or product at a time, and saves the result as a draft. Polylang's features page says there is no one-click way to translate everything, and the DeepL integration is not compatible with Elementor and some other builders. DeepL bills its usage to your own account. ## Keeping translations current With Translate Everything Automatically on and PTC as the engine, WPML picks up an edit, translates it, and charges only for words above the highest count already paid for that page and language; every other path pays per updated word. In Polylang, editing the original does not update its DeepL translation; you edit the translated post or generate it again. Polylang Pro's synchronized posts are a different tool: they copy an edit across languages so each post shows the same content. ## Review WPML lets you choose: PTC can publish at once, hold translations as drafts until a Translation Manager approves them, or publish and queue them for review. Polylang saves DeepL output as a draft that a person publishes; its pages describe no approval workflow beyond that. ## Slugs, languages and outside translators WPML translates URL slugs by default and lets you edit them. Polylang translates slugs for post types, taxonomies and author pages in Pro only. WPML comes with 65 pre-configured languages and lets you add your own; Polylang sets no limit. For professional translation, WPML can send content to more than 70 translation services from the WordPress admin, while Polylang Pro exports and imports XLIFF files you can hand to any translator. ## A worked example: an agency with five sites Say an agency runs five client sites, two of them WooCommerce stores, and wants machine translation on all five. A worked example, priced from each vendor's page on 7 October 2026. | | WPML | Polylang | | --- | --- | --- | | Licence that covers five sites | Multilingual Agency, €199 a year (Multilingual CMS stops at three) | Polylang Pro for five sites, €297 a year | | WooCommerce on the two stores | Included in Multilingual Agency | Polylang for WooCommerce for three sites, €198 a year (the one-site licence covers one store) | | Machine translation | 45,000 AI words included, then WPML's pay-as-you-go rate | DeepL on the agency's own account, billed by DeepL | | Year one, before translation usage | €199 | €495 | If the agency translates by hand, free Polylang on all five sites costs nothing for the plugin, and the two stores need only the WooCommerce add-on, €198 a year for three sites. ## Picking between them Polylang is the fit for a site with a small number of pages, a person who translates them, and no budget for a licence; the free plugin does the structural work and leaves the words to you. WPML is the fit once machine translation and review matter, or once a store is involved, because its CMS and Agency licences include WooCommerce and page builder support without add-ons. ## Where LangRelay fits LangRelay takes neither plugin's approach. It keeps one post per page, translates the page WordPress renders, and serves each language from your server under paths such as `/fr/` with hreflang and a canonical per language. Edits reach it from the plugin about a minute after saving, and only 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, choose Ask me first. Against WPML and Polylang it gives up translated posts you can edit in the block editor, and during the pilot it supports nine languages. The [LangRelay vs WPML](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-wpml) and [LangRelay vs Polylang](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-polylang) pages cover each pairing, and the [WPML alternatives](https://www.langrelay.com/wpml-alternatives) and [Polylang alternatives](https://www.langrelay.com/polylang-alternatives) pages list other routes. ## WPML and Polylang side by side From each vendor's own pages, on the dates in the sources below. | Tool | DeliveryHow translated pages are servedHow the translated page reaches visitors: from your own server, through a proxy, or swapped in by the browser. | No duplicate postsWordPress: one post, no copies per languageWhether WordPress keeps one post per page, instead of a separate copy for every language. | hreflanghreflang and per-language URLsA URL per language with hreflang tags, so search engines find and index each language. | Translated slugsTranslated URL slugsURLs in the visitor’s language, like /fr/a-propos instead of /fr/about. | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [LangRelay](https://www.langrelay.com/pricing) | : WordPress plugin serves translated HTML from your server. A script tag works on any other site, without SEO. | : Translates the rendered page. Your posts stay as they are. | : Subdirectories (/fr/), hreflang with x-default, a canonical per language, and translated titles and meta. | Partly: Set by hand per page and language. Automatic slug translation is on the way. | | [WPML](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-wpml) | : WordPress plugin. Translations are WordPress content served by your site, in directories, (sub)domains or a ?lang= parameter. | No: Each translation is its own WordPress post, linked to the original. | : hreflang with x-default in the page head and in Yoast and Rank Math sitemaps. | : Translated by default, and editable. | | [Polylang](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-polylang) | : WordPress plugin. A subdirectory, subdomain or separate domain per language. | No: Each translation is a separate post, linked to the original. | : hreflang tags and language-dependent meta tags. | Partly: Pro only: translates URL slugs for post types, taxonomies, categories, tags and author pages. | | Tool | Follows editsPicks up edits to the originalWhen you edit the original page, whether the tool notices and translates what changed. | Approval stepApprove before it goes liveWhether a person can check a translation before visitors see it. | Visual editorVisual editorEditing translations on the page itself, rather than in a list of strings. | GlossaryGlossaryFixed translations for names and terms, applied every time they appear. | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [LangRelay](https://www.langrelay.com/pricing) | : 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. | : 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. | : Click text on the rendered page to edit, at desktop, tablet and mobile widths. | : Per-language terms, “keep as source”, and match case. Paid plans. | | [WPML](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-wpml) | : With Translate Everything Automatically on, new posts and edits are picked up and translated. Otherwise you send them to translation yourself. | : PTC can publish at once, hold drafts for a Translation Manager’s approval, or publish and queue for review. | Partly: The Advanced Translation Editor is side by side, with a front-end preview you can click to edit. Not on the Blog plan. | : Glossary for product names and terms to keep untranslated, with PTC and DeepL. | | [Polylang](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-polylang) | No: Editing the original does not update its DeepL translation; you edit it by hand or regenerate it. | Partly: DeepL output is saved as a draft that a person publishes. No approval workflow found. | Not found: No front-end editor found. | Partly: Pro: choose a DeepL glossary, managed in your DeepL account. | | Tool | Machine translationMachine translationThe machine or AI translation the tool uses. | AI reviewAI quality reviewAI that checks translations for mistakes, not only writes them. | AI assistantAI assistant in the productAn assistant inside the product that you can ask in plain language. | MCPMCP server for your own AILets your own AI assistant, such as Claude or ChatGPT, work with the tool directly. | APIAPIProgrammatic access for developers. | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [LangRelay](https://www.langrelay.com/pricing) | : AI translation that follows your glossary and each language’s formality. | : 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. | : Relay, a chat agent that reads your Site’s pages and translations and drafts changes for your approval. | Planned: On the way: connect Claude or ChatGPT to your Sites. | Planned: On the way, for the Growth plan and up. | | [WPML](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-wpml) | : PTC, WPML’s own LLM-based engine, by default. DeepL, Google and Microsoft remain as legacy engines. | Partly: PTC learns from your repeated edits and suggests fixes. No separate reviewer found. | Not found: No chat assistant found. | Not found: Not found on wpml.org. | Partly: PHP filter and action hooks for themes and plugins. No public REST API for site translation found. | | [Polylang](https://www.langrelay.com/langrelay-vs-polylang) | Partly: Pro only: DeepL with your own API key, one post, page or product at a time. Not for Elementor or Divi content. | Not found: No AI review found. | Not found: No AI assistant found. | Not found: Not found on polylang.pro. | Partly: Pro only: REST API support for languages and translations. | - 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) Polylang - [polylang.pro/documentation/support/developers/rest-api/](https://polylang.pro/documentation/support/developers/rest-api/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/how-to-use-deepl-machine-translation-with-polylang-pro/](https://polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/how-to-use-deepl-machine-translation-with-polylang-pro/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [polylang.pro/features/](https://polylang.pro/features/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/translating-urls-slugs/](https://polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/translating-urls-slugs/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [polylang.pro/pricing/polylang-pro/](https://polylang.pro/pricing/polylang-pro/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [polylang.pro/](https://polylang.pro/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [polylang.pro/pricing/](https://polylang.pro/pricing/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/how-to-manage-language-capabilities-in-polylang-pro/](https://polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/how-to-manage-language-capabilities-in-polylang-pro/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/synchronized-posts/](https://polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/synchronized-posts/) (checked 7 October 2026) - [polylang.pro/documentation/support/developers/polylang-cli/](https://polylang.pro/documentation/support/developers/polylang-cli/) (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[WPML documentation, Language URL options](https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/language-url-options/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 7. 07[WPML documentation, Language setup](https://wpml.org/documentation/getting-started-guide/language-setup/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 8. 08[WPML, How to build a multilingual WordPress website](https://wpml.org/home/how-to-build-a-multilingual-wordpress-website/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 9. 09[WPML documentation, Professional translation via WPML](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/professional-translation-via-wpml/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 10. 10[Polylang on WordPress.org](https://wordpress.org/plugins/polylang/)wordpress.org, checked 7 October 2026 11. 11[Polylang, Features](https://polylang.pro/features/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 12. 12[Polylang, Pricing](https://polylang.pro/pricing/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 13. 13[Polylang, Polylang Pro pricing](https://polylang.pro/pricing/polylang-pro/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 14. 14[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 15. 15[Polylang documentation, Translating URL slugs](https://polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/translating-urls-slugs/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 16. 16[Polylang documentation, Synchronized posts](https://polylang.pro/documentation/support/guides/synchronized-posts/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 17. 17[WPML documentation, Multilingual SEO](https://wpml.org/documentation/translating-your-contents/multilingual-seo/)wpml.org, checked 7 October 2026 18. 18[Polylang, Home](https://polylang.pro/)polylang.pro, checked 7 October 2026 19. 19[Polylang, Polylang for WooCommerce pricing](https://polylang.pro/pricing/polylang-for-woocommerce/)polylang.pro, 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. What the two share 2. Price 3. Machine translation 4. Keeping translations current 5. Review 6. Slugs, languages and outside translators 7. A worked example: an agency with five sites 8. Picking between them 9. Where LangRelay fits Share - [Share on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.langrelay.com%2Fwpml-vs-polylang) - [Share on X (opens in a new tab)](https://x.com/intent/post?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.langrelay.com%2Fwpml-vs-polylang&text=WPML%20vs%20Polylang%3A%20two%20post-per-language%20plugins%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 - Polylang - translation plugins ## Keep reading - Alternatives ### [WPML alternatives: five plugins and services compared](https://www.langrelay.com/wpml-alternatives) 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. - 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 ### [Weglot vs WPML: a hosted proxy or a WordPress plugin?](https://www.langrelay.com/weglot-vs-wpml) Weglot translates through a hosted proxy and bills monthly by translated words; WPML is a yearly WordPress licence. How they differ, priced 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)