Polylang vs Weglot: WordPress Control vs Cloud Translation (2026)

Polylang and Weglot both create multilingual WordPress experiences, but they sit at opposite ends of the control spectrum. Polylang models languages directly in WordPress content and gives developers a modular, local stack. Weglot prioritizes automatic detection and hosted translation delivery. The meaningful comparison is control and portability versus speed and managed infrastructure.

Compare	PolylangFree; Pro from €99/year Remove	WeglotFree; paid from €15/month Remove
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Starting price	Free; Pro from €99/year	Free; paid from €15/month
Free version	Yes	Yes
Sites included	1 / 3 / 5 / 25-site licenses	1 project on Starter/Business; multiple projects on higher plans
Lifetime option	No	No
Refund policy	30-day refund after support troubleshooting	15-day refund on original premium purchase
Setup level	Intermediate	Beginner-friendly
WordPress.org rating	4.7/5 (2,993)	4.8/5 (1,935)
Active installs	800K+	50K+
Best for	WordPress sites that want native language-specific content, manual editorial control, and multilingual SEO	Teams that want hosted multilingual translation with automatic translation and centralized editing
Not ideal for	Teams wanting a fully managed external translation proxy with minimal WordPress-side translation management	Sites that want all translations stored and managed entirely inside WordPress without usage-based limits
Tested version	3.8.9	6.2
Last reviewed	2026-09-10	2026-09-24
Features
Manual translation	Yes	Yes
Automatic / AI translation	Paid plan	Yes
Visual front-end editor	No	Yes
Theme / plugin string translation	Yes	Yes
Translated URL slugs	Paid plan	Paid plan
Multilingual SEO / hreflang	Yes	Yes
WooCommerce multilingual support	Add-on	Yes
Translator / team workflow	Paid plan	Yes
Subdomains / separate domains	Yes	Paid plan
Translations stored locally	Yes	No

WordPress content relationships vs hosted content detection

Polylang assigns languages to WordPress posts, pages, taxonomies and menus, then links translations together. Pro adds DeepL integration, translated slugs, XLIFF tools and advanced URL options. Weglot automatically detects site content, generates translations and manages them in a cloud dashboard with a visual editor and glossary.

Polylang therefore asks you to manage a multilingual WordPress structure. Weglot asks you to manage a translation service connected to WordPress. That architectural difference affects ownership, cancellation, performance planning and migration.

Automation level and editorial control

Polylang Pro integrates DeepL using your own API key, but its current documentation says there is no one-click translate-everything feature. Editors choose content to translate and can refine it directly in WordPress.

Weglot starts from automatic translation and is designed to cover a site quickly. Translators can edit machine output, use glossary rules, collaborate in the dashboard and order professional translations. It is more automated by default but more dependent on an external service.

SEO structure and WooCommerce implementation

Polylang provides hreflang and language-specific URL structures, while Pro adds translated slugs. WooCommerce requires the dedicated Polylang for WooCommerce add-on or Business Pack.

Weglot creates indexable language URLs and handles multilingual SEO automatically, with translated URLs available on higher plans. It can translate WooCommerce rendered content without requiring a separate WooCommerce-specific plugin, though complex store workflows still deserve staging tests.

Pricing: site licenses vs translation inventory

Polylang is free. Pro starts at €99/year for one site, and the Business Pack including WooCommerce starts at €139/year. Larger site-count licenses are available and renewals currently receive a 50% discount.

Weglot Free covers up to 2,000 translated words and one language. Starter costs €15/month or €150/year for 10,000 words, while larger plans scale by words, languages and projects. Content-heavy sites can therefore see Weglot costs rise with translation volume rather than site count alone.

Portability, cancellation and URL migration

Polylang translations remain part of the WordPress multilingual structure even if a Pro license expires, though updates and premium support stop. Weglot’s support documentation states that after cancellation or pause, translated content stops appearing and translated pages are progressively removed from search engines.

Migrating between them requires careful URL mapping. Preserve translated slugs, hreflang relationships and redirects so existing language URLs do not become orphaned or duplicated.

Which architecture fits your project?

Consider Polylang when you want translations and language relationships controlled inside WordPress, prefer a free/manual starting point, or want developer-friendly hooks and APIs. Consider Weglot when rapid deployment, automatic detection and centralized translation management are more important than local storage.

For WooCommerce and large sites, compare complete annual costs rather than entry pricing: Polylang may require its store add-on, while Weglot scales with translated word volume and number of languages.

Translation ownership is one of the clearest architectural differences. Polylang stores language relationships and translations in the WordPress site. Weglot stores translation data in its service and delivers translated pages while the subscription is active. This affects backup strategy, disaster recovery and what an agency can hand over to a client if the relationship with the translation vendor ends.

Polylang may require more implementation work when a site uses many third-party plugins because compatibility needs to exist at the WordPress data level. Weglot can translate rendered content that was not explicitly built with Polylang integration. The tradeoff is that deeper WordPress logic, transactional emails or highly dynamic application states still need careful testing with either tool.

For developer-led sites, Polylang can be easier to integrate with custom queries because language is represented in WordPress content relationships and APIs. Weglot reduces that development burden for ordinary rendered content, but custom application states, JavaScript-heavy interfaces and transactional output still need verification. The more application-like the site becomes, the more important that staging test is.

FAQs