You know that desire to see your blog pumping in other languages (or in English)? Yeah, me too! And in the Age of AI, it seemed easy…
So I decided to take the shorter way and test WordPress plugins before trying a bolder alternative. I prepared the coffee, crossed my fingers and threw myself my heads in three options: Polylang, TranslatePress and Weglot.
Come with me see which one made me smile (and which almost made me cry)!
The translation saga: testing WordPress translation plugins
1. Polylang: The free that almost gave me a heart attack
I started with Polylang, attracted by the promise of being free. The installation was easy, but… bum! My home broke! 😱 After a mini heart attack and some less heart beats, I managed to get ready ^- ^”. Phew.
Right away also had the advantage of allowing another language, besides Portuguese (native) and English translation, I could also translate into Spanish.
So let’s see how it works. It adds a menu within the post for you to add the version in other languages.
It also adds the possibility of adding new posts to other languages to “posts” to the control panel:
When you click to add to another language it creates a new blank post, by default it only brings the highlighted image and the images I already had on Yoast. It brings the halves and tags, but in Portuguese, so you will have to redo in the new language.
Summary and your own translated post you will have to manually add ^-^”. About the categories it does not use the existing ones within the post, you will have to create new ones. But if you go to quick edit in the post list you can use the existing categories.
Note that if for any reason you have created the post in another language before setting the highlighted image, you will have to upload a new image.
But it worked, only the English home that has not yet been good, perhaps because my theme is not multilingual.
Pros:
- Free! 💰
- Easy to install. 👍
- Allows several languages. 🗣️
Cons:
- Do not have the flags to change language (which makes navigation less intuitive).🚩
- Gave an extra job to get the home. 🛠️
- Want to test Polylang and see if it works for you? Click here [Polylang]
2. Translatepress: Beautiful, promises, but…
It has a friendly panel. It also offers flags of the language I loved, but this joy lasted little.
Automatic translation only in the paid plan, so let’s translate something in hand:
It works, unfortunately I have to do this 4589 times, unlike the wegot that did automatic.
And translating all the contents of the pages also becomes very difficult because it is by block, easier to create two posts in Portuguese and one and English as it happens in Polylang.
And in fact, I translated on Google and put English box there and it saved to appear in the English post bring this translated block. And that’s it, to do for each block, highly laborious. 😓
And there is still the disadvantage that could only add one more language, in this case English.
And, finally, but not least, talking about values, the monthly cost is in euro, simply impossible.
Pros: I didn’t see any advantage in the free version.
Cons:
-
- Extremely laborious in the free plan. 😫
- Too expensive. 💸
- Only allows an extra language on the free plan. 🚫
- Want to see if TranslatePress conquers you? Multilingual Translate Sites – TranslatePress
3. Weglot: The fastest disappointment of my life
It was the last one I tested, I was already hopeless. And, surprise! Worked in less than a minute! 🤩
But happiness was fleeting…
The bucket of cold water: The price! 😭 One of these value in euros for those who do not monetize the blog is out of the question. It was just a passing dream.
A (short) honeymoon: The administration panel is super easy to use and has an incredibly easy to fill management panel.
It is unfortunately not a free plugin with limited features on the free plan. It lets you test limitedly for 10 days only. It was one of the greatest disappointments of my life. Very sad.
Also, within the limits of the 10 days of testing I still reached the limit of translated words, so… I had only a beautiful and translated home, but each post didn’t.
Pros:
- Super easy to configure, simple configuration panel. ✅
- It works quickly, less than a minute. 🚀
- Don’t break the site layout. 🛠️
Cons:
- Very expensive! 💸💸💸
- 10 day test with word limit, trial in the block of sadness.
- The greatest disappointment of my blogger life. 💔
- Test for 10 days: Translate WordPress and become multilingual-Weglot
Conclusion
I stayed with Polylang that at least left me with the structure so that I can translate the posts and was effectively free.
Have you already tested any of these plugins? What was your experience? Leave your comment below and share your tips! 👇
